Dumb Ebay bidders
 

Why do people automatically think they are getting a good deal on Ebay?

I had my car repainted recently and decided I needed to get new threshold plates and alum carpet trim sills. I saw these come up for auction with a low starting bid and thought that I would add them to my watch list. Pelican lists them for $39.98 and Stoddard shows them in stock, so I know they are not NLA. If I could get them for $60, that would be a good deal and worth the Ebay hassle, but some idiot has bid up to $88 and you have to add another $9.87 for shipping. That's insane. Let's bid more than the retail price !!!

Disclaimer: if these are actually NLA... I take it all back.

Simple reason: people don't shop around. I compare it to going to an "outlet" mall and assuming that everything you buy there is the absolute lowest price. Just isn't so. I check every item before bidding. You would be surprised to see that many of the items that sell are just a bit lower then sites like Amazon. If its close, I'll buy it new from a vendor with free shipping anytime.

Was out of the country last week and perused a few duty-free stores in the airports. Figured I might find some interesting and/or cheap single malts or good bourbons. Prices were just not competetive, but people were snapping it up.

Unfortunately, that is what one might call, "more money than brains" seems to happen all the time. It's what makes fleabay so ******* successful.

It is an amusing place sometimes..
I had listed an original Shelby Mustang engine not too long ago with a reasonable buy it now price, but nobody bought it. About 2 weeks later I relisted it this time with a lower starting bid and NO buy it now price. There were about 5 people in a bidding frenzy all of whom had asked questions the first time I listed it, but didn't buy it. When all was said and done the bidding ended up going $1,200 over my original buy it now price?!?

Mind you I'm not complaining!
But what were they thinking?

-Nick

+1 89911 I actually found great deals on ttr and club sport motor mounts on ebay. I always check our host first but I gotta go with economics ;)

I have to admit, when I see one of those listings with only a "buy it now" price, I skip over it. I just don't like the tactic, to be honest. I prefer an AUCTION style listing - that's what ebay is supposed to be and that's what originally gave rise to their success. If I wanted an off-the-shelf item with a stated price, there are a gajillion retailers I could go to for that.

The ones that REALLY piss me off are the ones with low starting prices (even the ones with no reserve) but when you read the fine print, it says "no pickup" and "shipping and handling" is about 10X what it should really be. That's bogus.

I prefer the Buy-it-Now option. I do not like all the waiting that is involved with the auction. I like to go on ebay, find it, buy it, pay for it and usually receive my stuff in a few days. I generally stick with the very large sellers for new stuff.

There's a place for that - it's called Froogle.com. :) At least that's the way I look at it. You can simply do a web search for "widgets" and have a hundred online retailers pop up at your fingertips. . . Having this crap on ebay just contributes to the clutter and "noise" on there that everyone has to sift through in order to find good AUCTIONS. Just my $0.02.

P-O-P, I too stay away from the "buy it now/best offer" auctions. When I listed the Shelby motor the first time it was auction style, I just included a buy it now option, which was around $300 over what I thought was a mid to fair price for the motor, but was including free shipping if the buy it now was used. That's why it was crazy to see it go for so much more just a couple of weeks later. Plus, the guy who won STILL had to pay shipping!

Strange, strange place that Ebay :)

The same thing happens at a regular live auction. I guess it is psychological relating to competition. No one wants to lose and it gets the best of them. A case in point: Several years ago, my step father and I went to an auction of a large regional computer chain store that had decided to close their doors. People were paying way over retail prices for most of the stuff being auctioned (computer systems, software, etc). I think it was during the Windows 95 era and they were paying $125 for it, when you could (at that time) go anywhere else and buy it for $50-75.

It was funny, because several of us that knew what was happening were actually laughing loudly each time someone bought one. The auctioneers were getting a little miffed....

I help a local shop list guns on gunbroker.com . When I do, we put a reasonable starting bid, and I add a good bit to in-store retail as a Buy It Now. Still not above what other local shops charge as retail though, but we figure if someone *has* to have that particular item *now* then they can pay an extra $100 or so for it... or they can risk letting the auction run and maybe loosing out to another bidder. More of an issue on ebay with sniping,etc. GB set it up so if there is a bid in the last 15 minutes, auction end time gets extended by 15 minutes...

I dunno - whenever I *have* to have a particular gun *now*, I just go a few blocks north and look for this guy named "T-Bone" who drives a '82 Cadillac El Dorado with big chrome wheels. He usually has what I need.

Now there's a reason to live in Long Beach!

When I bought my 911 it came with a new white headliner from tweeks, still in the box. Retail price $59.
I didn't want a white one so i put it up on ebay, and listed the tweeks part number on the listing.
It sold for $89.

I have found that ending an auction at 8-10pm will gain at least 1/3 in selling price.

Had a shift knob on w/ a reserve of $20 and it didn't sell. Auction ended during the day.

Relisted, no reserve, ended at 10pm my time and sold for over $50.

More people looking in the evening. (And drinking auction-helper lubricant).

Of course I, at one time, got in a bidding war for a Grand Cherokee cupholder. I won; $29. Number 2 didn't, went to the dealer and bought it for $16. He was laughing when he emailed me.

Excellent point - ditto on ones ending on weekends.

The other funny thing is that people will go to places like Harbor Freight and sell the stuff on Ebay, usually for 20-40% increase in price and paying freight to boot. Far too many idiots on the internet, and with money to burn.

I bought things both ways, buy it now and auction and have no problem with either. If you need something fast, check the auctions ending soon and also check the "buy it nows" just listed. You would be surprised, but many of the auctions ending soon are close to and sometimes higher the newly listed buy it nows. I was selling a used Dansk muffler on Ebay and listed it for a buy it now and an auction. I tried to add some more information and was blocked immediately after listing it because someone had jumped on the buy it now immediately. I guess I was asking to low of a price. Some seller just want to get rid of the stuff as soon as possible.

I used to sell rear targa top seals for 914s on e-bay.
I made them myself and sold about 250 of them, with a no questions asked return of money if not satisfied. Never had a dis-satisfied customer except for one where the seal was lost in shipping. I sent another as soon as I found out.
I put a buy it now price of $39 on them and i paid all shipping costs to north america. taht basically paid to fix up my 914s, which paid for most of my 911.

I had at lease 4 auctions that went way beyond the buy it now cost, I guess the buy it now option goes away after a certain point. The highest one went for $129. funny thing was, I had another one listed to close about 5 minutes later, and it went for $100.
A non-winning bidder e-mailed me later and asked if I had any more, I said sure, $39. He was very happy he lost on the auction.
Then one of the asshats i sold a seal to decided to copy it and compete with me. He even made his auction listings resemble mine.
i called him on it in the 914 forum, the other guys defended him saying it was just competition. BS. If this peabucket had a clue he would come up with his own idea instead of stealing mine.

I'm not very active in the 914 community any more, too many guys I don't respect. It sucks because some 914 owners are very good people.