Sold - Comptek2wk IBM Mini for $206

[nowsharing]

A slow week on Ebay I guess. Sunday night is usually the best time to end an auction though.

It looks like used minis are still doing well: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280515519341 There doesn't seem to be a lot of competition however.

Just bid what you're willing to pay.

Sniping is the only way that anyone should place their bid. Bidding at any time prior to the last 30 seconds is totally illogical to me.

[kishy]

Bidding what you're willing to pay is ridiculous...the idea of buying on eBay is that you're trying to pay less than you would be willing to pay.

Thus, the common goal to ALL bidders should be the lowest possible price at the listing end...not just "cheaper than elsewhere", but "the cheapest", no exceptions. The only way to pull that off is sniping.

[didjamatic]

True, but remember the winner always pays less than they're willing to pay - they pay what the second highest bidder was willing to pay.

[Infinite north]

There are occasions of sniper bidding wars though. while I do snipe I decide how much I am willing to pay before placing a bid. if the price rises above what I originally planned to pay I stop myself from bidding more. I think it's pretty common to have the desire to win, while loosing site of the original goal. that goal is materialism, none the less it's very easy to get sidetracked.

[Laggy-gaga]

I lost items for 1 $ in the whole past month

[Half-Saint]

A slow week on Ebay I guess. Sunday night is usually the best time to end an auction though.

It looks like used minis are still doing well: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280515519341 There doesn't seem to be a lot of competition however.

Shhhhh! I'm still bidding on that one :-)

[nowsharing]

There are occasions of sniper bidding wars though

I'm not sure how that could happen. The sniper makes one carefully considered shot, and never passes their spending threshold. They can also call things off, and walk away while the early bidders assure each others' mutual destruction.

Early bidders recently pushed a standard NIB M to $385. I need to hang a print of the finished auction page an inspirational poster.

Shhhhh! I'm still bidding on that one :-)

I guess we'll never convert you. I hope the international shipping is decent, because your bidding is already pretty bold.

[Half-Saint]

I guess we'll never convert you. I hope the international shipping is decent, because your bidding is already pretty bold.

Convert me to a sniper? I usually snipe what I can, maybe I got a bit irrational in this case Intl. shipping is quoted at $32...

[kishy]

I'm not sure how that could happen. The sniper makes one carefully considered shot, and never passes their spending threshold. They can also call things off, and walk away while the early bidders assure each others' mutual destruction.

Early bidders recently pushed a standard NIB M to $385. I need to hang a print of the finished auction page an inspirational poster.

 I guess we'll never convert you. I hope the international shipping is decent, because your bidding is already pretty bold.

This was your M5-2 listing before I placed my bid. Notice your 1390120 is in the other tab...I was checking back and forth to see which one I should go for. I did in fact place a bid on the -0120 and probably got you a larger amount of money by doing that, but the previous person's max was higher than mine so I abandoned it and focused on the M5-2.



Imagine how less happy you'd have been if it ended at 16 cents?

The bidder before me had their max bid at around 21 and IIRC I placed my bid at 25...and won it around 22. I placed that bid in the final seconds of the auction, probably clicked the link around 15s left.

Bid history did not reflect any other snipers on that one so I guess I got lucky.

^ sniping experiences revealed to the world...

[skcheng]

More for the historical record than anything else.

But if you look at the bid history you'll see why snipers don't always win. Just SNIPE bid what you're willing to pay.

Ok....fixed.   It's the only way to roll on hotly contested items on ebay.   Bidding early simply raises the price on ebay items.  

Of course I'm assuming the item is listed with a low starting bid and no reserve.

[nowsharing]

This was your M5-2 listing before I placed my bid.

I think you won that one because I titled the auction poorly. That's how I win most boards, so I guess it was reverse-time karma.

I lose most auctions because my snipe are really low, but when I win something via sniping I have a little party for myself.

It gives me an excuse to keep an eye on the fleabay--a form of entertainment and masochistic torture :pop2:

[J888www]

On many occasions, I have strange feelings that the prices are deliberately inflated by sellers/sellers acquaintances (less than 5 feedbacks). So now I only make my bid at the last 5 seconds with a relatively high max bid.

Can sellers see the bidders max bids ?

[nowsharing]

You just gave us all another reason to snipe. If there were a shill bidder, their damage could be minimized, although not eliminated.

Seller can't see the maximum bid prices AFAIK.

[kishy]

Ebay sellers can't see your maximum bid.

You CAN however annoy them by sending an email saying, "WOW - I sure got THAT cheap."

As I recall, I was congratulated for that particular win.

[nowsharing]

As I recall, I was congratulated for that particular win.

A great snipe like that is a thing of beauty. I was impressed, and quite pleased to have it going to a geekhacker.

[J888www]

Maybe my feelings in regard to sellers pumping up the price is unfounded. Maybe it's ebay who's actually pumping up the price? Maybe I'm a hypochondriac.

[JBert]

Of course they do, they always raise the price up until the second highest bid is surpassed by $.50 or a couple of dollars. The one who entered the highest bid remains ahead until the raised price makes the second bidder crazy enough to go for a serious price increase.

[nowsharing]

I haven't experience that. On [strike]many[/strike] occasion I've put $100+ bids in on things that ended up going for pennies.

[J888www]

I don't think it's possibly for them to account for all listings, probably at random, but sometimes the bidding seems very suspicious.

[nowsharing]

No one expects curious cousin George, the shill bidder monkey.