Auctions

[FleetsidePaul]

I've been watching a car on Evilbay. It has 6 days left to go and some fools are already fighting over it and driving the price up.

Why don't they just wait and give it their best shot at the end? What are they accomplishing by getting in a pissing match?

I always lay low and fire my best bid at the end. I roll the dice that it will work. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

I just don't get why you would start fighting with 6 days to go? Why?

I'm sure the seller loves it. They're driving the price up by being stupid.

[Steeveedee]

They really, really want it I guess. Could be shills, though. My FiL sold a car once, where the guy showed up with a friend who offered him more money for the car. The guy who came to buy it was pretty torqued up over that.

[Ironhorse]

FSPaul, if talking abut on line auctions I totally agree about laying low. Why would a person want to drive the bid up, wait your time and decide in your mind just how much $$ you figure the item is worth to you. Make your bid shortly prior to the auction end and list your max bid at a price you can live with if it goes to that point.

At a live auction I usually try to arrive far enough in advance of the auction start to look over everything and if I spot something I REALLY have an interest in I decide prior to the auction start just where I will stop my bidding process. I love going to auctions and have picked up some pretty good items at a good cost. Some I have kept, some I have flipped, which helps cover the cost of the car/truck habit, LOL

[FleetsidePaul]

It could be a shill. But I don't think so. I've seen this before but I don't get it.

Live auctions are different. The clock is ticking right out of the gate. Move it or lose it. But on an online auction with 6 days to go? Where's the fire? Change your diaper and wait.

I should play poker with these people because they sure seem like they like to show their hand before the game is over.

I worked with a guy and he used a shill. The trouble was that no one outbid the shill and he had to pay Ebay fees for a sale. Serves him right for being a crook.

[Steeveedee]

Yeah, crooks. I was in Idaho many years ago, and the shop I worked at was going under. The owner hired an auctioneer to sell off the assets. The guy was a real piece of work, with the way he worked the crowd. He told us beforehand what he was going to do, and managed to get a few hundred bucks more from the crowd.

[1slo64]

You’re usually better off putting your max from the get go from what I’ve read. I did that recently with a set of gmc hubcaps and won them easily.

[FleetsidePaul]

I have gotten in bidding wars before. This is a stupid one.

My wife (then girlfriend) had a doll as a child. She would always talk about it.

So I figure. Just get her another one... Wrong.. Apparently she wasn't the only little girl that wanted one again. I got wiped out every time.

So a nice one still in the box came up. I thought this it. I'm not losing this one.

I waited to the last minute and put in an insane bid. I WAS going to get this thing!

The bids went nuts. Higher and higher and then they ran out of time.

I was screaming at the computer. My roommate walked in and asked me what was wrong?

I said. Nothing. I was just bidding on an auction. I won.

Really? What did you buy? He asked.

A 'Baby Go Bye Bye' doll.

A what?

A doll in a little pink convertible.

He just shook his head and walked out.

To this day my wife loves that doll. It was worth it.

[special-K]

I don't know why anyone would bid on Ebay in any way other than what I do. I decide the most I am willing to pay and I enter that as my max bid, then sit back and wait to see if I won. If I win I don't pay more than I wanted and if I lose I don't pay more than I wanted. Anything beyond that is out of my control.

[A1971Blazer]

Originally Posted by special-K

I don't know why anyone would bid on Ebay in any way other than what I do. I decide the most I am willing to pay and I enter that as my max bid, then sit back and wait to see if I won. If I win I don't pay more than I wanted and if I lose I don't pay more than I wanted. Anything beyond that is out of my control.

That's the most prudent way....take it or leave at your price....I do the same.
Some online auctions now days can go on for awhile even when the time runs out, if people are still bidding.

[Warrens69GMC]

People who bid don't like sniping (bidding the max at the end).The get soo mad when you do that.

[special-K]

I hate sniping. That's another reason I like to bid the way I do. I love looking at the results and seeing all the one increment at a time bids by the same bidder crammed into the last minute while I sat back and checked my e-mail the next morning to find I had won the item

Before the internet there used to be mail-in/phone-in auctions. I collected Tonka Toys and other vintage truck toys and would get a bi-weekly publication called The Toy box that was mostly classified ads. I never participated in those. I'd hate it. I'd see one I really wanted ready to pull the trigger but no price, phone-in auction. No way. How do I know anyone is even bidding against me or who is bidding it up? This was also back when most people didn't like the idea of mail order. Didn't like paying for something they don't have yet. "Won't buy anything I can't put my hands on". Then comes the internet and Ebay, Craigslist and everything up to Amazon and marketplace while local stores are closing. Man, times sure have changed

[A1971Blazer]

Originally Posted by special-K

Man, times sure have changed

Ain't that the truth?
Some is for the better...some is for the worse...
It's so much easier to locate stuff now days with the WWW but it's loaded with low life scammers.

I remember trying to find stuff years ago....you called someone who might have it....if they didn't, they might know someone who did.....an so on...and so on.....I wonder how we ever found anything?

Now the world is at your finger tips on the keyboard....I use YouTube for a plethora of information....especially on tasks that I don't have much knowledge of.....heck, I've watched videos of brain surgery...I think I can do it.....

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by A1971Blazer

I've watched videos of brain surgery...I think I can do it.....

You've got your first customer right here. I need my head examined, or so I've been told....Repeatedly.

I don't consider myself a sniper. I just wait until the rubber hits the road. I have a limit. If the price gets bid up too high then I walk away.

I just watch and wait. But I don't participate until I feel it's go time and to me 6 days out isn't go time.

It's like this car I'm watching. I'll bid double what the bid is now. But if it goes over my limit I'll move on. It's just a waiting game right now.

I'll hold my cards close until it's time to lay them down. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. That's just the game.

[joedoh]

i used ebay sniping software back in the late 00s early 10s, you put your bid in and the auction number, you helped it syncronize the clock, entered your max bid and fed it your login info. it exposed the number one problem being a bidder in an auction format: the maximum bid.

since it could happen that TWO people would pop in extravagant max bids to get the item, you didnt want to put in like 10k because if someone put in 4k as a way to be sure they beat reasonable bids you could have a $4001 vintage hamburger maker.

and you didnt want to put a number in too low and wish you had put in your MAX MAX bid.

I found it best to just think of the number i would abslutely buy at if i saw it for sale locally, and use that. although the last time I used it, was on a misprinted kansas yom plate that was printed with kansas and the wheat state right side up and the number upside down. i bid $200 and it went for $275, and regret immediately beset me because I didnt follow the MAX MAX bid rule, i didnt figure on anyone else tripping over this obscure plate with the non descriptive listing. a second auction, correctly titled, followed and I think it went for $400 that time. cest la vie.

anywho, my point is, early bid, late bid, doesnt matter, bid what you are willing to pay!

[special-K]

It's only sniping if you use a program or the old way, wait till the last second and enter your bid one increment above the highest bid. Waiting till the end of the auction is the sensible thing to do. The numbers at the beginning are just numbers. Numbers that are less than what it will take to win the item. Why bid just so the numbers can climb faster and farther?

It's been a pretty long time now, but here is an auction I won on mint 69-75 GMC wheel covers. Running steelies and hubcaps wasn't as popular, so prices weren't crazy like they are now. I think these are N.O.S. but the seller didn't list them as such. So, maybe less bidders. But, the bidding was hovering in the $20s when I found the auction and it was about 1/2 way through. I entered a max bid of $100. When I got the e-mail telling me I had won I checked the bidding history. Other bidders were trying to get them for as little as possible, so the bidding went up slowly. In the last minute there were a pile of repeated bids all the way up to $85 when the auction ended and those wheel covers were mine, hassle-free. Nothing underhanded, just a simple honest plan

[GOPAPA]

Originally Posted by special-K

It's only sniping if you use a program or the old way, wait till the last second and enter your bid one increment above the highest bid. Waiting till the end of the auction is the sensible thing to do. The numbers at the beginning are just numbers. Numbers that are less than what it will take to win the item. Why bid just so the numbers can climb faster and farther?

It's been a pretty long time now, but here is an auction I won on mint 69-75 GMC wheel covers. Running steelies and hubcaps wasn't as popular, so prices weren't crazy like they are now. I think these are N.O.S. but the seller didn't list them as such. So, maybe less bidders. But, the bidding was hovering in the $20s when I found the auction and it was about 1/2 way through. I entered a max bid of $100. When I got the e-mail telling me I had won I checked the bidding history. Other bidders were trying to get them for as little as possible, so the bidding went up slowly. In the last minute there were a pile of repeated bids all the way up to $85 when the auction ended and those wheel covers were mine, hassle-free. Nothing underhanded, just a simple honest plan

I wait until the last 15 seconds and enter my bid amount , if I do not get the highest bid ,,then ,, I feel it was more than I wanted to give for it . About the same as you Tim...

[Warrens69GMC]

Originally Posted by GOPAPA

I wait until the last 15 minutes and enter my bid amount , if I do not get the highest bid ,,then ,, I feel it was more than I wanted to give for it . About the same as you Tim...

I wait till the last 30 seconds, after I log out and log back in so it doesn't have me do that again. My success is around 60%.

[GOPAPA]

Originally Posted by Warrens69GMC

I wait till the last 30 seconds, after I log out and log back in so it doesn't have me do that again. My success is around 60%.

I meant 15 seconds ,not 15 minutes ,, maybe more like 20 to 30 seconds ,, you have to have time for logging out and back in..

[FleetsidePaul]

15 seconds is a long time at the end of an auction. That's when it goes nuts.