Thread: Ebay

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Lately I have been bidding on plunge routwers on Ebay. I've been out bid in the last few hours while at work, I figured I'm off today so I'd watch what was happening today since my current auction ended today. I'm tired of lurkers who wait until 30 seconds to place a bid so I set a timer today and busted a would-be, and finally get a router that will patch some holes in my 150 year old wood floors in the old part od the house. I do have a router, but need a plunge router to do this job. It is a pain to keep bidding on these only to get outbid in the last 10 seconds while I'm at work, so today I finally scored a great used condition router fronm Porter Cable, with a fence setup for a great price. It feels good but frustrating to do this with everything on ebay! Next is suspention parts for the truck! It seems these 28 day bids leave you up in the air in the end. I'm always at work when the auction ends, and some @#$^$ bids at the last second to get you out of the picture. I figue you can't always be there at the end of the auction, and don't want to get into a ridicuolous bidding war ahead of time so you hope nobody will sit there and wait to get you in the 15-20 seconfd window before it ends! So fortunately today I won, for a good deal, for the tool I need that will easily outlive my use for it!

steve go to auctionsniper.comsniper

if it aint got a buy it now price i dont buy it ....

Originally Posted by HOSS429

if it aint got a buy it now price i dont buy it ....

same here.
if i wanted to waste time and dink around i'd play video poker.

I usually bid the maximum I will pay , and then don't even look till it's over . Then if a sniper gets it they payed more than I would .

Originally Posted by hawk56

I usually bid the maximum I will pay , and then don't even look till it's over . Then if a sniper gets it they payed more than I would .

X2, same thing here!

Yeah I hear you all, It used to be you'd spell whatever you wanted ten different ways , find a lisintg and bid. Nowdays everybody smart, medium, or not can join in and take you out! Just tired of trying to find new ways to play the game.

Not all stories are horror stories, however. I found an old Rochester one barrel on Ebay that I needed to complete my dual carb setup and started bidding with about 3 minutes left and I got it for $40 plus shipping and was willing to go as high as $80. Then I put a $20 kit in it and I'm good to go. A rebuilt one would have cost me at least $200 plus a core charge so I was very fortunate that it turned out to be all that the seller said it was.

eBay is a pain in the ars. But, it's pretty much still the best game in town. Unfortunately, we have to play the game. I'm with many here, if it's not a buy it now, I usually don't play.

Keith

Originally Posted by hawk56

I usually bid the maximum I will pay , and then don't even look till it's over . Then if a sniper gets it they payed more than I would .

Originally Posted by 34_40

X2, same thing here!

Originally Posted by stovens

Yeah I hear you all, It used to be you'd spell whatever you wanted ten different ways , find a lisintg and bid. Nowdays everybody smart, medium, or not can join in and take you out! Just tired of trying to find new ways to play the game.

I think it's simply that there are tons more people shopping e-Bay now compared to a few years back, so in some cases it drives prices up for good stuff. Like the guys already said, if you set your maximum bid price at the most you're willing to pay and someone "snipes" the price in the last minute they have to be willing to pay more than you, right? If they pay more than you set as your max price what's the problem?

About a hour after I bid on this router, a buy it now one popped up. I had three days left on this auction, with me being the highest bidder. So I watched the cheaper one until somebody out bid me, unfortunately the other buy it now was gone by time I was out bid on this one. Sometimes taking a week or two off seems to help the bidding wars, but lately too many will buy low and relist what they just bought at a high price, next week. I have been out bid on car parts by the same guy for the same part on many different auctions, my strategy was to bid him up finally, and jump out leaving him with a high price, then come back a day later to buy another of the same part. I think he finally lost by winning one too many times to where I could finally buy my parts at a reasonable cost. Just get annoyed with the pros taking the deals away repeatedly, but I realize like many have said, it is the best deal in town most days.

$0.02 - I never place a bid until the last few minutes, but that's just me !

I'm a three second guy...What can I say. It's the way the game is played.

Having a high speed cable internet connection has helped me to thwart more than one "sniper".

Originally Posted by NTFDAY

Having a high speed cable internet connection has helped me to thwart more than one "sniper".

Yeah, but like Steve says, it's to the point now where it's indeed a game for those with the time or job flexibility to be logged on and attentive as the auction comes to an end. And for those who play the game that way it can be very frustrating to sit back and watch two guys get in a bidding war two or three days before the end date, boosting the price when you're wanting to swoop in and snatch it away for a super deal