Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: Neil on September 06, 2013, 09:53:22 pm
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Does anyone in the UK know how to overcome these ridiculous changes to the home page on ebay where you can look at junk just by scrolling down the page endlessly showing miles and miles of rubbish, but can't find the small pop up where you can click on to international selling site......any ideas..................another change on ebay that was neither needed nor any use to man nor beast.
cheers.
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Here you go young Neil.
Run your cursor over the SELL section at the top of the page and hey presto. ;)
http://sellercentre.ebay.co.uk/ebay-top-rated-seller/international-selling/
Cheers
Ken
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hi Kenny, thanks, but that wasn't what I meant.
there used to be a box at the bottom right of the home page with all the flags of the world that operated ebay.....it has gone from my home page and I'm left with just a scroll down that seams endless of like things to what I and my kids are watching on My ebay watch list........can't find the flags of the nations anywhere.
cheers, neil
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on the home page there is My Feed. Featured. Recently Viewed. Watching. click on the My Feed and delete all your viewed items or watching items the home sheet will then be blank and say EDIT.
As for the country banners your right they have gone I'll have to find where I'll be back!
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I'll tell you another thing they have changed you cannot leave negative feedback if your a seller, the other month a guy won my auction for some BMW alloy wheels and tyres told me he would collect and pay I spoke with him on the phone we arranged a time so I had a day off work. He never arrived would not answer his phone or text so I reported to eBay he was a non paying bidder. I could not re list the wheels as the buyer had a month to pay (of course he did not) then I could not leave him negative feedback so whats the point of it all. >>:-(
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I'll tell you another thing they have changed you cannot leave negative feedback if your a seller, the other month a guy won my auction for some BMW alloy wheels and tyres told me he would collect and pay I spoke with him on the phone we arranged a time so I had a day off work. He never arrived would not answer his phone or text so I reported to eBay he was a non paying bidder. I could not re list the wheels as the buyer had a month to pay (of course he did not) then I could not leave him negative feedback so whats the point of it all. >>:-(
You have not been able to leave a Neg for a buyer for quite some time..Also if you leave a positive neg it will be removed..
A Month to pay ? Thought you could open a NPB and then close it after 4 days.
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so did I but the resolution centre said I had to give him 28 days to pay (which he didn't)
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Strange, Obviously that is what they told you so assume it must be correct , But I do Not believe that it is correct unless it has something to do with it be a car related Item, maybe they give them longer to pay... Odd.
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To find the flags you need to go
Shop by Categories > hit the END button . there your find your set (flag) and the others will appear in the drop down when you hover over it
Hope this helps
edit : between the Shop by Categories and hit the END button. You need to select "see all categories"
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Go to ebay home page by pressing Ebay sine top left.
Once there .on the bottom of your screen there is a header leage and more press that. it does look goasted. from there you willl see the UK flag press that then you have all the falges come up.
john
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sorry guys but neither of those work for me..... <:( <:( <:( <:( <:( just tried both. {:-{ {:-{
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Hi Neil I too would like to get rid of the junk they are trying to get us to buy. If one is interested in these things the individuals would go to the relevant sites-Charlie
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sorry guys but neither of those work for me.....
Cos918 method doesn't work from ebay.com, from ebay.co.uk it does or at least that is for me.
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I also failed to see the flags.
Cab someone copy the page's info for us to click on please.
Cheers
ken
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thanks for all trying guys, but without success I put a question onto the forum site of ebay ( how sad am I ) and got a reply from a lady called Julie, pasted below.....and it works. neil.
On the home page look for the very very faint words "Legal & More".
Click on that and you will see the Union Jack to the right hand side of the page. Hover over that and all the other flags appear.
Goodness knows why it is in such a silly place now.
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BY JOVE..............................
You're right. Hooray. :-)) :-)) :-)) :-))
ken
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BY JOVE..............................
You're right. Hooray. :-)) :-)) :-)) :-))
ken
not very often Ken, lol
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Is it just my pooter or is anyone else finding ebay incredibly slow at the moment..jerking around slow to load, and virtually impossible to control with any sort of flowing movement.
neil
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Yes, the same here.
Bob
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hi all I'm at the moment looking at buying something model boat related on ebay I'm bidding away & keep getting out bid 'i know of automated bidding the thing is I've look at the bids &the guy who is out bidding me all the time I've looked on his bids & he has 87 retracted bids in the last 6months does this sound like the guy's building the value up of the item & then retracting his bid at the last moment???? has anyone had a similar thing happen???
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Not an expert on the bay Ray.
I thought you entered into o contract to buy
when you bid.
Seems that some manage to flout the rules
and get away with it.
Ned
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Hi
this is they way I under stand it. person A bid £100 on item starting a 99 p. his first bid is only 99p. person B bids £20. person A still is in control of the auction at £21. person C bids £59 .person A still is in control of the auction at £60. If the auction has OVER 24hr to run and person c removes his bid. preson A would still be in controlat £ 60. If person A removes his bid person C would be in control at £60.
hope this helps.
yes it is agains ebays rules to bid up your own auction the hard bit is priving it. Saying that some one recently did get taken to court and lost for biding but his own auctions . I think he had a massive fine or jail can rember.
john
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I am not an expert but have been using ebay for about 10 years and yes although not widely practised there are a few people out there with several methods of hiking up the prices. It is very sad but ebay has changed over the years and is not what it was. It was very well run but on the lines of a local jumble, I believe now it is a shop window for business some very large Argos to name but one.
It is still very useful and some of the prices cannot be bettered but take care, it is easy to get a pal to bid for your item and pull out at the last minute leaving you with an inflated price.
That is my rant for the day. Chris G
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thanks for the info /replies guys it was the 87 bids retracted that made me think about is this guy running the price up & pulling out the last min ''well an hour before i was told'' any way thanks regards ray
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Rightly or wrongly I tend to leave it late before bidding thereby avoiding being involved
in a running up of the price.
I've notice tho' that many boat prices have increased considerably of late?
N....
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Always set yourself a limit on what you are bidding on and DON'T go over your estimate, that way you will not get into a bidding war and pay an inflated amount for your item.
Regards
Richard :-))
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I only ever bid once.
I set my price and bid with 5 seconds or less to go.
I either win or lose.
Bob
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Richard you are dead right.
Is it what you want?
How much are you prepared to pay?
Is the seller 100% or at least 99.8%?
Put your bid on and walk away, if you don't get this one there will almost be another along soon. Don't get into a bidding war.
Happy New Year to All . Chris G
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Bob- basically thats my approach too. I've seen upwards of 30 bids on some items
a day before it ends, continually pushing up the price -makes no sense for a buyer to do that
as I see it.
N
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hi all im at the moment looking at buying something model boat related on ebay im biding away & keep getting out bid 'i know of automated bidding the thing is ive look at the bids &the guy who is out biding me all the time ive looked on his bids & he has 87 retracked bids in the last 6months doe's this sound like the guys building the value up of the item & then retracking his bid at the last moment???? has anyone had a simular thing happern???
Yes , sounds like shill bidding, And like others here I tend to have a set price and that's that.. :-))
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I gave up on the bidding for items when a few years ago Ebay allowed the automated bidding. This system holds your top bid say £100 and then 'floods' the item with the bid prices until either you win it or anyone else with automated bidding outdoes you.
Its a totally unfair concept and alien to what an auction is about. Nowadays I only buy items that have the buy now button, I don't mind whether its a private seller or a business. If I want the item and I reckon the price is ok I buy it, gone are my days of placing a bid and sittting back with anticipation of have I or have I not won.
Also do not ever leave feed back. That system has been altered as well. You can only leave positive feedback nowadays. If you want to leave neutral or poor feedback the system will not allow it until you have made contact with the seller. Then ebay waits for a response from the seller and decides if your poor feedback is warranted. Of course this is loaded as well, do they want to upset a 'power' seller who is paying them megabucks for trading on there or upset you by not allowing your poor feedback? I guess you know which way they will go.
This is yet another way to tell shill bidders. You lose the bid, the winner has paid a few pound or many pounds more than you wanted to risk. Next day you get an email from the seller telling you the winner has backed out of the bid and no longer wants the item. They will let you have it at the winning bid price or a couple of pounds lower, but it will still be higher than your last bid. I had this once or twice over the years, its a classic way to tell somebody has been bidding up the price on their own items, don't fall for it.
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I only ever bid once.
I set my price and bid with 5 seconds or less to go.
I either win or lose.
Bob
exactly what I do, Bob.......can't understand people that bid from the start and then wonder why it skyrockets.......that's the way to invite false bids from the sellers mates.
neil.
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I agree with Bob, I place my maximum bid with seconds to go, then its either win or lose. If I lose, I didn't want to pay any more anyway, so nothing lost, and you can't get 'dragged into' a bidding war.
It has always worked for me.
Peter
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I will sometimes stick a £1 bid on an item early on, this gets me on the list, then most often I will punch in my max bid at 30 seconds or less, if I then dont get it I have been outbid at my maximum.
no problem as I didnt want it more than that price.
Grendel
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I've been lucky on eBay you get to know what things should go for.. too much back off.
As a seller I don't shill or ghost run a honest auction as I said I've been lucky
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If it's just between you and 'one other guy', you could always retract your last bid ('entered wrong amount') and see if he retracts his bid. If he does, report him to ebay as a "Shill bidder"!
Remember, bids can't be retracted 12 hours before the end of the auction.
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Hmm.
I was the sole bidder on an item ending this afternoon. I've just been outbid by an anonymous bidder who has only ever bid on items sold by my seller.
I shalln't be upping my bid.
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I leave it to 9-10 seconds to go and it has proved successful most times
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Yep, I sometimes leave it 'til the last minute.....and may have employed sniping tools on occasion.
However, it takes more organisation that I can rise to just now.
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Are you all saying that if I leave a bid "on the book" like a commission bid, I can be cheated out of a win and if so, how? I've been using eBay for years now, bought and sold cars, caravans and all manner of stuff and have never perceived a problem. Many commission bids have come in less than I bid. What exactly is the problem I seem to be missing?
Jerry.
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"Shill bidders"
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/seller-shill-bidding.html
http://www.ebay.com/gds/SHiLL-BIDDiNG-5-Ways-To-Detect-Shill-Bidders-On-Ebay-/10000000002559018/g.html
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Jerry,
I think 99% of the time there is no problem. But......
I bid the starting amount on an item. I was the only bidder.
Later on, another bidder outbid me. There had been no other interest until me and it was within a few hours of the end of the auction.
If you look at the details of the new bidder, they have only ever bid on items sold by this one seller - eBay tells you that much. What are the odds of that?
I may be wrong, but to me it looks like somebody is trying to push my bid up using another login identity.....or getting a friend to do it.
I don't want to bid any more.......so I won't.
My suspicion is increased by the fact that the auction is "private". I.e. I'm not allowed to see what the other bidders have bought previously.
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I wanted to buy my daughter a 2 year old Fiat Seicento. Book price at the time £3000. I left a bid on the book of £2001 6hours before the auction end. It immediately registered £2000 from £500 so somebody must have left a bid of £1990. I won the auction at £2000. She kept the car for 4 years and sold it for £1000. Win win win?
Jerry.
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Why expose your "hand" early? Surely you want to buy at the lowest price?
Wait until within the last 30 seconds before placing your bid.
If someone is using a sniping tool bids will appear in the last few seconds
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... my memory isn't what it used to....... . something! %)
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I doesn't matter if you bid early or late an item will make what it's going to make regardless of when you place your bid
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I dissagre
the highest bid at the last second is the only one that counts. I watch a boat go for record money . why because 2 PRATS kept out bidding each other with 7 days to go.They were desperate to be the one at the top
an Item starts at 99p. 1 persion bids ,but every one elese wait till the last few second there is a good chance the the item will make less than if, people keep on bidding on it from day one. early only drives up the price.
you see a boat worth £100 for 99p with 15 sec to go. most people will go form £30 to £60 bid so it might sell for £60 an early bidding battel drives the price up to say £95 with 15 sec to go there is a far chance it will go for £100+. I have seen this happen so many times
john
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I have seen several instances of stupid bidding on ebay- I also play guitar and wanted a pedal switch for my amplifier, found one on the 'bay and bid a fiver. On its last day the thing spiralled out of control bids coming in and coming in, it eventually sold for £57+p&p utter madness. I bought one brand new from a shop in the midlands £31 %% It seems people on ebay get into a bidding frenzy and don't see the wood for the trees.
Then on the other flip of the coin, I've bid on something and the price has got to £11 and stopped woohoo for me! Only for the seller to withdraw the item in the last minute. When I contacted them to ask why I got the answer it had sold on another auction site, yeah right! Nothing to do with it being a piece of equipment worth over £90
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Just watching a well-used 2 channel Tx and Rx selling. The current bid is £31 which is £1 more than the new price. I'll be interested to see how much more it fetches.
Unlike the person who put in a Tx only, describing it as a 'system', at a tenner plus six P&P. When it failed to reach the reserve I offered a tenner, to include p&p. His reply was that he would be "happy to sell it to me at £16". I bet he would!
There really is nowt so queer as folk.
DM
BTW I think there's a double 'd' in 'bidding' - unless you're just hanging around a wee while..............
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There is another bidding type on e-bay ,the type who puts a watch on ,and an alert ,this kind of guy does this to a fine art ,ive, seen it then the countdown ,last 15 seconds are the sniper glory ,he does his bid ,gets the item ,and leaves fellas scratchin their heads .not a nice way to do it ,but all is fair in ### ###,so it goes .its worth studying when you know the fellas form ,e-bay cant track them all. I follow a couple of guys and know what they go for ,its an art .
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There is another bidding type on e-bay ,the type who puts a watch on ,and an alert ,this kind of guy does this to a fine art ,ive, seen it then the countdown ,last 15 seconds are the sniper glory ,he does his bid ,gets the item ,and leaves fellas scratchin their heads .not a nice way to do it ,but all is fair in ### ###,so it goes .its worth studying when you know the fellas form ,e-bay cant track them all. I follow a couple of guys and know what they go for ,its an art .
I make no bones about, thats what i do...if an item is up for a week, im not going to tittle/tattle sporadically for that week, ill wait until the end, ill have my price ready to go in the final few seconds, if i win i win if i dont, im happy i went to what i was prepared to pay.
I dont understand your logic its not a nice way to do it.....ive only been ebaying for a year or so, and i know that going into the last minute... a bid of a couple of quid after a tittle tattle session is going to win nothing...
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I make no bones about, thats what i do...if an item is up for a week, im not going to tittle/tattle sporadically for that week, ill wait until the end, ill have my price ready to go in the final few seconds, if i win i win if i don't, I'm happy i went to what i was prepared to pay.
I don't understand your logic its not a nice way to do it.....Ive only been ebaying for a year or so, and i know that going into the last minute... a bid of a couple of quid after a tittle tattle session is going to win nothing...
Me three, When all is said and done that method is the only effective way to bid on fleabay, O0 O0 O0
hence why it is made readily available by fleabay :-)) :-)) :-))
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I always feel bidding on an item early only helps to push the price upI use a sniping site to bid on ebay, I don't have the time to spend hours watching items, I see something I want to bid on, set my maximum price & don't have to worry about it after that. I win a surprising amount & at good prices. I never understood the attitude that it is wrong to bid at the last second, although I stand to be corrected on this.
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Its an Auction site, Any Legal tactic is fair.. I sometimes put in an explority bid and then leave it until the very last seconds, think you can get it down to about 7-10 seconds :-))
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Its an Auction site, Any Legal tactic is fair.. I sometimes put in an explority bid and then leave it until the very last seconds, think you can get it down to about 7-10 seconds :-))
English is a wonderful language. Fair and legal are very largely different, like the difference between legal and legitimate. Assisted late bidding is perfectly legal, and thus totally valid in a time limited contest. Fairness has no place in there. Timing of the last bid is top dog. A live auction just carries on until the interested parties run out of nerve, desire, or money.
If I am looking for something to buy, not being an ebayer, I go for the "Buy it now" options. If it is an attractive price, both I and the seller go away happy. If not, I either look elsewhere or look for something else.
I don't know if ebay publish figures that show bidding patterns co-relating the time that auctions have to run with the arrival of bids. Definite knowledge on the part of bidders would probably skew bidding patterns too much, no saying if this would muck up ebay's operation.
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there is no real loser in last second bidding.....only the one who has been tippy tappy bidding for a week, usually against a mutual tippy tapper...thinking they have out foxed one not realising the really determined ones wait in the wings,
in the last seconds the price can quadruple....not good for the tippy tapper, you dont win anything with number of bids..its the last bid what you really are prepared too pay....id imagine on auctions with no reserve etc up to 90% of winners wait until the last few seconds..
but then again some start with an almighty high bid....then tippy tappers, are bidding against automatic bids....dare say some may think thats unfair..lol
there are other auction sites....where a reserve has been met, the winning bid has to be clear for 10 minutes......that is real interesting, fair also highly annoying.....as ego's win over common sense...haha
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I like that " Tippy Tapper " :-)) :-)) :-))
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Fair or not, it is Ebay and that says it all really.. %%
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I often end Auctions to a bidder where I am pretty sure I will not get another bid, the price I set is the price I want. I always set my auctions to end after 4pm Saturday, so if I receive a bid say Monday to Wednesday I will end said auction in favour of the bidder, buyer gets it at a known price and a few days earlier than if I had left the Auction to run until the following Saturday, Reading the Ebay forums many would think this is wrong, personally I can not see a problem, so some may say it is not fair.but it is legal in Ebay land..
Being Charged 10% on all postage fees , Now that is not fair, but that is for another thread..
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The Longbuild has just given the reason for not waiting until the last minute to bid. I was waiting on an item only to find that the seller had removed the item and sold it early. When tackled about it he just said tough titty. Not a nice attitude and I hope he got less than I was willing to pay. Graham.
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I buy a few rare non boat items. Things a lot of people have but don't realise are sought after and sell for more than when they were new, If the item is rare, buyers often email the seller and offer a fixed price to end the auction early. If the price at present is low and and the buyer is offering a £100 more than the current price to end it early , many buyers cave in for fear of only getting a few pound if they let the auction run. Or may be the item is still at 99p and clearly worth much more and the seller is worried they might get one bid at the last and they will have to sell at 99p.
So in these cases, I happily ramp up the price with 'Tippy Tapping' to a level where the seller sees there is some interest in his item and is less likely to end it early.
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I buy a few rare non boat items. Things a lot of people have but don't realise are sought after and sell for more than when they were new, If the item is rare, buyers often email the seller and offer a fixed price to end the auction early. If the price at present is low and and the buyer is offering a £100 more than the current price to end it early , many buyers cave in for fear of only getting a few pound if they let the auction run. Or may be the item is still at 99p and clearly worth much more and the seller is worried they might get one bid at the last and they will have to sell at 99p.
So in these cases, I happily ramp up the price with 'Tippy Tapping' to a level where the seller sees there is some interest in his item and is less likely to end it early.
Great point, i have nothing against tippy tappers,
(the following is not aimed at anybody) its just if thats your tactic dont moan that someone watches right to the end and is prepared to high bid...whilst seemingly put no work into the process :-)
I recently sold some stuff for the first time....i had 700 views and 65 watchers......knowing how i play the game i was fairly confident the price would reach a decent amount....the tippy tappers had been slowly raising the amount, strangely in a kind of ironic bout of karma i didnt get a massive end bid :(( <:( :-) but 10 different tippy tappers out did each other
I found it quite interesting
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Great point, i have nothing against tippy tappers,
(the following is not aimed at anybody) its just if thats your tactic dont moan that someone watches right to the end and is prepared to high bid...whilst seemingly put no work into the process :-)
Oh if I really want something I 'Tippy Tap' and prime my sniping software for the last 5 seconds as well. :-)
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Another tactic i think some use
I think some have a few extra browser windows open with increased maximum bids, incase one fails, you physicaly cant retype a new amount in 7 seconds or so, but you can if you have the amount ready at the click of a button.
I dont use the above, but suspect i have lost out to it, by rechecking bid history i can see that it has happened....to me perfectly fair, beats the purpose of what im prepared to pay though..hmm unless i really want something ....meh happy with my tactics..hehe
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Another tactic i think some use
I think some have a few extra browser windows open with increased maximum bids, incase one fails, you physicaly cant retype a new amount in 7 seconds or so, but you can if you have the amount ready at the click of a button.
oooh, Not used that one.. Might give that a go :}
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Another tactic i think some use
I think some have a few extra browser windows open with increased maximum bids, incase one fails, you physicaly cant retype a new amount in 7 seconds or so, but you can if you have the amount ready at the click of a button.
I dont use the above, but suspect i have lost out to it, by rechecking bid history i can see that it has happened....to me perfectly fair, beats the purpose of what im prepared to pay though..hmm unless i really want something ....meh happy with my tactics..hehe
Surely that just means you were prepared to pay the top price in the first place - why were you going to bid lower? Just to lose by a couple of quid?
In reality, just one window, just one bid of the maximum you would be prepared to pay and drop it as close to the end time as you think your broadband link will allow without missing it. :-))
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in reality
people have a price in mind.....
for example a rare kit is available.....you know you are going to pay the guts of £ 300 for this.....all of a sudden the bidding goes a little bit crazy for the last 20 seconds....
you have a set amount of £ 350...you initially thought would seal the deal, is blown out of the water.....but i want that kit and im happy to have one more shot at £ 401 any more and that person is welcome to it..
you win because some elses automatic bid ( highest value was £ 400 ).....by re-assessing how much you want something or willing to pay in the final moments of an auction was the difference in winning what you wanted....
I know what you are saying why didnt i just have an outrageous high price to start with £ 700 for example.....well i wouldnt want to spend that much, there is the danger the seller has a friend who is schrill bidding...or had a change of mind and still gets his friend to outbid everyone as to keep the item.....( its crazy but happens )
In reality i know multiple windows goes on, it also makes sense people change their minds on what they want to pay in the heat of the battle.
This last moments of an auction are highly addictive to people and makes them do stupid things..just to win
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my experience was I saw a model I fancied and because I was going to be at work I contacted the seller and asked if there was a buy it now price and was told no-- I would have been prepared to give anything up to £200 ---It sat at £50 for 7 day and lucky for me my work pattern shifted and I was home for the end of auction and got the model for £62
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I enjoy going to, and bidding for things at real live auctions, So I think the sniping software available to use on ebay should be banned. Graham.
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I enjoy going to, and bidding for things at real live auctions, So I think the sniping software available to use on ebay should be banned. Graham.
Real live auctions are not timed and end on the dot but rather when the auctioneer thinks their will be no more bids. Sniping software Just means you don't need to be by your computer at the end of the auction, it doesn't do much else really.
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Real live auctions are not timed and end on the dot but rather when the auctioneer thinks their will be no more bids. Sniping software Just means you don't need to be by your computer at the end of the auction, it doesn't do much else really.
And handy if you have a job/life away from the computer. I use both methods equally
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Sniping s/w: you are give someone else full control of your ebay account!
Real live auctions are not timed and end on the dot but rather when the auctioneer thinks their will be no more bids. Sniping software Just means you don't need to be by your computer at the end of the auction, it doesn't do much else really.
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I still go to an Auction house ,not local ,but the Ring of men go also if there are unusual / rare items ,before the Auction they discuss as to what they will bid up to , the Auctioner knows and will bounce bids off the wall ,that is fictional bidders because he has an idea the Ring is up to tricks , there is an art to this ,and when in the Know it can be quite profitable ,my interests are varied ,that the way that some do it is dirty .Ebay is a smaller version and you can do it from y,arm chair as some do with live Auctions ,its all Survival come what may ,with NO rules as a lot do ,,house clearances going to Auction are quite good and if you know the person who clears ,well you can make a killing and pay your way .
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I often end Auctions to a bidder where I am pretty sure I will not get another bid, the price I set is the price I want. I always set my auctions to end after 4pm Saturday, so if I receive a bid say Monday to Wednesday I will end said auction in favour of the bidder, buyer gets it at a known price and a few days earlier than if I had left the Auction to run until the following Saturday,
Sounds to me like a cock-eyed way of doing a Buy-It-Now {:-{
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Sounds to me like a cock-eyed way of doing a Buy-It-Now {:-{
Not Really, I have to pay to list a B.I.N listing, I only list Items when it is free, I am not out to make a killing just enough to get the money back I had to pay for the mags and to fund any future purchases to complete my collection, I sell more off site than on Ebay..
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I'm surprised sellers are happy that Ebay allow sniping programs ( I've used them in the past) why?
Look at it this way, a sniping program puts in the lowest bid to beat any others. If an item has been posted all week and its only had a little interest, 10 people with sniping programs have them ready and primed for the last few seconds, the last one before time up gets it at say a fiver.
If this was just a time limited auction with no sniping allowed, people would see what others are bidding and have to offer genuine bids, the sale price realised could be a lot more than the fiver they got with bidders using sniper programs.
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I'm surprised sellers are happy that Ebay allow sniping programs ( I've used them in the past) why?
Look at it this way, a sniping program puts in the lowest bid to beat any others. If an item has been posted all week and its only had a little interest, 10 people with sniping programs have them ready and primed for the last few seconds, the last one before time up gets it at say a fiver.
If this was just a time limited auction with no sniping allowed, people would see what others are bidding and have to offer genuine bids, the sale price realised could be a lot more than the fiver they got with bidders using sniper programs.
Leaving aside the matter of fair/moral/etc, ebay can't really distinguish between a 'live' bidder waiting for the last moment and a sniping program (which uses a real ebay login), so people just have to live with it.
Regarding bid sizes there is a lot of misunderstanding. The ebay system places any bid at the bid increment above the previous one. For example:
Item listed with start price 0.99, no bids. I decide I'll pay up to 10.00, so bid 10.00; item now shows 1 bid @0.99.
Tippy-tapper comes along and bids 5.00; the ebay system does some work and the item now shows 2 bids, one @5.00 and mine (still winning) @ 5.50 (assuming the minimum bid increment is 0.50).
Tippy-tapper thinks "Oh!" and bids 6.00. Item now shows 3 bids, one @5.00, one @ 6.00 and mine (still winning) @ 6.50.
If there are no more bids I get the item for 6.50, not the 10.00 I was prepared to go to, but someone could still push that up.
This is different from a normal auction where your bid is what you pay if you win.
Because of the previously mentioned problems of Tippy-taps and deliberate shill bidding, waiting till the last moment (ie. manual or automatic sniping) is a useful defence. But the same rules apply. For the example above:
Item listed with start price 0.99, no bids. I decide I'll pay up to 10.00, so set a snipe up for that; item still shows 0 bid @0.99.
Tippy-tapper comes along and bids 5.00; item shows 1 bid @ 0.99.
If there are no more bids in the interim, a few seconds before the end of the auction I or my sniping tool place my bid for 10.00; the ebay system does some work and the item now shows 2 bids, one @5.00 for the Tippy-tapper's max and mine (winning) @ 5.50. I get the item for 5.50.
If someone else has sniped for 15.00 max I will lose - my bid will show @ 10.00 and they will win the item @ 10.50.
So it doesn't matter how high you bid, you only ever pay the next lowest bid plus the increment. In the first example I could have bid 10,000.00 and would still have paid 6.50; BUT there would be a risk that tapping or shilling would have pushed it well past the 'reasonable' 10.00 mark.
In all cases you should decide how much you are prepared to pay before bidding at all. If you think 300.00 is right and bid that but when the bidding goes higher near the auction end and you think "Oooh, maybe 400.00 then" you are succumbing to auction fever which is why we see used stuff selling for more than the current new price. Automated sniping helps avoid that 'addiction' to winning.
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The magnificent Flee was generated to allow Joe Public to get rid of "Junk". The fact that some suffer from Bidding Fever is down to the bidder, not the seller or other must haves. Don't matter what rules are stated, someone will always find a loophole so if you don't want to play, don't bid. Ethics go out the window for two bidders wanting a 7/64" Whit die.
Regards Ian.
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I lost out to a guy who had 3 bid attempts in the last 13 seconds......
I assumed he/she had a few browser windows open, i dont think the snipping tool would or could have done that ? !! {:-{ ...maybe it could...i dunno
The only reason i know is..... it was a tight auction and there was another intermitant bidder...that broke up the attempts.....maybe im reading too much into it maybe it was a flea bay glitch...
It doesnt really matter as all is fair....i was just interested and trying to work out how that could be done :-))
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I always include an odd amount of pennies after a bid, so if I am prepared to spend £40, I might bid £40.29, this way I still have control if someone else puts in a later bid of £40 - or even £40.01 which I have seen too.
Grendel