Buying on
When buying items on eBay there are a number of factors to bear in mind...
1. Timing is everything - When to bid..?
eBay does not work like a standard auction room. All eBay auctions have a specific end time whereas auction room sales keep going until nobody bids any higher. Use this to your advantage and don't start bidding too early.
Rule No. 1 - Be Cool..!!!
I'm constantly amazed by the number of experienced eBayers who indulge in a bidding war hours, or even days, before an auction is due to end. These people often have double or even triple figure ratings so it's not like they are new to eBay. After 100 or so transactions, one would have thought they'd have developed a wiser strategy than bidding an item through the roof on day one. Therefore, I can only assume that they are under the misguided notion that the earlier they place a bid the more likely they are of winning the item..? Even placing a early large "macho" bid is only encouraging other bidders to test the water and push you up to the level of your highest bid. You could end up paying £500 for something that you may have bought much cheaper had you not set a target for everyone else. Remember, from a buyers point of view, it's not a competition of who can bid the highest - it's a competition on who can bid the lowest and still win the item. If the price skyrockets then the only winner is the seller and you as a buyer have failed to optimise your bargain.
I was watching a Land Rover for sale a few weeks back. The first few days saw a few opportunist bids which pushed the auction into three figures. Then all went quiet until the final hour on the final day... ebaybob who'd been watching the auction for the last week lost his nerve and threw in a bid of £500. Soon after auctiondude bottled it to and chucked £600 in the pot. Panicked by this, and despite almost half an hour to go, ebaybob increased the bid to £750. Now, auctiondude, determined not to lose out to ebaybob banged in another hike upto £1000... Up and up it went, like Willy Wonka's Glass Elevator, through the roof towards the stratosphere, pushing both parties far beyond what either one of them would like to have paid had it not got personal and gone friggin' crazy...!!!
Rule No.2 - Never fire more shots than necessary... Snipe..!!!
In a perfect world (for buyers at least) both ebaybob and auctiondude would have waited until the last 30 seconds or even less before throwing in their maximum bids. That way the final price would have been determined by how much each of them was actually willing to spend and not on how quickly they could type increasingly bigger numbers and prove who could piss higher up the wall. Of course, the seller is rubbing his hands in glee at the stupidity of these two apparently experienced eBayers and in the knowledge that when it comes to pissing contests he was the only winner in this little battle.
Bidding at the last second is called sniping. It is not illegal, immoral, unsportsmanlike or unfair. It is simply a common sense, smart way of bidding for a bargain. Basically, you decide on what your maximum bid is going to be. Forget what everyone else is doing, simply decide on what is the maximum you are willing to pay for an item. Remember that the proxy bidding system employed on eBay auctions will only bid up as much as it needs to and will not bid to your maximum unless it needs to.
There is a good chance that other "snipers" will be operating on the same auction and will also submit their highest bid in the last few seconds. If their bid is higher than your then you won't win the item but then you didn't want to pay more than you maximum anyway so it's no great loss. If their maximum was £25 and yours was £50 then you will win with a proxy bid of only £26... Bargain..!!!
If you can't be at your keyboard then employ the services of a bid-bot or snipe-bot. These are third party programs or web services that will automatically place last minute bids for you. It means that you can bid
2. Finding a bargain - search and research
Unfortunately for buyers, these days eBay is overrun with not so smart, over-eager, hot-headed bidders. Finding a bargain is ever more difficult and you'll need to be on top form to really bag a bargain. There are several strategies for finding what you want without paying the going rate. It may take a little longer but you could save yourself a packet.
Firstly, do a search. Sounds obvious but many sellers often list in the wrong categories and simply browsing won't turn up hidden treasures. I once discovered a Peavey guitar amp tucked away under Hobbies -> Electronics -> Other instead of Musical Instruments -> Guitars and found I was the only bidder come the end of the auction. Another example may be, a seller advertises a diver's watch under Jewellery and Watches instead of under Sporting Goods -> Scuba -> Equipment. Now although the seller might still find buyers under their chosen category the number of potential bidders, i.e. your competition, will be lower. Ideally as a seller it would have been wise to list under both categories but luckily for buyers not everyone is that smart.
Secondly, look for items that end at odd times when other potential bidders will probably be sleeping or at work. Remember, if you've got a bid-bot then this won't be a problem for you. Other snipers may be doing the same thing but at least there shouldn't be any last minute bidding wars.
Thirdly, look for similar auctions ending around the same time. Interest will be spread across the items and the overall final price of each will almost certainly be lower. Be careful though, the last on of the bunch may go through the roof as several bidders who lost out on the previous few similar items will make it a personal vendetta not to walk away empty handed.
Another little trick you can try is to login to ebay.com, eBay's U.S. site, as opposed to ebay.co.uk. Many sellers only sell to bidders in their own country be default. Maybe they just never ticked any other box when setting up the sale or maybe they think it's going to be too much hassle. Either way, there are better bargains to be had across the pond and it's worth investigating. Do a search for what you want on the .com website as items not specified for international sales will not show up from a .co.uk search. If you then find something you like that isn't an international sale then contact the seller and explain that you have an immaculate eBay rating, a PayPal account and will happily cover postage. I've found on every occasion that I've tried this that the seller is only to willing let you bid. I recently bought a set of brake calipers and radiator for my motorbike. Average total price on ebay.co.uk was over £200 plus P&P. From LA I paid $76 plus $48 P&P which worked out at around £95, less than half the price...!!!
3. Gotchas - be careful out there
Scammers are everywhere. Remember the story of the Emperor's New Clothes..? What about the guy on eBay who sold an Air Guitar..? ...I'm waiting for the penny to drop... Then there were the copycats who actually managed to sell several sets of strings for previously mentioned ethereal instrument. More seriously, you may well come across people selling an XBOX BOX... the description gives a full detailed specification of an actual XBOX with the small disclaimer... "you are buying a box for an X-box" hidden away at the bottom of the listing. Many unsuspecting buyers were quite legally stung for over £100 each on this one. I've seen the same scam for mobile phones and iPods.
Another favourite is the "link seller". Like the empty box scammer the give a full description of the item and place a small disclaimer at the bottom of the listing saying that they are selling a link to a website where the supposed item is available at a cut as part of some kind of advertising/promotional shenanigans.
Extortionate postage is a great way of profiteering off the naive and unaware buyer. You see a buy-it-now price which suggests a bargain to be had and only after you've fallen over yourself to click the button do you actually realise that the P&P is £50 or more.
You can never be 100% percent safe from fraudsters and tricksters but if you keep your wits about you and take your time reading the listing carefully you should be able to prevent yourself from being scammed. Remember the old adage... "If something looks too good to be true then it probably is..."
4. Customer Service - l
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