bidding on ebay

[the19thbear]

hey.. i have read here on planetz about people bidding on ebay..
they write about them not winning the thing they wanted because they werent fast enough..
but that doesnt make sense to me?? there is the "autobid" function. you know, you write in a maximum amount, and you will automatically outbid the lower bid ( if your max bid is high enough).. how fast does the autobid thing work, can you do it faster yourself???
why would anyone be losing auctions?
please enlighten me!

[astroman]

you're correct - you'd never loose an auction because earlier bids have priority
but to succeed you'd have to enter a fairly high amount, at the risk of driving the price up unnecessarily (and too early)
in fact such bids win frequently (you can tell by the date of placement) and of course they also outperform the automatic sniper programs (last second bids) - but only at the expense of a higher price.

cheers, Tom

[skwawks]

But you'll never pay any more than you have to ,to beat beat the last bid if you autobid . so the thing is autobid late and then forget it

[the19thbear]

ok!

to bad i already wrote my max bid!.. next time!

[skwawks]

Good luck

[skwawks]

also always check the sellers feedback , and try not to get paranoid if delivery takes a while . It's always a good sign when the seller communicates .

[braincell]

I have used it and had a good experience but had a friend get ripped off. Ebay and the police don't give a damn. Don't ever use paypal for something expensive, use a credit card and the escrow service. I heard too many bad things about paypal so I will never use it again. Sellers make their own feedback these days. The odds are that you will have a good experience but I would not spend a lot there. I would prefer to use a legitimate online store that I have used before.

[skwawks]

I had a deal going bad but ebay Australia got involved and solved the problem quickly so I'm still happy so far . I do like online shops a lot though ,once again communication is the key I reckon . I like to ask a question and then see how long they take to get back to me .
Paul

[dawman]

One more thing,

Often these scammers have a buddy go beyond your bid to try and raise the price. Autobid and forget is the way to go. I have had many items I won by second chance bids. Naturally the sellers friend didn't have the money, and was a poor shill at that.

It's also good if you have a favorite seller, write the the guy who outbid you everytime, and see if there's a repeat of his email address or name. Let the seller know you have evidence of foul play for extra leverage, after all if he is caught, he is not allowed to sell for a period of time as punishment. And the feedback ratings are what many people look at before bidding.........ankyuvarymush.

Also it's a long shot but I got an A16 for 440 USD because the seller was a pendajo and had it listed in rifle Scopes. That's a great place to find a card or converter on occasion.

[Tau]

After a few months of serious brainwashing (by me ), a friend of mine once tried to buy a Scope card, but lost to a last-minute-incredibly-high-bid on Ebay. A couple of days later, he got an email, from the supposed "Seller", saying that the highest bidder couldn't pay, or something to that effect, and if he wanted it as "second chance offer", for the bid he had entered. He said OK, but then they sent him a fake Ebay e-mail, with a fake direct link to a payment procedure via Western Union. They also asked for a lot of personal info - and that was what gave it away. Had he not confirmed the e-mail was false (by forwarding it to spoof % ebay.com) he would have posted the cash out to somewhere, and never get anything in return, and the worst thing is, those @!#$*! bastards could do this over and over again.

And this was not just a case of getting the most out of a bidder - they actually faked an e-mail that looked like it was from ebay, with the logos, the fonts, the color schemes, everything, and they provided false links to proceed to payment, even claiming that it was all under Ebay supervision.

So, remember, second chance offers and best-offer messages you get on Ebay should also be in your Ebay-account message box. if in doubt, forward any suspicious e-mail to spoof % ebay.com, soon enough you'll know if it's legit.

An remember the most important thing about Ebay - don't go crazy! (I know I have... )

And as skwaks said, communicate!!!!! After a while you'll know what to believe in

I myself have made excellent deals on Ebay, and never had any problems with Paypal, ever. I once got ripped off when I bought what should have been original Waves plug-ins (this was before the iLok thing), and instead got a CD_R of warez... But, although Paypal and Ebay said there was nothing they could do, they did provide me with a link to the FBI's anti-software piracy page, and through there, I was able to get the knowledge I needed to CALL that bas#$&rd on the phone in the US and make him return the money. Yes, he got scared, and gave it up, but if he hadn't, I don't know how i would have solved it.... I mean I am in Europe and he was very very far away.............. but my e-mails can be persuasive, and the timezone difference worked to my benefit, as I called him after lunch and has was still in his bed, probably dreaming of greater scams to pull! HA! B%$t#rd!

[at0m]

While sometimes raising the price of an item, an autobid is still a neat way to avoid the excessive final bid caused by impulsive excitement in the last moments of the auction, IMO. At least, think objectively and make up your mind on an upper bidding limit before starting to bid on any auction...