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What kind of e-bayer are you?


paydirt

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Just curious as to how you guys use e-bay.

 

Do you search for a specific item and then watch it until the end and then bid.

 

Do you list by items ending soonest, and look for good deals in there and bid.

 

Do you list by newly listed items, and look for a bargain BIN.

 

Or do you have some other way you find your deals.

 

Also using which method have you bid on your biggest bargains.

My best buys have come from people misposting an item in the wrong category (i.e. a pedal in the amp section). Also people who write terrible descriptions (like phaser for sale. and it's a Moog). I have seen some of you come up with some ridiculous BIN's, but I have never had any luck that way. How do you guys do it?

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I look for items ending today mostly.

If I'm looking for a specific item, I scope out whatever looks best amongst the newer posts, post my best offer, and wait it out. Sometimes I can be the top bidder throughout the entire process because everyone wants to lowball their bids unreasonably all the time. I try to always bid a somewhat fair price unless something is ending within a few hours and it's still real low.

I've never learned to scope the new posts for low BINs, though. Perhaps I oughta try that.

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I can't say that I bid early either. But I bid what I'm going to bid and let the dice roll. And almost always get outbid in the last 5 seconds.

-Zach Omega

Originally posted by Wilbo26



Probably. Its the best possible way to get deals. Bidding early just drives up the prices.

 

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Originally posted by Wilbo26



Probably. Its the best possible way to get deals. Bidding early just drives up the prices.

 

thing is that USUALLY there are 20 guys waiting to snipe the same thing.

i've seen guys rave about their sniper success stories but for every one of those there are dozens of cases where it's nothing but a last-minute bidding war.

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Originally posted by paydirt



The logic of bidding on an item with 5 days left on the auction will always elude me.

 

 

Well, If I only want to pay a certain amount for something, why not do it that way? I'm patient enough not to rebid if I get outbid. I will bid on dozens of items to get the one for the price I want.

 

Another technique is to try to bid on items that finish at odd times in the day. First thing in the morning, f'r instance. Most pedal snipers are lazy-ass musicians who aren't at work at 7 AM every morning like me. I've had so many auctions go my way and not get sniped just because they ended before 2 PM when all the idiot kids get out of school and all the musicians finally rise from their stupor.

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I use Ebay for several different reasons

1. Find items that are unique, rare, or essential for home, and I usually buy it now on them, as they are needed right away.

2. Find suppliers for my parts business. A lot of suppliers will give deep discounts if you buy in quantity of an item.

3. Buying pedals, pickups etc. I usually find items that start low, and use a sniping program to bid on them for me. I only win about 2% of these auctions, but I put in about 100 bids a week. When I do win, it is for a price that is way lower than going rate.

* I mostly sell on Ebay, and I find that if you are good with taking pictures, and editing the pictures, to bring out the qualities of an item, without being deceiptful, then you can get top dollar. That is why I have a very good Digital Camera, and the full version of Photoshop.

John

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Originally posted by GuyaGuy


thing is that USUALLY there are 20 guys waiting to snipe the same thing.

i've seen guys rave about their sniper success stories but for every one of those there are dozens of cases where it's nothing but a last-minute bidding war.

 

 

I usually get what I want at the last minute. The only times I don't are when somebody throws in a really high bid at the last minute.

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