Sold £299 ebay item for £1.04. Shock!

Spook4King

soolin wrote: »

spook4king- I think you need to understand how auctions work and stop worrying that ebay are encouraging snipers to bid low. If your stuff doesn't sell for as much as other peoples items, then your listings, your terms or your feedback is putting them off.

Not once did I claim eBay encouraged it, in fact eBay tried to do off with them and unfortunately couldn't win the case some years back now. FYI, There is absolutely nothing wrong with my listings, I sold an 8GB iPhone 3GS for £200 which was pretty damaged, when you could get one brand new off play.com for the same price.

Once people start bidding on something, it (9 times out of 10) will at least grab about 20-30 bids in the last hour or so. If it gets no bids than at least (9 times out of 10 yet again) looking at the bid history you see about 3 snipers all hit it within seconds of eachother and whoever put the most in wins. I've watched it happen over 200 times, and I've sold over 1000. The only reason I won't disclose my eBay info here is because everyone in this thread seems so self righteous that I'm scared they would set it upon themselves to destroy my feedback.

It's supposed to be a bidding website, not a bloody bargain bucket!

hermum

I only ever snipe bid, I put in the max I want to pay for an item.
Sometimes I pay the max, sometimes I'm the only person to bid so get something at the start price, sometimes I'm outbid.
I don't see how there would be much of a different outcome if I were to bid a day before the end of the auction, unless other bidders get auction fever.
I'm more than happy for people to snipe on my listings, if I wasn't I would list only as BIN possibly with best offer.

catch_me_if_you_can

Spook4King wrote: »

It's not a good idea, its a way to rip off other people. I hate snipers, and I won't sell to anyone who I can tell is using one.

how would you know if someone bid themselves or used a sniping tool?

I frequently bid in the last 6 seconds of an auction - by sitting at my laptop and waiting for the right time to place my bid.

mrcow

I'd refund and cancel.

Tell them you've broken it when you tried to move it. Or that you've noticed woodworm etc.

And learn from your lesson.

soolin

catch_me_if_you_can wrote: »

how would you know if someone bid themselves or used a sniping tool?

I frequently bid in the last 6 seconds of an auction - by sitting at my laptop and waiting for the right time to place my bid.

I also manually snipe on many items, but it doesn't make such a good conspiracy theory does it...

soolin

mrcow wrote: »

I'd refund and cancel.

Tell them you've broken it when you tried to move it. Or that you've noticed woodworm etc.

And learn from your lesson.

And that's why we sellers still get 'unfair' neg feedback when we genuinely lose or break an item. Too many lying sellers using that as an excuse .

Just goes to prove that many users on ebay don't feel the need to stick to the truth.

Spook4King

soolin wrote: »

I also manually snipe on many items, but it doesn't make such a good conspiracy theory does it...

Humour is the lowest form of wit.

Obviously my wording was bad, I would sell to snipers that throw in that extra 20p whatever to get the max bid.

What I won't tolerate is people looking at something with a start bid of 99p they know is worth far more than that and purposefully choosing not to bid on it to have a chance at getting it at 99p. Through it up to a pound the second you see it, maybe no one else will bid and thats fine. But that's not how it happens is it? If you do it like that you are just as bad as a sniping program/website and you use it and then actually expect the item worth £50 that you just got for 99p? Get real.

catch_me_if_you_can

soolin wrote: »

I also manually snipe on many items, but it doesn't make such a good conspiracy theory does it...

I was forgetting the conspiracy theory! :rotfl:

mrcow

soolin wrote: »

And that's why we sellers still get 'unfair' neg feedback when we genuinely lose or break an item. Too many lying sellers using that as an excuse .

Just goes to prove that many users on ebay don't feel the need to stick to the truth.

The seller has made a genuine mistake. They shouldn't be penalised for it. If the buyer is stupid enough to think that someone would let the item go for £1.04, then more fool them.

btw - if you lose or break an item, what makes you think a negative would be "unfair"?

soolin

Spook4King wrote: »

Humour is the lowest form of wit.

Obviously my wording was bad, I would sell to snipers that throw in that extra 20p whatever to get the max bid.

What I won't tolerate is people looking at something with a start bid of 99p they know is worth far more than that and purposefully choosing not to bid on it to have a chance at getting it at 99p. Through it up to a pound the second you see it, maybe no one else will bid and thats fine. But that's not how it happens is it? If you do it like that you are just as bad as a sniping program/website and you use it and then actually expect the item worth £50 that you just got for 99p? Get real.

You don't understand how bidding works. If only person wants an item then it will always sell at opening price. It needs a second person to bid against before the item goes up. If only person snipes then it will go at opening price exactly the same as if only person manually bid before auction ended.