pedal-professor is OK with me.
I don't buy or watch as much on eBay as some folks, I guess (I have yet to bid on 100 items), I still use "Save Favorites", don't even know about this "items to watch" thing, actually I do but I ignore it. Very early on, maybe my 3rd or 4th item after I made a bad bidding mistake I decided my approach would be to decide my price and wait until there's 15 seconds left, and make my bid. I've lost only 3 times. Keeps prices down: by not placing a low early bid, I avoid not only getting into a pissing match (how we call it here in NYC) with other bidders, I avoid making other bidders aware I am watching something.
Makes the most sense to me.
MLebron
NYC
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>From: Gary Chottiner <gsc2@po.cwru.edu>
>To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>Subject: [CR]Bidding on eBay with no intention of winning an auction?
>Date: Fri, May 9, 2003, 1:12 PM
>
>It looks like I hit a hot button with my comment about bidding on eBay with
>no intention of winning the auction. A few others have already explained
>much of the logic, but let me expand.
>
>The primary reason I started this was that there are often 50-100 items that
>catch my attention but eBay only let us watch 20, now 30, items. I actually
>complained to eBay about this artificially low number. Putting in a low
>(generally the lowest possible) early bid is the easiest way to follow a
>larger number of pieces. I generally look for items as they are posted and
>not when the auction is about to expire, as this gives me time to think
>about the purchase and catch the Buy It Now items before they are bought. So
>I dont think Im jacking up the prices, which is the last thing I'd want to
>do as a buyer. Even if I was, the sellers wouldnt mind, only the buyers!
>As a courtesy to both buyers and sellers, Ill generally try NOT to bid if I
>suspect that I will hit a reserve and cause the Buy It Now option to
>disappear for other buyers.
>
>Im also perfectly willing to buy the things on which I place bids, but I
>know that realistically this wont happen as most of us know their market
>value. I think in two or so years of buying things on eBay, Ive only won
>a handful of items that I would have preferred to lose. You can almost
>always count on someone else to come in as a sniper at the last minute if
>they think you might be getting a bargain.
>
>Now if theres something I really do want or something thats too expensive
>and valuable to gamble on coming out the winner, those are the items that go
>on the Watch List. It seems that the only way to win an auction on eBay is
>to bid in the last few seconds. I learned this the hard way, as do most of
>us, losing some very good items to snipers. You could make a good case that
>sniping keeps the prices down. The auctions that end up in the stratosphere
>are those where a few select (wealthy) bidders keep one-upping each other
>for several days.
>
>My policy for trying to win eBay auctions is to enter a bid, as late as I
>dare, that is just high enough that I wont regret the purchase. If someone
>bids more, Im relieved not to be the winner. If I do win, it feels like a
>fair price. I think that I probably end up as second highest bidder on 80%
>of the auctions I try to win, further down the list on 15% and win no more
>than 5% of the time. So now you have all my secrets.
>
>I think a better way to purchase bicycle components is to do it from the
>people who list them here but Ive been trying for some time to pick up a
>selection of items for use on some special projects. Over the next few
>weeks Ill be asking for advice for which pieces to use on the black
>Ephgrave #1 and green #2 frames that you can see at
>http://www.classicrendezvous.com/British/Ephgrave_main.htm as well as a
>modern Bates. I think all three of these frames came from list members.
>Then theres a question about brakes, saddle and crankset for a NOS! late
>50s Paramount which seems to have the correct parts except for these items.
>Ill be writing more about this when I can get organized to deal with it.
>
>Am I using too many words? I have that reputation.
>
>Gary Chottiner aka pedal-professor
>Cleveland Hts. OH