FIGHT eBay's HORRIBLE Price Increases - Meg MUST RESIGN!

Jan 13, 2005 48 Replies
M

I have found good deals there over the years. The trick is to NOT let yourself get caught up in a bidding frenzy. If the price goes too high

- walk away.

I also unabashedly snipe. I don't care what people think. It is pointless to toss in a bid early on and keep bidding it up. I'll wait and jump in at the last minute, unless the price has already gone too high. I've been called many nasty things - I still won. And I do it manually to be fair, not using eSnipe, or tools like that.

When I sell things I have had people bid on my old VHS tapes, etc, and drive the price up not only higher than retail - but higher than DVD retail (which is generally why I sell VHS, because I bought the DVD), before shipping. And I usually put the original MSRP right in the listing, making it doubly dumb. :-)

-MZ, RHCE #806199299900541, ex-CISSP #3762

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T

Yes, you do. Until your post, I was unaware that Walmart sold used goods.

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C

Yeah, and I was unaware that e-bay sold new stuff. Go figure.

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E

But won't this practice get *worse* as sellers attempt to recoup fees in inflated shipping costs? For all my listings I add a "shipping/packaging/listing & paypal fee".

JW

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C

alt.autos.subaru

I already see some sellers charging $30 for regular mail within the US on 1 pound items so I don't know how much worse it could get :)

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R

Yeah, it is pointless to even bid on an item until the last 30 seconds or so. I do not understand that mentality. I wait to the end and then manually bid the maximum I am willing to spend. If I win, great, if not so be it.

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M

I rarely bid on anything. 98% of the things I buy from eBay use BIN. If the BIN is reasonable, I'll do it. If there is no BIN, I'll keep looking until I find one.

This avoids all of the snipers, shills, excessive bidding, etc. I buy quite a lot of stuff from eBay this way.

Mike

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E

If you believe in basic economics, then the bid prices should be lower as a result. Ebay, by taking a higher percentage, and sellers, by therefore charging higher shipping, will drive prices down.

JW

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C

alt.autos.subaru

Unfortunately we are talking about the irrational world of bidding here. Where people will bid the price of something to above retail value just to beat the other guy.

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