Buying and Selling on eBay: Tips, Tricks, Problems & Questions - Page 6

Ive got a tidbit to offer -

When you make a second chance offer, (I noticed for myself, anyhow) that they 99.9% of the time don't take it - even if you have one of those situations where your auction ends at 6:01, winner messages you at 6:02 they hit an extra 0 on their keyboard, you check the bid history, and the next bidder bid at 5:59. You send the SCO and *poof* nothing.

So, lately when I send a SCO, I message the buyer directly (you know you can't message a second bidder, the system circumvents it) right after sending it, saying they just got a SCO from me, and its a great price, etc, etc. That one message has increased my rate of SCO acceptance. Just saying, its a 2 minute thing thats worth a shot.

How does a noob maximize their chances of winning an auction when there is an extended auction time period?

I assume the real bidding happens during the last 10 minutes of the sale?

Is there a strategy? What's the strategy going in if you want the item (aside from bidding more and more, that's a given). 

http://www.gixen.com/index.php

*edit* This crap pisses me off.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251082618968

That jacket is not Loro Piana!

What do you mean "an extended auction time period"? Unlike a lot of other auction sites, ebay has fixed time auctions that do not extend. When the auction ends, it ends and you have to be the high bidder.

While I never do, a lot of buyers use sniping programs. Im a believer in putting in your best bid close to the end, and if you get outbid, c'est la vie.

This is generally my thought as well.
There are plenty of times I'll see something with a high BIN and ignore it only to think how if it started at $10 I'd spend a week getting excited about it, already dreaming of having it, and end up bidding far above that BIN price just to get it.



That said, Spoo you're selling lots of recognizable, high-end stuff that gets plenty of eyes, especially considering your high profile.

I think BIN stuff works when you have less recognizable or honestly, crappier stuff. You wait for someone who'll BIN for over the market value due to inexperience or something.

In particular I'm thinking of a brick and mortar vintage clothing show nearby that sells on ebay. I got put on their ebay mailing list and glance at their stuff occasionally.
It's almost all junk, cheap "vintage" suits like you can find in any Salvation Army, and lots of JAB HSM level junk. It's all sold with far too high a BIN (like $75+) but they can afford to keep a giant inventory and keep resisting until some kid needs a prom suit, or an inexperienced ebayer has to quickly buy a suit for a wedding.


I'd like to hear MAck11211's perspective on this, as he's very successful, and doesn't really do auctions at all.

+1

+1, that trick works for me too. Also nice for a quick sale if you have two of the exact same item.

Same here (except I only have 2000 transactions...as of yesterday). I love the thrill of watching the last minute bids. Of course I do like the occasional surprise BIN purchase as well. Especially since, realistically, most of my BIN prices are set too high.

Poor choice of words on my part. By extended auction I meant, an auction with a long lifespan, ie: 10 days... I assume the real bidding on an item occurs within the final minutes of the auction.?

Got it. Is a sniping program considered "scummy"? 

Dont bid before the end and no sniping software is not a big deal. Honestly, it use to be a bigger deal before all these high high speed internet services came out. All the service does it place your bid with 1, 2, 3 seconds left if you are not infront of the computer. You can do the same exact thing if you want to sit in front of the computer. The service will not "win" you an auction if someone is willing to pay more for the item for you, all it does it put your highest bid in at the last second. If I see something I like, I personally go right to my sniping software, and enter the bid there so I can "set it and forget it". Kind of like cooking a chicken!! If I win, I win. I try not to actually bid on items as then you get that feeling to be more then you normally would in the heat of the moment.

 

Set it and forget it! (Click to show)

Small tip I've been following -- I always try to answer a buyer's question by revising my auction with the additional information (assuming there are no bids yet). Since most that ask question are just tire kickers anyways, this allows me to provide missing information to the real eventual buyer and make answering the question not a waste of my time.

And a quick question, when listing sizes in titles do you find "40 R" or 40R to be more effective? I assume no one searchs "R" by itself, but if you put 40R you won't grab people that just type 40.
Edited by VLSI - 8/3/12 at 2:21am

Good question - someone just brought this up to me the other day - I always do 40R, but someone thought that 40 R would have been better. Though, it eats up one space in my beloved titles