ebay rant (short)

[tiAn@usiw.net (Christian Els)]

<Sigh, how did I get sucked into this...>

I agree that what you illustrate does happen, pretty frequently even.

I'm just saying that person with the $31 bid (in your example) is paying
more than the item is worth. That mentality leads to big credit card bills
and no groceries at the end of the month. Dumb.

Bid what it's worth and forget, any other way is a money trap.

Waiting to post your first bid until the very end is effective but you're
going to lose to a person with a big checkbook and overblown sense of value
no matter when that person bids, if they want the same thing you do.

The real key is bidding on crap nobody else wants ;) Speaking of, somebody
buy my car...heh.

Cheers,


Christian Els
1987 Scirocco 16V, For Sale
 www.schnellpc.com/scirocco.htm


----- Original Message -----
From: <jester@w...>

> hate to say it, but i have gotten some great deals through sniping.
>
> Thing is, many people on e-bay are willign to go up and up and up just to
> win something, I'm not.
>
> What my experience has been, if i decide its worth $30 to me, and the bid
> is at $15, if i put in the 30, the other guy that wants it will see my $30
> and decide he's willing to go $31 to beat me.
>
> If i snipe at $30 with 3 seconds left, and the $25 bidder had his max bet
> set qat $20, he doesnt have time to go back and change it to $31, I won at
> $30.
>
> I have actually seen this happen in real life when i did my sniping at 5
> minutes instead of 5 seconds.
>
> My e-bay policy. If i kinda want it, i put in my max price & sit back and
> see what turns out. if i really want it, i wait until 5 seconds left &
> place my bid then. My max price doesnt change, its just kept a secret from
> other bidders until its too late for them to change their bid to beat
> me... In other words, a guys max price may be $20, till he's loosing then
> his irrational testosterone complex kicks in & he goes to himself "ill sho
> you" and puts in $40... i'm avoiding all "i'll show you" bids by sniping.
>
> not arguing, just telling you that i truly believe sniping is better
> because that way i am the only guy that can know a) i am even interested
> and b) what my max bid bid is.
>
> take care,
>
> Steve
>
>
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>      If you see a mad professor in a minibus, just smile. --James Bond
>                       http://westfailure.org
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