Got any Ebay bidding advice?

Mad Mike

Have any of you Ebay veterans out there got advice for an on-line auction virgin.

Specifically I wonder about the automatic proxy bidding system in EBAY where the system will automaticaly bid up to your preset limit. Is this not an invitation to the seller to bid on their own items to push the price up to your limit?

What is a good bidding strategy - should you plonk down your maximum limit all in one go or should you bid regularly in small increments?

Bid early or bid late - whats your opinion?

Are there any magic numbers? i.e. bid £100.01 to just pip the post of someone whose limit is £100.00.

Any other gems of bidding wisdom.

Victor

Maxim: something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

Originally posted by Mad Mike
What is a good bidding strategy - should you plonk down your maximum limit all in one go or should you bid regularly in small increments?

Never used Ebay and don't know their bidding structure, but don't try our-bidding soemone by €0.01 - he's just going to do the same back to you and waste everyone's time. Bid increases should normally be a minimum of 1-3% or a whole unit of currency. This gets rid of the time waster quicker and shows you are interested - this puts off the less serious bidders and saves you time. Don't bid you max up front as this just shows your hand and you won't get value for money.

Originally posted by Mad Mike
Are there any magic numbers? i.e. bid £100.01 to just pip the post of someone whose limit is £100.00.

Doesn't really work as someone else could just bid £100.02

Mad Mike

In part answer to own questions I came across the following paper from the Harvard school of economics:

Last Minute Bidding

Haven't fully digested it but from what I can understand last minute bidding is very prevalent on Ebay with prices sometimes doubling in the closing minutes.

Two expressions I hadn't heard before:

Sniping - the action of winning an auction with a last minute bid just above the last bidder.

Shilling - When a seller or sellers accomplice makes false bids to push up the price.

Come on you Ebay experts - what are your experiences. Any other gems of wisdom out there?

The Brigadier

I allways bid with a .01 on the end.... If you bid on an item for say 100.01 and the person who is bidding below you will go to 100..then you win... they will then have to come back and beat your bid, which may have a minimum bid increase of 5...so they have to bid 105.01 to beat you...

Also I normally just watch an item, and then come in with seconds to go with this amount..

silent

my tips:
I hate auctions so I stick with buy it now stuff usually - remember that many many sellers will want to charge you an arm and leg for shipping to recoup their costs + profit
however for the few auctions I participate in I like to enter the max I want to pay and simply see if I win - if not, I'm not sad because it went over the max I was prepared to pay
however snipping usually works the best - set up a sniper (search google) and it will big automatically your highest bid in the last 7-8 seconds - works 90% of the time
as for the .01 - I find it that too many people use that nowadays so I stick with soemthing odd like .57 or similar

sceptre

Basic tip for all auctions (yes, I realise it's only common sense):

Pick the max price you're prepared to pay. Don't go over that. It's surprising how many people just bid a little bit more each time and then find they're paying more than retail (there was a time when I had the occasional habit of monitoring the odd auction from a purely psychological interest)

vibe666

Rule No.1 - NEVER impulse buy. if you want something off ebay you can guarantee, unless its a priceless one off there will be 10-100 of them sold in one week, and some go for significantly less than others, so decide how much you want to pay and never go over that amount on impulse.

2. always check shipping costs and include that in any price comparisons you may make with similar items. also make sure they will deliver to ireland. most will, but make sure cos if they don't and you win an auction you're stuck.

3. unless you are a thrill hound who doesn't mind getting ripped off, stay away from anyone selling anything who has a zero rating. personally, anything less than 50 and I usually steer clear, but its up to you. if you are buying a mobile phone off someone with a sellers rating of 10 (ignore ratings from buys) and you look through his feedback and all 10 of the things he's sold are also mobiles and he has 100% positive feedback then he's just new, but most likely honest. if on the other hand you have a look at his feedback and his rating is OK, but he's been selling clothes etc. and all of a sudden is offering a 50" plasma TV then he's going to rob you.

4. don't trust that if you get ripped off ebay will get your money back for you, even if you paid with paypal, they don't guarantee anything to anyone.

5. if it looks too good to be true, then guess what. it is. there are plenty of people out there happy to take your cash off you if you aren't careful, so make sure you are.

6. if someone insists on western union and won't give you any alternatives tell them to bugger off. if you make a western union payment and they rip you off, you'll have no way of getting the cash back at all. ebay fraudsters use western union because it's very hard to be traced. you want either paypal, or a bank account to xfer the cash into, as well as a proper address to send cheques if needed. no PO Boxes or you're asking for trouble.

7. make sure you can pay for the item if you bid on it. if you bid and win, and then don't pay, sellers will leave negative feedback for you, and nobody will want to do business with you in the future.