Really Weird eBay experience.
Martin_H
Posts: 4,051
Parallax was auctioning off 3 Boe-Bot CMU Cams. I bid on one of them and had a fairly high max bid. I was the high bidder until just before the end of the auction, but then it got sniped out from under me by $1. Darn it, that's the second time I lost out on one of these.
But that's not the weird part. I was following all the auctions and although eBay masks their identity, you can tell that the same person won the other three auctions! There's one more up for auction, but it looks like someone wants these CMU cams badly. I also wonder how someone can so easily overbid by exactly one dollar.
But that's not the weird part. I was following all the auctions and although eBay masks their identity, you can tell that the same person won the other three auctions! There's one more up for auction, but it looks like someone wants these CMU cams badly. I also wonder how someone can so easily overbid by exactly one dollar.
Comments
-Phil
"Pain Factor" is my personal highest bid I'm willing to pay. This is what I bid within the last 5 minutes.
His may be higher than yours.
The dollar thing happens automatically even though his final bid could have been much higher.
Duane J
That sometimes happens, but ebay will slap your fanny if they catch you doing it. Also what happens far too often is that people fail to pay or simply tell the seller they don't want the item anymore. Sellers can fight it and get buyers barred from bidding, but it's often easier to just move on.
Probably true. I couldn't see paying more than $60 for a CMU cam 1 without a warranty when a branch new CMU cam 4 is only $100.
Just curious: why do you think that works better than automatic bidding?
However, sniping does tend to lower the price against the "timid" biders that keep inching their bids up.
They have no chance to keep raising the bid.
If I'm lucky and there are no other snipers I get it at the lowest possible price, statistically speaking.
Duane J
http://www.ebay.com/itm/121078090670?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649&autorefresh=true
Who is this masked man or woman with a desire for four CMU Cam 1's!
But aren't there automated sniping websites you can use?
Just wait a week or two and I bet you will find them up for auction again. That's why they are anonymous!!!
If you choose "Place Bid", yoy still have to hit "Confirm Bid". You can watch the clock tick down and when it gets to 7,6,5 then hit "Confirm Bid". If someone else is higher than your highest bid amount, then you did not want to pay that much for it any ways. That's why I always determine what the max amount I want to pay for the item is and submit that bid.
People that are really working EBay maximize their opportunities.
Once upon a time I bid on an entire page of old collectible stamps and I was very surprised that I won. I was even more surprised to find out I was the only bidder and basically won the stamps at their face value. Wow, you can't beat that. A week or so later, I received the page of stamps well packaged and in perfect condition. I'd gotten exactly what I had wanted. But to my amazement, what the seller had used for postage on the package was more of those same collectible stamps. Apparently the seller was so disgusted that his stamps had not sold well, he just used them for postage.
With stamps, you really have to know what you want and what you expect to do with it. Buying old collections is pretty much a shotgun approach.