eBay Trading Company
Jul. 21st, 2003 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
j4Please bear in mind before reading this that there are no stupid questions, only STUPID PEOPLE. So, sorry in advance for being dense.
Can anybody provide me with a very quick beginner's guide to eBay bidding tactics? I simply have no idea how the bidding tends to work -- whether lots of bids tend to happen at the last minute, whether it's better to bid on the cheaper thing with more time to run or the thing that's already at a higher price but has less time to go, or ... or what. Or whether the bidding patterns vary enormously depending on the thing for sale, or stuff like that.
Er, basically, in summary, "hello, am clueless, but want to buy thing off eBay without spending masses more money than I need to". :-)
Can anybody provide me with a very quick beginner's guide to eBay bidding tactics? I simply have no idea how the bidding tends to work -- whether lots of bids tend to happen at the last minute, whether it's better to bid on the cheaper thing with more time to run or the thing that's already at a higher price but has less time to go, or ... or what. Or whether the bidding patterns vary enormously depending on the thing for sale, or stuff like that.
Er, basically, in summary, "hello, am clueless, but want to buy thing off eBay without spending masses more money than I need to". :-)
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Date: 2003-07-21 03:05 pm (UTC)Rule 1 - The simplest thing is "don't bid until the very end of the auction". Auctions with bids will attract more bids from other parties and push the price up. Of course, this requires you to be online at the time the auction ends.
Rule 2 - decide the maximum you're willing to pay and stick to that. Because ebay uses proxy bidding, you always bid the maximum you're willing to pay, even though you may not end up having to pay that much, since you will pay the lesser of your maxiumum and the smallest amount higher than the next highest bid. You should thus only ever need to place one bid on an auction.
Rule 3 - Never bid round amounts. If something is worth a tenner, it's probably worth 12.22, and if someone bidding against you bids up to a tenner, or 12 pounds, or 12.20, you'll still be the one that wins. Other peoples habit of bidding round amounts will work in your favour.
Rule 4 - If any new auctions (they have a little sunburst icon) appear with a "Buy it now" price that you think is reasonable, buy it and end the auction. Otherwise you'll end up in a bidding war with some muppet who doesn't understand the "wait till the end of the auction" rule.
I think that's about it.
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Date: 2003-07-21 03:15 pm (UTC)Rule 5 - auctions with Paypal accepted as a method of payment tend to go higher. If you can find an auction where the buyer is only willing to take a cheque, you might be in luck, as fewer people are willing to go to the faff of writing a cheque.
Rule 6 - *Always* check the postage. Consider the total price of an item *including* the postage cost when deciding on a maximum bid. Some sellers offer better value postage than others.
Rule 7 - Items on eBay tend to go for less towards the end of the month, because people have run out of money and are waiting for their next paycheck before starting to spend it. (Not personally managed to verify this one yet, but it seems like sound reasoning.)