Lowball bidders

[Annoying Twit]

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280272150053"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=280272150053[/url]

I consider myself a person who puts ridiculous lowball bids on instruments "just in case I get a bargain some day", but bidder 1 here bid £1.50 for a six string bass. I wonder what they were thinking. Bidder 2 not much better at £13.

[bigjohn]

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='294690' date='Sep 29 2008, 05:16 PM'][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280272150053"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=280272150053[/url]

I consider myself a person who puts ridiculous lowball bids on instruments "just in case I get a bargain some day", but bidder 1 here bid £1.50 for a six string bass. I wonder what they were thinking. Bidder 2 not much better at £13.[/quote]

£13.50 and not a penny more...

[Dubs]

I don’t think you're gonna get anyone bidding for anything at anywhere near it's value with 6 days left to run...schoolboy error if they did.

[Mr. Foxen]

Winner is who bids most first, so they are only gonna beat you if they bid more than you. I always bid as early as I decide how much I'm willing to spend. Which is rarely very much. I've snagged quite a few nice things, and for silly low bids. Scored a P copy with EMGs in it for a very low bid. You can only get lucky if you chance it.

[lemmywinks]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='294934' date='Sep 29 2008, 10:06 PM']Winner is who bids most first, so they are only gonna beat you if they bid more than you. I always bid as early as I decide how much I'm willing to spend. Which is rarely very much. I've snagged quite a few nice things, and for silly low bids. Scored a P copy with EMGs in it for a very low bid. You can only get lucky if you chance it.[/quote]


I'm the same, though not with bass stuff. Everything bass-wise i've watched has gone for a lot more than i was willing to pay (bar one bass, which i won!)
Snagged a fully working laptop (bar the battery) with decent spec and XP licence for £35 a few months ago, typing on it now! Worth it for the 60gig hard drive!

[waynepunkdude]

I always wait till the last second that way I don't get in a bidding war and therefore push the price up.

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='295123' date='Sep 30 2008, 09:03 AM']I always wait till the last second that way I don't get in a bidding war and therefore push the price up.[/quote]

This is why I enter my max bid early. Ebay bids for you up to your max, so if you were to do this, you'd still have to bid just as much in order to win, without the time to reflect upon what the item is really worth. I think a lot of people don't realise Ebay bids for you up to your max, as I've seen people bid 8 times in the last few minutes, being outbid by a pound each time by my earlier max. Only problem is it leaves you open to shill bidding, but I just bid the amount I want to spend, they can't shill it higher than that, the only second chance offer I've had was a ridiculous bargain anyway.

The last minute bidding war is where people spend silly money on Ebay, buying items for over their value as they get overexcited. Auction sniper seems especially pointless, If I have the same amount of money to spend on the item, I win because my bid is higher by the auction sniper fee, no matter how close to the last second you bid goes in, if you bid more than me, you win regardless of when you bid.

[neepheid]

I'm a last minuter. The way I see it, the longer you're on top, the longer the competition have to shoot at you. I have a max bid in mind, if it goes over that before the end, I walk away. I've never lost something by bidding the same amount as someone who got in earlier.

[waynepunkdude]

[quote name='neepheid' post='295174' date='Sep 30 2008, 10:07 AM']I'm a last minuter. The way I see it, the longer you're on top, the longer the competition have to shoot at you. I have a max bid in mind, if it goes over that before the end, I walk away. I've never lost something by bidding the same amount as someone who got in earlier.[/quote]


Agreed, the problem is if you bid then someone else bids then you feel you have to be top.

If you enter in your max at the last minute then you don't have to pay an inflated price .

[phil_the_bassist]

I've hardly bought anything from EvilBay since I started on basschat! It's so much nicer, friendlier, more trustworthy, communicative and respectable than ebay, and the only thing i DID get (the cheap hartke strings) was a pain in the arse, as they shipped half one week, then the remaining half 10days later!

BC rules, and you knows it!

[Bassassin]

[quote name='neepheid' post='295174' date='Sep 30 2008, 10:07 AM']I'm a last minuter. The way I see it, the longer you're on top, the longer the competition have to shoot at you. I have a max bid in mind, if it goes over that before the end, I walk away.[/quote]
+1. And if you don't win it, whatever it is - [i]whatever[/i] it is - there will be another one along sooner or later.

And I don't think I have ever sold [i]anything[/i] that didn't start off with piddling little pointless bids from the £1.99 cheapskates! I think some people genuinely go through every single newly-listed item in a category & stick a few pence on it, just in case.

Jon.

[markytbass]

I usually don't show my hand until the last few seconds but last week I was going to be out when the bidding ended. I stuck a low bid in the day before and won, got some bargain strings £3 a set.

[markytbass]

Thats one thing that worries me about winning with a low bid, someone refusing to let something go.

[Dubs]

[quote name='markytbass' post='295714' date='Sep 30 2008, 06:22 PM']Thats one thing that worries me about winning with a low bid, someone refusing to let something go.[/quote]

Well thanks to more strokes of genius from ebay, the seller can no longer leave negative feedback, so you (as the buyer) leave negative feedback saying “this guy is a dick, he’s too tight to use a reserve and too cheap to let his stuff go for the price it finishes at”, or something to that extent Still a pain in the arse, but at least you know you've made him pay for it with no repercussions to you.

Edited September 30, 2008 by benwhiteuk

[Annoying Twit]

[quote name='markytbass' post='295714' date='Sep 30 2008, 06:22 PM']Thats one thing that worries me about winning with a low bid, someone refusing to let something go.[/quote]

I've never heard of that happening to anyone I know. But I have seen feedback suggesting that this has happened to others. Specifically that the seller demanded more money after the auction was complete.

[warwickhunt]

It's funny but looking at some of the responses it's fairly obvious who are the 'experienced' eBayers and who just use it as an on-line shop

I'm not dissing anyone for how they choose to use eBay but there are different ways and means of using eBay and a bit of nous can save a wedge of cash

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

My opinion is that its best to keep your powder dry & put my maximum bid in with about two seconds to go.

[Dubs]

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='296126' date='Oct 1 2008, 07:48 AM']My opinion is that its best to keep your powder dry & put my maximum bid in with about two seconds to go.[/quote]

That’s pretty much my ebay game plan as well. It's been a while though...

[Bassassin]

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='296126' date='Oct 1 2008, 07:48 AM']My opinion is that its best to keep your powder dry & put my maximum bid in with about two seconds to go.[/quote]
Absolutely. And rule no. 2 is know your maximum & stick to it, leave Ebay Madness to people bidding on your stuff!

J.

[Happy Jack]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='295235' date='Sep 30 2008, 11:02 AM']I think some people genuinely go through every single newly-listed item in a category & stick a few pence on it, just in case.

Jon.[/quote]

Curses - rumbled!

I'd better come up with a new plan.

[Mr. Foxen]

Other plusses of bidding early is not doing that thing where you forget to bid. And not doing that thing where your connection hangs or your PC crashes at the last moment. But one of my favourites is the knowing when someone has outbid you and knowing that cash is free to be played with elsewhere.

[Annoying Twit]

The kind of bids I put on will never survive any sort of bidding war. Only the kinds of auctions that slip through unnoticed. Of which there are some. So I don't feel that sniping is going to help me.

There was one bass I was looking at on ebay which went through with no bids. I was interested, but had other bids outstanding. So I emailed the seller asking them to get back to me if the bass didn't sell. Which they did. Unfortunately I then read reviews on it which were not complimentary. So I demurred. They relisted, including an amp this time. And the best bid they received was £5 something. Fortunately for them they had a reserve which wasn't met. But that's the kind of auction I might win out on.

[spinynorman]

The advantage of something like Auctionsniper is it bids for you at the last minute, regardless of whether your PC is online, offline, crashed out or what. Another good thing about it is you can cancel your bid at any time before it fires, so no more worries about the drunken bid you regret next morning - unless you forget about it, of course. And the charges are pence.

The psychology of sniping is that people instinctively bid what they think they need to win the auction, not the maximum they'll pay. So if there's a bid there, they'll beat it. If there's no bid, they'll guess how high they need to go. My guess against theirs - just like poker really.