Who here hates on-line sellers sometimes?

[jb143]

You want a great deal for your collection. A reseller wants a great deal for their wallet. It's the same concept. If you feel that game would command $100 on the market, you should have placed a higher bid. Better yet, if you really wanted to be fair, you should have messaged the seller about their rare item. You're concerned with a "good" deal but what about the uninformed seller? Don't they deserve a "good" deal too by receiving closer to appraisal value for their rare item? Exactly.


So now its my job to tell the seller what a game is worth? it was a open auction that's what she was trying to find out? I still don't know what it's worth, its the first one I seen for sale. I'm really just guessing what he will sell it for. but to me it was worth a lot.The real point is it drives inflated prices on games and we all lose, unless we sell!@_@
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<from a re-seller forum>
Who here hates collectors sometimes?
Just lost a bid to one of them. Granted anybody can bid but they just want it to collect. As you can see I'm a little pissed about it.The auction was for 8 ps1 games, the seller didn't know she had a very rare game in it. I was hopping nobody else did either, I really thought that I was going to win when this collector came out of nowhere and won. It doesn't matter to them that's more valuable, they just want to collect it. I wanted it to re-sell it for profit to help feed my family. Has this happen to you?


<from a selling random stuff on eBay forum>
Who here hates collectors and re-sellers sometimes?
Just lost out some fair value profits to one of them. Granted anybody can bid but they have more knowledge about these items. As you can see I'm a little pissed about it.The auction was for 8 ps1 games, I didn't know I had a very rare game in it until afterwards. They obviously did and were hopping nobody else noticed. I just wanted to get for it what it's worth and they were taking advantage of my ignorance. Has this happened to you?

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii12/jeremy_burk/calvin.jpg

[wiggyx]

The problem with the Earthbound data is that for me personally, sniping on highly public auctions doesn't tend to pay off. On a copy of a Mega CD game where I'm maybe competing with <5 other people it'll work fine, on an auction where there are possibly thousands watching each copy of Earthbound it doesn't make sense to me.

Highly visibility and sought after items on eBay almost always reach the average price, sniping only works for me on less high profile stuff.

However, with a high profile item it makes sense to reach the average price, or just a bit below average, sooner rather than later to discourage people from bidding on that item. Reach the "average price" early and most bidders will just move onto the next similar listing.

For example:


Either way it's all conjecture since you can't completely understand the players for every auction, but you do the best you can based on the evidence.

tl;dr - Sniping works best (but not always) for me on a low profile item.

I would argue that point (again, based purely on speculation) as a Mega CD game would have a far more "hardcore" group of bidders. As a more hardcore crowd, they seem far more likely to be tech savvy and thus more likely to be snipers themselves (based on how many folks how employ the practice). Snipers against snipers seems like a total waste of time based on how everyone seems to feel about how it affords advantage over other bidders. If everyone is bidding last second, then the guy who's willing to pay the most still wins and it's not likely that he or she got some great deal on it as long as there are at least a couple of other bidders because everyone bidding last second is of course bidding the max that they're willing to pay.

You can only assume that you got a good deal because you sniped. You simply cannot prove that it did in fact give you an advantage. There simply isn't enough evidence to make any reliable data to add to the pool.


There’s no real way to track a data point there are just too many variables. Just saying that less bids equals sniping won’t work, just because item A) has only 2 bids and item B) has 32 bids doesn’t mean item A) was sniped. Say item A) starts at $100 and item B) starts at $1, more than likely item B) will be the one targeted for sniping even if it has 25+ bids and is up to $70+ at the end.

About the only way I can see to do it would be getting two people (with money to burn) one would only snipe and the other would bid early on (like 4+ days remaining) and making a list of 100+ items both must buy within a set time. Even then people would say the pool of buyers needs to be bigger but how are you going to find that many people to buy a ton of crap they don’t want?


The more I think about this the more it sounds like it would be a great Mythbusters episode.

Exactly.

There is simply no way to prove 100% either way.

This is a debate that has no resolve. For every thoughtful point that is made there is an equally well conceived counterpoint. If your bidding method works for you (i.e. you're winning items at a price that's satisfactory), then keep on keepin' on. I like my bid on day 1 method, and on the other end of the spectrum there are many of you that really like to bid in the final seconds :)

[jb143]

I like my bid on day 1 method, and on the other end of the spectrum there are many of you that really like to bid in the final seconds :)

One other important thing to consider. If you are there when the auction ends then you can pay right away and have a better chance of getting it sooner. Also, if you loose, you can immediately look for the same item and bid again. Otherwise you have to wait a week, unless you don't mind bidding on multiples of the same item just in case.

[wiggyx]

One other important thing to consider. If you are there when the auction ends then you can pay right away and have a better chance of getting it sooner. Also, if you loose, you can immediately look for the same item and bid again. Otherwise you have to wait a week, unless you don't mind bidding on multiples of the same item just in case.

That would matter if I was SERIOUSLY deal hunting, which I'm not. When I want a game that I can't buy retail I go to eBay or Amazon. I don't spend a lot of time hunting for the absolute best deals. I want a good price the same as anyone else, I'm just not willing to spend a lot of time hunting for the bestest deal EVAR! My time is worth money as well, and saving 10 or 20 bucks isn't worth an extra hour or so of hunting and bidding.

I get emails letting me know if I've won or not. Being that I check it far more often, I can usually get payment completed within an hour or so. I'm pretty sure I'm not getting my packages any later because I didn't pay immediately after winning. Either way, it's not important in the context of the debate.