I prefer to proxy bid (There's a real sinking in the
pit of your stomach when you lose an item by .01 cent
or a dollar), but you shouldn't be bidding on an item
unless you know what it's real worth is or alteast
what it's value is to you.
Before you make your bid, decide what you are
willing/able to pay. And get it through your head that
THAT is all you're willing to pay. Some people will
pay well over what something is worth, and if they
want to pay $2 more than what you can get it through
catalog for with shipping, then let them have it!
The only time I contested a bid, was when I had left a
proxy bid, and another bidder (only one other bidder
bid on the item) with a ZERO bid history, before the
end of the auction made 5 consecutive bids to beat
mine, and then when they beat my bid, they retracted
their last bid, so that my proxy was the next highest
bid.
I can't prove that it was a shill or that the seller
had formulated it, but if the seller insisted that I
stick to the rules of the auction and pay my bid; in
the least, I would have paid what I would have been
willing to pay as a maximum anyhow, and he would have
had a negative on his otherwise perfect feedback. And
at most the seller would have to face potential
restriction of that account from ebay.
-Terry
P.S. Proxy bids can also be good on very rare
occasions. If two bidders bid on the same item at the
same price, the person who left the bid first is this
"high bidder". I just had this happen the other day.
The other bidder gave up at the exact amount I'd left
for a proxy (two days before the end of the auction).
If he/she'd bet $1 more, they'd have won it.
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35
a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
|