Watch Ebay Carefully: Listings disappearing overnight

[epigramophone]

So far the majority agree with me that it is better to place an opening bid at an early stage. A strong opening bid eliminates the tiresome penny pinchers who hope to get something for nothing, and tells the serious bidders that they are up against serious opposition.
If I want the item badly enough I place a very high bid nearer the auction end. If the snipe bidders fail to outbid me they will not win, but if they do win I have the satisfaction of having made them pay dearly for the privilege.

[Steve]

So far the majority agree with me that it is better to place an opening bid at an early stage. A strong opening bid eliminates the tiresome penny pinchers who hope to get something for nothing, and tells the serious bidders that they are up against serious opposition.
If I want the item badly enough I place a very high bid nearer the auction end. If the snipe bidders fail to outbid me they will not win, but if they do win I have the satisfaction of having made them pay dearly for the privilege.

It's all very subjective, but I don't think 4 people on the TMF can be rightfully claimed as any kind of evidence of a majority. Put it to a vote amongst all Ebay account holders worldwide who buy highly valuable, scarce items or collectibles and I'm sure the poll would look very different.

[Granby]

So far the majority agree with me that it is better to place an opening bid at an early stage. A strong opening bid eliminates the tiresome penny pinchers who hope to get something for nothing, and tells the serious bidders that they are up against serious opposition.
If I want the item badly enough I place a very high bid nearer the auction end. If the snipe bidders fail to outbid me they will not win, but if they do win I have the satisfaction of having made them pay dearly for the privilege.

The psychology aspect to auctions is interesting. However, in my opinion, if I bid too much or too early, I feel that I am "running the bid up on myself." For example, at my local auction house, a set of china has NO bids for $2.50 and the multi-day online auction has 3 days left. If I go ahead and bid $2.50, you and I both know that some "competitive" fellow bidder out there will "hit" it for $5.00, I will come back at $7.50 and most likely end up paying between $7.50 to $12.50 for the set. It seems like people bid nowadays just for the thrill of it... to see if they can beat somebody... LOL.

If I chill out and wait, maybe nobody else will bid. Or, if they bid $2.50, I can slip in and get it for $5.00 or so at the end? Simply put, 9 times out of 10, there really is no reason to bid early unless you can't be present when the auction ends. However, I do respect everybody's opinion and if I had registered my bid earlier on with this ebay listing that has since disappeared, I wouldn't be in this situation....

[Steve]

So far the majority agree with me that it is better to place an opening bid at an early stage. A strong opening bid eliminates the tiresome penny pinchers who hope to get something for nothing, and tells the serious bidders that they are up against serious opposition.
If I want the item badly enough I place a very high bid nearer the auction end. If the snipe bidders fail to outbid me they will not win, but if they do win I have the satisfaction of having made them pay dearly for the privilege.

The psychology aspect to auctions is interesting. However, in my opinion, if I bid too much or too early, I feel that I am "running the bid up on myself." For example, at my local auction house, a set of china has NO bids for $2.50 and the multi-day online auction has 3 days left. If I go ahead and bid $2.50, you and I both know that some "competitive" fellow bidder out there will "hit" it for $5.00, I will come back at $7.50 and most likely end up paying between $7.50 to $12.50 for the set. It seems like people bid nowadays just for the thrill of it... to see if they can beat somebody... LOL.

If I chill out and wait, maybe nobody else will bid. Or, if they bid $2.50, I can slip in and get it for $5.00 or so at the end? Simply put, 9 times out of 10, there really is no reason to bid early unless you can't be present when the auction ends. However, I do respect everybody's opinion and if I had registered my bid earlier on with this ebay listing that has since disappeared, I wouldn't be in this situation....

I agree completely. I've seen in this very forum some years ago a certain incredulity that anyone would waste their time bidding before the auction ends as 9 times out of 10 you'll inadvertently start a bidding war (or two) going when you want to do everything possible to subdue the bidding. The auction doesn't really matter until the end as that's when all players appear and the real contest takes place. The week before is just foreplay.

[JerryVan]

A further observation... After the auction, when I look at the record of bids, I see that either the winner, (if it's not me), or the #2 back-bid, came from a bidder who had not previously bid on the item. In other words, they swoop in from out of nowhere. The nickel & dime dabblers entering multiple bids in small bid increments are seldom the "winners". (If buying this stuff makes us winners that is )

[Steve]

A further observation... After the auction, when I look at the record of bids, I see that either the winner, (if it's not me), or the #2 back-bid, came from a bidder who had not previously bid on the item. In other words, they swoop in from out of nowhere. The nickel & dime dabblers entering multiple bids in small bid increments are seldom the "winners". (If buying this stuff makes us winners that it is )

That is also true and I can usually concur with your findings. In fact it's always been a curiosity to me how serious those £1 bidders are on machines valued in high hundreds or even more. Do they really believe they have a chance or do they just want to see themselves as potential buyers for a few days? Some never come back or bid any higher!

[thatonejohn]

I was watching a piece of stereo equipment recently, and the winning bidder had placed several additional bids above what was their current winning bid. Auction came to an end and they still won with their highest bid, but were bid up by a single bidder until their 3rd out of 4 bids was surpassed. Never increase your bid more than once if you're already winning the auction.

As to the listings disappearing, I recently stumbled across a french eBayer (almost 50k items sold) who had been hacked (appears to have been resolved now). Rare items, poorly described auction listings, that all contained text saying that this was the liquidation of a pawn shop and the buy it now price was this much and it could be paid for on a separate website. Their location had been changed from France to the USA and the (fraudulent) items were listed as being in the USA. This is internet scam 101 type stuff and luckily eBay was actively removing listings shortly after they were being posted. Be careful out there.

[gramophone-georg]

Some other variations on this is if you bid right away, two other bidders will jump in. One bids up to just below your max (often withdrawing a bid if they exceed and then re-bid lower), then the second person will outbid you. If you don't take the bait and bid higher, right before the auction ends the jerk who outbid you withdraws the bid, leaving you on the hook to pay your max.

This is why I snipe. If the auction "disappears" before ending, or is suddenly ended early by the seller, oh well. I don't lose any sleep over it.

The other thing that happens too often is you are outbid, but then the item is magically relisted again.
Another variation of this is you win with the opening bid or not too much above it, pay, then suddenly get a refund because the "item is broken or lost". But then... there it is again, but for a lot more money. Sometimes the seller will even block you from bidding on their relist that you won.

The vast majority of eBay sellers are good eggs, but then there are the jackholes, and the more egregious the policy violation the more eBay ignores it, it seems.

[tomb]

I have also learned my lessons and now bid in the last four seconds. after I put in an initial bid. One downside was a few days ago I was bidding on a nice multi-band radio at the last second and my internet dropped. The radio went cheap too. I would have gotten it. Tom