ebay bidding/buying strategy

[FidelCashflow]

Sometimes when I spot something on ebay I really want and there's like 6 days left on the auction with no bidding action, I just send the seller a message offering a 10-15% premium for BIN option. I figure this way I don't have to worry about the last minute snipers which almost always seem to snag the good stuff.

Am I just leaving money on the table by offering a premium right away? I'm curious to think what other sellers/buyers think of this.

 

[boo]

I'm personally surprised that sellers would take you up on your offer with 6 days left. At that time, it's highly unlikely that even extremely popular items are bid near to "fair value", making a 10-15% premium meaningless.

 

[Blackhood]

I use sniper websites. Much better for me, but it kinda ***** on other bidders and the seller.

 

[Huntsman]

I'm a sniper, but I do it myself -- nothing to insulate my hands from the carnage I unleash.

~ H

 

[SpooPoker]

Originally Posted by FidelCashflow

Sometimes when I spot something on ebay I really want and there's like 6 days left on the auction with no bidding action, I just send the seller a message offering a 10-15% premium for BIN option. I figure this way I don't have to worry about the last minute snipers which almost always seem to snag the good stuff.

Am I just leaving money on the table by offering a premium right away? I'm curious to think what other sellers/buyers think of this.

10-15% premium based on what number? If its an auction, its just over their opening bid? What if the auctions starts at a penny?

 

[FidelCashflow]

Originally Posted by SpooPoker

10-15% premium based on what number? If its an auction, its just over their opening bid? What if the auctions starts at a penny?
No no, not based on the ridiculously low starting bids around a penny. More along the lines of the auctions you tend to see where they have a low, but reasonable insertion price. For example, I saw a NWT E. Zegna sportcoat for with an opening bid price of $299. I figure that's a rough approximation of what its worth on ebay, if a bit on the low side to attract bidder interest. It was a 6 day auction and at the third day it hadn't attracted any bids. Half of my mind was telling me just throw in a bid, and I'll likely be the only bidder and may get it for $299. But instead I emailed the seller and offered him $350 to just end it now so I wouldn't have to worry about getting sniped or having it stolen out from under my nose at the last second. I generally gravitate towards the BIN items just to take the uncertainty out of things, I don't like the idea of getting shot down in an auction for something I really want. Am I just throwing away money? Or is there some validity to this thinking?

 

[DocHolliday]

I do it. It's a good way to guarantee you get the item. Sure, you might pay less if you wait, but you might pay more, or lose entirely. It cuts both ways. For me, sometimes it's worth a premium to guarantee a win.

I recently offered a seller a rather substantial sum for an item, thinking it might get caught up in a bidding war, but the seller declined. I ended up winning it for less than half of my offer. But had the seller accepted, I'd have just been happy to have won.

 

[SpooPoker]

There is definitely validity to the mindset. The problem is that your personality, it seems, is much like mine in an impatient manner. You see it, you want it, you dont want to lose it. Thats why the auction format is such a mindfuck.

You probably left some at the table on that Zegna piece (if you won), mainly because there is not so much bidding wars on the label. Something like LV or Gucci would be a totally different story where I would endorse that way.

What may work better for you is to offer the seller to end the auction at the price its listed at if you catch it early enough, and offer to seal the deal outside eBay, this way it saves him a few bucks in fees, and hes not quakin in his boots about a neg down the road. You have nothing to lose, and he has 2 wins in his court. Or...?

 

[unjung]

Originally Posted by FidelCashflow

Half of my mind was telling me just throw in a bid, and I'll likely be the only bidder and may get it for $299. But instead I emailed the seller and offered him $350 to just end it now so I wouldn't have to worry about getting sniped or having it stolen out from under my nose at the last second. I generally gravitate towards the BIN items just to take the uncertainty out of things, I don't like the idea of getting shot down in an auction for something I really want. Am I just throwing away money? Or is there some validity to this thinking?

Is $350 the most you would have paid? I would just set a gixen.com snipe up with a max of $350. However, if you think $350 is less than what it might go for, but that the seller will take you up on the offer for convenience's sake, then I guess your theory is fairly sound.

 

[FidelCashflow]

Originally Posted by SpooPoker

There is definitely validity to the mindset. The problem is that your personality, it seems, is much like mine in an impatient manner. You see it, you want it, you dont want to lose it. Thats why the auction format is such a mindfuck.
That's me in a nutshell. Shipping to Canada is terribly slow as it is, so waiting 3 extra days for the the auction to end with a possibility I might not even get it just bugs me too much. I find it's so rare to find anything good on ebay in my price range and size, so I feel like I need to jump all over it when I see it. But truthfully I don't have a great track record with ebay since I find lots of stuff looks different in person or fits different than I had hoped, so about 50% of the stuff I buy ends up getting flipped again or just gathering dust in my closet. For this reason I haven't used ebay in quite awhile. The reason I keep going back is because everything at the brick and mortar stores in Edmonton is really expensive and selection is very limited, so my options are find it on the internet or go without.

Originally Posted by SpooPoker

What may work better for you is to offer the seller to end the auction at the price its listed at if you catch it early enough, and offer to seal the deal outside eBay, this way it saves him a few bucks in fees, and hes not quakin in his boots about a neg down the road. You have nothing to lose, and he has 2 wins in his court. Or...?
Interesting. I thought about just offering the guy $299, but I was worried he'd just brush me off and decide to take his chances in an auction. I sent him an email asking if he'd consider a BIN, and he responded he'd consider "any reasonable offers" at which point I offered $350.

Originally Posted by unjung

Is $350 the most you would have paid? I would just set a gixen.com snipe up with a max of $350.
I picked $350 as an arbitrary number because I figured I was willing to pay up to $400 CDN for a good sportcoat and backed out estimated shipping and foreign exchange to get that $350. If it turns out to be the perfect jacket, I will consider that to be a bargain. But if it were a bidding war, I might have went as high as $375. But if I didn't win that, the altenative for me would be shelling out $800 for a very similar Samuelsohn sport coat I saw at a store since choice seems very limited.

 

[RSS]

Originally Posted by Blackhood

I use sniper websites. Much better for me, but it kinda ***** on other bidders and the seller.
I use these too ... but just to be gentlemanly ... I put in one early bid ... directly on ebay ... at the lowest possible price ... to indicate that I'm an active bidder. The fact that I bid again at the last moment should not be held against me. I see my first bid as fair warning.

 

[Gibonius]

I had a negative view on automatic sniping, from getting sniped. But I've finally given in (listening to my wallet) and I'm winning more items for less money, and not missing stuff that I liked because I didn't happen to be in front of the computer to snipe it. The psychology of auctions is perverse, and I don't really have a problem in the end with using a valid technique like sniping (even if automatic) to avoid irrational people who cost me money.

I'll frequently do BIN if offered, but it depends on the difference between where I expect the final price to be and my desire to make sure I win. I won an item the other day for $4.99, the BIN price was $49.99. Just set up a snipe four days in advance for $15 and won the item at the minimum price with a last section snipe. Worked out for me.