4 Jul
2005
4 Jul
'05
3:29 p.m.
Amen and Amen.
I sell a lot on E Bay (and buy also) but I have a policy that if there
is no bid on my item 6 hours before closing, I pull the item. I will
NOT sell it to a sniper who wants to get it for 1 cent over the
minimum bid. If there is a bid on it then its a fair auction, but if
you watch a real life auction the auctioneer does not say "going,
going, oopes theres a bid, gone." After a lat minute bit he will
open it up again for more bids. E Bay used to do that back in the
beginning. If there was a late bit it automatically extended the time
for 5 or 10 minutes. But they dont do that now, so I pull the item if
its not getting bids. Another tactic I use is to raise the starting
bid at 6 hours till end if there are no bide. This will get some of
them off the pot.
Now, do I snipe? Yes I do, but I dont bitch when the auction ends
early or if someone outbids me or if I forget to come back to the
auction and miss the ending.
On 7/4/05, Joe R. <rigdonj at cfl.rr.com> wrote:
At 10:22 AM 7/4/05 +0100, Phil 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
Here's a fine example of why I can't stand it.
On Sunday morning I added an item to my watchlist - a Microprofessor MPF-1,
complete, boxed, with manuals. Supposedly perfect condition too. Also checked
that it was still pointed at my Gmail address. It was. The auction was due to
end at 4PM on Sunday (ie. yesterday).
When did I get the "Item is ending within 5 hours" message? That's right. 5
minutes ago. Followed by an "Item has ended, YOU LOSE!" message. Fecking
stupid thing.
And people wonder why I hate ebay. What really pisses me off is that it's
done this to me THREE TIMES this week, to three different email addresses.
Bleagh. I wanted that MPF, too - it only went for ?16 - my max was way higher
than that :( :( :(
Don't take this personally BUT: Why didn't you bid your max bid the
first time??????? If you had you would have won the item.
What is it with all you people that want to wait till the last second to
bid and then you whine when don't win. Late messages aren't necessarily
E-bays fault. The InterNET is a network of servers, relays, etc and
messages can be delayed for many reasons. That's one of the good things
about E-bay's system, you don't have to be there or even on-line when the
auction nears it's end, the system will do the bidding for you. I NEVER get
outbid on things that I really want. I'm sure Al and others can tell you
the same thing. You lost because you wanted to play stupid games with
E-bay's system!
I don't understand why some of ypeople on this list are always
complaining about E-bay. Where else do you think you're going to find a
complete Microprofessor MPF-1 for ?16 and never leave your desk? If you
want bargains you have to go hunt for them or take the occasional one, like
this one, that show up on E-bay. If you don't like E-bay's high prices
then get off the computer and go start looking in the surplus stores, scrap
yards, flea markets, etc etc etc. There are still PLENTY of bargains to be
had. I have a LOT of great computers (3x SB-180s, 2x Rubicons, 2x Altairs,
10x Intels, 13x AIM-65s, HP-9100, 4x HP-35 Red Dots, 5x HP-1000s, PDP-8,
etc etc etc etc) and NONE of them came from E-bay. I got ALL of them the
hard way, by LOOKING!
my 2 cents worth,
Joe