Strange Ebay incident - opinions needed

jpfx, I have had that happen to me too, bleeding annoying

2 possibilities.

1. The seller has more than one of the item and neither makes it known that he/she does and also doesn't list them all at once, this promotes a better environment for getting the maximum sale price.

2. The seller themselves, or with help of friends drive the sale price up in the last hour, and compete against you, in a bid to reach the maximum sale price. If they end up with the highest bid, there is no real "sale" as such, just the online perception that there is one, and the item is relisted.

For some sellers, its all about reaching the maximum sale price.

In the world of Ebay, its all about buyer beware. If you missed out this time, don't worry about it too much, don't get emotional since this could lead you to overbidding the next time and paying too much for something just so you can "win". Just play it cool. You will eventually get what you want for the price you want.

i bought my zaurus on ebay. seller had it listed in such a way that when i bought it the listing was there again immediately. (perfectly legal. and seller has a LOT of those zauruses at a nice price)

wally, please give us the link!!!

jpfx, so you use a sniper? is this a dedicated app?
hmm i don't believe in last second bidding. i have a more sophisticated method

I'm hearing good advice, thanks all. I'll post the listings after I take a second shot at the item and look into feedback between the vendor and so-called buyer. I have a plan.

Now, Monica, you seem to do well on ebay (IMO). You're always getting good deals. Is your method proprietary or are you willing to share?

Second shot - there's another key phrase. I just got an extended battery for my Jornada through something eBay calls a "Second Chance" offer. eBay explains that it is being offered either because the high bidder essentially flaked out, or because the seller has more than one - and thus used the first auction to gauge offers on other units. (Pretty slick, but frankly I can't really fault 'em for that - it is an efficient way to get the best offers in the least time.) Even though I was apparently outbid by several bidders in the original auction, the seller offered it to me at exactly what I bid the first time. (In my case, though, the "Second Chance" offer didn't show up until several hours after the end of the original auction.)

BTW, I had a strange eBay experience myself today: I bid on an Intermec 6651 twenty minutes before the end of the auction because I had to go to work - and NOBODY bid after me! I ended up snaring it for about $150.

Edited by CE Geek 2006-03-10 12:55 AM

Nice shot with the Intermec 6651, CE Geek.

Wallythacker: I don't blame you for not wanting to post the link...
"Oh! I'm sorry, were you buying that? Mine now...! Heh heh heh..."

Yeah, but I'm getting that suspicious feeling - you know, why didn't anyone else bid; what do they know that I don't? (Can't help it - paranoia is my hobby.)

You know, nobody had bid on the item I was after and there were only 8 views. Kinda makes you wonder what's going on in general

edit. Great snag on the 6651. That's the best price for one I know from ebay.

Still, 6651s for $150, 720s for $120, those prices are really low IMO. What does everyone else know that we don't? Is the end of the world around the corner or what?

Are we so cloistered here the reality of the outside world is passing us by?

Edited by wallythacker 2006-03-10 3:33 AM

Great deal on the 6651. How about those auctions where the seller lists something he doesn't really understand....for instance auctions with titles like this:

NEC Mobiopro laptop or Joranda 720 pda....you see them all the time, and no one bids on them because they don't show up in an eBay search...you just have to manually scan all the items in Consumer Electronics listing...and even better yet is when they have been online for 4 or 5 days and have only a couple of days to go.

Then you send the seller a note along these lines: "How about you end your auction early and I'll pay you immediately for the item...the Joranda 720 isn't even supported any longer by HP, they quit making them years back and they are only worth about $50 brand new these days....but I need one for parts for mine that broke, so I'll give you $75 right now...." You save the end of auction fees (illegal by eBays rules) and make more than you will if you let it run the course where you will get only about $10 if you are lucky"

Works every time....almost.

Rich

I'm assuming that you're saying that the seller, not knowing the correct spelling, can't find the other auctions on the same item to compare bids.

Re: search
It took me a while to figure that out, but a lot of sellers don't know the difference between a large-screen H/PC and a notebook PC, so as I found out, you have to do general searches under both "Consumer Electronics" and "Computers and Networking" for units like the Clio, 6651 (which has Windows 98 and Windows 2000 counterparts), or Samsung Izzi Pro. At the same time, though, that's not always due to seller ignorance. It can be marketing skill - list it where you expect to find buyers.

What outside world?

Ok heres a reversal of sorts....

Ok i was bidding on somthing, oh i remember my sandisk 128mb.wifi card i was out bit last minute by 5 dollars over what i maid my maxiumum bid, theen no more then 2 minutes later i get a message for a 2nd chance offer for the last price that i bid before i got out bid...How you like them apples?

Sounds like someone was padding their own crib thcrw739...he bid on his own item to jack up the price, when no one bid higher, he offered it to you since you were the last real bidder....

Rich

well i already described my method in other threads..

also as i live in the EU i can get sometimes good deals as there are fewer bidders overall





wow nice one. hope the touch screen wont be too flaky, maybe they just didn't calibrate it well! (i watched that auction myself) that could be why no one bid, but maybe not.. (this thing was mentioned in the description.)

btw, there's another intermec now. don't buy it!! it's hpc pro! according to the photos.. seller is stupid, quoting the standard specs (with hpc2000 of course)..

Edited by cmonex 2006-03-10 5:51 PM

I saw that taskbar issue, and I figured it might be corrected by recalibrating. But it may go off calibration a lot, like my Phenom does. Maybe, just maybe, it'll turn out to have a loose digitizer cable connection (in which case look for a new thread by me asking for advice how to dismantle the screen to fix it), but since I got it for about $200 less than almost all the other recently offered 6651s' selling prices, it's hard to imagine how it won't be worth it.

Oh, and I saw the other 6651 you're talking about. Are you sure it's H/PC Pro? I see it doesn't have the standard H/PC 2000 logo, but of course that's changeable in the Control Panel. (I'm well aware, though, that the early 6651s were H/PC Pro.)

thcrw739: That sounds exactly like what happened to me. But I don't think the "Second Chance" offer popped up nearly that soon afterward in my case - so maybe I was less suspicious (though in any event I thought that I was still getting a good price).

Edited by CE Geek 2006-03-11 4:00 AM