Ebay Seller Reported

[Alcdrew]

bonj, sorry you are wrong and OTH is right.

I have used both the sniping and proxy bid methods and lots of times have ended up spending more when using proxy bid.

Just this week I was bidding for an item, I only really wanted to spend £20, so put this in as my max bid with 3 days left on the item. Up until the last day I was winning, when someone bid more so the item was going for £21. I umm'd and arr'd about it and then added an extra £3 to my max bid, right at the last second, ended up winning for £22.70. It is quite possible if I made my original £20 offer at the end of the listing I would have got it cheaper, and if I had added the extra £3 with x hours to go the other bidder would have re-bidded.

 

[gbb]

Don't disagree - but in my experience if a lot of people start bidding early there is a risk pushing up the final price.

This could be true..and ebay (well actually, bidders) used to work that way.
Somethings changed. As a moderately regular seller and buyer, its getting fustrating to list an item, and only see one bid perhaps until right at the end when more come in. That keeps the price down. Brilliant for buyers...cr@p for sellers. The old way of starting with a low price to attract buyers doesnt really seem to work anymore...probably better to start with the minimum price you'd like to achieve.

It could be there are more of the same items listed nowadays, keeping the prices down, thats fair enough...supply and demand.

 

[bonj2]

bonj, sorry you are wrong and OTH is right.

I have used both the sniping and proxy bid methods and lots of times have ended up spending more when using proxy bid.

er... no, that's not a good comparison, because for any given item on which you've used proxy bid, you've no idea what you would have paid for the same item if you had used your silly sceptics method.

Just this week I was bidding for an item, I only really wanted to spend £20, so put this in as my max bid with 3 days left on the item. Up until the last day I was winning, when someone bid more so the item was going for £21. I umm'd and arr'd about it and then added an extra £3 to my max bid, right at the last second, ended up winning for £22.70. It is quite possible if I made my original £20 offer at the end of the listing I would have got it cheaper, and if I had added the extra £3 with x hours to go the other bidder would have re-bidded.

Regardless of the sequence of events, what you should have done was decide what the maximum price you were willing to pay for the item was, put that in, and stick to it. If before the final day, you'd have put your actual maximum in, rather than your sceptical maximum, then you would still have been winning, but your actual bid would still have been the same.
The fact is, no-one else was willing to pay more than £21.70 for it, so even if you'd put £100 in as your maximum, then you'd still have won it for £22.70.

 

[alfablue]

Last 5 seconds for me. Sniping is the way to go.

Why did you have to let the cat out of the bag?

 

[Fnaar]

Do people do the same at car boot sales... nip out from behind the bonnet and up the price to fiver?

 

[Over The Hill]

Thing Bonj is not seeing is that someones maximum bid can change with circumstances.

How do you decide how much to bid? You look at prices. One price you look at is the present price of the bid itself.

Armed with this information you set your maximum bid. If you get outbid then you have time to review your bid and to them decide to bid higher.

So if I out bid you with one second to go you do not have time to review your maximum and out bid me but you would have if you set it on autopilot and you were in a bidding war a day before close. Other punters will review and bid more.

Downside is it does not let you review and out bid if you lose it by a quid.

 

[bonj2]

Thing Bonj is not seeing is that someones maximum bid can change with circumstances.

How do you decide how much to bid? You look at prices. One price you look at is the present price of the bid itself.

Armed with this information you set your maximum bid. If you get outbid then you have time to review your bid and to them decide to bid higher.

So if I out bid you with one second to go you do not have time to review your maximum and out bid me but you would have if you set it on autopilot and you were in a bidding war a day before close. Other punters will review and bid more.

Downside is it does not let you review and out bid if you lose it by a quid.

Something's only worth what someone's prepared to pay for it. What YOU'RE prepared to pay for it should be related to how much it's worth TO YOU, not how much it's worth to other people. Why should what you're prepared to pay for something be a function of how much someone else is prepared to pay for it? Are you a sheep incapable of making your own decision?

 

[Maz]

On the subject of eBay...does anyone who sells on ebay with PayPal as a payment method, ever transfer their money into their bank account? Is this a hassle-free process, or do you leave your money in the PayPal account for when you want to use it?

 

[bonj2]

On the subject of eBay...does anyone who sells on ebay with PayPal as a payment method, ever transfer their money into their bank account? Is this a hassle-free process, or do you leave your money in the PayPal account for when you want to use it?

yes it's hassle free, but takes up to 5 days to clear and there is a (sub-quid) fee for amounts less than £50. Sometimes just leave it in there though.

 

[Night Train]

I'm with Bonj on this, however, I also believe that sometimes people do increase their highest bid. I take a look at the bidding history and if, say, I see bidder 3 showing three bids at the same amount consecutively then I know that they have twice increased their maximum limit. Equally if I see lots of bids but bidder 2 is always the highest then I know that bidder 2 has put in a high maximum bid first time round. It will influence whether or not I bother to bid on some items as a 'gut instinct'. I then accept that it is also pot luck as to what I win and what I don't. I tend not to bother 'chasing' and item, either I want it enough to place my maximum or I don't.

With PayPal I always empty it when it is over £50. I want my money without paying a fee and I don't want PayPal getting the use of it for longer then necessary. So to that end I sell in batches to make sure I get over £50 at the end of each batch. If one item hasn't sold I might hold off for a few days to relist just so that I don't take out my balance and leave one item to sell for, say, £40 and I can't get it out without costs.

 

[Over The Hill]

Something's only worth what someone's prepared to pay for it. What YOU'RE prepared to pay for it should be related to how much it's worth TO YOU, not how much it's worth to other people. Why should what you're prepared to pay for something be a function of how much someone else is prepared to pay for it? Are you a sheep incapable of making your own decision?

No I consider the value I would place on the item. But as I am not a sheep I will re-evaluate that decision in the light of circumatances. One may be the price elsewhere.

For example, if you decide petrol is worth no more than £1.00 per litre you will find yourself using your bike more of late. I re evaluate the situation because all the garages are charging £1.28 so I decide to pay £1.28 now. A year ago I would not have paid that much if a garage charged £1.28 because I could go elsewhere and get it for less.

How much you want it can change. so how much you pay can change. it is a constant process of revision of value by the seller and buyer.

You seem to be the sheep stuck in your unshifting valuation.

 

[bonj2]

No I consider the value I would place on the item. But as I am not a sheep I will re-evaluate that decision in the light of circumatances. One may be the price elsewhere.

For example, if you decide petrol is worth no more than £1.00 per litre you will find yourself using your bike more of late. I re evaluate the situation because all the garages are charging £1.28 so I decide to pay £1.28 now. A year ago I would not have paid that much if a garage charged £1.28 because I could go elsewhere and get it for less.

The analogy there would be, if Joe Bloggs next door decides that since petrol is now over £1.20 a litre that he's going to cycle instead of drive, that means you decide to cycle aswell.
Again, the price you are willing to pay for it has nothing to do with what anyone else is prepared to pay for it.

The notion of it being worth less because someone else is offering the same thing for less is a misnomer, and muddies the waters, because in the situation with ebay we have to assume that the item you are bidding on is the only one that you want, and that we are considering what you are prepared to pay in respect of this item only - since if there were multiple items all of which would fulfill your requirements, you would use ebay's 'multiple bid' feature, where it automatically bids on your behalf on several items, where you can set maximum for each one, and it will bid on each one and when it wins one it will stop, automatically ensuring that you only win one of the items. You DO know about that feature?