Quote:
Originally posted by 89911
There is no such thing as "sniping". If you want an item and you have a maximum you want to spend, you are foolish to put this in for a bid at an early time so others can reconsider their bids and bid again. You are driving up the very items you want. I put my highest bid in as late as possible and take my chances. It's the others that don't want to commit to a higher price that get upset.
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I agree 100%.
It's akin to poker. Novices tip their hands early.
In any case where I put in an early bid, It's no more than about half what I think the item will sell for. And ultimately, I always have better things to do than sit monitoring an auction, especially when I can get a web service to throw in a bid in the last 5 seconds for a fee of pennies. I then have the luxury of deciding -- in a cooler environment -- what amount I'm willing to pay. It's too easy to rationalize raising a bit in the last seconds.
I also find the reports of "completed items" to be invaluable. I recently bought a PDA at 20% under the current going rate because I saw that prices were momentarily out of whack. This happens a lot with commodities on eBay.
Cars, especially, are hard to buy right on eBay. You're often up against someone more excited than able to buy. And you rarely are bidding against someone who has seen the vehicle. The results can be ugly. Two years ago, I saw a "slantnose" 70 coupe bring $10K. It was a $2,000 car, at best, with maybe three salvageable body panels. But it looked good in the (tiny) pictures. However, cars with well-documented problems (honest seller) are usually sold well under market value.