I just put what I consider to be my maximum bid in and walk away. If I win the item, great. If not, there'll be another time.........................mebbe

Quote from: njee20 on June 11, 2026, 07:34:54 PMYou almost certainly didn't lose by a small amount, you were just bidding against one other person with a higher bid. If you snipe at £100 and someone else bids £120 when your bid goes in it auto bids for them at £101 or whatever the next increment is. You believe you've just lost, but if you'd bid £105 it would've sold for £106.

And often shill bidding bots run by the seller. Amazing how many things "sell" when someone just beats the bid and then 2 weeks later reappear.

Ebay does try and deal with this but they are pretty ineffectual, at least in things like old computer stuff (where I still bother now and then)

Quote from: Mr Sprue on June 12, 2026, 09:59:24 AM

Quote from: njee20 on June 11, 2026, 07:34:54 PMYou almost certainly didn't lose by a small amount, you were just bidding against one other person with a higher bid. If you snipe at £100 and someone else bids £120 when your bid goes in it auto bids for them at £101 or whatever the next increment is. You believe you've just lost, but if you'd bid £105 it would've sold for £106.

Not exactly correct, I used Auctionstealer which I set to snipe within the last few seconds, which meant it was only placing a final bid, it would not have been involved with placing bids leading up to the final 5 seconds!   

FWIW like most when time allows, I always bid at the final 3-5 seconds, but if I cant be around to bid, I always use Auctionstealer.

Eh? I'm not talking about the bids placed before your snipe. You can bid with 1 second to go, but if the pre-existing max bid was £120 then you will lose the auction, It's why eBay even says "determining the winner" at the end, as it has to reconcile all the sniped bids thrown in the dying seconds.

I use sniping too, daft not to, but what you're really beating is a physical person sat there typing in a number in the last couple of seconds who doesn't have time to increase their maximum. It's absolutely the case that when you think you've 'only just' lost it's because there was only one other bidder who went higher, you just have no idea how high.

My Club was assisting with an after school subsection at our local secondary school, however as exam time this year came up most dropped out and it was impossible to continue..

Unlike those here who have moved up Scales or intend to, I'm going the other way. I still have my N gauge layout, and work on it at the MRC, there are other N gauge layouts there too. But I'm now just starting  on an NT layout, yep N (2mm) scale with T gauge track narrow gauge at home, While...

I've just taken apart a N gauge layout that just didn't work, it was growing larger and larger as I attempted to get everything in, it being a real place..
So about a month ago I gave up stripped the whole thing apart, the N gauge stuff transfers to the N Layout mentioned above,and I'm building the same place in T gauge...

Quote from: njee20 on June 12, 2026, 12:13:11 PMEh? I'm not talking about the bids placed before your snipe. You can bid with 1 second to go, but if the pre-existing max bid was £120 then you will lose the auction, It's why eBay even says "determining the winner" at the end, as it has to reconcile all the sniped bids thrown in the dying seconds.

I use sniping too, daft not to, but what you're really beating is a physical person sat there typing in a number in the last couple of seconds who doesn't have time to increase their maximum. It's absolutely the case that when you think you've 'only just' lost it's because there was only one other bidder who went higher, you just have no idea how high.

But if you lost the bid you can see how much the item sold for after the auction. But speaking for myself I will only bid what I am prepared to pay. However my max bid will always be an odd amount e.g £56.99.

On top of this if someone really wants to win something, they will place a ridiculous amount to ensure they win the auction, which I think is what causes the renowned bidding wars, where the other person who also has a massive desire to win the item keeps bidding against the high price that was initially placed!

If that makes any sense!

Yes, what it sold for. Not what the other person bid. So you see £101, and think "ahh balls, should've bid slightly more, I was so close to winning". However unless that person bid exactly £101 (and you've no way of knowing that), had you bid £102 they'd have won it for £103, up to their maximum.

Yes, the sensible thing to do is choose your price, bid and walk away. If you do this with sniping software you're assured the best chance of avoiding someone chipping away at your max over time. Otherwise stick that in a week beforehand and simply don't worry.

If I put in my maximum bid and it loses I only have myself to blame as it shows someone wanted it more than I did, otherwise I should have made a bigger bid

What Nick is is absolutely right. It's called a second price auction. To put it another way the winning bid is determined as the second highest bid + a smallish set increment determined by EBay.

My strategy is to snipe with a bid that equals the maximum price I'm prepared to pay for an item. If someone has a higher (unknown to me) bid than mine at the end, then good luck to them and bad luck to me.

There are some that treat the Ebay auction like a regular auction and seek to outbid one another in a leapfrog fashion much to the delight of the seller I'm sure.

Webbo

Spot the bot!

Reported to the mods - suggest this one gets the boot!

Removed.

Quote from: Bealman on June 17, 2026, 09:07:49 AMRemoved.

Going back to Ebay I use it a fair bit.
Jus5 picked up a working Minitrix Warship for £20 including postage fees etc
£16 for the loco.
Now I do like Minitrix Warships
and at the price I paid well pleased.

Andy
.

Andy , that's great if you have the skills and dexterity to work on these small models. Many of us have to either pass on the bargains or pay extra  for a competent engineer to fix it.

Have noticed that some of the pricing on ebay is optimistic, from one point the starting price and the selling price grow wider apart and some sellers still think putting £ 5 post on a £10 wagon isnt going to put people off...

On a technical note  i seam to be being debited an extra £ 1 every time i use paypal ? is that the case now  ?

Quote from: class8mikado on July 20, 2026, 09:35:20 AMsome sellers still think putting £ 5 post on a £10 wagon isn't going to put people off...

2-4 day delivery with Evri for a small parcel is £2.62. £3.65 for tracked 48 from Royal Mail. Add in cost of packaging and £5 postage soon gets eaten up - quite reasonable in my opinion.

Quote from: class8mikado on July 20, 2026, 09:35:20 AMHave noticed that some of the pricing on ebay is optimistic, from one point the starting price and the selling price grow wider apart and some sellers still think putting £ 5 post on a £10 wagon isnt going to put people off...

Cost of postage plus packing.  It does make buying one cheap wagon uneconomical perhaps, but you just factor the P&P into what you're willing to pay. Maybe make an offer, or just walk way and leave it to somebody else.

QuoteOn a technical note  i seam to be being debited an extra £ 1 every time i use paypal ? is that the case now  ?

Nope, not seen that ever.  You haven't set up some sort of charity donation have you?