Why oh why do people bid so early on Ebay?!

[jandel]

I do the same thing. It's very easy to end up spending more than you wanted to for something on eBay if you get caught up in a last minute bidding war. To avoid the temptation, I decide the max I'm willing to pay for the item, put in my bid, and walk away. If I win, great; if not, oh well. Also, if I put something on watch with the intention of bidding on it closer to the end of the auction, 9 times out of 10 I'd forget and the auction would end without me bidding at all. If I bid when I first see something, at least I have a chance.

I've just recently began to sell on ebay again after a 3-year hiatus (have to pay for all those medical bills somehow!) and I totally understand what you are saying. As a seller, the worst is when someone puts in bids on multiple auctions of the same thing from different sellers (ie bidding on seven different Uggs auctions)...then as it get closer to end time they cancel all but the cheapest one. Ebay is supposed to go after them for policy violation but it doesn't often happen.

By the way...for those of you looking to make extra money for the holidays...Our oldest son moved out recently and left behind a roomful of stuff he no longer wants or needs. With his full blessing, we started listing his old toys, collectibles, video games, etc dirt cheap., usually starting at $5 or less. As of right now (two weeks worth of auctions) we have sold over $1000 worth of his "junk" that he was going to throw away

 

[Robinrs]

By the way...for those of you looking to make extra money for the holidays...Our oldest son moved out recently and left behind a roomful of stuff he no longer wants or needs. With his full blessing, we started listing his old toys, collectibles, video games, etc dirt cheap., usually starting at $5 or less. As of right now (two weeks worth of auctions) we have sold over $1000 worth of his "junk" that he was going to throw away

That's how I got started on eBay. My parents both passed away in 2002/3 and my aunt sent me a Uhaul truck full of their "junk". I was unemployed at the time so i put them up on eBay and WOW!! Made a killing!!!

As for buying, I never bid early, I use auctionstealer.com -- works wonders!! Lets the early bidder THINK they have the highest bid till the end!

 

[beaucoup]

As an ebay seller, I love when people start bidding early. And its just unwanted items from around the house too.

 

[tlbwriter]

This is exactly why I snipe (I use Esnipe). I put in my max bid and walk away, but no one knows it!

 

[talulabelle]

I have been using eBay since early 1997 and I can tell you the main reason for not bidding early is to prevent being shilled. Shilling is rampant on eBay and I refuse to let anyone rip me off in this way. I only snipe bid (bid at the last second) or bid on buy it now auctions. There are plenty of reputable automated free sniping services.

Exactly! This is another reason I don't understand people bidding early and walking away. Say my max for the boots is $100 and bidding started at $50. If I have NO competition at all i should still get the boots for $50. But a dishonest seller (and ebay is full of them as we know) will have a second acct. set up and go in and raise and raise the bid. They might accidently go over my max, but they will probably be safe a stay around $75 to $80. Enough to cheat me out of $25 to $30 and still make me feel like I got a bargain under my max. I refuse to let this happen too. If I don't bid until the last second - a shiller can't do this and I get the boots for $50.

 

[marie1203]

I am trying to get a good deal on Uggs for my daughter on Ebay .

If you want them just for the looks then you can find cheaper look a likes but beware fakes usually are not same material.

 

[Lisa_M]

If you want them just for the looks then you can find cheaper look a likes but beware fakes usually are not same material.

Target has ugg look a-likes for like $20 on their site.

 

[talulabelle]

Target has ugg look a-likes for like $20 on their site.

Thanks, but my daughter has been wearing the Target look-a-likes every winter for about the last 4 years. (BTW when are these dumb things going to go out of style already?) She has been fine with that up until this year (7th grade) when all of the sudden she has become brand conscious. I always told her to wait until her foot had stopped growing until we spent that much money on shoes...well looks like her foot has stopped growing and she wants that tag on the back that says "Ugg". Like I said, I'm ok with fakes, as I usually can't tell the difference if they are good fakes...but they have to be fakes that say "ugg" on the back.

 

[wildernesslodgefan]

Ebay irritates me!

 

[horseshowmom]

For example, a friend of mine has her brother bid on her item so that others will outbid him.

Pretty scandalous!!!!

It is against policy, it's called shill bidding.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/seller-shill-bidding.html

Shill bidding is as common on Ebay as counterfeit goods. Ebay calls it illegal but doesn't go after anyone unless it's something outrageous like the power seller of antiques who admitted in a newspaper interview that he would call friends and ask the to drive up his prices if they weren't in his target range. His article got picked up and quoted all over the Ebay message boards so they had to act. But other than that it's common and actually a moneymaker for Ebay since a shill bid is still a bid and items that get bid on generate commissions.

I rarely bid early on something, but a couple of years ago I found an item that I really wanted and put in my bid because I wasn't going to be available at the time the auction ended.

When I checked, I had "won" the auction. I pulled up the history (back when you could still see the bidder's name) and saw where only one person had bid against me. Once they passed my highest bid, they "retracted" their high bid leaving me the winner (at my highest bid). They gave their reason as being having bid accidentally (sure, over and over until you passed my price? ).

I reported it to ebay. If they (ebay) were going to allow the individual to retract the "last" bid, then all of their bids should have been retracted on that item (which would have saved me about $50).

Ebay reported that they investigated and found no shill bidding. Give me a break! How much clearer could it have gotten?

I was stupid and took the item that time. I won't ever do it again though. My bid will also be retracted if it happens again.

 

[luvmy3]

I'm fully aware they will most likely be fake - and am bidding accordingly. I refuse to pay $180 for the boots she wants. She will never know the difference and neither will her friends. Assuming they are fake, I'm willing to pay 50% for them. I am only bidding on the ones from sellers with good ratings that have lots of feedback from customers that already bought their boots and are happy with them. (There are good fakes, and then there are just bad fakes).

And yet they are all illegal.

 

[horseshowmom]

And yet they are all illegal.

Yep.

 

[Dominus]

I rarely bid early on something, but a couple of years ago I found an item that I really wanted and put in my bid because I wasn't going to be available at the time the auction ended.

When I checked, I had "won" the auction. I pulled up the history (back when you could still see the bidder's name) and saw where only one person had bid against me. Once they passed my highest bid, they "retracted" their high bid leaving me the winner (at my highest bid). They gave their reason as being having bid accidentally (sure, over and over until you passed my price? ).

I reported it to ebay. If they (ebay) were going to allow the individual to retract the "last" bid, then all of their bids should have been retracted on that item (which would have saved me about $50).

Ebay reported that they investigated and found no shill bidding. Give me a break! How much clearer could it have gotten?

I was stupid and took the item that time. I won't ever do it again though. My bid will also be retracted if it happens again.

The only things ebay really care about are things that could get them bad press. Like how they used to let you sell gun parts, but not guns on Ebay. Then the press reported that the Virginia Tech shooter bought his extra magazines on Ebay. So now, no guns or parts on Ebay. You can bet your last dollar that if shill bidding or fake uggs got Ebay on the news in a bad way that that stuff would end the next day. As long as they're making money, and not getting bad press, they'll whistle past the graveyard.

 

[talulabelle]

And yet they are all illegal.

Like I said, I am bidding low assuming that their being fake is a good possibility. However, I have no way of knowing how these people get their merchandise and whether it's legal or not. I can only worry about myself, not everyone else in the world.

 

[luvmy3]

Like I said, I am bidding low assuming that their being fake is a good possibility. However, I have no way of knowing how these people get their merchandise and whether it's legal or not. I can only worry about myself, not everyone else in the world.

All counterfeit goods are illegal, it doesn't matter how one aquires the merchandise, its illegal to sell it period. Will you be arrested for buying them, no, but don't be fooled that its OK to buy something knowing that its fake but you don know where they get their merchandise, all because you only have to worry about yourself and getting a deal.

 

[beansmom]

yeah, you can't even sell your kids OR a kidney on ebay anymore. Whatta rip.

 

[Cinderella94]

yeah, you can't even sell your kids OR a kidney on ebay anymore. Whatta rip.

 

[talulabelle]

All counterfeit goods are illegal, it doesn't matter how one aquires the merchandise, its illegal to sell it period. Will you be arrested for buying them, no, but don't be fooled that its OK to buy something knowing that its fake but you don know where they get their merchandise, all because you only have to worry about yourself and getting a deal.

I realize it's a possiblilty they are fake, but I don't know they are fake. They are for sale on an auction site that is regulated - I buy them with money. I can't control what people do. If they said "fake and counterfeit in the description, I wouldn't buy - they say "authentic". I'm hoping the description is correct.

 

[scrapquitler]

But if you have any competition, you will certainly be outbid and there is almost no reason to try and bid at all. If you put in lower than your max, or did not bid at all, no one would run the price up over your max and at the last minute you could jump in and get it.

But not everyone can sit at the computer at the auction end, hoping to get their bid in at just the right time. I do as the PP said, I put in my max bid and wait to see. I'm not going to get in on the bidding frenzy at the end and potentially spend more than I want. Most of the time with Ebay things I'm bidding on, if I lose, I lose, its not a big deal to me.

 

[cats mom]

I've been watching auctions for a specific Coach tote religously. The lowest it has sold for was $158 and the highest in the past month or so was $199 (several sold for much more than that when it was first released). So I know I could do a BIN for $185-ish, or I could play around trying to save $20- $25. Chances are I won't save much more than that though, no matter when I bid. I assume Ugg boots would be much the same.

My feeling is that most auctions for similar style/size Ugg boots will probably end within a fairly predictable price range. So whether you bid your max early or in the last few minutes doesn't really matter all that much.

Don't you think you're as likely to get bid up by snipers at the end as you are by early bidders, shill or otherwise, trying to figure out what your max is?