Hah,
David, those were Loser's tears.
Let us be clear on one point: eBay is not an
'auction'.
In a real auction, all of the bidders are assembled in
one place to bid at the same time, with an auctioneer
to 'facilitate' the process. The point being that the
seller get as much money as possible out of the
transaction. (and the auctioneer gets a percentage, so
who's side is he on?).
On eBay, the highest bid before the time expires wins.
In this respect it is really more like a 'sealed bid'
than an auction. There is no auctioneer to cull the
last few bucks out of a hesitant bidder (do I hear 25,
... who'll go 25,... last bid at 20,.... SOLD!).
There are those who will cast aspersions at 'last
minute bidders'.
So what? Those happen to be the rules to this
particular game. If you are interested enough in an
item to watch it at expiration time, and there are
lot's of folks doing the same thing, then everyone
will place their bids at the last possible minute. And
guess what, the person that bids the highest gets the
goods!
The trick is to bid no higher than you are really
willing to pay. If someone else values the item more,
they get it. The seller gets the max amount, and eBay
gets their percentage of the action. (the real point
of this exercise).
There is only one reason to bid on an item before the
'aution' expires. To make sure that the seller cannot
withdraw the item in the case where there are no bids.
Otherwise, why? To let other watchers know that you
are interested? Please.
I have seen 'bidding wars' on items take place days
before the end, to the point that the bid price
exceeds what you would pay in any store. Lunacy!
Of course, the seller is loving every minute of it
(and maybe jacking the price up with shills, but
that's another story).
If the person that wrote you was interested enough,
they would have watched and bid at the last minute
too. And whoever valued it the most would have won,
fair and square.
But they, like many others, were looking for a cheap
score.
There's a lesson for sellers here too. Make sure that
your auction ends in the evening, between 9:00-11:00
PM EST. That allows the maximum number of 'interested
bidders' to be on their PC's at home, to bid at the
last minute. The highest bid will win, which is what
you the seller want. Auctions that end in the wee
hours, or during business hours when lot's of folks
are at work (not everyone can bid from work), 'give it
away' to those who can 'sharpshoot' your item for the
lowest price.
Enjoy your item!
Carter Shore
--- "David A. Templeton" <davidt@opentext.com> wrote:
>
> With all the talk about ebay stuff lately I have a
> question about "what to
> do when". In this case I was watching an item for
> my wife's mustang and
> another person had a bid in on it, new ebay bidder (
> no previous history ).
> I went and bid on it within the last minute and
> ended up getting the item.
> Well 10 minutes later I recieved an email from the
> previous bidder as
> follows:
>
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Subject: that was cheap
>
> talk about sleezy... bidding at the last minute..
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I am simply going to ignore this email but if more
> happens to come is there
> a recourse I have with eBay?
>
> Thanks
> David A. Templeton
> Open Text Corp.
> Waterloo, ON
> Canada
> WebSite: http://trandmustang.homestead.com
>
> '74 Triumph SpitSix '66 Ford Mustang (Wife's)'66
> Ford Mustang GT '59
> Triumph TR3a (Project) '99 GMC Safari '95 GMC K2500
Sierra
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