Jesus, I feel like a giggling virgin here, but I had no idea about this.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Got it.

Very helpful. Thanks.

gprsh924 summed it up nicely. I don't buy much on Ebay but did get two cars...a Ford Expedition from a dealer and a Land Rover from private party. Both were as described and I saved ~ $4K over a local purchase. My process is to carefully decide my max $ bid and then wait till under a minute before auction close to submit. That does two things 1. Avoids a bidding frenzy on low bid count items and 2. Ensures I don't have time to rationalize a higher bid $$ that I may regret later.

Good luck...I'm curious what car has got you excited.

One other question for the experts:

Is there a website that has guideline prices for older US cars?

Hemmings?

I like to bidding service so that my bid isn't even placed until the end of the auction. If you place your high bid and someone else wants the car they may chip away at your price trying to become the high bidder, only driving up the price.

snipe.com

I don't use ebay anymore, but your point is valid. That's why I always placed my bid in at the very last minute, thus avoiding such "bidding wars" driving up the price even if I won. Out of curiosity, what does snipe.com, etc. charge for their service? I guess I could just go look, but I know you guys will know :)

www.nada.com

I haven't used it in a while but I believe 1500 points costs $15 and is good for $1500 worth of items. I never really bought anything expensive so that amount would always last a long time.

In this current environment, price guides are worthless, or even worse than worthless.

I just looked up my Esnipe account. Here are a few of my wins. You can see my bid and what I actually got the item for.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1233169838.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1233169855.jpg

You are right.

Someone here recently introduced me to www.jaxed.com —which is a bit slow but an extraordinary tool.

It pulls together cars from all different media and auctions etc., and you get a very good and current sense what these things are selling for. Brilliant!

kbb.com is a good guide too. Today it's only a starting point.

I would generally trust Hemmings for cars that are not extraordinarily unusual... good way to get a feeling for the market on, say, a pre-war Buick but not as helpful for an Allard or something like that.

I generally find KBB/NADA etc to be worthless if your car is more than a couple of years old.

I've bid on Ebay enough to have a simple reason not to bid early if you want an item. The last 5 minutes is good. The last 5 seconds is better. The simple reason is it removes the second guessing many , including myself, have. You get greedy that your low ball deal is going to be the only one out there until someone else bids past you and you realize that your first offer wasn't in the ball park. I can't tell you how many auctions I lost by bidding anywhere sooner then a day at the most. Even if no one has bid, it is better to wait until as late as possible with the highest amount you would bid.

I hear you on this.

Suppose though, that you and two other bidders really wanted an item. Let's suppose you want it really badly, but the other two also want it—but perhaps not quite as badly as you.

Wouldn't it be better to "probe" how high these two are prepared to bid earlier in the auction, rather than wait for the frantic last few minutes?

I mean, aren't there situations where its better to smoke out the competition earlier on—rather than risk losing an item in the last few moments?

http://www.manheimgold.com/car_lo.html

The way you avoid that is to bid the absolute highest you are willing to pay. It is then impossible for you to "lose out" on the item. The only way you will not get it is if it sells for a price higher than you are willing to pay.

What someone else is willing to pay should have no effect on what YOU are willing to pay.

Its no different then going to an auction. You can't tell who's going to spend how much until the gavel falls. If you place your highest bid early, say a day in advance, the other parties will "chip" away at your bid until it get surpassed, or at least driven up. The other parties are checking on the internet, guide books, calling and redetermining how much the want to spend. If you really, really want this car, offer what the fair market value is at the end. If that isn't enough and you are falling in love with this car (which you should never do, especially on the internet site unseen:(), offer how much you feel comfortable. From what I'm seeing in you questions, you really like this car which is going to take much of you objection-ability out of the picture. Make a fair offer at the end and see how it comes out. Unless this car has a production limit of 1, there will be others.:)

One other point. Make sure you get in contact with the seller and tell them you are a legitimate buyer. I routinely make a point of telling any bidders that have very low ratings (5 or less) that they must contact me or I will remove their bid,(which I have done). Why? I have been burnt before from buyers with no history. They can change their mind and back out since losing a rating of "0" has little detriment.