e-bay noob needs advice
 

I intend to bid on some parts I found on e-bay. Starting bid of $250 - I would certainly pay that, maybe up to half again more. No bids yet, ends Friday. Doesn't appear to be a power seller. What can you recommend to me for bidding strategy? I've only bought on e-bay once (freon), so I really don't know what is customary. Can anyone here shoot me some good advice? Thanks!

For high-dollar stuff, I use auctionsniper (auctionsniper.com). Register free and you get a few free snipes to try it out... do that, and set the lead time for 3 seconds. Enter your max bid and sit back & enjoy. It's always worked for me. If someone else is watching the auction, I can virtually guarantee they will outbid you if you bid with anything more than 60 seconds left on the listing. I worry that my network connection will slow down or stop altogether, or I'll time it wrong if I try to bid with 5 seconds remaining, so I let the sniper site do the work for me.

Have you searched completed auctions to makre sure opening bid is in-line? You might be suprised... sometimes car parts sell WELL below what you'd expect. You might find the listing ends with no bids, and then you can ask the seller to re-list them with a lower starting bid or Buy It Now price. Also take a good look at shipping charges and the seller's feedback before bidding.

Good luck!

Chris

Wait until a few hours before the end of the auction before you bid or better yet set up the automatic bidding thing they have and leave it, that way you aren't tempted to go over what you should pay.

I also watch the sellers feedback before I decide to bid or not...........if there is any negative read it......It would give you a feel for the seller. I've been burned twice.......both had less than 30 feedback. And when you pay.....make damn sure its VIA paypal and payment is against a credit card.....odds are the only people willing to fight for you is your credit card company.

If they refuse paypal or credit card via paypal I avoid that seller.

Auctionsnipe.com is the way to go. I've been using it for 90% of my e-bay transactions. You will have to give them your e-bay userid and password, it's OK, that's how it logs on and bids on your behalf. Set your max bid and just forget about it. The three second recomendation is good and works well. Cut the item number from ebay and paste it into the snipe site and you're good to go.

Any bid posted until just before auction ends tends to drive price upward unless absolutly nobody wants the item. I have pretty well restricted my use of ebay now as had I kept "winning" may eventually have gone to the poorhouse.. Also the question of credibility of vendors comes to mind. Outright fraud seems to be growing at greater than linear rate as well. Too bad. The sniper makes sense even though I felt it a little unethical in some ways. But perhaps thats only because I lost to people using it. Fake bids alone may ruin the ebay site yet. :) As bonehead mentioned using your credit card is about the only protection you really have. With even that you have to watch the time limit.

wow, great, this was exactly the type of advice I was looking for. So does this mean I can just register with auctionsnipe.com (or auctionsniper) and tell them a maximum? Will they just bid the maximum a few seconds before or use my money more judiciously? Thanks, this is great...

oh, BTW, this seller likes local pickup, which is what I want in this instance anyway.

Repeating some of what's already been said here:

1.) Bid only once.
2.) Bid your "true maximum" in that one bid.
3.) Bid as late in the auction as you feel is prudent (you want your bid to be registered in time, but not to show your hand unnecessarily).

Automatic bidding services such as esnipe or auctionsnipe make it easy to follow these rules and drop your bid reasonably close to the auction close. Remember, the point of doing so is only to prevent a "live" wait-and-see bidder from having the opportunity to "respond" to your bid. It will make no difference to other bidders who are following the same (sensible) strategy that you are.

Remember, if your bid is the highest one that's registered, you won't necessarily be paying your "true maximum". You'll be paying the next highest bid plus whatever the bid increment is in that particular price range.

I see your seller is local... you can also email and ask whether he/she has any more of the item(s) you need. You can't ask them to sell outside Ebay, but you can kind of hint that you are local and looking. They may offer to list more similar items later or even let you come look and make a bulk buy of more parts you can use.

As for auctionsniper, yes, you give them your max bid and set the "lead time" for anywhere from 5 to 1 second and let it do your work. I set my "lead time" at 3 seconds... that is, my bid is placed when 3 seconds are left on the auction. Keep an eye on the auction, and if the current bid ever exceeds your maximum, either up your max or cancel the snipe. The latter will save the free snipe for a later auction.

Good luck!

Ebay has a 30day from end of auction to file complaint....paypal is the same.....credit card companies is typically 90 days............but the sooner the better.

Never let anyone drag it past 30 days. If they try its becasue they are trying to get it past the complaint time window.

Once the auction is over you are free to ask them.....but you are right you can't during the auction.

Hey Pete,

I agree with all who advise the use of auctionsniper. I use it myself with good results.

But, if you are near the machine, its a blast to stuff the bid in within the last 15 seconds and take it away from the high bidder at that time. :D

Of course, e-bay has gotten a lot wiser now. Many people do the same thing. You may put in a bid that is 20% more than the current high bid. You lose it because there was another sniper who went even higher.

Has happened to me more than once. :mad:

Me too. But you need to know when to walk away and let someone else pay too much for it.

Thats a key auction skill.

I'm another old school sniper that finally went over to eSnipe recently. It's just less hassle to achieve the desired results. If you miss the excitement, show up for the end of auction anyway, and watch your "robot" ruin some other guy's day!

You've hit the nail on the head there. When multiple snipers get involved, the auction devolves into something much like a sealed bid auction, with the added twist of the proxy bidding system so that the "true maximum" is never revealed.

Waaaaahhhh! Somebody else wanted it more than I did! What else can one say?

Indeed... but I *have* emailed sellers before when I was in a real pinch and asked whether they would add a "Buy It Now" option, "as I need the part right away." Many times, they will add a Buy It Now price when possible or divulge that they have more of the item to sell. You can't ask them to end an auction and sell something outright, but you can ask if they have a Buy It Now price in mind.

Just remember to play by the rules!