Ebay.....didn't win, frustrations

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by spanky1, Sep 19, 2016.

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  1. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Ya, Never understood why people bid early. I'm usually "that guy" who steals it at the last couple of seconds....
     
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  2. bug2362

    bug2362 Forum Resident

    Location:
    West Seattle, WA
    Lately I have been entering an early low bid and win the cd- again a cd and its a buyers market for them...
     
  3. Giorgio

    Giorgio Forum Resident

    Location:
    Varese Italy
    Last minute? Last two seconds!
     
  4. steveharris

    steveharris Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    I`m too dumb,but many folks use the sniper software.Could be how somebody bid really high when I sold a Stones More Hot Rocks for a small fortune while getting outbid on a bunch of things too.
     
  5. Dave S

    Dave S Forum Resident

    I think that only happens with BIN items. There was a glitch once where the auctions ending soon email listed the number of watchers, but that hasn't happened in a long time.
     
  6. Dave S

    Dave S Forum Resident

    Yes, I remember once a seller pulled a few items before the auction ended. They appeared to be in a hurry to sell everything at a knock down value. I panicked and screwed up a couple of auctions.
     
  7. Dave S

    Dave S Forum Resident

    Ebay might have changed the way the bidding works. I didn't use ebay for a number of years, so I can't rememberhow it was when I used it over 10 years ago.
     
  8. Muzyck

    Muzyck Pardon my scruffy hospitality

    Location:
    Long Island
    The winning bid price is really based on the second highest bidder. The bid increment at that value range is set at $.50. The second highest bidder put in for $17.50, so your top bid of $22.50 bid would have brought the "high bid" up to $18.00. It has always been that way.
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2016
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  9. Dave S

    Dave S Forum Resident

    I learnt long ago that if there's an item listed at well below market price, then bid on it, or risk losing it. The best that you can hope for is the seller relisting it at a lower opening bid. But the longer an item is listed, the greater the number of bidders seeing that item.
     
  10. carrolls

    carrolls Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin
    A lot of times it is the seller who overbids on their item because they perceive the price as being too low. And sometimes they even make contact with the highest other bidder to say it is still available because the "highest bidder" pulled out.
    Before you say "no way", this has happened to me quite a lot down through the years.
     
  11. joachim.ritter

    joachim.ritter Senior Member

    Do you think this really happens a lot? 1% of auctions for rare CDs? 10%?

    I see things like this happen from time to time. My impression is that it is more common with amateur sellers than with business sellers.
     
  12. carrolls

    carrolls Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin
    I don't bid for high price items much but it has happened 5 or 6 times since I started on eBay. That's a lot for me.
     
  13. melstapler

    melstapler Reissue Activist

    I miss the old days when you could send a PM to the winning bidder if you lost the auction. In some cases, I was able to negotiate a deal with the winner or they sent me a copy or needledrop. Nowadays, eBay prevents anyone (as far as I know) from contacting the winning bidder.
     
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  14. Dave Garrett

    Dave Garrett Senior Member

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    I miss the old days when you could still use your email address as your eBay user ID, thus enabling you to contact other members without going through eBay's messaging system. Hard to believe they let that continue as long as they did, but back then it was a much friendlier place - the fees weren't nearly as high, and there were far fewer professional sellers and scammers.
     
  15. melstapler

    melstapler Reissue Activist

    Definitely. Now, they have software which automatically prevents phone numbers and email addresses from being discussed in through their messaging system. I would go so far as to say that eBay is not buyer friendly, as they usually seem partial to the seller and even in cases where the seller is crooked. If you do encounter a dishonest seller, Paypal tends to be far more receptive, because the last thing they want you to do is dispute the charge with your credit card company.
     
    Dave Garrett likes this.
  16. statcat

    statcat Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    I'd totally disagree with that. It's more buyer friendly than it ever has been. I've never had a problem getting a refund if something wasn't right. Plus they make the seller pay for the return shipping in all cases except changing your mind. Of course it's bad in the respect that dishonest buyers take advantage. Some of the stuff written here is crazy. I'm not defending the site because there were things I used to like about it, but being realistic it had to change with the times.

    As far as the fees: go to an auction with your high end item where they'll charge you 25% (or more) commission, photo fees and more. I know all about this because I've been hosed by one losing my item and having to pay them money. I made absolutely nothing on my sold item because the fees were that extreme. I ended up owing them $100! I made the mistake of selling multiple things and all but one didn't sell. They don't care though so multiple charges and even unsold charges. Maybe it's worth it if you go to Sotheby's or Christie's with your multi-million dollar item but for stuff in the hundreds and thousands area, prepare to be ripped off. I'd be thanking someone dearly if they could've given me this advice.
     
    Last edited: Feb 4, 2017
  17. GMcGilli

    GMcGilli Forum Resident

    Location:
    Richmond BC Canada
    That's funny. I've been the exact same way for years and years and years... until 1 month ago. Well, I only changed because I'm buying vinyl. I'll still snipe if it's not music. Why? Discogs.

    Tonight is a perfect example. Ok. I searched Ebay yesterday - and I found a Mint still shrink-wrapped LP box set I wanted. It was sitting at $25 with 3 days left - and had 8 bids on it. So, I look at Discogs. I find also a Mint, still sealed box set for $55. Shipping cost was the same on both sites. Both sellers have 100% on over 1,000 sales so I'm happy to go either way.

    I could buy the Discogs one now - but.... what if by some chance (it's happened before) i can score it for cheaper on Ebay? So, tonight I placed my bid on Ebay - it matched the price of the Discogs sale - and waited... did I catch what I wanted? Yep! 2 minutes later - I get a notification from Ebay that I've been outbid. This person is willing to pay more for it than I can get on Discogs.

    So I was happy I placed the bid early - didn't want until the last minute... then who knows maybe someone else snaps it up from Discogs and I lose out all around. Anyways ordered through Discogs. Happy :)

    PS. Every issue people have posted that they've had with trying to bid, or losing auctions for different reasons - I've had them all happen.... Thanks to others for the info on the bidding services - will check those out.
     
  18. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I got around that. I opened up my text program. Typed my email. Took a screen shot, saved it as a jpeg and then attached it to a reply to the seller. :)
     
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  19. melstapler

    melstapler Reissue Activist

    :righton: Brilliant! Thanks so much, I will do this from now on as well.
     
  20. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    IIRC, if you mention email in the body of your message it might still get flagged. I can't remember for sure but for some reason I remember having to avoid using the word email once. :)
     
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  21. ROFLnaked

    ROFLnaked Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Poignant thread.

    I'm not a 78 "collector" per se. With the exception of 2 or 3 that have been rotated out, all of the 78rpm records I own are taking up slots in my Wurly juke. There is one particularly infectious very early 78 on the Atlantic label that I had been waiting to surface on eBay for nearly 2 years. (No trace of it via google, and popsike doesn't even list a sales history for it, leading me to believe that it has never sold above the $25 threshold.)

    To my pleasant surprise, I received a notification from eBay about 10 days ago now telling me that my white whale had popped up in even cleaner-than-necessary condition for my forgiving late-1940s jukebox. The opening bid was $12, which I immediately punched in to help guard against another prospective interested party from working a buy-it-now deal with the seller, as is wont to happen on eBay.

    The week crawled by with no other bids being placed. I entered a "blow away" bid of $63 into one of the snipe services, and in anticipation of this 78 coming home to papa, I even typed up a perfectly-centered ancient title strip with my equally-ancient Quiet Riter typewriter. Come Friday morning, I had the auction up on my computer at work to witness the formality of the auction ending; I could at last fire off my PP payment, and ask the seller to kindly take extra care in packing the fragile 78.

    A funny thing happened on the way to eternal enlightenment--and I'm sure by now you can see how this story ends. As minutes remaining turned to seconds, I saw my sniped bid kick in, and then the page refreshed as the auction expired. I was in shock as "you were outbid" menaced back at me in red letters. Yup. Someone else placed a bid above my $63 in the waning seconds. All I could think as I stared into the screen in disbelief is that I would have paid a hundred and sixty-three dollars for it--I'm not getting any younger, and I don't want to have to wait another 2 years to get this groover into my juke.

    So I've been depressed all weekend. Trying to find a silver lining in this, at least I have the title strip ready to go if and when I ever get a chance to buy another copy of this curiously uncommon record.
     
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  22. GMcGilli

    GMcGilli Forum Resident

    Location:
    Richmond BC Canada

    Sorry to hear that.

    I am curious about one thing. What was the Buy It Now price?
     
  23. melstapler

    melstapler Reissue Activist

    By any chance, does your heart start beating faster as the auction draws closer to its end? I get sort of an adrenaline rush from a bidding war and when I win, it's almost a natural high.
     
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  24. ROFLnaked

    ROFLnaked Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Sorry if I was unclear: there was no BIN on the 78 auction. What I meant to convey was that I placed an early $12 bid to ensure that the auction wouldn't "end" due to an unscrupulous buyer contacting the seller and offering, say, $25 to buy it outright, aided by the fact that the item has 0 bids on it anyhow.
     
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  25. ROFLnaked

    ROFLnaked Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    I think that's precisely the psychology that the eBay execs are banking on. We've likely all been there, where the bids start flying in the closing seconds, and rationality goes right out the window. There is the natural high as you pointed out, though it's usually followed up by, "What did I just do?"
     
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