4 Jul
2005
4 Jul
'05
6:25 p.m.
The starting price does not affect the cost of the auction to the
seller, its the selling price that determines the cost. So, its not a
matter of saving money, its a matter of scaring off bidders. I like
to keep the starting bid at $1 to encourage people to bid but when it
doesnt encourage them to bid I say f*** you and pull it.
No, it doent keep them from finding them at the last minute, they are
just not there to find. With 7 days to look, I dont think I miss very
many because they are late to the party. If you are a dollar short
and 6 hours late, tough luck. Do you think a real auction house would
hold the bidding while someone ran from the parking lot to try to get
in a bid at the last minute?
I have had items with 30 or more people "watching" them. If you have
never sold items you may not know that the seller can see how many
people are "watching" the item. When you have 30 people just watching
for 5 days and no one bidding I have no sympathy for them when I
snatch the item back.
It costs me the 35 cent listing fee but thats better than spending 30
minutes packing something for some A**H*** that bid $1 with 10 seconds
to go.
NOW, "Do I snipe?", sure, but I sure dont bitch when it doesnt work!
On 7/4/05, Steve Thatcher <melamy at earthlink.net> wrote:
if you would set the starting price to what you wanted
instead of trying to
save money on listing fees, then you would not have to play games. You have
decided to make life more difficult for you on eBay. It is not the late
bidders or eBay that has the problem.
I have gone on eBay, done a new type of search, found and then bid on items
that were down to their last minutes. You technique keeps people from
finding the item at the last minute.
At 12:04 PM 07/04/2005, you wrote:
--
Jim Isbell
"If you are not living on the edge, well then,
you are just taking up too much space."
W5JAI
1967 UltraVan #257
1936 SS-100 (replica)
1970 E-Type
1982 XJ6
1985 XJS
1988 XJ40
One problem.....I have gotten so irritated by last
minute bids....
when after all I paid for 7 days of bids....that I now pull any item
that does NOT have a bid at 6 Hours before the end (that misses you).
I will also sometimes up the ante rather than pull the item, sometimes
by 5X. This is to discourage last minute bidders. This really works
if you put the bidders on notice in your description that you plan on
doing this. They, then, will decide wheather to "S*** or get off the
pot" as we used to say at the poker table in the old days.