Ebay

Rant on.................

Is it just me or would you guys be pissed? A guy lists some parts on Ebay. Retail $99 each (2 auctions). I have high bid for opening bid ($49.00 each auction) with 2 days left for the auctions. I email the guy and ask him if he would end both auctions early $110 shipped.(Normally $7.00 each item shipping) He emails me back and says, "No, there are 15 people watching the items". I figure okay that is cool because that is what the auctions are all about. Nowhere in the auction does it say he reserves the right to end the auction early or the items are being offered elsewhere.

So I am stoked and am going to get a good deal for the items.(It appears) Next thing you know he ends the auctions early.

He obviously didn't get what he thought he would so he decided to end it early. What a schmuck.

Am I out of line here? If you are going to end it early, shouldn't you state in the auction that is a possibility?

Rant off....................

Upsetting yes

Thinking eBay people are honest, fair, smart.......no

I think Ebay has alot of changes to make to the way they run there auctions. This 3-5 bids in the last second is just stupid. I thought an auction was "going once, going twice, Sold" anyways, that's my biggest problem w/ them....

The only way to effectively win auctions anymore on ebay is to snipe the auction, either manually or with a third party program. It's unfortunate, but it's just the way that ebay has evolved over the past few years. You either roll with the changes, or you simply don't win the stuff you want.

I'm currently pretty stoked, in an ebay sort of manner, since I just picked up a set of Showa TiN (gold) duc superbike forks for only $280. I'm going to have them rebuilt with Ohlins internals and sprung for my weight/riding style and then I'll sell the stockers for hopefully close to the same amount that I bought these TiN units for. I've been keeping my eye on auctions for these TiN forks for the past year or so and I've seen them go for $500 or $600 quite often.

On the other side of the coin, I can identify with Cali since I've been on the short end of several ebay transactions. If you just go into the ebay market mindset with the presumption that some small % of your deals will be crap then it sort of lessens the sting.

[QUOTE=ten~39]The only way to effectively win auctions anymore on ebay is to snipe the auction, either manually or with a third party program. It's unfortunate, but it's just the way that ebay has evolved over the past few years. You either roll with the changes, or you simply don't win the stuff you want.

I disagree with this, I think that people shouldn't just take things for the way they are. I don't think anyone thinks Ebay is perfect, not that I expect it to be, but, it's more like a one shot, guess if you are going to get it kinda thing now. doesn't seem to be much reason to have auctions last more than a few days, if everyone is just bidding at the last second anyways.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Redisfaster &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I disagree with this, I think that people shouldn't just take things for the way they are. I don't think anyone thinks Ebay is perfect, not that I expect it to be, but, it's more like a one shot, guess if you are going to get it kinda thing now. doesn't seem to be much reason to have auctions last more than a few days, if everyone is just bidding at the last second anyways.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The longer an auction is listed, the more potential buyers that auction is exposed to. The term length of the auction, in most cases 7 days, allows buyers to stretch the intervals between searches on items of interest. I, for one, don't check ebay everyday, every other day, or even every third day, so if you were to only have say a one or two day auction window you'd be missing a great deal of exposure.

Believe me, when you are on the seller end of the equation, which I have been a good number of times, you wish the sniper culture of buying on ebay didn't exist. When you are the buyer, you don't mind it because it keeps the prices down. It's sort of like the residential real estate market with the buyers market or the sellers market point of views. Sucks to be on one end, but it's great to be on the other.

Bottomline is that there's a lot of things in our culture that you may or may not agree with but you have to learn to live with anyway.

I've bought dozens of things off ebay. My solution to the "snipe" issue is to simply bid the maximum I would pay for that item. So if I happen to get it for less, great. If it goes over, no big deal since I wouldn't pay that much anyway .

Yea, what TnDuc said!

I snipe everything I buy on eBay. In my opinion, you would have to be foolish to bid at all until 5 seconds left. The reason for this is because people get emotional and will bump themselves (like a bidding red mist "nooo I want it more than him" and I'll show him kinda thing). If I don't give them enough time to get emotional then I get a better price. Cali is 100% right to be pissed, the rat bastard needs to take it like a man and let the auction run out. Maybe next time he will use a reserve or set his opening bid higher.