ebay novice

[Maydup]

There's an item on ebay which I'm interested in buying but I'm not used to the auction process. There are no bids at the moment and the "reserve" price is £30. There are 4 days left on the auction.

Should I bid now or wait?

If no-one else bids, is the price likely to be reduced nearer the time?

As it happens £30 is a good price but I'm not sure of the best tactics!

[daffy654]

I never bid until the last day of an auction.

[MASS1961]

If the reserve is £30. It will not be reduced as that is the minimum the seller will accept. If it's a good price it is likely to rise more than that

[Maydup]

So should I bid MASS or wait until the last minute?

[MASS1961]

You can bid Maidup but be prepared to be outbid.
If it isn't finishing for 4 days I would wait and see how the price rises.

[Maydup]

Thanks Daffy, no harm in waiting. Having thought it through I realise I'm only starting a price war by bidding, I'm better off sitting quietly and popping in on the day. If its gone through the roof by then so beit, but nothing to be gained in bidding today.

[Maydup]

and thanks MASS

[paross]

Hi. Don't bid until the very end, if possible. Press 'watch' so that you can see what's going on over the next few days. The price will not go downo

[ojread2]

Snipe :)
Put the max you are prepared to pay into a snipe programme and wait
But if you bid now or even a few minutes before the auction ends you may well be outbid

[Maydup]

OK sounds interesting. off to read about sniping!

[smurfchops]

You could get in touch and see of the seller would reduce the price, although this is unlikely. You could also ask for a Buy it Now price, where the seller puts a fixed price on the item, and you can buy it straight away if the price is right, as long as you get there before anyone else. Otherwise wait until the last three seconds of the bidding ! And then press the button ! Good luck

[MASS1961]

Maidup,
It's very unlikely the seller will reduce with 4 days left or give you a "buy it now" price.

Sniping, decide on the maximum you are willing to pay, and bid that amount, now if you want. Nobody will know you have bid higher than the minimum.

Your bid will show up as the minimum amount, say £30. If anybody bids higher than you ebay automatically bids on your behalf, each time you are outbid, up to the maximum you have stated. If it sells for more than that then somebody has, in your opinion, paid too much for it.

[magsmay]

maidup -there is no need to go find a sniping tool. just decide what your maximum amount would be and bit on it now . You will be shown as the max. bidder at £30 as thats the reserve - no one else may bid but if they do you will remain the highest bidder until your max bid is reached. If it goes over your max bid at the last minute well nothing is lost as it was your max bid anyway -I wouldn' t wait because if the seller gets no bids in the next few days they may be tempted to take a private offer 'off ebay' -when I sell anything if the item has even one bid on I let it run through to finish so I would get in there quick -and good luck!

[magsmay]

'no one else MIGHT' bid

[Hymie]

I would agree with smurfchops, place your bid at the last minute (5 seconds) to avoid a bidding war.

Many people are not aware of the intricacies of bidding on ebay. If you were to enter a first bid of £50, and no-one else was to bid, you would with the auction – paying £30. However if after you had entered your £50 bid, someone else bids say £35, then your maximum bid would overtake this bid with a bid at the next increment (probably £1 at that price), resulting in your automatic bid taking the price up to £36, and showing 3 bids to date. You would win the auction, paying £36 if no further bids were made. The only way you could be out bid is if someone entered a bid of at least the next required increment above £50 (probably £51).

Once you have entered your bid amount, a further window will open for you to confirm the bid, remember to allow enough time for all this to happen – that is why I leave at least 5 seconds to allow for any delay in my internet connection to ensure that my bid is received (in time) by ebay.

Good Luck

[EDDIE51]

If no one offers the reserve price , and it does happen, the seller can sell it to the highest bid under the reserve , so it may be worth putting in a bid of say £25. The seller does not have to sell it under the reserve but they can if they want.

[Maydup]

Thanks all, I feel much more informed now. I'll keep a "watch" on the item and bid at the last minute unless the price goes off the scale.

[Maydup]

Bidding closed on my item at 7.30pm and I bid at the last minute. I was the only biddder so I won! Not such a novice now but the owner of a pretty rare secondhand book which on another day would fetch three times what I paid for it. Happy shopper ;-)

Thank you all for your advice.

[Hymie]

Well Done – sometimes you are lucky to be the only bidder, and at times other bids for the item might push your bid close to your maximum – and at other times the bidding takes the item well above what you were willing to pay.
With others bidding at the last minute on ebay, I am often unable to enter my maximum bid amount as the bidding has already passed this figure by the time I try to enter it.

Remember that the ebay seller does not know what your maximum bid is (or that you have even bid above the minimum). But I have heard of ‘Shill bidding’ whereby a seller either uses a second ebay account or gets a friend to enter a bid if an item is selling at too low a price.

If you search the term ‘Shill bidding’ you will even find ebay gives advice on how to spot and report shill bidding.

[boxtops]

I bid when I feel like it - sometimes last minute bidding doesn't work if several people are bidding at the same time. As magsmay says, decide how much maximum you are willing to pay, and bid that amount. The seller doesn't know what you have bid (other than the amount showing) - quite often there is only one bidder so the question of a bidding war doesn't arise.

[ojread2]

Let's hope the seller sends it if it's that rare and worth 3 x times what you won it for

Too many times do we get questions on the forums about how the seller didn't get enough for the item so wont send etc etc
Hopefully you will receive your book, but, if you don't do not accept a cancellation request from your seller, but dont ignore it either and report them as an NPS