eBay getting worse all the time.

[HatefulGravey]

Normally I don't go to eBay for much of anything. Even looking to check for prices is a joke with all the BIN crap going on all over the place. I remember when eBay was an auction web site, not it is just a store front for people with big wants and small means, and a way to rip off new people coming into our hobby.

 

Last night my wife said she wanted to get me something I didn't have in the classic gaming world for our anniversary and wanted to spend around $100. I went to looking on eBay just to see if maybe there was something there I wanted that I just hadn't seen here in a while. There sure was but the prices have gotten much much crazier over the last few months it would seem.

 

I'm used to seeing one or two people asking insane prices for boxed games or systems. You normally see then over and over again every time you search because they just keep relisting them. It would seem everyone is trying to cash in on this now. For example, the Atari Jaguar used to sell for a reasonable price, now a boxed unit has a $300 BIN on it 9 times out of 10.

 

Everyone thinks they have something made of gold in the closet and I have had just about all I can take of the auction shows and pawn shows making people think they can get rich over night from some old stuff they thought was worthless. People don't pay enough attention to the details anymore.

 

/rant

[disjaukifa]

eBay isn't completely at fault though I have to agree with what you say. Too many people hear about the stories of Air Raid selling for 30K on eBay. What also doesn't help is the economy being as it is, a lot of people are trying to get our of debt . . . by selling their stuff completely over-priced. The stupid thing is they are just getting themselves in more debt by listing those ridiculous items because they have to pay the eBay host.

 

You can still find gems on eBay, you just have to be very careful with your searches and unfortunately sift through a lot of crap.

 

Example, picked up 15 Atari 5200 games in great shape for 15 shipped on eBay. Yeah you could argue if that is a good deal or not, but it was an auction that I sniped right at the end.

 

Patience is the big key on eBay now and days.

[boxpressed]

Because I've been collecting for a little over a year and a half, I don't know how eBay used to be for retro games, but there do seem to be a lot of quasi-scams to wade through these days. Now that I've gotten most of the consoles I want, I go to eBay pretty much to find uncommon stuff--rarities, protos, etc. However, sometimes I wonder about how ethical it is for me to buy something that I know is undervalued, yet not say a word about it to the seller. I wonder if this is the flip side to the seller taking a flyer on a $4K NES listing; we're both hoping to benefit from the other party's lack of knowledge. Still thinking about this.

[disjaukifa]

I go for the good deals . . . period. I try to find stuff by un-clear listing, mis-spelling, etc. I'm not buying to resell and gaina profit, so for me I don't really ever worry about that too much . . .

 

I know that might seem mean and un-fair of me to do, but if you aren't even going to bother spell checking your listing, or researching what other listings are ending for, I don't feel bad buying it from you at a good price. If the seller is happy with the sale, I think that is all that really matters. Sure we'd all love to be able to sell our stuff for a great sum of money, its just not really going to happen however . . .

Edited September 20, 2011 by disjaukifa

[HatefulGravey]

I agree with the point about the economy. It was on my mind in the original post but that post was long enough without more added ranting .

 

I did buy Dragonstomper for the 2600 supercharger on eBay last night. I over paid by a few bucks but I really wanted that game so I was on with it. It isn't like I got taken to the cleaners on it or anything.

 

I wouldn't blame eBay for everything either. Its more like eBay is the means that people use to be stupid about things. Its like people that don't like sports cars because they are fast and people tend to get speeding tickets. The car isn't to blame, but it is the means that people use to be stupid. eBay breeds stupid I swear. people that are lazy enough not to do full research will look fast, see a price and run with it. In high school you have to have more then 1 source for your research paper, why not apply that in life to your business moves?

 

The sniping thing I don't get either. Bid your max and be done with it. If you are bidding you max and letting the system do its thing you will when or lose based on what it is worth to you. If you are trying to snipe you run th risk of spending more then you really should. I go to live auctions a few times a week and this is the same deal there. Set a max price and stick to it. Sniping just doesn't seem to be a good idea to me. I know people use it well, but it just isn't for me. I'll win or not, it isn't that big of a deal.

[Rex Dart]

I go for the good deals . . . period. I try to find stuff by un-clear listing, mis-spelling, etc. I'm not buying to resell and gaina profit, so for me I don't really ever worry about that too much . . .

 

I know that might seem mean and un-fair of me to do, but if you aren't even going to bother spell checking your listing, or researching what other listings are ending for, I don't feel bad buying it from you at a good price. If the seller is happy with the sale, I think that is all that really matters. Sure we'd all love to be able to sell our stuff for a great sum of money, its just not really going to happen however . . .

All aboard the Nintindo/Atarti/Genisis train! I do this all the time too. I thought everybody knew that's how you find good deals on ebay; not by looking through their goofy catalog listings they're trying to force on everybody, but by searching for common typos & mislabeled stuff. Sellers who don't know what they've got in that box don't know what it's worth, either.

 

The sniping thing I don't get either. Bid your max and be done with it. If you are bidding you max and letting the system do its thing you will when or lose based on what it is worth to you. If you are trying to snipe you run th risk of spending more then you really should. I go to live auctions a few times a week and this is the same deal there. Set a max price and stick to it. Sniping just doesn't seem to be a good idea to me. I know people use it well, but it just isn't for me. I'll win or not, it isn't that big of a deal.

 

I don't get it either. eBay does the sniping for you, so what's the point of not bidding until the end?

Edited September 20, 2011 by Rex Dart

[disjaukifa]

The sniping thing I don't get either. Bid your max and be done with it. If you are bidding you max and letting the system do its thing you will when or lose based on what it is worth to you. If you are trying to snipe you run th risk of spending more then you really should. I go to live auctions a few times a week and this is the same deal there. Set a max price and stick to it. Sniping just doesn't seem to be a good idea to me. I know people use it well, but it just isn't for me. I'll win or not, it isn't that big of a deal.

 

To respond with this, every time I just place a bid on an item and then forget about it I lose it on eBay, people will keep placing small bids till they out bid me, so I've found it more agreeable to me to watch an auction and place my "max" bid at the last moment, and surprise the people that have been increasing their bids ever so slight to try to keep the cost low and get a good deal.

 

Its how I got those Atari 5200 carts, its how I got Berzerk the board game for 5 bucks the other night on eBay, its how I've won almost all the items I've ever purchased on eBay. If you just go ahead a bid your max your willing to pay, more than likely someone is willing to pay more and just increasing the price till either they are winning, or they don't want it anymore and you are stuck paying more.

 

I find for me personally I've saved well over 1K by sniping on eBay . . .

[boxpressed]

If you want true bargains on correctly-listed and described items, the only way to get them is to find an underpriced BIN or to snipe. I wish eBay kept track of how often I was the second-place bidder after a snipe attempt. I've probably made them hundreds of dollars in extra commission that way just over the last couple of years.

[Rex Dart]

To respond with this, every time I just place a bid on an item and then forget about it I lose it on eBay, people will keep placing small bids till they out bid me, so I've found it more agreeable to me to watch an auction and place my max bid at the last moment, and surprise the people that have been increasing their bids ever so slight to try to keep the cost low and get a good deal.

If you just go ahead a bid your max your willing to pay, more than likely someone is willing to pay more and just increasing the price till either they are winning, or they don't want it anymore and you are stuck paying more.

 

It's all in your head. You place your max bid, the other guy places his, eBay compares the values and determines which is higher. That's how it works. It doesn't matter if you place your max bid at the start or at the end, ebay still awards the auction to the higher bid. Just decide what you're willing to pay, plunk it down on the auction, wait for it to end.

Why is this difficult? People aren't outbidding you because they're placing small bids until they've outbid you; they're simply willing to spend more than you are.

[the.golden.ax]

Use ePay to window shop if you need to, then ask me for what you've seen

 

AX

[disjaukifa]

To respond with this, every time I just place a bid on an item and then forget about it I lose it on eBay, people will keep placing small bids till they out bid me, so I've found it more agreeable to me to watch an auction and place my max bid at the last moment, and surprise the people that have been increasing their bids ever so slight to try to keep the cost low and get a good deal.

If you just go ahead a bid your max your willing to pay, more than likely someone is willing to pay more and just increasing the price till either they are winning, or they don't want it anymore and you are stuck paying more.

 

It's all in your head. You place your max bid, the other guy places his, eBay compares the values and determines which is higher. That's how it works. It doesn't matter if you place your max bid at the start or at the end, ebay still awards the auction to the higher bid. Just decide what you're willing to pay, plunk it down on the auction, wait for it to end.

Why is this difficult? People aren't outbidding you because they're placing small bids until they've outbid you; they're simply willing to spend more than you are.

 

That is very true and I understand how eBay's bidding system works, however I've also found I tend to spend more when I'm out bid and if found that if someone is watching an auction, it gets down to 6 hours left with no bids, a person will place a bid on it, but not with their "maximum" amount their willing to spend because they think "Hey n ones bid on this, I've got this one in the bag", so I can save money that way as well.

 

Honestly its just a point of view, I don't like losing so for me, its better to snipe, lose and not be able to increase my bid and than place my max bid . . . see I've lost and then bid more money just because I don't want to lose.

 

I still stand by my statement though that its saved me money by not posting my bid for others to try to out bid with days or hours left to go . . .

[disjaukifa]

Use ePay to window show if you need to, then ask me for what you've seen

 

AX

 

Come on Ax, you know I come to you for all my hardware needs

[Rex Dart]

 

I tend to spend more when I'm out bid and if found that if someone is watching an auction, it gets down to 6 hours left with no bids, a person will place a bid on it, but not with their "maximum" amount they're willing to spend because they think "Hey, no one's bid on this, I've got this one in the bag", so I can save money that way as well.

That's their mistake for not understanding how eBay works.

Honestly its just a point of view, I don't like losing so for me, its better to snipe, lose and not be able to increase my bid and than place my max bid . . . see I've lost and then bid more money just because I don't want to lose.

That's your mistake for not understanding how eBay works.

I still stand by my statement though that its saved me money by not posting my bid for others to try to out bid with days or hours left to go . . .

That's not how eBay works. But hey, have fun pretending it does. Seems like eBay sniping is something of a religious experience for some people.

[the.golden.ax]

eBay sniping is something of a religious experience for some people.

 

Adrenaline addicts atari age anonymous.

 

AX

[disjaukifa]

 

I tend to spend more when I'm out bid and if found that if someone is watching an auction, it gets down to 6 hours left with no bids, a person will place a bid on it, but not with their "maximum" amount they're willing to spend because they think "Hey, no one's bid on this, I've got this one in the bag", so I can save money that way as well.

That's their mistake for not understanding how eBay works.

Honestly its just a point of view, I don't like losing so for me, its better to snipe, lose and not be able to increase my bid and than place my max bid . . . see I've lost and then bid more money just because I don't want to lose.

That's your mistake for not understanding how eBay works.

I still stand by my statement though that its saved me money by not posting my bid for others to try to out bid with days or hours left to go . . .

That's not how eBay works. But hey, have fun pretending it does. Seems like eBay sniping is something of a religious experience for some people.

 

1st statement I agree with.

 

2nd statement makes no sense at all. I understand perfectly how eBay works, what I was saying is I know how I am, Using a sniping tool prevents me from spending too much money . . . exactly how does that mean I don't know how eBay works?

 

3rd statment . . . maybe your right, maybe I'm right, but from my experience of 11 years on eBay from my observation, its has saved me money, more buy preventing me from bidding than anything else. I know for a snipe to work you have to still bid higher than the current bid, I'm not incompetent, but I do realize that for me personally using a snipe tool to give me one chance to win an item prevents me from getting into a bidding war on eBay.

 

I didn't know sniping was a religious experience for people I know there are people out their that sit there and refresh a page waiting for an item to end, I have a program that does it for me, much much simpler, I'll set up my snipe days before and forget about it.

 

Honestly I think we both have valid points however I do know how eBay works and I've made the above statements from personal experience and observation. Just because you haven't seen the same thing, which is fine and highly possible, doesn't automatically mean I don't know how eBay works . . .

Edited September 20, 2011 by disjaukifa

[HatefulGravey]

My collecting has out paced the ability of people here to keep up with very often. This normally means I don't get new items as often as I could or want to. This said however I'm about to send Ax a list of games I saw on eBay that I would like to own and lets see what the deal really is. I'm taking the Pepsi challenge between Ax and eBay lets us see whats really up....

[boxpressed]

Sniping removes one variable from the auction process: a bidder's choice to raise his or her maximum bid. I've talked myself into raising my initial maximum bid, even though I told myself that $X was all I was going to spend. But let's say that a vast majority of people don't change their minds and don't raise their maximum bids. If only 1 person in 100 does so, and if your snipe bid prevents the other buyer from upping his or her maximum bid, then you save money if you do indeed win the auction. I'd say it happens a lot more than 1% of the time. It's up to the buyer to decide if it is worth all the trouble, but sniping does save you money for the simple fact that some people change their minds.

[jetset]

I remember when eBay was an auction web site, not it is just a store front for people with big wants and small means, and a way to rip off new people coming into our hobby.

 

 

This.

Ebay originally was just an online garage sale. People getting rid of stuff they no longer wanted and hoped to make a few bucks. Then greed kicked in...professional sellers and resellers started swamping ebay. They used less than honest tactics like keyword spamming, shipping inflation, and the (old) feedback system to deceive buyers as well as ebay. Ebay finally opened their eyes by limiting shipping, more closely monitoring listings, and fixing the feedback system. Unfortunately those corrections do more harm to the few honest sellers left than to the crooks, and prices are getting out of control.

I still use ebay but nearly as often as I used to. Unfortunately, the alternatives suck.

[Rex Dart]

Sniping removes one variable from the auction process: a bidder's choice to raise his or her maximum bid. I've talked myself into raising my initial maximum bid, even though I told myself that $X was all I was going to spend. But let's say that a vast majority of people don't change their minds and don't raise their maximum bids. If only 1 person in 100 does so, and if your snipe bid prevents the other buyer from upping his or her maximum bid, then you save money if you do indeed win the auction. I'd say it happens a lot more than 1% of the time. It's up to the buyer to decide if it is worth all the trouble, but sniping does save you money for the simple fact that some people change their minds.

So how is that more to your advantage than just being honest with yourself and placing your maximum bid in the first place?

[boxpressed]

In my case, my snipe bid *is* my maximum bid almost all of the time. Here's how I see it working to my advantage (for the sake of argument, I will go ahead and claim that it is advantageous to save money):

 

Item has a $10 bid from another buyer, billshatner. I know I want to spend $20 on it. Let's say I put in a max bid of $20, and I become the leading bidder at $11. So, it turns out that $10 was billshatner's max bid. billshatner now has until auction close to change his mind about the $10 max bid. Let's also say that one time in a hundred, billshatner will change his mind and raise his max bid, in this case to $15. I am still the leading bidder, but now I have to pay $16 for the item. So, I pay more because billshatner had time to change his mind.

 

If I snipe and put in a bid with three seconds left, there is no way that billshatner will be able to raise his max bid in time, and I get the item for $11. And this example has only one competing bidder. At its simplest, sniping is using the element of surprise to your advantage. Other buyers don't know you're there. When they do know you're there because you placed a bid, they can do things that will cost you money, just as billshatner did.

 

It saves money in the long run, but again, it is up to the buyer to decide whether it is worth being parked in front of the computer (I know there are sniping services, but I don't trust them yet).

Edited September 20, 2011 by boxpressed

[+batari]

That's your mistake for not understanding how eBay works.

That's how eBay was supposed to work, but the reality is that when enough people don't actually place their max bid then wait, sniping becomes very effective.

 

Sniping also helps reduce shill bidding and can allow bid increments less than the normal minimum in many cases.

[HatefulGravey]

Is there a way to disable the damned store listings? Everytime I search something I'm first hit with half a page or more of these store ads and then when I hit the page 2 button... MORE STORE CRAP! I don't mind the store thing more then I mind eBay, but when I'm looking for auctions I want auctions. The stores are the places with the highest prices most of the time anyway.

[31336haxx0r]

Don't forget that some folks go some sort of "buying berzerk" aka "MUST WIN THIS AUCTION!", so poor billshatner may bid 25 bucks even if he only wanted to bid 10 bucks.

 

@HatefulGravey: on the left side of the listing screen are check boxes for auctions only and BIN only.

Edited September 20, 2011 by 31336haxx0r

[20ohm20]

I went to the post office this afternoon to pick up some Atari 2600 carts that I bought from someone on eBay. They sent them USPS media mail and I had to make up the difference in shipping (it was only ~$2, but that's besides the point). Oh, they also put six carts in a padded envelope, loose, with NO other packing...so two of them arrived cracked. Of course one of the cracked carts is the one I wanted the most in the entire lot...

 

And my experience with placing a maximum bid instead of sniping at the last second has been that I will be outbid at the last minute, 100% of them time, regardless of what the item is or how much I've bid.

[disjaukifa]

I went to the post office this afternoon to pick up some Atari 2600 carts that I bought from someone on eBay. They sent them USPS media mail and I had to make up the difference in shipping (it was only ~$2, but that's besides the point). Oh, they also put six carts in a padded envelope, loose, with NO other packing...so two of them arrived cracked. Of course one of the cracked carts is the one I wanted the most in the entire lot...

 

And my experience with placing a maximum bid instead of sniping at the last second has been that I will be outbid at the last minute, 100% of them time, regardless of what the item is or how much I've bid.

 

Thats why I ask now before I pay for a shipping quote for games to be shipped in a box and now a padded envelope