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How do you 'play' eBay?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
So you see something you want, how do you play it?
Do you bid right away, even though there is days left on the auction? Or do you watch it for a few days and then bid on the day it ends?
Me, I watch it and then do my bids in the last 30 seconds. I hate hate hate it when you're watching something and a copule of bidders are having a bidding war amoungst themselves, days before the auction ends. Obviously I love that happening when Im doing the selling but when I want to buy something and the price ends up sky high, it pees me off.
Can you tell I've just been gazumped? :grump:
Oh yeah and when are we getting an eBay forum?
Do you bid right away, even though there is days left on the auction? Or do you watch it for a few days and then bid on the day it ends?
Me, I watch it and then do my bids in the last 30 seconds. I hate hate hate it when you're watching something and a copule of bidders are having a bidding war amoungst themselves, days before the auction ends. Obviously I love that happening when Im doing the selling but when I want to buy something and the price ends up sky high, it pees me off.
Can you tell I've just been gazumped? :grump:
Oh yeah and when are we getting an eBay forum?
0
Comments
But sometimes i will place the bid as soon as i see it, depending on how much i want it. or just use the Buy now.
I do that too.
Yea
I sold a pair of boots the other day, the woman paid at 9.30pm on Friday night and then emailed me saying she needed them for Saturday night, short of me flying to London and handing them to her I dont know how she thought that'd be possible :crazyeyes
How stupid.
I emailed her saying dont be so stupid (but more politely
I gave up after that.
If there's not much demand and they're going for low prices i'll bid early and put a higher maximum bid so if someone bids at the last minute i'll still get it. If there's loads of demand and they're going high i'll watch a few and wait til the last minute so i can bid on the lowest or see if it's gonna go out of my price range and i'll wait for another..
I always go over my maximum bid - if I think something is worth £30 to me, then I'll bid £31.62 or something. Having missed items in the past for a few pence, I don't mind going over a smidge. And by putting the 62p on, there is a good chance that someone might bid £31 or £31.50 - in which case I'll still be winning.
Where it says second chance offer, does that mean the person who bidded the second highest can get offered it?
I very rarely accept second chance offers
1) Firstly you need two eBay accounts. Ideally, one should be your real one and the other, a new account with a public domain email address (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc).
2) Use your normal account to bid for an item you really want. Make sure yours is the maximum bid and the amount is what you're actually willing to pay.
3) Then take the fake or new account and bid something so ridiculously high for the item that no-one would want to top. Ie. for a new mobile phone that normally retails at £200, bid something like £500.
4) Wait until the last few seconds of the auction and then, using the new account, withdraw the really high bid for the item. Your original bid at the reasonable price will now be the highest bid. Because the very high bid should have put people off bidding for it, hopefully no-one will have been watching it until the end.
5) Win the auction and get a kick ass item for a decent price because the high bid has protected it for you.
Some words of caution.
Any bid retractions go on the public profile of the account that made them so sellers may reject your bids if you have zero or low feedback and loads of bid retractions.
If you're internet is dodgy or if you're really unlucky or the eBay gods aren't smiling on you, the retraction may not go through in time and you'll be stuck owing a shit load of money for something you're only willing to pay a fraction of the price for.
This isn't a new scam and so some potential buyers may spot this and keep watching the item if they think the highest bid is completely unrealistic so try to keep it high enough to deter people but low enough to be realistic.
All that said, this tactic has won me some pretty awesome items. Bit at your own risk.
The silly bint who wanted the boots the next day after she paid for them at 9.30pm(!) has left me feedback saying - "good condition, gave notice when could not delivery it on time". That makes it sound like Im crap at sending stuff out :grump:
You should reply to it saying sent as early as possible.