ebay question

[Grips]

I was bidding on a Puma and with 5 seconds left I was outbid by a dollar. When I looked who had outbid me it said, "private listing.....". Is this normal (the name) or is this something special. I am new to ebay and that was my first bid. Could someone please clarify this for me ?

Thanks

 

[smalltank]

hmm..seller was private?..could be..

 

[AABCDS]

The seller made it a private listing, meaning that you can't see the bidders' aliases.

 

[rajagra]

The seller can make the auction a private listing. It is normal but I am very careful bidding on them. The seller may be bidding on his own auction under a different name to bump up the price. So do not bid more than YOU think it's worth, and don't get carried away.

 

[Grips]

Thanks gentlemen. I only bid what I thought it was worth, and not more than I already had in my PayPal account. I know better than to chase a running horse (learned that the hard way with stocks).

 

[Kentos]

I wouldn't doubt the seller had a snipe on it at his minimum price to sell.

 

[cb91710]

You were not likely outbid by only a dollar.

If you bid $50, and the minimum bid increment was $1, someone else could have bid $5000 and the item would still sell for $51. It would just mean that if you went back in and bid $52, it would immediately jump to $53 and you would still not be the high bidder.
eBay uses "proxy" bidding, and you simply bid what you are willing to pay.

To successfully win auctions, bid no more than you are willing to pay, and bid in the last few seconds.

Bid once
Bid late
Bid high

It's called "sniping", and as much as people dislike it, it is the most effective way to win an auction and win it at a fair price.

Say you think something is worth $40, but you REALLY want it and it's hard to find.
You jump in on day-2 and bid $20.
Someone else comes along and bids $25.
Seeing that you are no longer the high bid, you bump your bid to $26.
The other person comes back and bumps to $30.
Back and forth, until a week later, you and 4 others have worked the price up to $60... more than you wanted to pay, but you REALLY want it and it's hard to find.

Instead, sit on it.
Watch the auction at closing. Wow... it's at $30. You're willing to pay $40.
With 5 seconds to go, drop in a bid at $40 (personally, I'll use an "odd" number to catch those who would bid "$41" or "$40.01" and I'll bump it to something like $43.33)
Now the previous high bidder's max bid of $35 is revealed, the selling price jumps to $36.
Other bidders do not have time to react to your $40 bid... maybe they attempt to drop in a $37 or $38, but it's not enough, and that's only if they are ready to send the bid in the last 3 seconds.

So what happens?

You win the item at a price under what you were willing to pay, or someone else got a bid in at the same time, that was higher than what you are willing to pay.
You either won, or didn't win... and you have no "buyer's remorse" that you spent too much.
If you truly bid what you were willing to pay, you likewise won't be upset that you didn't bid "only another $5"

 

[Kentos]

You were not likely outbid by only a dollar.

If you bid $50, and the minimum bid increment was $1, someone else could have bid $5000 and the item would still sell for $51. It would just mean that if you went back in and bid $52, it would immediately jump to $53 and you would still not be the high bidder.
eBay uses "proxy" bidding, and you simply bid what you are willing to pay.

To successfully win auctions, bid no more than you are willing to pay, and bid in the last few seconds.

Bid once
Bid late
Bid high

It's called "sniping", and as much as people dislike it, it is the most effective way to win an auction and win it at a fair price.

Say you think something is worth $40, but you REALLY want it and it's hard to find.
You jump in on day-2 and bid $20.
Someone else comes along and bids $25.
Seeing that you are no longer the high bid, you bump your bid to $26.
The other person comes back and bumps to $30.
Back and forth, until a week later, you and 4 others have worked the price up to $60... more than you wanted to pay, but you REALLY want it and it's hard to find.

Instead, sit on it.
Watch the auction at closing. Wow... it's at $30. You're willing to pay $40.
With 5 seconds to go, drop in a bid at $40 (personally, I'll use an "odd" number to catch those who would bid "$41" or "$40.01" and I'll bump it to something like $43.33)
Now the previous high bidder's max bid of $35 is revealed, the selling price jumps to $36.
Other bidders do not have time to react to your $40 bid... maybe they attempt to drop in a $37 or $38, but it's not enough, and that's only if they are ready to send the bid in the last 3 seconds.

So what happens?

You win the item at a price under what you were willing to pay, or someone else got a bid in at the same time, that was higher than what you are willing to pay.
You either won, or didn't win... and you have no "buyer's remorse" that you spent too much.
If you truly bid what you were willing to pay, you likewise won't be upset that you didn't bid "only another $5"

Amen, brother.

 

[Grips]

Good advice. I actually put my bid in at ~30 sec. left. At 5 sec. left, with me drooling....bang someone popped in a bid and got it for a dollar more. The crime of it was it was a Puma with wooden case. Some patina but no rust, original scales and it went for $35.50. Someone, not me, is a very happy camper.

 

[jred]

I feel your pain. I don't have issues with people manually sniping, it's the ones who use automated programs that bug me. I've given up on the bay. I'll stick to B/S/T from now on. I feel like you get a better/more honest description, a fair price, and most of the time they come shave-ready

 

[Dalejr]

I don't like private ebay listings. There's no need for them since ebay already has privacy protection.

 

[PFP_Dad]

I am a manual sniper, I've even been known to wake up in the middle of the night if it's something I've decided I'm going to win (yes, you can decide that). Most of the time it simply isn't worth it though, I throw in a bid and if I win, I win.

 

[johnmrson]

I use a sniper program all the time due to the time difference of Australia to anywhere else in the world. I don't have an issue with private auctions. Each to their own.

 

[cb91710]

I don't like private ebay listings. There's no need for them since ebay already has privacy protection.

Agreed.

It was one thing when bidder's userID was exposed, and it created problems because you'd have people attempting to "steal" your bidders, or worse, make scam offers to the top couple of losers.
With userIDs now being r***r(207) there really is no need for a private auction other than to conceal the identity of the winning bidder (on a $35 razor?), OR to conceal the auction listing from your feedback profile. The only reason to conceal the listing from the FB profile would be if the seller is attempting to hide something... such as selling equipment stolen from work or tax avoidance.

I am a manual sniper, I've even been known to wake up in the middle of the night if it's something I've decided I'm going to win (yes, you can decide that). Most of the time it simply isn't worth it though, I throw in a bid and if I win, I win.

Ditto. I've had problems in the past with my eBay password being hacked... and ONLY eBay and Paypal had it. I'm not going to provide my eBay login information to a 3rd party. There's no way to verify the security of their system, and AFAIK, it is a violation of eBay's TOS. Not that they'd boot you for it, but if your account is compromised, they're going to be less forgiving on the resolution.

 

[Raithskar]

You were not likely outbid by only a dollar.

If you bid $50, and the minimum bid increment was $1, someone else could have bid $5000 and the item would still sell for $51. It would just mean that if you went back in and bid $52, it would immediately jump to $53 and you would still not be the high bidder.
eBay uses "proxy" bidding, and you simply bid what you are willing to pay.

To successfully win auctions, bid no more than you are willing to pay, and bid in the last few seconds.

Bid once
Bid late
Bid high

It's called "sniping", and as much as people dislike it, it is the most effective way to win an auction and win it at a fair price.

Say you think something is worth $40, but you REALLY want it and it's hard to find.
You jump in on day-2 and bid $20.
Someone else comes along and bids $25.
Seeing that you are no longer the high bid, you bump your bid to $26.
The other person comes back and bumps to $30.
Back and forth, until a week later, you and 4 others have worked the price up to $60... more than you wanted to pay, but you REALLY want it and it's hard to find.

Instead, sit on it.
Watch the auction at closing. Wow... it's at $30. You're willing to pay $40.
With 5 seconds to go, drop in a bid at $40 (personally, I'll use an "odd" number to catch those who would bid "$41" or "$40.01" and I'll bump it to something like $43.33)
Now the previous high bidder's max bid of $35 is revealed, the selling price jumps to $36.
Other bidders do not have time to react to your $40 bid... maybe they attempt to drop in a $37 or $38, but it's not enough, and that's only if they are ready to send the bid in the last 3 seconds.

So what happens?

You win the item at a price under what you were willing to pay, or someone else got a bid in at the same time, that was higher than what you are willing to pay.
You either won, or didn't win... and you have no "buyer's remorse" that you spent too much.
If you truly bid what you were willing to pay, you likewise won't be upset that you didn't bid "only another $5"

Ah Haaaa so it is Rich that has been making my life a living hell on the Bay. LOL! Seriously though, I do the same as mentioned above, and devious as the practice may sound it is the most effective way to win.

 

[Obiwan]

I use a sniper program all the time due to the time difference of Australia to anywhere else in the world. I don't have an issue with private auctions. Each to their own.

Agreed 100%. The issue IMO is what Kent was referring to. When a seller sets a snipe on his own item for protection. I've been in auctions where thats happened and the seller immediately says the buyer backed out and offers it to me for my high bid. That's the practice that is beyond poor IMO.

 

[rajagra]

Agreed 100%. The issue IMO is what Kent was referring to. When a seller sets a snipe on his own item for protection. I've been in auctions where thats happened and the seller immediately says the buyer backed out and offers it to me for my high bid. That's the practice that is beyond poor IMO.

LOL even if such a claim were true, there's no reason to pay more than the 3rd highest bidder + bidding increment. There sure are some chancers around.