The trick to winning on some auctions to go ahead and bid the maximum that you are willing or able to pay. Another trick when you are able is to place an extra bid at the last minute beyond that as another had said bid with very odd numbers instead of anything rounded like $67.97. I have lost out on a few things my self but when you are desperate enough you will look for ways to win or cheat the system. On rare occasions winning bidders will back out and there will be a second chance offer.

What ruined things for me was being a seller and being ripped off by fraudulent buyers.

sliderider wrote:

EVERY ebay auction hides the bidder's identity now. It stops harassment from taking place. I used to get floods of angry messages from the people I sniped all the time. It was really annoying. 😉

How could they message you? The bidders full identity was never displayed in the first place (just their feedback score and a couple of letters from their username). Shill bidding will become a major problem now everyone's identities have been completely hidden (including feedback scores). I personally wouldn't be bothered if i got an angry message from someone who lost an auction... I'd probably find it amusing how they can't get over it 🤣.

PowerPie5000 wrote:

sliderider wrote:

EVERY ebay auction hides the bidder's identity now. It stops harassment from taking place. I used to get floods of angry messages from the people I sniped all the time. It was really annoying. 😉

How could they message you? The bidders full identity was never displayed in the first place (just their feedback score and a couple of letters from their username). Shill bidding will become a major problem now everyone's identities have been completely hidden (including feedback scores). I personally wouldn't be bothered if i got an angry message from someone who lost an auction... I'd probably find it amusing how they can't get over it 🤣.

Some years ago, the buyers appeared listed on every auction, and next to that a link to their profile. Sending a message was a matter of seconds, simply clicking on "Send X a message" with no captcha and no "About X item" field.

In fact, nowadays contacting a seller is so cumbersome that I let a lot of auctions slip with flagrant errors in their description (AGP card instead of PCI, wrong socket listed, etc...) just to save me the hassle.

Back in the day, then, you'd usually receive a lot of unsolicited messages; the sheer majority of them people offering you to buy what you've just won.

FeedingDragon wrote:

First off, you cannot just "retract" your bid. You can only retract a bid with the agreement of the seller.

I repeat that I watched a friend of mine doing this over a year ago. He used to search in help for "retract bid", and found a form where he would enter the auction number, and that would retract the bid. You had to answer a question, why do you want to do that, and I remember him selecting something like "Entered wrong amount by mistake". He told me that he was doing this on an item he was interested on just to see how much the other bidders were willing to pay. He also told me that you can't do that many times because they may ban your account.

Markk wrote:

FeedingDragon wrote:

First off, you cannot just "retract" your bid. You can only retract a bid with the agreement of the seller.

I repeat that I watched a friend of mine doing this over a year ago. He used to search in help for "retract bid", and found a form where he would enter the auction number, and that would retract the bid. You had to answer a question, why do you want to do that, and I remember him selecting something like "Entered wrong amount by mistake". He told me that he was doing this on an item he was interested on just to see how much the other bidders were willing to pay. He also told me that you can't do that many times because they may ban your account.

I've only ever retracted a bid once, years ago. However, I filled out the form, and had to wait for the seller to approve it (they did.) It took about 6 hours for my retraction to go through because of that. In my case, I had placed a bid, then was in a car accident and had to buy another car (no longer had the money.) The seller was very cool and approved the retraction, then sent me a condolence e-mail. In selling items, I've allowed a retraction as well. I first knew about it with an e-mail stating that the buyer wanted to retract the bid and a message from them saying why. In that case, I approved it and went on (ended up getting more for the item anyways, as someone else ended up bidding on it as well.) I don't buy/sell as much on eBay any more, so I cannot say for sure if it has changed or not, but that is the way it worked then.

This one looks weird to me.... :
http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?View … em=330892009602

Check the other 2 ended auctions for PC Zone as well.... 😵
Some 1-feedback genious managed to type the wrong amount.... THREE times.... yeah, right.

bestemor wrote:

This one looks weird to me.... : http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?View … em=330892009602 […]
Show full quote

This one looks weird to me.... :
http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?View … em=330892009602

Check the other 2 ended auctions for PC Zone as well.... 😵
Some 1-feedback genious managed to type the wrong amount.... THREE times.... yeah, right.

Definitely a bit of shill bidding going on there!!... The same "1 feedback" bidder entered £300 for each of the following auctions and then later retracted it when no one else bid (to avoid winning his friends auction no doubt!).

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_n … &_dmd=1&_ipg=50

At least you can see the bidders score and part of the username (so you know it's the same person). I tend to avoid auctions where the bidders ID is completely hidden as you don't know if any shill bidding is involved.

PowerPie5000 wrote:

sliderider wrote:

EVERY ebay auction hides the bidder's identity now. It stops harassment from taking place. I used to get floods of angry messages from the people I sniped all the time. It was really annoying. 😉

How could they message you? The bidders full identity was never displayed in the first place (just their feedback score and a couple of letters from their username). Shill bidding will become a major problem now everyone's identities have been completely hidden (including feedback scores). I personally wouldn't be bothered if i got an angry message from someone who lost an auction... I'd probably find it amusing how they can't get over it 🤣.

It wasn't always like that. They used to display the full ID of bidders. I even used to message people I was in bidding wars with to taunt them into bidding more.

Another thing I would do is see what other listings someone was bidding on at the same time and bid those up so they would have to choose between protecting their bids on those items or outbidding me on the one I wanted.

FeedingDragon wrote:

First off, you cannot just "retract" your bid. You can only retract a bid with the agreement of the seller.

INCORRECT! I have retracted bids in the past and the retraction took place IMMEDIATELY. There was no waiting for the approval of the seller.

sliderider wrote:

PowerPie5000 wrote:

sliderider wrote:

EVERY ebay auction hides the bidder's identity now. It stops harassment from taking place. I used to get floods of angry messages from the people I sniped all the time. It was really annoying. 😉

How could they message you? The bidders full identity was never displayed in the first place (just their feedback score and a couple of letters from their username). Shill bidding will become a major problem now everyone's identities have been completely hidden (including feedback scores). I personally wouldn't be bothered if i got an angry message from someone who lost an auction... I'd probably find it amusing how they can't get over it 🤣.

It wasn't always like that. They used to display the full ID of bidders. I even used to message people I was in bidding wars with to taunt them into bidding more.

Another thing I would do is see what other listings someone was bidding on at the same time and bid those up so they would have to choose between protecting their bids on those items or outbidding me on the one I wanted.

Sounds as if you were always that good natured and ebay was right to change those viewing possibilities...

Dominus wrote:

sliderider wrote:

PowerPie5000 wrote:

How could they message you? The bidders full identity was never displayed in the first place (just their feedback score and a couple of letters from their username). Shill bidding will become a major problem now everyone's identities have been completely hidden (including feedback scores). I personally wouldn't be bothered if i got an angry message from someone who lost an auction... I'd probably find it amusing how they can't get over it 🤣.

It wasn't always like that. They used to display the full ID of bidders. I even used to message people I was in bidding wars with to taunt them into bidding more.

Another thing I would do is see what other listings someone was bidding on at the same time and bid those up so they would have to choose between protecting their bids on those items or outbidding me on the one I wanted.

Sounds as if you were always that good natured and ebay was right to change those viewing possibilities...

Yeah, like you wouldn't resort to chicanery to get something you really wanted.

actually no, I wouldn't. I really don't lower myself to that level.

Edit: to be fair, I'd might go that low for something I really really *NEED* (survival needs) but not for something I want. Raised to be better than the gutter...

fillosaurus wrote:

I...FUCKIN...HATE...EBAY...SNIPERS!!! With deep, intense dark passion. I placed a bid on ebay uk on several Game Gear games and […]
Show full quote

I...FUCKIN...HATE...EBAY...SNIPERS!!!
With deep, intense dark passion.
I placed a bid on ebay uk on several Game Gear games and a TV tuner (same auction).
The auction was about to end around 3:15 PM, local time. My job schedule is from 7 to 3, and when I left I checked the auction; I was the only bidder.
I thought that maybe, this time, I will finally win a bid on flea bay.
But NOOOO, some ebay sniper smart guy had to place a bid 5 SECONDS! before the auction ended. And some 13 minutes after I went home.
This is not the first time it happends. And today I went ballistic over it, since is the second auction I lost in 2 days. The other one I lost recently was for a wireless 54 Mb card for my Thinkpad 600e. I already have a SMC EZ Connect 2632W, but is older, limited to 11 Mb/s and originally purchased for my Amiga 1200, where I intend to keep it.

I don't know exactly what I would do to the person who outbid me, but it involves extreme violence and slow, slow torture.
I hate those bastards... They trashed my hopes every time I tried to bid on interesting items. EVERY FUCKIN TIME!!!

This is highly illogical. Why are you mad at the guy who won the auction? You couldn't bid because you where working. Would it have mattered if he had bid 5 minutes, or 5 seconds before the auction ended? You still would have lost right? You may have really wanted the item but so did the person who won the auction. He waited like that to keep the price down. If you were home and where willing to pay more you could have put in a bid a few seconds before the item ended. Just find another one.

You dislike it when someone comes in at the last second and bids. That's all I do. I usually wait until the last second or two (literally) and then bid the max I'm willing to pay which is never even close to retail. I go to ebay to save money and the only time I pay retail on ebay is if it is a item hard to find in stores. This is the most cost effective way to use ebay.

I dislike it when people drive up the price of an item I want and keep driving the price up so that the item becomes or exceeds retail value. (But if they are willing to pay it then that's more then fair.) I don't really care that much, it's just an auction. If I lose there is always another one. For example I wanted a 3DS XL. I lost a few auctions yesterday because I didn't want to pay over $115. I just got one for $96. If your willing to hunt for a good price and you don't attract unwanted attention by bidding to early you can get some good deals. Hey it beats spending $150 on a regular non XL 3DS at GameStop.

I do the opposite. I either go straight for BIN. Don't like the bidding wars and waiting or I put the first bid in and walk away. That way I got quite a few bargains. Mostly basic stuff like a CPU. Often the seller has a couple of items, so I bid on a few and if I'm lucky I get a few and combined postage 😀

Happened this week with some CPUs for minimum bid.

Offer the seller a good BIN price. That has worked many times for me in the past. Or ask them to go Amibay and save eBay / PayPal fees. 😀

You know, there's a trick to dealing with eBay snipers: Make your initial bid as high as you'd be willing to pay for something and take into account the kinds of prices someone might try to snipe with. For instance, if you'd pay as much as $50 for something presently at $5, put in a bid of $52.70. That way, if no one else thinks it's worth more than $50, even the snipers, you won't lose it, plus when everyone else bids they're immediately outbid by you, which can scare off potential bidders who look at the bid list and are like, "This guy means business, I'm not even going to try."

Let's be honest here: If you follow this advice and someone decides to snipe you and win, paying more than you ever would for something, have they truly won? You just avoided overpaying for something. :P

Exactly right, I always bid my maximum in straight away if I decide to bid on something, half the stuff I win no-one else bids on and I dont believe the concept of bidding early makes something more desirable just because somebody put a bid on it.

Bidding early doesn't make it more desirable but drives the price up. If you and Gemini like to pay maximum (your maximum) that's fine.

dirkmirk wrote:

Exactly right, I always bid my maximum in straight away if I decide to bid on something, half the stuff I win no-one else bids on and I dont believe the concept of bidding early makes something more desirable just because somebody put a bid on it.

I often do this too; one of the annoying trends I've noticed lately is people ending an item early because - I assume - they've been offered a BIN price on their item, despite it not being a BIN auction. I often have people making offers on my non-BIN auctions, it's annoying. Anyway, in my mind, the seller is less likely to accept the pushy jerk's offer if someone else has already put a bid in. A) it shows that there's interest, and B) it's unfair on the nice guys (like me) who are playing by the rules 😀

If you cannot beat them join them. You cannot blame someone for cashing in right away when a fair price is offered. I receive and offer BINs all the time. 😀