Beer Forum

Who is Ebay savy? I need to buy a Honda generator for the RV for my triumphant return to California. Any tips? How does that Pay Pal thing work? I heard that there are tricks to win a bid over other folks.


Darin

Gucci Pilot wrote: I heard that there are tricks to win a bid over other folks.


Darin

Have a higher bid in place when the auction ends!!

Gucci, there are strategies out there, but for my experience the best is simply not NEEDING to win. If you are able to walk away from an auction that is going for more that you believe the item is worth; you have won.

I would place a bid for the most you are willing to spend and then check back when the auction is over. Leave emotions out of it.

Others probably have a more scientific way of sniping a bid, but I'm just too drunk to bother.

Push Eject

I've done Ebay sniping, placing my max bid when there's 2 seconds left.

To use Paypal you have to join Paypal and can pay through Paypal with a credit card or money from a checking account that gets wired to Paypal and then goes to the seller.
Dan

Gucci Pilot wrote:Who is Ebay savy? I need to buy a Honda generator for the RV for my triumphant return to California. Any tips? How does that Pay Pal thing work? I heard that there are tricks to win a bid over other folks.


Darin

Definitely *do not* place a bid and then hope for the best. Someone will just come along and bid it up. Even if they are just probing around and you are the high bidder it will only end up inflating the item's price, because you contributed one bid increment to that war.

Wait until the last 10 seconds or so with your bid all ready to go in a separate browser window, use the first to keep refreshing the item page.

Submit your bid and hope someone else can't out-snipe you.

Works for me.

Don't forget two obvious things.
First, know the market value of whatever it is you're bidding on.
Second, don't forget to factor in the shipping cost to the total price. Then use that as a comparison.
As far as winning, I have to agree with everyone else. wait til the last second to put in any bid. Keep the item in you watching file. Then let the bombs drop in 5 seconds from the end of the sale.
Good luck.

I'm not an expert but I've gone so far as to buy and sell cars and trucks on Ebay so I've seen a lot of the tricks and miscues.

Google Ebay & Sniper, use one of those services to bid in the last 2 seconds, works very well, and it's free. It also lets you decide what you think an item is worth beforehand and place a max bid of that amount. If you win, great; if you lose, you know it went higher than you wanted to pay when you decided on a fair price hours before and not in the heat of bidding. NEVER place a bid or even watch an item on Ebay, it lets the seller know you are interested and may result in unfair bid inflation by an outside or even inside source. In a word, snipe.

This is why I hate ebay. What a PITA.

Traivs