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Post by Robert in California on Sept 29, 2017 0:39:50 GMT
Hi folks, I was bidding on an inexpensive knife: www.ebay.com/itm/ELEGENT-CUSTOM-HAND-FORGED-D2-STEEL-FULL-TANG-KNIFE-CAMEL-BONE-RP-6156/263224535495?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055359.m1431.l2649I had done the seller a big favor by alerting him to a mistake in his knife description (for his many knives) where his knives were listed as 48 to 50 HRC, which was so soft that of course he was losing sales. Few buyers would want so soft a knife. He had many listed such and in the sample of bids, I did not see anyone but "private bidder" bidding the prices up. So I alerted him to the error, which he said was indeed an error. He thanked me, as he said the blade hardness was supposed to say 58 HRC. And I bid on one of his knives. Actually, I thought he might give me one as a thank you gift. Or at least, not bid against me. Instead I got this (here are the last two bids, including my 2nd bid): "private listing - bidders' identities protected $12.50 28 Sep 2017 at 3:58:32PM PDT rham7721 $12.00 26 Sep 2017 at 9:34:10PM PDT" All the bids, other than my two, were "private listing" which my understanding is a seller's method to avoid selling too cheaply. I probably saved him a lot of lost sales, and yet he bids against me....sheesh! What a nice guy /s. RinC I feel stupid for being a nice guy to him.
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Post by vermithrax on Sept 29, 2017 1:18:33 GMT
Not to be an a##hole, but if it's on eBay, the seller is a bidder 98% of time most items.
The best is the "second chance" offer you get 2 days later at your last bid.
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Post by stopped1 on Sept 29, 2017 1:23:33 GMT
Think you just got snipped. I only ever bid with 7 seconds to spare. No poont putting my price up early so people have time to think and bid against me. I set my snipe up and go to sleep.
Provate listing is just private listing, many sellers like to do it. The cost is too low for seller to set up a fakeaccount to bid against you but not impossible.
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Post by demonskull on Sept 29, 2017 1:29:22 GMT
Don't feel stupid, a private listing has nothing to do with the buyer. It's in place to provide an anonymous auction. Previously you could identify a bidder by their name and then it was changed to a code name. When you knew the bidder by either their name or the assigned code name you could track their previous auctions which could tell you how they bid. Does this individual bid at the last minute or few seconds. If their history showed they bid in the last few seconds, they would most likely be using a bid system. If they stopped bidding a minute or 2 before this would either be a manual bid and sometimes you could actually guess if they were using dial up instead of a digital system.
In order for a buyer to bid on his own wares he'd have to have a separate Ebay account using a separate email. Now supposing he guessed wrong and was the highest bidder, he'd still have the item he was selling and would have to pay the insertion fee, the final bid fee and the shipping/postage fee on an item he never sold. The shipping/postage fee is a fee Ebay devised to stop vendors from having a very low starting fee and a high postage. Vendors would do this in order to avoid a high final bid fee.
The private bid is designed to level the playing field. When bidding, set your limit and don't exceed it. It's easy to get caught up in a bidding frenzy and pay well more than you should. You also might try a bidding service which will place your high bid automatically a few seconds before the auction ends. These increase your odds of winning the auction drastically provided your bid is high enough.
Good luck and happy bidding.
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Post by Robert in California on Sept 29, 2017 1:29:36 GMT
Ebay seller
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Post by Robert in California on Sept 29, 2017 1:39:12 GMT
Thanks for your replies. Seller had a lot of knives for sale (Ebay) and many of those I looked at had "private listing" slowly bidding the price up. So...not the seller? I do see, on some sellers, not many, but some, these private listings. Perhaps I was in error, thinking it was the seller.
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Post by Robert in California on Sept 29, 2017 1:40:34 GMT
"Think you just got snipped. I only ever bid with 7 seconds to spare. No poont putting my price up early so people have time to think and bid against me. I set my snipe up and go to sleep.
Provate listing is just private listing, many sellers like to do it"
==========================================
How do I set up a "snipe"? Thanks! RinC
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Post by Robert in California on Sept 29, 2017 1:46:54 GMT
This is what I normally see on Ebay: Item is an Alonzo knife:
Bidder Bid Amount Bid Time r***6(26) $22.50 19 Sep 2017 at 5:55:14PM PDT 2***2(380) $22.00 19 Sep 2017 at 5:55:00PM PDT r***6(26) $21.50 19 Sep 2017 at 5:54:56PM PDT 2***2(380) $21.00 19 Sep 2017 at 5:54:45PM PDT r***6(26) $21.00 19 Sep 2017 at 5:54:52PM PDT r***6(26) $19.50 19 Sep 2017 at 5:54:46PM PDT rham7721(143 opens in new window or tab) $20.00 19 Sep 2017 at 5:54:37PM PDT r***6(26) $18.50 19 Sep 2017 at 5:54:29PM PDT o***i(1197) $18.00 19 Sep 2017 at 12:01:18PM PDT r***6(26) $18.00 19 Sep 2017 at 5:54:24PM PDT r***6(26) $17.00 19 Sep 2017 at 5:54:17PM PDT o***i(1197) $15.00 19 Sep 2017 at 11:03:31AM PDT o***d(221) $10.99 14 Sep 2017 at 5:48:16PM PDT o***i(1197) $10.00 19 Sep 2017 at 11:02:19AM PDT 2***2(380) $5.00 18 Sep 2017 at 6:24:12PM PDT Starting Price $0.99 12 Sep 2017 at 5:55:17PM PDT
This is the full bidding on the knife/seller in question: private listing - bidders' identities protected $12.50 28 Sep 2017 at 3:58:32PM PDT rham7721 $12.00 26 Sep 2017 at 9:34:10PM PDT private listing - bidders' identities protected $10.01 26 Sep 2017 at 3:48:47AM PDT rham7721 $10.00 25 Sep 2017 at 8:58:06PM PDT private listing - bidders' identities protected $4.00 25 Sep 2017 at 5:54:01PM PDT private listing - bidders' identities protected $3.00 24 Sep 2017 at 12:13:28PM PDT private listing - bidders' identities protected $1.29 24 Sep 2017 at 1:34:29PM PDT private listing - bidders' identities protected $0.99 24 Sep 2017 at 10:22:15AM PDT Starting Price $0.99 23 Sep 2017 at 6:08:28PM PDT
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Post by RickDastardly on Sept 29, 2017 1:58:38 GMT
I use a service from snipeswipe.com I've used if for many years, and it's been good. You have to load it up with some 'credits' from paypal, then give it your ebay details. You only have to pay if you win an auction, then the site takes $0.01 per $ that the item sold for. It takes that out of your credit, so always make sure there is enough credit in your snipeswipe account to cover your maximum bids. I have used 'private auctions' on some sales... it's nothing to do with being dodgy in any way. Personally I wouldn't touch those knives with a ten foot pole, but that's me. They are the standard made-in-Pakistan mass-produced stuff that I've seen sold as 'hand made' by numerous sellers over the years. I think the risk of getting a poorly treated one is too high. YMMV though, as they say. Edit: D'oh, it seems snipeswipe has changed payment policy since last time I needed to top up my account. Now it's a monthly payment instead of buying credits... I don't like that. When I've used my existing credits up I won't use them again. Shame, it was a good service.Take a look here about sniping sites: www.thebalance.com/what-buyers-should-know-about-ebay-sniping-services-1140550Also, before I used that service I found a free program that could run on your own PC and place snipe bids. That means your PC has to be on all the time and connected though. Don't know if such programs still exist.
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Post by Robert in California on Sept 29, 2017 3:31:38 GMT
Thanks! RinC
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Post by stopped1 on Sept 29, 2017 3:52:57 GMT
I use auctionsiniper.com been using in since 2008. First three snipes are free. Then it works on $5 credits. But this site allows you to go over credit and pay in the balance next cycle (it used to prewarn you to top up, either way its ok). $5 goes a long way actually. I even use it on $2 items. Just easier to to stay up and bid before EU/US local endding time.
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Post by stopped1 on Sept 29, 2017 3:57:47 GMT
The other thing about the sniping is that it removes emotionas. You look at something and decide how much will you pay and leave it at that. No bid war. If you look at the more expensive stuff on ebay, it will stay low until the last 20 seconds.
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Post by RickDastardly on Sept 29, 2017 5:55:51 GMT
I've won loads of stuff over the years by sniping, for good prices.
This won't apply to swords or other unique items, but for more common things (like Cisco networking kit): If I want something, but don't need it in a hurry, I'll find a lot of them and put them all in my sniper at fairly low prices. Eventually I have nearly always got what I wanted at a much lower than average price. Sooner or later one slips though most people's nets and my sniper will get it cheaply.
What I've saved has certainly paid for the sniping service many times over, as well as saving me many sleepless nights and wasted hours watching auctions.
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Post by bebut on Oct 9, 2017 19:28:54 GMT
Thanx for the heads up on sniping, this is the first time I have heard of it. I am retired so usually I just make a mental note of the closing time and hand bid, usually 6 seconds before closing in the US and 9 seconds out of the country, although I have missed a few 9 second ones for slow internet speed. I have also missed some because people have dropped by, etc. so sniping might make sense.
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Post by bebut on Oct 9, 2017 19:59:22 GMT
"Think you just got snipped. I only ever bid with 7 seconds to spare. No poont putting my price up early so people have time to think and bid against me. I set my snipe up and go to sleep. Provate listing is just private listing, many sellers like to do it" ========================================== How do I set up a "snipe"? Thanks! RinC True, and I no longer bid on things "along the way". I put them on the watch list. While another bidder could see how many people are watching, it is no where near the head's up that a bid represents.Then I bid in the last few seconds. My worst experiences on Ebay have been with new sellers. A couple have refused to ship or gone silent because they didn't like the sales price. I got my money back promptly from ebay but it was a waste of time. I am now weary of new sellers.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2017 20:09:50 GMT
Gixen is reliable, even the free version but $6 a year for the two servers and a six/three offset for sniping has worked well for me.
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Post by stopped1 on Oct 9, 2017 22:46:10 GMT
"Think you just got snipped. I only ever bid with 7 seconds to spare. No poont putting my price up early so people have time to think and bid against me. I set my snipe up and go to sleep. Provate listing is just private listing, many sellers like to do it" ========================================== How do I set up a "snipe"? Thanks! RinC True, and I no longer bid on things "along the way". I put them on the watch list. While another bidder could see how many people are watching, it is no where near the head's up that a bid represents.Then I bid in the last few seconds. My worst experiences on Ebay have been with new sellers. A couple have refused to ship or gone silent because they didn't like the sales price. I got my money back promptly from ebay but it was a waste of time. I am now weary of new sellers. Yeah I once won a few items cheap for xmas, then the sellers refused to ship because price was low.... lost two week so I had a mad rush to get all the gifts done. I dont mind if the new sellers are up front but most come with excuses....
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Post by Afoo on Oct 9, 2017 22:58:37 GMT
Had some who said they would ship via USPS, but then changed their mind and sent it via USP without telling me. In their defense they likely were unaware of the pain involved in USP deliveries overseas (up to 200% "brokerage fees", and the fact they don't actually deliver to my PO box address in the first place), but still.....
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Post by RickDastardly on Oct 9, 2017 23:19:05 GMT
The worst two I've had...
One was a big Cisco demo kit. I was the only bidder and when I won, I contacted the seller, arranged to go and collect that afternoon and then paid by paypal. No problems... until I got there 100 miles away. He refused to hand it over without double the amount in cash! I had to get a PP refund because I told him exactly where to stick it.
The other was a funny one... I bought an electronic PCB from the USA (I'm UK) and I asked for the "cheapest USPS airmail shipping" (my exact words). We agreed on USPS 1st class international and I paid for that. A month later, no board. When I asked where it was, the seller got the hump and said I had asked for the cheapest shipping so he had sent them on a cargo ship! The board turned up two months later. The mind boggles.
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