You should refine your bidding practices. Bidding during the actual auction time, especially well before it ends just tends to up the bids and shows someone is interested. Either use a sniping program or do it yourself by making a decent bid seconds before the auction ends. By decent I mean not 50 cents more than the current one, bid as much as you want to spend. If the auctions is near closing at say $12.00, bid $20.00; the auction will only go up by the bid increment. If someone else has placed a bid of $15.00, your bid would be $16.00. Don’t nickle and dime your prices - put a resonable amount that you want to spend.
People bid and get decent prices on eBay all the time because they have learned these basic techniques.
Uh, but aren’t the sniping programs against the rules? Sure, if you can do it yourself, then it’s a bit more fair.
Also, try bidding at odd numbers. Say, 17.50 instead of 15. People tend to bid on even 5s and 10s. If you pick a number in the middle, your a little more likely to make it in.
Evidently, E-Bay has no problem with sniping. I don’t think it is against their rules. Having friends and family insiders bid up the price of items is against their rules, but sniping is not.
I do need to improve my bidding process. I"ve won some ok auctions by timing it to the minute. Problem is, I’m busy and can’t manage my day by the times that auctions are ending, to be there at the very last moments. Maybe I’ll check out some of those sniping-enabler sites myself.
In any case, I’m not looking for hi-end or super-rare stuff, just even stuff like Walthers out of production stuff from a few years back. Would love to find their old eastern flood loader for instance, and some CSX/NS Waffle side boxcars or Ortner gravel cars. Kinda ordinary stuff but bidders mark this stuff like wild.
In any case, the train show sounds like a wonderful idea even if i don’t find stuff i want. Just going should be a hoot, esp. for my son.
If you can manually snipe do so. I’ve sniped a guy on a P2K U-boat with sound from a cell. Got it for 93 bucks, but with a broken front foot-board and horn. (I took the footboards off and replaced it with a plow, and had a spare horn laying around)
I decide the maximum amount I will spend on an item, and stick to it.
I will have to snipe to win anything, and I will do it on every auction I participate in. Bidding five days before the auction ends is a waste of time, and the practice has always baffled me. As far as sniping, I’m unsure why some people consider it “unfair”. It is a bid, and it is an auction. Same as poker, I’m not showing you my hand until it is time to do so. You didn’t really believe your were going to get that craftsman kit for $15.00 did you? [:D]
As far as “Shells”, I’m not concerned mainly because (see #1) I have already decided on the maximum amount I will pay.
Shipping, again I’m not concerned when tallied up into the final pricing, does it exceed my max amount? yes or no?
Some people may have a problem losing an auction. I don’t. I’ll let them pay $$$ for an overpriced item and just wait for the next one to come along.
Shell fits better…After all they are hiding behind assumed name and helping their friend out by running up bids.Again good for the seller but,the honest bidder gits ripped in the process.
I’ve not yet been to a live auction where bids weren’t accepted for a reasonable time after a bid was placed. But that’s the current Ebay system and one sometimes has to resort to those tactics to win.
A more reasonable way would be to extend an auction by… say 5 minutes IF a bid is placed in the final moments. This benefits both Ebay and the seller in that they get a higher price for the item.
Another option would be to have a “random ending time” on an auction after it is scheduled to end; sniping would be taken out of play since no one would know exactly when the auction would end.
Off-topic, but related to the direction the discussion has taken.
Hi All: I go with the price of an item that I am willing to pay/what it is worth to me. I then subtract the shipping cost, and that will be my MAXIMUM bid. I used to get sniped a lot, even when there hadn’t been any bidding for a long time, just before the time ran out. I used to have dial-up service. I have Dsl now which is much, much, faster. I have had people snipe me, but the ones that I win, are the ones that my max bid is 10 to 20 bucks more than the last bid. I also placed my bid in the last 30 seconds before the time was up. One time there was two snipes after my bid and I still won it, and the increase in price was only 50 cents over the last bid. ($1.50 over the price when I submitted my bid). I still won it for $18.50 less than I was willing to pay.
I once looked at the ending time wrong, and I still won the Item and there was 11 bids after mine.
Although I don’t model modern era, the same techniques I use for 19th Century or “Fallen Flag” manufacturers would probably work.
As I traveled on business, I would often try to fit in a hobby shop visit in the evening. I came to find LHS in various cities that carried the type of items I was interested in - generally old new stock of mostly out-of-production kits. When I am seeking a particular item, I call a list of about 5 shops who often have some of this stock, and were friendly when I visited, or had an excellent reputation from the forums. If they have it, I buy from them, typically at full retail. Generally shipping from these LHS is free with a decent purchase at retail. If the item is still in production, I order from an LHS or direct from the manufacturer.
My next step is to watch some of the forums and Yahoo groups which permit sales.
Only if none of them have the item I am seeking do I turn to eBay. I watch for a while to see how often the item comes up, and what the going price is. I have found the best time to buy on eBay is during the summer, when some (but not all) of those who like to overpay are on vacation. It generally takes me bidding on about 5-10 auctions for an item before I can win at a price I am willing to pay (including shipping). I haven’t seen any increase in success at auctions where I sniped vs where I bid 5-6 hours before the end. It’s more a matter of who I am up against than anything else, from my experience.
Note that a “Buy it Now” price should set a ceiling on an auction - but all too often it doesn’t. But I certainly won’t bid a Buy it Now pr
If You want something BADLY enough there are ways of finding things. The Lionel HO Challengers are my all time FAVORITE HO Locomotives, when they Dumped them, I bought every one of them that I could get. I got to the point where I was only short 2 versions of the 12 paint scheme/road names/road#s versions that they offered. My cell phone has free long distance and roaming, so I took a copy of MR and started at the beginning of the Retail Directory in the back of the magazine. I called each store and asked if they had the ones that I was looking for, a couple had Good prices on some that I already had, but bought any way. I kept calling each in order in the directory and marking off those that didn’t have them(I always used the same magazine) I Finally found BOTH of the versions that I was looking for at Warrick’s in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
The distributers were all sold out of these when I started seaching for them, but through perseverance, I DID find the 2 that completed my collection. Most of the stores were Very Polite when they told me that they didn’t have them, and thanked me for calling them, a FEW acted put out and said that “Those have been sold out, for a while” But if you want something, and are willing to put the effort in, you have a good chance of finding it.
It took Me more than a few phone calls, but I did find what I wanted, Good Luck to You and don’t Give Up, it is probably out there, You just have to find it,
Hey yo! Thank you for putting in a post thanking folks here for helping you out. It is nice to know that a couple people’s effort has been helpful, as opposed to (begin rant): the better than 50% of the posters to this topic that argued (sorry, “discussed”) the virtues of E-Bay and sniping when the subject clearly stated “…besides E-Bay” (end of rant).