What is your eBay strategy?

[Fat Brian]

In my decade on evilbay I have learned a thing or two about how to win an auction. My first lesson was in the "sniper" technique, for three days I kept bidding on this kit I wanted trying to stay as the highest bidder only to have someone swoop in in the last 10 seonds to outbid me. Lesson learned, you only have to be the highest bidder when the auction ends. Since then I have refined my technique even further, I try to only seriously contend for auctions ending late at night or during work time. I also try to bid on auctions ending on Friday or Saturday night when most people are out doing other things. Tonight I won a Paystar dumptruck and mixer for a grand total of $67, not bad considering what they usually go for.

So, what are you're strategies for scoring on the bay?

[mademan]

I generally only use buy it nows, couldnt be bothered to keep watching stuff.

[martinfan5]

Find the lowest BIN listing for the kits I want, I dont really deal with bidding, but when I do, if I do bid before the end of the auction, I will make the max bid the most I am wanting to spend, and let be, if I win, great, lose , no biggie, that way I wont get caught up in a bidding war. I have also signed up to use the snipping sites, but have not used it yet.

Sometimes, if I am bidding on a kit, and I get out bidded, I will look and see if the same kit is listed, and what the listings are, then match my bids to those other listings

Example, say I am bidding on a kit, and lets say there are 6 of the same kits listed, I will see what the highest listing for said kit, and make my max bid , either right at, or a dollar or two less, I have won a few doing that. Does it means it work, oh heck, I have no idea

Edited June 10, 2012 by martinfan5

[Fat Brian]

I'm a big believer in BIN but sometimes you have to bid to get the best deals, if I can find a BIN for seems like a fair price I will jump on it though.

[martinfan5]

I'm a big believer in BIN but sometimes you have to bid to get the best deals, if I can find a BIN for seems like a fair price I will jump on it though.

I agree, but everyone's idea of a deal is different

And let me add one more thing, shipping also plays a big factor as well, there are many times, before I bid, I am on the calculator crunching numbers to see how much I could end up spending, I dont look at the price of the kits, I look at the total cost before I start bidding.

[jbwelda]

i absolutely hate this trend to "buy it now", right takes the fun out of the whole thing. and usually those BIN people are on fishing expeditions i am not along with.

besides, if i told you my strategy i would have to kill you.

but in general: if you want it, bid a million dollars. you wont end up paying anywhere near that and you WILL win it. (at least in the scale we are talking about).

[Kaleb]

Someone is going to snipe....might as well be you. Generally if its going to be in a bidding war I will leave it alone, unless I really want it. Like a GMC that I bid on to see if anyone would take the hook....they Did three days or so left on it and Ive already been outbid lol it was going for a buck and one buck in shipping. Its 10 bucks now...o well.

If there is no bids a few days out I will bid to see if anyone bites.

I put it in my watch list because I have a smartphone and it reminds me 10 min before it ends.

Never used a sniping site, because well i can do just as good without someone bidding for me and it go over my budget.

[martinfan5]

Sniping wont make you pay more then you want, you put in your max bid, it works the same as if your were bidding on the site its self, so you wont spend anymore money then you want, I would use it more, but I can only seem find the sites that only give you 5 free snipes, then you gotta pay to play

[mademan]

I am very careful about shipping, everyone is out to gouge us canadians. 10.00 buy it now, 37.00 shipping. .... actual shipping cost about 7.00 for a kit regular air mail.

if Im getting fast shipping with tracking I dont mind paying more, but if Im charged 17.00 shipping and it shows up with a 3.50 shipping label.....I will make sure I never buy from that seller again. it may not be money lost from them.... but I but ALLOT

[jbwelda]

i usually charge canadians the same as the usa rate...and in fact strange as it seems it is sometimes cheaper to canada than to USA destinations from california!

i detest that making a profit from shipping business. i wont deal with people who want 2X true cost for shipping. no way. the "handling" is part of the deal...

[Fat Brian]

I agree, but everyone's idea of a deal is different

I will usually look at what a kit is going for in auctions and see if a BIN is close, if it's within five or ten bucks I will get the BIN just to not have to deal with bidding on it. I just bought two AMT 80s Broncos, the BIN was $23 which for a limited run kit that is four years old isn't bad and the aucioned ones weren't going any cheaper so i felt okay going for it.

[1930fordpickup]

I just bid what my top dollar with shipping included would be . If I win cool If I get outbid let the other bidder buy it . Bidding war's are bad for your wallet. Sometimes the buy-it now is cheaper .

[tabsscale1]

First i check the shipping cost and if it is reasonable then i pur in my max bid and don't look at it again. if i win well okay but if I loose I know I will find one later on.

[Junkman]

I am very careful about shipping, everyone is out to gouge us canadians. 10.00 buy it now, 37.00 shipping. .... actual shipping cost about 7.00 for a kit regular air mail.

if Im getting fast shipping with tracking I dont mind paying more, but if Im charged 17.00 shipping and it shows up with a 3.50 shipping label.....I will make sure I never buy from that seller again. it may not be money lost from them.... but I but ALLOT

Same with us Europeans. They list a kit for $11.00 and $27.00 shipping, it's even more disproportional with diecasts.

However, I read several times lately, that Ebay only allows them to list a pre-fab flat rate which is a lot higher than the actual shipping cost and that international bidders should enquire despite a fee is listed. It turned out that the actual shipping cost then was a lot lower than what was stated in the listing.

Also, for new kits, simply stick with a vendor you got a good deal at. They love repeat customers and will go to great lengths to keep you happy.

[Lownslow]

aim low.

[martinfan5]

Intl shipping sucks for everyone, I passed up many kits that I want because the shipping to the states from the seller location was two to three times the price of the kit.

Shipping from the UK to the USA is very high, same with shipping from AUS-USA or vise versa, then you have to deal with exchange rates. So those are two country's I wont buy from, just the cost is to high. Well I do buy my NASCAR decals from a guy from Australia , but shippings is only a few dollars

You can always tell the sellers that are out to make money, I find it funny how one seller will charge say $8 to ship a kit, then a different seller is charging $15 to ship the same kit .

Edited June 10, 2012 by martinfan5

[Johnny K]

The high cost of shipping internationally is due, in large part, to the tracking dilemma. Unfortunately, the bottom line is that sellers must have protection. I can ship a kit by First Class International to Canada for $9.15 (up to 2 Lbs.); the same kit by Priority is $25.80. I buy and sell a few hundred kits a year and have only had 1 instance in which a package was not received (buyer admits that several packages were stolen from his porch the day of delivery) when tracking was used. On the other hand, I've had about half a dozen claimed not received when items were shipped First Class International with no tracking. This could be due to poor handling in change-over to another country's mail service or Customs, but regardless, it costs me money. Neither eBsy nor PayPal will offer seller protection in the absence of a tracking number.

In checking feedback left by one of the individuals that claimed to have not received the package, I found that he had left 6 negatives (and no positives) over a 6-week period - all stating that he never received the item purchased. In looking at the item descriptions, I saw that they were all shipped internationally. Seems a bit much of a coincidence that he didn't receive every item he ordered. I, of course, gave him a full refund.

I realize that most people, here or abroad, don't engage in that sort of activity, but it only takes a few to seriously hurt sales figures. Additionally, to require the higher cost shipping with tracking and delivery info merely serves to alienate buyers and result in lower star ratings which, in turn, results in higher fees. For that reason, I no longer ship kits and parts internationally, though I would like to.

As to the original question from the OP: last few seconds is usually the way to go - though there are exceptions.

[Mike Kucaba]

BID LOW ... SELL HIGH

[Junkman]

The high cost of shipping internationally is due, in large part, to the tracking dilemma. Unfortunately, the bottom line is that sellers must have protection. I can ship a kit by First Class International to Canada for $9.15 (up to 2 Lbs.); the same kit by Priority is $25.80. I buy and sell a few hundred kits a year and have only had 1 instance in which a package was not received (buyer admits that several packages were stolen from his porch the day of delivery) when tracking was used. On the other hand, I've had about half a dozen claimed not received when items were shipped First Class International with no tracking. This could be due to poor handling in change-over to another country's mail service or Customs, but regardless, it costs me money. Neither eBsy nor PayPal will offer seller protection in the absence of a tracking number.

In checking feedback left by one of the individuals that claimed to have not received the package, I found that he had left 6 negatives (and no positives) over a 6-week period - all stating that he never received the item purchased. In looking at the item descriptions, I saw that they were all shipped internationally. Seems a bit much of a coincidence that he didn't receive every item he ordered. I, of course, gave him a full refund.

I realize that most people, here or abroad, don't engage in that sort of activity, but it only takes a few to seriously hurt sales figures. Additionally, to require the higher cost shipping with tracking and delivery info merely serves to alienate buyers and result in lower star ratings which, in turn, results in higher fees. For that reason, I no longer ship kits and parts internationally, though I would like to.

As to the original question from the OP: last few seconds is usually the way to go - though there are exceptions.

Of course what I wrote only works when both, the seller and the buyer are honest people. Hence I tend to only shop with certain vendors I can trust and they know that they can trust me. This is not only the case with vendors in America, but many other countries I buy from.

I had my share of bad experience too when sending abroad, predominantly with specific countries. I do not believe that there is such a thing as 'lost in the mail' and impute foul play. Since, as you say, there is zero seller protection on Ebay otherwise, I send stuff overseas exclusively tracked now, unless it is a repeat client I have a mutual agreement with. But I don't use the expensive services of Royal Mail to send tracked. There are loads of cheaper international courier services and you can get the cheapest rate via certain internet portals that broker your parcel to the cheapest carrier.

What annoys me much more though, than Ebay being such a legal minefield for sellers, is the mentality of many buyers. If you can't get the 40 year old kit they wanted so bad for the past 20 years and finally won after a ten day auction to their door halfways across the world within 24 hours after the auction end, they'll see fit that your seller rating is smashed. Bloody idiots.

Edited June 10, 2012 by Junkman

[mr moto]

Snipers are not sitting there waiting until the last ten seconds. They're using something like this:

https://www.bidrobot.com/

My strategy is use Bidrobot, bid exactly what I'd like to pay, and then don't look at it again unless Ebay tells me I won. You have to pay to join Bidrobot but it's very reasonable. The way it works is that you pay for a membership that lasts so many days OR until you win items totalling a certain amount whichever comes last. If you don't bid too much (like me) it can be a lifetime membership. I've used it for years and never had to renew.

[Harry P.]

I never bid. I only look at BIN items and pick the one with the lowest total cost (item plus shipping). I don't care what the item cost is, I don't care what shipping cost is... all I'm looking at is total cost.

[Fat Brian]

See, I wish they would do something about the autobidding sites. If you want something you should have to actually be present to bid on it. I always bid on things in person so I can see how the bidding going.

Edited June 10, 2012 by Fat Brian

[sjordan2]

Most of the kits I've bought on eBay are rare and generally out of production, and can get quite expensive. Upside: fewer bidders; Downside: the ones who want these rare kits are willing to pay some bucks. Very few of these listings have a Buy It Now option.

Anyway, I bookmark the listing and note shipping costs, the end time and date. I check over the following days to see if the same kit comes up elsewhere (sometimes, other sellers will list a kit like one they see in play) then I check toward the end of bidding and enter my maximum bid. But I don't pull the trigger on the bid until time starts running out. Then I usually let the bid go on automatic (unless I want it enough to get into a bidding war).

Edited June 10, 2012 by sjordan2

[Johnny K]

Snipers are not sitting there waiting until the last ten seconds. . .

Actually, a lot of them (probably most) of them are - that's an integral part of the fun.

If you're going to hire someone to take all your personal information and do the job for you, might as well go ahead and hire someone to build the model too. Well, that's just my opinion; perhaps others don't enjoy the game as much as I. I do admit, personally, I would be much more likely to pay someone to build a model for me than to bid for me.

[Harry P.]

Actually, a lot of them (probably most) of them are - that's an integral part of the fun.

If you're going to hire someone to take all your personal information and do the job for you, might as well go ahead and hire someone to build the model too.

People use sniping sites because they can get that bid in at the last possible millisecond, faster than you can do it "in person."