eBay question

ooooh, good question! I've never had my max bid pushed like that. But, I wouldn't put it passed a seller to do that. Did you check the seller's feedback?

I haven't bought a whole lot of E-Bay but I've found it better to just hold off and throw my high bids in at the absolute last second. I've sat and watched items sit at $2.00 for a week and then with a minute left the price suddenly goes to to $350.00. I had set high bids before but I've never won anything using that strategy.

Now I use my high bid only for something that I don't consider to important and I'm not going to be on-line at auction end time. If I win, great. If not I'll bid on the next one.

I've talked with a few heavy users and they all bid at the last second as well. *shrugs*

* I guess I should add that in IMO, it was probably just luck that the bidding stopped just below your max.

I can't be bothered to watch the clock....

It is a pain. Probably why I don't buy a whole lot from E-Bay. I'm usually happy enough with "Buy It Now" prices that I go with those.

I did pick up 2 very nice Stow Wengenroth lithos dirt cheap though so ya just never know.

the seller cant see your high bid, always wait until the last second to bid

I laughed when I saw this because I just bought something from ebay just a few minutes ago. I buy a lot of stuff on ebay and I'm one of those last minute bidders. I've used the maximum bid thing only a few times when I couldn't be at the computer to make the bid. The seller can't see your maximum bid, so they can play with that. Also, it is highly against ebay user agreement for sellers to try and push up their bids. If a seller is caught doing this, they would be banned from ebay forever. Ebay is set up to protect the buyer and seller, so there's no room for any funny stuff.
I'm glad you got your pan, Soz :-D I know how it feels to lose a bid on something I really wanted.

I tried to get quin some clay marbles from ebay, but I was outbid. I didn't look to see who outbid me, but it would have been funny if it was quin herself.

yeah, i also bid 2 minutes before the time runs out. Otherwise you raise the price unnecessarily. Of course there is a risk that the other bidder has a higher maximum price than you're willing to offer, but if you bid right before time runs out by setting your max offer, you'll find out in a matter of seconds. I never, never bid day or a few days before item deadline anymore.

Yep! I learned all the little bidding tricks over time :-D

Congrats on getting your pan!

You will get different opinions, so here's mine.

As a power seller on Ebay I learned a few things:

Always place your highest bid and forget about it.
You never know when the phone connection will be slow or your cable will go out, or sozlet will fall and need tending, so if it's that important, put in the most your are willing to pay and leave it at that.

You don't have to do this the first day it is offered. To avoid drawing attention to it, you can hold off until the last 24 -48 hours, but don't rely on winning last minute if it is something rare or hard to get.

The seller cannot see your high bid until the bidding ends. Also, if they are bidding it up on purpose to see how high they can safely go and still have a buyer, they will either have to cancel their bid if they go over (which is recorded in the auction for buyers to see) or they will have to hope and pray you bid again so they don't get stuck with it.

You can click on a sellers feedback and see a list of items they have sold in the past. Click on an item # that is still blue. On the auction page (which has ended already) click on the bid history to see who bid on the item.

If the same name shows up all in a row on one item, it is likely that the person before them put in a high bid. Each of the same name bids is just that person trying to figure out how high they have to bid to be in the lead. Not likely to be shilling, but could be.

What is more obvious is when the same person keeps showing up in closed auctions for the same seller and that bidder never seems to win.

So, you can go to the sellers feedback, click on the blue item numbers, click on the bid history and see who bid and who won. Do that with as many items for that seller as you like until you feel comfortable that the seller isn't shilling their auctions.

If you think they are, which is a serious charge, they can be reported. Just make sure you have the evidence before doing this. Collectors have their favorite sellers, so it may be legitimate bids. If they have a history of winning and not just bidding, it is likely a real buyer.

Oh, and another sign they were likely running up the bid is when you were the high bidder until the last few minutes and then lose by 50 cents, only to receive a second chance offer on a one of a kind item less than 5 minutes after the auction closes.

Sheesh! Some people do have a lot of nerve!

When I was at the dealership they used to run bids up on cars using friend's logins. Can't say it didn't work.

Anyway, I usually just put my highest bid in and leave it.

This is a good tip and something I hadn't thought about doing. Thanks!

Excellent info and tips, thanks! Squinney, I was thinking of you especially when I posted this, but lots of good stuff, appreciated.

And now I feel very lucky. :-) 57 cents to spare, and according to Google this is THE ONLY pan extant. (For sale, anyway. On the internet, anyway.) And brand-new, too! The timing of my bid was just the timing of when I happened across it, which happened to be about 18 hours before it closed. So lucky all around.

Well, will wait until I actually get it to be too happy, but this seller's feedback is really good. Been around since 1999, in the past 12 months 168 postive ratings, zero neutral, zero bad.

Might venture out and look around eBay more. I think I like the idea of setting a high bid as what I'm actually willing to bid, and if I don't get it, oh well. That was my main flea market strategy -- look at something, decide what I wanted to pay, offer it, and if the seller demurred say "OK" and start to walk off (and mean it.) Worked about half the time, got some amazing deals.

This one was an exception because of the apparent extreme rarity.

I did the bidding history thing and there were indeed a run of the same name, from $30 to $45. Then there were several different names.

This I don't get -- last three bids, reverse chronological order (most recent first):

[me]( 0 )US $64.63 Mar-05-05 17:34:36 PST

[other person]( 1089)US $63.63 Mar-06-05 11:56:57 PST

[me] ( 0 ) US $55.00 Mar-05-05 17:33:04 PST

[still another person]( 18) US $52.00 Mar-01-05 18:18:38 PST

Can anyone explain? (Oh and as you can see didn't remember the price correctly, so 39 cents to spare...)

Is it that this other person put in a bid of $63.63 (why?) and then since my high bid was over that, eBay automatically bid it up a dollar, and then time expired/ other person didn't go higher yet?

And why did it show the bid as $53 until the last minute if I bid $55 yesterday?

It won't go up again to increase your bid until someone else bids.

The previous bid before yours was 52. You bid 65. Your bid only goes up to the next increment no matter what you bid, if you are the highest bidder. (The increments are larger as the price increases)

The next person bid 63.63, but since your high bid was still more than that, and placed before the 63.63 bid, the final bid jumped to 65. (The next incremental increase over the last bid which automatically went to you at 65.)

Yes, the person that bid 63.63 could have bid again had time not run out and if they had decided it was worth more than 67. I believe they would have had to have bid 67.50 to win because the increments would be 2.50 at that price if I remember correctly.

Hope it's all the seller claimed it to be. Likely is since she/he has been selling for so long. Good Find!

I got my pan!!

<happy dance>

It's gorgeous!

<happy dance>

It's absolutely perfect in every way and the right size and brand-new and shiny and I love it!!

Whew! I was SO upset when I ruined my old one, and here it is less than 4 days later and I have a perfect replacement. It's like magic or something.

Yahoo!!!

Leave that seller some positive feedback! 4 days! Excellent service.

Now... What's for dinner?

4 days - that does seem rawther good!