Buying bikes on eBay

[robbocop33]

R8Steve said:

Sorry, but that is the daftest idea i've heard. If you want a certain price for it put a reserve price on it, it's not that difficult.

If the snipers win then you've actually made a bit more than what the rest of the market valued the item for. If you can't bid in the last ten minutes what's the point in having an auction?

You say bid earlier and higher and i'll never experience being let down this way? That's not the way ebay works though so that's pointless. If a no reserve auction starts at .99p and i bid 10k on it and no-one else bids on it i get it for .99p, not 10k. The reason? No-one else wants it so at that time in that market that's all it's worth.

Cappo - feel free to PM me if you have something

[robbocop33]

R8Steve said:

Sorry, but that is the daftest idea i've heard. If you want a certain price for it put a reserve price on it, it's not that difficult.

Two problems with that,a reserve on something puts people off bidding and secondly you're already paying fees,classified price,whatever,but some people don't want to pay a billionaire non tax paying company to put a reserve on something!Reserve 'should' be free.
Nobody should be charged for setting a limit on a price 'they' want for 'their' item.

[R8Steve]

robbocop33 said:

R8Steve said:

Sorry, but that is the daftest idea i've heard. If you want a certain price for it put a reserve price on it, it's not that difficult.

Two problems with that,a reserve on something puts people off bidding and secondly you're already paying fees,classified price,whatever,but some people don't want to pay a billionaire non tax paying company to put a reserve on something!Reserve 'should' be free.
Nobody should be charged for setting a limit on a price 'they' want for 'their' item.

Firstly, it only puts people off if you've set it too high.

Secondly, if you don't like the fees this 'billionaire non tax paying company' charge you don't have to use it. There is other markets you can use to sell your item.

You weren't selling a VFR 800 the other day were you?

[LoonR1]

robbocop33 said:

Two problems with that,a reserve on something puts people off bidding and secondly you're already paying fees,classified price,whatever,but some people don't want to pay a billionaire non tax paying company to put a reserve on something!Reserve 'should' be free.
Nobody should be charged for setting a limit on a price 'they' want for 'their' item.

What a pathetic comment about tax and the value of a company. Stop reading and believing stupid comments on eBay.

I bet you've committed the criminal offence of tax evasion several times in your life, rather than the perfectly legal tax avoidance approach taken by anyone with half a brain.

[Super Slo Mo]

R8Steve said:

robbocop33 said:

R8Steve said:

Sorry, but that is the daftest idea i've heard. If you want a certain price for it put a reserve price on it, it's not that difficult.

Two problems with that,a reserve on something puts people off bidding and secondly you're already paying fees,classified price,whatever,but some people don't want to pay a billionaire non tax paying company to put a reserve on something!Reserve 'should' be free.
Nobody should be charged for setting a limit on a price 'they' want for 'their' item.

Firstly, it only puts people off if you've set it too high.

Secondly, if you don't like the fees this 'billionaire non tax paying company' charge you don't have to use it. There is other markets you can use to sell your item.

You weren't selling a VFR 800 the other day were you?

I've used another auction site that sells jobs lots of goods, presumably from bankruptcies and liquidations that use a similar technique to prevent sniping. It's quite simple in that a bid placed in the last 'X' number of seconds of the auction extends it by another fixed period of time. It's only 3 or 4 minutes of extension from memory, and it's only for bids placed in the last 60 seconds or so, but it's very effective.
Snipers are a bit of a pain in the neck I feel, it somehow seems better to let an auction run it's course, and the winner is the one who's willing to pay the most.

[catso]

Surely the start price should be the reserve - none of this 99p starting price with a £3k reserve bks?

That way all confusion is avoided, or am I missing something...

[R8Steve]

catso said:

Surely the start price should be the reserve - none of this 99p starting price with a £3k reserve bks?

That way all confusion is avoided, or am I missing something...

Yep, these are usually found with headings like '*******LOOK CBR600 BEST IN WORLD 99p STARTING PRICE LOW RESERVE NOT R6 ZZR ZXR GSXR YZF' then it turns out the reserve is about double what the bike is worth so will probably never be reached.

I'll stick to buy it now, make best offer or classifieds from now on i think.

[DuraAce]

R8Steve said:

Yep, these are usually found with headings like '*******LOOK CBR600 BEST IN WORLD 99p STARTING PRICE LOW RESERVE NOT R6 ZZR ZXR GSXR YZF' then it turns out the reserve is about double what the bike is worth so will probably never be reached.

I'll stick to buy it now, make best offer or classifieds from now on i think.

Classifieds are the way forward for vehicle purchases IMHO. Buyer makes contact, comes to view and discuss a price that suits both parties. Happy days.

I've sold several that way with no issues at all.

[Chicken Chaser]

DuraAce said:

Classifieds are the way forward for vehicle purchases IMHO. Buyer makes contact, comes to view and discuss a price that suits both parties. Happy days.

I've sold several that way with no issues at all.

Couldnt agree more. You do have to deal with the idiots who think that its reasonable to request 40% off the value, but only by email. You dont get them doing it face to face.

[paulrockliffe]

Super Slo Mo said:

've used another auction site that sells jobs lots of goods, presumably from bankruptcies and liquidations that use a similar technique to prevent sniping. It's quite simple in that a bid placed in the last 'X' number of seconds of the auction extends it by another fixed period of time. It's only 3 or 4 minutes of extension from memory, and it's only for bids placed in the last 60 seconds or so, but it's very effective.
Snipers are a bit of a pain in the neck I feel, it somehow seems better to let an auction run it's course, and the winner is the one who's willing to pay the most.

But everyone puts in their maximum bid, so even a sniped auction goes to the person who was prepared to pay the most for it.

Sellers get annoyed by the format when they value something higher than the market, buyers get annoyed when they don't value something as highly as the market.

[dc2rr07]

paulrockliffe said:

Super Slo Mo said:

've used another auction site that sells jobs lots of goods, presumably from bankruptcies and liquidations that use a similar technique to prevent sniping. It's quite simple in that a bid placed in the last 'X' number of seconds of the auction extends it by another fixed period of time. It's only 3 or 4 minutes of extension from memory, and it's only for bids placed in the last 60 seconds or so, but it's very effective.
Snipers are a bit of a pain in the neck I feel, it somehow seems better to let an auction run it's course, and the winner is the one who's willing to pay the most.

But everyone puts in their maximum bid, so even a sniped auction goes to the person who was prepared to pay the most for it.

Sellers get annoyed by the format when they value something higher than the market, buyers get annoyed when they don't value something as highly as the market.

Exactly, it's an auction if the snipers are the highest bidders then how is that unfair the other bidders obviously do not think it is worth any more if you are not happy selling on eBay sell it some where else, simple really

[Super Slo Mo]

Sort of, but eBay sniping doesn't give you an opportunity to enter a higher bid if you want to once you've been outbid. I know what you're saying and you're right, but eBay doesn't behave quite like other auctions in that they keep going until the last Man's standing, so to speak.
I suppose eBay is different in that it's more difficult to get carried away and over pay for something.

[Farlig]

Super Slo Mo said:

... but eBay sniping doesn't give you an opportunity to enter a higher bid if you want to once you've been outbid...

Yes it does, provided the bid you have put in is higher than the sniper´s bid you automatically outbid him.
Sniping is good as it stops people (dare I say amateurs) getting carried away and over inflating the value of something.

Place the max bid you´re willing to pay and then leave alone, ebay will do your bidding for you: As Paul says here:

paulrockliffe said:

But everyone puts in their maximum bid, so even a sniped auction goes to the person who was prepared to pay the most for it.

And this:

paulrockliffe said:

Sellers get annoyed by the format when they value something higher than the market, buyers get annoyed when they don't value something as highly as the market.

[Super Slo Mo]

Yes I get that. It just doesn't allow you to change your mind. It's probably no bad thing of course. Personally though I tend to back out of eBay auctions if there's a lot of competition.

[CAPP0]

R8Steve said:

Cappo - feel free to PM me if you have something

Not sure what you were looking for Steve, mine is an R1100RT which has an intermittent misfire/stall fault - great winter hack for weather protection and shaft-drive goodness but you'll need to get your toolbag out first.

I've only skimmed the eBay comments above; I'll just say, I put a (long and) honest description of the bike on eBay with a 99p start, no reserve, and after 2 days it has already bid up to more than I would have accepted had someone come along with a wad of cash! It runs until next Sat so it'll be interesting to see what it gets to - provided of course that the winning bidder actually completes the purchase.

[Farlig]

Super Slo Mo said:

Personally though I tend to back out of eBay auctions if there's a lot of competition.

Right with you on that one, guaranteed to end up over priced...