Is it me??

Tony, Maybe you ARE in the wrong business, I recently watched the secondhand book "Milling - A Complete Course" sell for £20 plus postage, when it's available from Chronos new for £7.30 including P&P. Following that I bought it (not on eBay) secondhand for £3.84 plus P & P.

There's one born every minute,and every one of them seems to shop on eBay! It seems a pity because I find myself less inclined to search when idiots drive prices past the point of sanity. Maybe in a few years, when people are more eBay savvy, this sort of silliness will reduce.

I'm sure some of the bidders are under the influence of mood altering substances, and the rest are in possession of too much money or not enough experience. Of course some of the prices are influenced by the unscrupulous seller who bids on his own stuff, or gets an associate to do it for them.

Caveat emptor...........................

Regards, Arthur G

"Milling - A Complete Course" sell for £20

Following that I bought it (not on eBay)

seems a pity because I find myself less

a few years, when people are more eBay

substances, and the rest are in possession of too

influenced by the unscrupulous seller who bids on

As we have both seen of late, ebay does produce some interesting results!

These books are pretty much available secondhand for prices starting at $US 10.00 from UK vendors (prices in $$'s because the site I was looking at is based in the USA) plus P&P.

The most expensive though was up at $53.00!! That was the Ian Bradley book on sawing.

Not exactly ( wait for it )... cut price eh?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Regards,

eBAY does tend to generate "best price". I think people sometimes just have to win, just like live auctions. To be honest I've been lucky and ducked one or two in a sweat having left my "target" and "maximum" bids way behind in the scramble. Red mist perhaps.

I've equally had a bizarre experience with an old (1933) technical book. I posted it at £5 +£2.50 p&p and didn't get a bid. OK, back in the drawer. two weeks later, same book same condition appears at £5.00 + £4.00P&P and it charges off to £21. I reposted the item at £5 and mailed the losing bidders. I didn't get a bid. I can only think the winner was bidding against the seller with a different sock puppet. Steve

I also wonder if things are perhaps a little more corrupt, and the prices are hiked in an attempt to start a frenzy... Sellers footing the bill if it goes pear shaped... I can't belive the discrepency in the above case??? and on some equipment I have seen auctioned...

Joules

I think we have all been there and made our mistakes! :-))

Shill bidding is rife within ebay, and the sooner they start to crack down on it the better it will be for the whole user base.

I am not against anyone having more than one ebay user account, we have three or four in the family here, but we are very scrupulous about how they are used and we all have 100% feedback ratings which we are careful to protect. Too many people IMO use multiple accounts or those of their friends to up the bidding prices on their auctions, and where we catch them at it we get them chopped by ebay immediately.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Web:

Probably true. The old guidelines are the best -bid what the item is worth to you (or, what you are happy to pay) and if you don't get it then don't worry.

Regards

Kevin

regarding shill bidding - presumably they'll just end up buying their own stuff back and paying ebay for the privelage. I suppose they can save on the postage !

I just bid what it's worth to me - bargain price if it merely appeals if it's cheap, proper money if it's something I genuinely want. If someone wants to pay more, then good luck to them. I've never understood this business of bidding in the last second either.

I sold some Hasselblad camera pamphlets which I'd got as a job lot. First one went for £25 quid - which is a lot for 10 pages of advertising blurb. I was just wondering what I'd spend all my profits on but the others all went for a couple of quid to the same buyer - who would presumably have paid good money for those as well, but no one else was bidding sadly.

The thing about buying at auction is that you've paid slightly more than anyone else thinks its worth.

It's still bizarre to see stuff go for more money than brand-new from a proper shop. It's not as if the punters don't have access to the internet is it?

Hywel

works like this: A enters a bid, shortly after B enters a higher bid... A thinks about it and decides he can afford a bit more and enters another bid.... result either B has to pay more or lose the lot.

Alternative scenario, A enters a bid, B sees the lot and makes a note of it, with 10 seconds to go, B puts in his bid ... and wins. This is a nasty surprise for A.

Had it done to me... :-( Done it to others.. :-)

Or, you use what's called "sniping" software. That places your bid with a very short time period to go (settable, but mine is at around 5s). That has advantages and disadvantages. Advantage, nobody else can get a bid in, disadvantage, if your bid is too low, you can't bid again (which can actually be an advantage - see my comment below!)

The main benefit from my point of view is that it prevents the "red mist" coming down. I decide my limit and let the software get on with it. If I win (then the loser should have bid more), if I lose, then I should have bid more!

Cheers

Peter

It basically prevents people having a go at your bid before the auction finishes, therefore restricting the level at which the item will sell for.

You still have to bid the highest amount though, to win.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Web:

Which software do you use?

Regards, Tony

It only works against people who bid incrementally (i.e., they increase their bid after someone else bids higher than their last bid). If everyone bid once, with the highest amount that they were prepared to pay, then there wouldn't be any advantage in this particular tactic. However, as there are plenty around that don't do that, it can allow you to snatch a few bargains away from the unwary bidder.

Regards, Tony

Auction Sentry

Cheers

Peter

Is it a clever way of avoiding "Reserve Charges"?

Steve

First time I got caught out with this was a brass parafin blowlamp I fancied to try some brazing. It was mine for a fiver at 1 minute so I walked away to do something else and then the snipe bid came in. Sad thing was the seller only about 10 miles away, so no p&p either! Manual sniping is good sport if the workshop is too cold or nothing better to do.

Steve

Yes, but.....

a) You showed your interest in advance and set yourself up to be outbid. You were a known target that someone else could have a pop at. If you hadn't bid until the last minute, nobody would have known your intentions.

b) The winner bid more money than you did. That is what won the auction, not the sniping.

Peter

Yes it is, as is the practice of removing items from sale when they don't appear to be getting enough interest soon enough. This one pissed me off intensely when it happened to me. A pair of seats for a Transit van had got one bid on it (mine at £60) and was withdrawn at three days. The significant thing was that I had a £240 snipe waiting on it as well. Since the seller had not indicated that they might withdraw the item I felt a sense of righteous indignation when they did.

Mark Rand RTFM

I just didn't think that anyone else in this day and age would want a parafin blowlamp! And no one else had bid! Anyway, lesson learned.