Paul Succumbs to Auction Sites

FROM: Paul
DATE: Saturday December 30, 2000 -- 12:30:09AM

As a postscript, I am pleased to announce that I won the camera. :)

FROM: Robert
DATE: Saturday December 30, 2000 -- 12:37:32AM

I've always thought "won" is the wrong word to use when you're talking about bidding. Maybe we should say something like "I was willing to put up the most".

FROM: Paul
DATE: Saturday December 30, 2000 -- 12:56:05AM

Well, I like to pretend like I just won on The Price is Right, although I had to pay for the item. And, I didn't even offer to put up the most; it was a Dutch bid, so the lowest bid was what everyone paid.

FROM: Terry Murphy
DATE: Saturday December 30, 2000 -- 1:05:00AM

For the first six months of this year, I spent every single dime I earned (minus food, rent, and utilities) on eBay, and bought all sorts of computers and equipment. In retrospect, it was a much better investment than the market, amazingly.

I ALWAYS bid right at the end, within the last minute. This does require elaborate planning. It is stupid to vote early on, because you do nothing but drive up the price. Sometimes, my frustrated competitors would e-mail me complaining after I stole their auction with 10 seconds remaining. In fact, I do not understand why eBay has such LONG auctions, when everybody votes in the last minute.

Early last year (i.e., 1999), some friends and I discovered that we could make money by buying something new online and selling it on eBay. We bought Palm Pilot's from buy.com, and even after us paying shipping, tax, and eBay fees, we made approximately $20 profit on Palm Pilot's, doing no work. Basically: most people who bid on eBay are not too smart, and do not know what the item actually costs. I would strongly advise against bidding on new items on eBay unless you are very sure it's not available online cheaper (and have a very firm maximum bid in mind or you'll bid forever)

FROM: Rob
DATE: Saturday December 30, 2000 -- 10:57:53AM

Hey, Paul... I was actually looking at getting that particular camera. Let me know how it is when you get it.

I'm repeatedly stunned at how ignorant your average eBay buyer is. There are the people who'll bid on the first day just a couple dollars over the opening price and hope that they get it. And then there are the people who just have no idea how much something is worth. I've been looking for a new CPU for my machine and I've consistently seen the one I'm looking at go for $25-50 over the best price I've seen on pricewatch. There's even stuff that goes for higher than if you just took a trip to the mall and got it there. It gets really frustrating, since those people drive the prices up on stuff I want. :P

FROM: Cat
DATE: Saturday December 30, 2000 -- 3:51:28PM

What astonishes me most is that bidding in the last minute, or "sniping", is considered rude. I think folks that complain about being outbid are just whiners. Dammit, if I'm going to go to the trouble to track an auction, I *will* get what I want, at a reasonable price. Since that means sniping, I am the Sniping Queen.

FROM: Rob
DATE: Saturday December 30, 2000 -- 3:59:42PM

Yeah. There are far too many snipers out there that if you don't become one yourself, your chances of getting what you want are fairly slim.

I can't believe the people who do the 8 or 9 day auctions. Like that's going to get more people to bid on it. If I see an auction that's not over for 8 days, I tend to ignore it.

FROM: Matt
DATE: Sunday December 31, 2000 -- 12:00:10AM

The two things I have purchased on ebay were an Autographed photo of Tom Gugliotta and a Boogiemonsters God Sound LP. I got that one in the mail today. Those are about the only things that I have seen that I have desired.

FROM: Robert
DATE: Sunday December 31, 2000 -- 2:50:34AM

Matt--Great stuff like an autographed Greaseman photo could only be free.

FROM: Maria
DATE: Sunday December 31, 2000 -- 3:53:31AM

I got hooked, you might say, on eBay in October and have purchased a number of things since then, from posters to Care Bears and everything in-between. I always wanted a Care Bear as a kid but never had one. Now, 10-12 years later, I was able to narrow it down to three that I probably would have wanted, but couldn't remember exactly which one, so I got all three--at auction prices it really wasn't a bad deal.
My worst eBay experience was trying to get a North Face coat. I tried everything--proxy bidding, sniping, etc., and ALWAYS got outbid with about 20 seconds left in the auction. And I guess I am one of the people who whines about that, because it sucks if you really want something and should have gotten it but somebody beat you out at literally the last second by only $0.50. I did finally get one, though, although not my first color choice, but I like it anyway.

FROM: Paul
DATE: Tuesday January 16, 2001 -- 10:15:09PM

Rob - so far, the camera is sweet. I think a Ping about it will be forthcoming, so hold tight.

FROM: Sean
DATE: Thursday June 7, 2001 -- 3:57:18PM

I suspect that tons of bootleg DVDs are being sold on ebay. How do I know what's legitimate and what's not? Please email me and let me know if you have any information. Thanx!

FROM: Robert
DATE: Thursday June 7, 2001 -- 4:00:27PM

My first rule: If you're not going to check out the bidder, don't bid more than you can afford to lose.

FROM: Robertr
DATE: Thursday June 7, 2001 -- 4:00:54PM

Of course, I meant "the seller". D'oh!

FROM: Ryan
DATE: Thursday June 7, 2001 -- 11:12:48PM

LOTS of people have been getting burned on Ebay... not necessarily by bootleg DVDs (which aren't too much of a problem yet), but by bogus sellers or buyers.

If you want inexpensive DVDs, find some used ones at half.com (where there's a guarantee) or new at Deepdiscountdvd.com.

FROM: franko
DATE: Wednesday May 19, 2004 -- 7:50:14 am

Yo check it - http://www.mannequin3d.com/powerbook/. This was in slashdot so chances are it's old news for this geek crowd. Figured this was as good a ping as any to post it to. Funny stuff and it was time for my once-a-year posting. I'll go back to my normal state now: sleep(60*60*24*365).

FROM: Joseph
DATE: Wednesday May 19, 2004 -- 9:56:52 am

There's some moron right now who bid on Kodachrome film--ten rolls for $144.95! If you run a google search for Kodachrome, you can get it from some site for $7.95 a roll. You can walk to the photo shop down the street and get it for $8.95 a roll.

Dumbass!

FROM: Ken
DATE: Monday December 20, 2004 -- 10:30:57 pm

Yea, this guy wrote an elaborate story on how he had a haunted rubber ducky and it was possessed by the devil and the bidding with up to 117, it is prolly not listed naymore but it was pretty funny. I buy things from ebay all the itme, you can get great deals, it started with phone covers for 3 dollars compared to 15 and then i would just buy things you couldnt buy things to resell at school, it didnt work well, i tried selling skating stickers and bracelts but it didnt work, i usually spend about 75% of my income on ebay right now, i got xbox things and this really cool neon light for 35 bucks, it was only 5 but shipping form china was 30 which sucked.