E-Bay Rant--Please, keep your nose to yourself!

[Dave@Moon]

I was away all weekend helping my brother move. I didn't have access to a TV, let alone a computer, for 4 days. Before I left I put in serious bids on a rare part for my TR6, a somewhat rare British brochure for that year's Triumph line, and an expensive set of floor liners for my Prius.

I was sniped on all three by 1 to 4 other bidders. Unfortunately for the snipers I wanted them more and they all failed. All were low-ball bids from opportunists, and I paid a fair price for all three.

Snipers are not a problem. Thinking that they are is.

[Guest my3buicks]

exactly

[Guest JDHolmes]

HEHE, sorry, but I've been on ebay for over five years now and I don't really understand the term "snipe". I've got a 104 rating now, not great but not bad from someone who doesn't have a business on ebay I think. Maybe I'm one and don't even know it. Explain please someone.

Generally, I watch things that I'm interested in. I seldom, if ever, bid before the last day or two. On items that I really want, I will watch it down to the wire and bid at the last minute or so, but always with an amount that I'm willing to pay.

I do this because I've found that price inflation occurs when folks get into the bidding frenzy with several days left on an auction. The frenzy occurs, then they come back a few days later, while the item is still available and have had time to think about it and decided it might be worth another $50. I generally dump my high bid in the last day or so and then wait. I've gotten important parts for 99 cents and lost unimportant parts for hundreds of dollars.

The only thing I've ever regretted was not going $25 more on a car I really wanted to have....<shrug> another will come available.

[Dave@Moon]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> On items that I really want, I will watch it down to the wire and bid at the last minute or so, but always with an amount that I'm willing to pay. </div></div>

This <span style="font-style: italic">is</span> "sniping". Some people like to use that word to color it as something wrong, but all it really is is bidding at the last minute.

[Guest my3buicks]

I think people have even more problem with the sniping programs that automatically bids for you at the last second - again, it only bids what the bidder is willing to spend, so in the end, it still goes to the highest bidder. I at least am sitting there with my stopwatch when I snipe, not having a program do it for me.

[Guest JT]

I've been buying on ebay for 8 years and have been sniped plenty during those times. For the most part those were the old manual snipesand that's ok but I still dislike the sniping services. Some other auction sites have gone to the time extension past the last bid(previously mentioned)which does away with sniping and that's not a bad idea. Of course this means you might have less of a chance of getting a deal but at least then you know the real max someone will pay.

[Guest unclefogey]

As a newbee to Buick ownership, the BCA, this web site and ebay all in less than a year, I have a couple of questions on the ebay process. Back when I first signed on to ebay this past spring, a high number of parts listed for '41 Buicks was a couple of screen pages listing maybe 90 items. I have stayed away from ebay since about September because I was starting to buy things that I might need someday, typical ebay newbee. For some reason I signed on today and did my usual query and the response was 7 pages listing 392 parts for 41 Buicks. Is this inflation in numbers a winter time phenomenon, brought on by the boredom of half of the Buick owners in the north not being able to drive our cars? Or is it just an aberration?

A second question has to do with the yellow '64 Wildcat convertible which I believe Lamar provided the link to ebay. It had a reserve of $50,000 and had 4 "offers" with the max being $14,000. Is "offer" Canadian for a bid?

As luck would have it, there is an item in the 392 that would be nice to have, neither a might need it in the future, nor a need it mmediately to fix a problem. I guess I will bid, but not until less than a day to go if I read everyone's advice correctly.

John

[Harold]

The reason you see more listings for a particular search is because eBay now includes 'eBay Store' items in the results. If you look carefully, there's a line that separates the two sections. Everything in a 'store' shows up as a Buy-It-Now. Hope this helps.

[YellowLark]

I've been on eBay for over seven years, and have bought a 23' boat from KY and a car from MS, and sold dozens of boat engine parts, and NEVER had a bad experience. Just a matter of setting your (and their) expectations to match what is being offered. If buying, inspect every photo and ask for more, as well as call them if possible to get every detail.

I've contacted umpteen Buick car and parts sellers over the years to let them know that their item was mis-described. Never had anything but thanks in reply. Tend to side with Keith on this one.

BTW, my "owned-since-new" 1966 Skylark will be listed on eBay in a few days. Be amusing if people offer corrections on my listing.