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Ebay- behavior

#101
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#103
obimark said:
I should have said is "Is everybody only hunting for a bargain or a deal?" rather than simply bidding and paying a "fair" price if they want something. Of course in 44 years on this planet, I have learned the fair price is only what someone is willing to pay and the other is willing to sell at.
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I'm up for the best deal I can get. And that is NOT achieved by bidding any time before the last 30 seconds of the auction. The only time I bid before the end of an auction is to create a place-holder for the item in my summary list. Bidding earlier just gives idiots a chance to slowly bid up to my bid and them outbid me by a dollar. I've entered a bid $10 above the current one and watched some goof enter bids that are in 50-cent or one dollar increments until he finally outbid me by a few cents. I see no reason to encourage that, so I wait until the end to make any meaningful bid.

I'm not out to screw anybody, and a fair deal is a fair deal. However, an auction is inherently a setting where the seller wants to maximize income and the buyer wants to minimize expense. Therefore, I act in my own interest. I'm also a seller, and I've had very few problems with buyers. I don't start auctions at prices below what I'm willing to accept (or I put a reserve on the item), and I don't bid unless I absolutely am willing to honor my bid and make the purchase.
 
#104
Frank Tuesday said:
...If everyone bid rationally, I would do the same. Unfortunately, people are prone to put in a bid and when they don't have the high bid, incrementally increase it...
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As usual, I have failed to properly convey my thoughts on this.

First of all, there is nothing on ebay I can't live without, and certainly nothing worth planning my day around being on ebay in the last few minutes of an auction. Granted, there is plenty I want and occasionally something I need, but nothing I can't find somewhere else so I don't get emotionally involved in any ebay item or the bidding habits of my fellow bayer's. I am also fully aware that you can't win 'em all, so I just make a single bid and let the process do what it's gonna do.

By placing my max bid and letting it go, I can't pay too much, rarely pay my max, and don't sweat the outcome.

I'm sure I could save a few bucks by sniping, but no matter what I do, someone is going to bid first, then the next bidder is going to make fifty bids of a dollar each, then someone will bid a couple hundred over the current high bid and someone else will make fifty bids of a dollar each, and then in the last seconds fifty people will try to make a bid of a dollar over the current high bid. Then it ends and if there is a reserve and it's met, the high bidder takes the item.

Oh and BTW, there is absolutely nothing rational about bidding at auctions be they in person or online; except being the seller.
 
#105
Used iPhone 4 is listed with the following cosmetic description:

Always in a case, almost like new, no dings or scratches worth mentioning.
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Listing includes many high-res photos carefully staged to exaggerate any cosmetic flaws. Seller (me) has 100% positive feedback, over 500, going back to 1998.

Ebay user sends this question: "Any scratches?"

:banghead:

What is wrong with some people?

Never mind. Probably the wrong thread anyway.
 
#106
Alkali Ike said:
Used iPhone 4 is listed with the following cosmetic description:



Listing includes many high-res photos carefully staged to exaggerate any cosmetic flaws. Seller (me) has 100% positive feedback, over 500, going back to 1998.

Ebay user sends this question: "Any scratches?"

:banghead:

What is wrong with some people?

Never mind. Probably the wrong thread anyway.
Click to expand...
question for you; was that on ebay? :bag::help:
 
#109
I used to operate a decent side business as a seller on eBay, out of my office in an unrelated business. We had acces to a unique product that we sold variations of new in the box and did quite well. We warehoused inventory, packed, labeled and shipped from our office. It gave one of our office people something to do and was fun to watch the bidding craziness.

There were four different items, one was the dominant seller and we offered it as a single, two pack, and as a package with the other three. Our cost was always the same but the sale price varied wildly. We sold only on eBay, auctions with high starting price, low starting price, Buy It Now, one day, three day, seven day auctions, and tried every combination of strategies and ending days/times. We ran a spreadsheet to track the bids/sales/profits based on any factors we thought helped us maximize profit.

Ending on Sunday night was always best. Always.

Our best sale price would come from auctions that started at $1.00. There's a phenomenon when people start bidding on something-- it becomes "theirs" in their mind and no one is going to beat them out of it. They bid like crazy and we loved it.

How crazy you ask? Our item was unique and we had little competition so if you were looking for it, and found it, you would see that we had dozens of auctions for the exact same item running all the time. Auction item listed right beside a BIN for the same item, same seller, same description, same picture. BIN price, $119 but they would routinely bid the $1.00 item up to $150 and more. o_O

We actually had an auction go to $250 once for an item that we also sold BIN for $119. Right next to each other.

That's right, more than double the BIN price. You might not believe that, I proobably wouldn't if I were you, but it's true and still makes me laugh.

We expanded the business to over 150 related items, mostly drop-shipped from our suppliers, but nothing ever sold like that one item. I eventually sold out my share of both businesses and moved on, and the guy who was left ran both companies into the ground like a freight train going off a high trestle. Both companies are long gone and the bum still owes me 12 grand... :rollno:
 
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#110
ChrisB2 said:
I used to operate a decent side business as a seller on eBay, out of my office in an unrelated business. We had acces to a unique product that we sold variations of new in the box and did quite well. We warehoused inventory, packed, labeled and shipped from our office. It gave one of our office people something to do and was fun to watch the bidding craziness.

There were four different items, one was the dominant seller and we offered it as a single, two pack, and as a package with the other three. Our cost was always the same but the sale price varied wildly. We sold only on eBay, auctions with high starting price, low starting price, Buy It Now, one day, three day, seven day auctions, and tried every combination of strategies and ending days/times. We ran a spreadsheet to track the bids/sales/profits based on any factors we thought helped us maximize profit.

Ending on Sunday night was always best. Always.

Our best sale price would come from auctions that started at $1.00. There's a phenomenon when people start bidding on something-- it becomes "theirs" in their mind and no one is going to beat them out of it. They bid like crazy and we loved it.

How crazy you ask? Our item was unique and we had little competition so if you were looking for it, and found it, you would see that we had dozens of auctions for the exact same item running all the time. Auction item listed right beside a BIN for the same item, same seller, same description, same picture. BIN price, $119 but they would routinely bid the $1.00 item up to $150 and more. o_O

We actually had an auction go to $250 once for an item that we also sold BIN for $119. Right next to each other.

That's right, more than double the BIN price. You might not believe that, I proobably wouldn't if I were you, but it's true and still makes me laugh.

We expanded the business to over 150 related items, mostly drop-shipped from our suppliers, but nothing ever sold like that one item. I eventually sold out my share of both businesses and moved on, and the guy who was left ran both companies into the ground like a freight train going off a high trestle. Both companies are long gone and the bum still owes me 12 grand... :rollno:
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Wow I need to do auctions more! I usually only do auctions if it's an item I KNOW is popular and will sell. Some of my stuff doesn't get a ton of views, but other things will get quite a few.
 
#111
Ebay head-scratcher: a BIN listing with the Best Offer option. Best Offer implies the seller is willing to take less than the BIN price. Yet my experience as a seller is 9 out of 10 times, someone pays the BIN price without ever making a lower offer.

Another curiosity: Non-US buyers prefer BIN over auctions, even when the auction listing clearly states it will ship anywhere in the world Ebay Global Shipping services. If I use BIN on my listing, there's like a 50% chance the buyer will be in Europe. If it's a pure auction, it draws bids from US buyers only.
 
#112
I'm a bottom feeder, probably. But, I have a few things I bid on and got by "accident" from eBay. There are times when I'll bid what I consider a reasonable price for something or another and the forget about it for a few days. I don't join in the last minute frenzy, and what happens sometimes is that the frenzy doesn't happen. I got a Ric for what I considered a good price that way. My bid was a sure loser if anybody else was looking, but they weren't, so I won. That has happened a few times with no rhyme or reason as to what it is. I'm happy when it happens, because I get whatever it is I was bidding on at a price I think is a good one. The seller must be reasonably happy, since whatever it was sold, but who knows. That's just eBay.
 

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