I bid way too much. I waited 4 days. With 6 seconds left I allowed myself to be hopeful. But then someone bid even way too much more than I did. I didn’t get it. I will mourn for a day and then be glad I don’t have to find the money to pay for it. It isn’t often I really want an engine, which is probably good.
OH WELL.
Huh? Didnt get what?
David B
Was it the westside #2 Shay? I was watching it - way out of my price range, but soooo sweet.
Feel blessed you were rescued by someone willing to bid more than your regrettably high bid. I’ve been caught “holding the bag” a couple of times.
Mark
Art, never mind. It will seem better to you in retrospect to have lost an outrageously costly item than to have to endure its presence daily knowing that you paid far too much. In three days you will have found another potential victim of your obsession. [:P]
-Crandell
s:
That’s right. Bid what you want to pay. If people want to pay more than it’s worth, well, that’s annoying…but eventually you’ll find one at your price. Consider looking for it misnamed. I find that listings as “engine car” or “choochoo train with coal car” are less competitive than the same item named more conventionally. 
(Seriously, searching for “coal car” is a GOOD idea)
I still don’t understand why that Bowser H9 kit auction I was bidding on ended up selling for $30 more than the BRAND NEW H9 KIT I mail-ordered the same day. (I was out pretty early, having bid pretty low.)
No accounting for auction mania.
I know how you feel.
Last year I lost a kitbashed B&M 2-8-0. Yesterday it was relisted with a Buy it now of 85.99. After spending most of my money on paint+decals+stuff for friends, I think I need to take out another loan.
Don’t know if this is true or not, but is funny! At a recent local convention one modeler was talking about buying color slides of local railways in the past on eBay. He related how another modeler placed a last minute bid on a slide, and mistakenly entered $1100.00 instead of the intended $11.00. His bid was immediately covered by someone elses’ automatic bidding program or proxy bid at $1105.00! That’s what the single color slide was supposed to have been sold for! Imagine being the winning bidder!
So count yourself as being lucky!
Since in my only real time on e-bay so far (not even train related) and several times for a friend of mine that automatic bidding thing has screwed us out of things at the last moment, I find this to be quite funny.
A good round of golf and I am fully recovered. I have already checked ebay for another “thing I must have”. Fortunatly, I don’t win many. It was the Mich-Cal #2 shay with the full bulkhead detail.
Art–
I know the feeling. But sometimes stopping the bid before it goes WAY out of whack is the better option. I bid on an Akane Yellowstone once, then saw the bidding price go so far over what the loco would be really worth, I quit. Sure, I wanted it, but not at the price it was heading for. Sometimes discretion is the better part of your pocketbook, LOL.
Tom
I never bid high at the start. If no bids I take the first bid if the price is reasonable. mostly if I bid it will just get my bidding presence in the bidding area. THen I wait for the end when usually the smart bidders end up. They will just outbid you, period.
It depends on the item and how much in demand it might be, I have had bid wins when I couldnt be at the bid end because I had to work, I put a safety bid on it, nobody else bidded or they tried to snipe at a low price above, and I win it.
regardless, if your bid was high enough that countered anyones bid, you got it, but the new update system allows to check price quickly, so bidders will find and go over, period.
It often comes down to the last second bidwar, I sit in fearness I didnt win it in the moments after it closes, then find out YAY I got it or darnit!!! 8-D
However keep on the item after it closes if the winner bidder defaults, the seller may award you the item ot put it up as 2nd chance or whatever they do.
Whatever it was, I’m sure you’re better off not having paid thru the nose for it. Another one will come along.
At the last train show I attended a dealer that I’m friendly with said he recently sold an old AHM GP18’s for over $60. [:O] You really have to wonder what some people are smoking when they bid.
There’s also Fat Fingers, a site that searches eBay for items with all sorts of misspellings.
Don’t you know? The second highest bid determines the winning price. That is my most common bidding position. I wonder if the sellers appreciate me?
Mark