The Flea Bay is so strange.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I haven't been therei n a while. I was looking for some things and happened on other things and put bids in on some things and watches a few others planning to scoop 'em up near the end pf the period.

People are paying near retail, sometimes more than retail, while getting used items, AND paying shipping and getting no warranties.

EEEEKKKK~!!!!

People are stupid.

Maybe I should be selling the junk littering the NJ highways to them.
Rare antique classic

[David G Baker]

Cliff,
At one time I purchased and sold many items on Flea Bay but with all of the changes and charges I only visit for information or on "rare" occasion sell.
Local auctions are very similar. I do hit Craigs list frequently.

[Mike Henderson]

It's off and on. I've found some stuff at very cheap prices and other times, I'm amazed at what people will pay. I can't figure why it goes one way or the other sometimes.

Mike

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

It's off and on. I've found some stuff at very cheap prices and other times, I'm amazed at what people will pay. I can't figure why it goes one way or the other sometimes.

Mike

Well after thinking about it I wonder if a lot of the excessive bids aren't the result of newbies using FleaBay's automatic bidding options and getting sucked in by their own lack of sophistication at using such "tools."

I haven't ever used any of 'em as I just don't like handing things over to a robot.

[Jerome Hanby]

I use one of the sniper services regularly. I figured out a long time ago that there is a tendency feel "possessive" once you put in a bid. I think that odd feeling is responsible for people paying those high prices, it feels like it's yours and you wont let someone else take it from you :eek:. Using the sniper service, I evaluate the item, decide the most I'm willing to spend, round that amount up a bit to an odd amount in an attempt to avoid getting outbid by a nickel, and let it rip. I generally do that for all the entries for the type of item I'm interested in and kill off the pending ones if I get a hit.

Of course you lose that great feeling you get when you snipe something out from under someone in the last few sections of an auction...

[Justin Leiwig]

The only time I buy anything there anymore is when someone doesn't know what they have and mis-lists the item. I always get it at or near the starting bid. The auctions that most people buy over retail are because they don't take the time to search. I made quite a lucrative career out of buying and selling golf clubs on ebay the last couple years, but haven't had the desire especially with outrageous shipping charges now.

[Mike Henderson]

I use one of the sniper services regularly. I figured out a long time ago that there is a tendency feel "possessive" once you put in a bid. I think that odd feeling is responsible for people paying those high prices, it feels like it's yours and you wont let someone else take it from you :eek:. Using the sniper service, I evaluate the item, decide the most I'm willing to spend, round that amount up a bit to an odd amount in an attempt to avoid getting outbid by a nickel, and let it rip. I generally do that for all the entries for the type of item I'm interested in and kill off the pending ones if I get a hit.

Of course you lose that great feeling you get when you snipe something out from under someone in the last few sections of an auction...
I agree and would add I don't understand why people bid early. An auction is all about information and you don't want to give other people any information about your bid. Additionally, if you set a snipe and decide later that you don't want the item you can cancel your snipe. But if you bid, you can't cancel your bid.

Sniping is the only way to bid. eBay should just set up their auctions to work that way.

Mike

[Rob Russell]

Sniping is the only way to bid. eBay should just set up their auctions to work that way.

Why would Ebay do that? It would eliminate the bidding wars and cut their fees?

It's sort of like in Paypal when you use a credit card to pay - every time you have to change it from your bank acct to the credit card. There's no way to set the credit card as a default.

[Randy Cohen]

I hate that same thing about paypal. they're looking for the float so you can't blame them for trying.

[Curt Harms]

I agree and would add I don't understand why people bid early. An auction is all about information and you don't want to give other people any information about your bid. Additionally, if you set a snipe and decide later that you don't want the item you can cancel your snipe. But if you bid, you can't cancel your bid.

Sniping is the only way to bid. eBay should just set up their auctions to work that way.

Mike

There's another auction site that has a 15 minute rule. Once a bid is placed, the auction remains active for 15 minutes. Only after the time expires and there has been no bidding for 15 minutes is the winner declared. Better for the seller, not as good for the buyer, sucks for the sniping services. If I were Ebay, I'd prefer that model. It should yield higher selling prices=higher fees.

Curt

[Jerome Hanby]

Think I recall that site, OnSale or something like that. I used to buy SCSI hard drives there off of their dutch auctions. Always had to watch the thing to the bitter end since you wanted to bid as little as possible but still finish in the winners circle. The activity was kind of fun, but really got old when an auction ran two hours over the "ending" time.



There's another auction site that has a 15 minute rule. Once a bid is placed, the auction remains active for 15 minutes. Only after the time expires and there has been no bidding for 15 minutes is the winner declared. Better for the seller, not as good for the buyer, sucks for the sniping services. If I were Ebay, I'd prefer that model. It should yield higher selling prices=higher fees.

Curt

[Mike Henderson]

There's another auction site that has a 15 minute rule. Once a bid is placed, the auction remains active for 15 minutes. Only after the time expires and there has been no bidding for 15 minutes is the winner declared. Better for the seller, not as good for the buyer, sucks for the sniping services. If I were Ebay, I'd prefer that model. It should yield higher selling prices=higher fees.

Curt
Yes, a technique like this would encourage people to put bids in early since sniping is not possible. But when there's a hard end time (the way eBay does it), you're best off by sniping - sort of like a one round sealed bid system.

Mike