That Sinking Feeling ...

... when you don't raise your minumum bid on an auction only to watch one of the big ebay dealers purchase the lot at the last minute. You know he's going to make $$ off it. Arrgh!

Brian

I've been there far too many times, can't you tell?

I always put in my maximum bid. I won't spend a penny more. If it goes for more than that, fine. It wasn't worth any more to me anyhow. Why worry about it?

I try not to, but I often put in dozens of low bids with the intention of going back to re-evaluate the lot(s). If I'm not diligent, I might miss something.

And I don't mind losing the auction ... unless it's to one of the big ebay dealers. Then I KNOW I missed something.

*sigh*

I often have the opposite problem too. Bid too high on something and hope and pray that someone other nut comes along and outbids me.

I would put my max bid in when I first started buying on ebay. It seemed to me they got pushed all the way to my maximum bid. That's wht stopped doing it.

I'm no millionaire i'm a devil! Without bidding device I can bid at auction end minus 3. There has been no to many challenges on the way. But sometime it ends with 2,3, or even 4 bidders in the last 30 seconds. And what I do is to add 10%, 20% or 30% to be sure I won't get outbid. I think about the guys who lost and I laughs. Sometime I open a beer to celebrate. But I know from experience it's not buying and selling on ebay you will make money. Maybe a little if you break collections (but so time consuming) I consider stamp collecting as a hobby maybe an expensive one and I assume it. Riley gathers allot of stamps with low bids but he is not selling. I feel i'm out of range now. Anyway those of you who accumulates for years and think they are sitting on a gold mine, maybe there is not that much gold in the mine.

Riley it's nothing against or for you. It's just my analysis. Have a good week.

I always determine my maximum bid ahead of time, based on what I think the item is worth. I never go above that max and because I feel I have a good handle on the value, I rarely have any regrets when I don't win. I think that strategy is key to participating in auctions on ebay.

What an item is worth can mean different things for different folks, but I always start with an estimate of catalog value mutliplied usually by an appropriate discount.

I will often only place 50 - 70% of my maximum bid often early in the game and watch how the bidding goes.
If I drop a $100 bid and another guy want to place a bid and want the item he will bid over me at least $101 bid, If I want to out bid him It will cost me over $101.
Now if I had first place a bid of $50 the other bidder might have only placed a bid of $51 and I might be able to win with a $52 bid.
Yes they could have placed a $200 bid.
I find the less bidding I do on a item the better chance of it not going up in price.
Lots will place there max bid , but others will place the least amount posable and raise in small amounts.
Auction bidding has been around since the begining of time and as the old saying goes theres 50 ways to skin a cat so theres 50 ways to bid.

Yeah, but ebay auctions are a special animal as they are geared toward sniping. There is no reason to bid until the last moment and with your maximum bid. Otherwise, all you do is run up the price. At least that is my experience. I would like to hear an opposing viewpoint supporting bidding early and often because I am mystified why it happens at all.

Don't limit yourself to ebay USA. Try also the ebay's in Europe or Australia (never tried this one). It's in many countries. Great auctions on ebay Germany. At least for my Europa collection. What's frustrating is that sometime they only ship in Europe but more today accept Paypal. The language is not a big problem. Just copy and past in a translator.

Part of the pschology of bidding, whether on ebay or elsewhere, is that once a person has placed a bid, they have laid claim to the item in their mind.

After I read about this I tried it and it does seem to be that way with me anyway.

Even a small bid placed at the beginning or throughout the auction time will trigger a marker in your brain saying 'That's mine, hands off' and you will, unless you have good discipline I imagine, want to maintain your hold upon the item.

This is what gets people to bid beyond their set limit. It's great for a seller when he sees that someone has placed an early bid. This attracts other people to bid also, whether now or later (what's so special about this now? Maybe I'm missing out on something!).


To compete with the big dealers, try to 6hink like the big dealers. Of course, they probably already have customers that will buy some of the lot. What to do, what to do?