ebay - what is the point?

[AJI]

Been trying to find a bargain priced watch on ebay, but every time the auction comes to a few hours of ending the item is removed because the seller obviously wants more money for it.

I have never been a big ebay user and just can not get myself in to the logic of it all really.
Based on my experiences it all seems to be a scam.


For example, the only reason to use ebay as opposed to an online shop for any specific item is to find a bargain...that is my knowledge of the reason why ebay exists; now I’ve been trying to find a bargain multi-function digital watch. I have a top price limit which I will definitely not go above, but there have now been no less than 5 different occasions whereby such a watch that I have bid on has been removed because 30mins before the end of the auction the seller realises the price is not high enough.
I have also seen usernames bid up the price of a watch by £5 increments for no reason. ie. The bidding history (with automatic bids also shown) will show the same username bidding up the price with no other usernames bidding on the item.

Is all this normality for ebay? As mentioned I don’t really use it much.

As far as I can tell to leave negative feedback I have to actually be successful in a bid…but that never happens because the seller removes it before the deadline.


So how do you guys succeed on ebay?

[Neil H]

I thought you couldn't end the auction less than 24 hours before the scheduled end?

Have they changed this?

[Rude-boy]

For this and 101 other reasons i only use e-bay once or twice a year, if that, these days.

Got fed up of it being infested by morons who don’t understand the simple concepts of honesty and value.

Quite often i have gone on there to see what is about and have found the exact thing i have been after, often cheaper, with a little googling and common sense.

[AJI]

Neil H said:

I thought you couldn't end the auction less than 24 hours before the scheduled end?

Have they changed this?

ah this maybe the case.....I just kind of 'tune-in' about 30mins before the end of the auction to find that the item has been removed.

[cerberamatt]

AJI said:

Neil H said:

I thought you couldn't end the auction less than 24 hours before the scheduled end?

Have they changed this?

ah this maybe the case.....I just kind of 'tune-in' about 30mins before the end of the auction to find that the item has been removed.

I think they can only remove it so close to the end if there is no bids.

[AJI]

cerberamatt said:

AJI said:

Neil H said:

I thought you couldn't end the auction less than 24 hours before the scheduled end?

Have they changed this?

ah this maybe the case.....I just kind of 'tune-in' about 30mins before the end of the auction to find that the item has been removed.

I think they can only remove it so close to the end if there is no bids.

On all the items I have bid there have been others bidding....be it mostly another single username against itself.

[bimsb6]

you can still pull an auction in the last 24 hrs ,cancel all bids then cancel auction ,bit pointless as most bids are at the end .there are still bargains to be had i have just bought 2 gel batteries for the bimota for £45 delivered as opposed to £38 each !

[bimsb6]

you can still pull an auction in the last 24 hrs ,cancel all bids then cancel auction ,bit pointless as most bids are at the end .there are still bargains to be had i have just bought 2 gel batteries for the bimota for £45 delivered as opposed to £38 each !

[Comfortably Dumb]

AJI said:

I have also seen usernames bid up the price of a watch by £5 increments for no reason. ie. The bidding history (with automatic bids also shown) will show the same username bidding up the price with no other usernames bidding on the item.

No you haven't!

[pokethepope]

It may have changed as I haven't see it happen to an item i've bid on for quite a while, but IIRC you can end it anytime (including with 24hrs of end) if the item has been lost or broken, but i'm sure I remember bidders would be shown this reason for the auction ending. Is there any note on the item page or within My eBay saying why its been cancelled?

[Nolar Dog]

Comfortably Dumb said:

AJI said:

I have also seen usernames bid up the price of a watch by £5 increments for no reason. ie. The bidding history (with automatic bids also shown) will show the same username bidding up the price with no other usernames bidding on the item.

No you haven't!

Another person who doesn't know how eBay works yet still slates it.

For the record, I have bought about half a dzen watch-related things in the last week... no problems with any of them and saved quite a few quid.

[HellDiver]

Hmm..was watching an iPhone 3GS there, 0 bids, 99p, was due to finish this evening, seller cancelled the auction about an hour ago.

[stephen300o]

I guess I've been quite lucky as I use ebay quite a bit and usually get a bargain and so far haven't had any problems(100+items).
I only buy if they have very good and long term feedback, I haven't used it for selling yet.

[Neil H]

HellDiver said:

Hmm..was watching an iPhone 3GS there, 0 bids, 99p, was due to finish this evening, seller cancelled the auction about an hour ago.

Why didn't you put a bid in?

You can't really blame people for wanting to protect their interests, if you were interested you should have bid.

[AJI]

Comfortably Dumb said:

AJI said:

I have also seen usernames bid up the price of a watch by £5 increments for no reason. ie. The bidding history (with automatic bids also shown) will show the same username bidding up the price with no other usernames bidding on the item.

No you haven't!

Ok......then it must be the bidding history that is misleading?

For example a typical bidding history on an item in my experience would look similar to below:
(with automatic bids shown too)


bidder amount

p**e £41.00
n**n £40.00
n**n £30.00
n**n £25.00
n**n £20.00
n**n £15.00
p**e £11.50
g**t £11.00
n**n £10.00
n**n £5.00
n**n £0.99


so if in the above example username n**n is not bidding pointlessly on the item, what is happening?
Why would n**n bid £10.00 when it could be 'won' for £5.00 ?
Why would n**n bid £25.00 when the previous bid by hem/herself was £20.00 ?

As mentioned I'm not a regular ebay user by any account... I would welcome some insight knowledge.

[rev-erend]

Could those bids be to try to find the reserve minimum price... ?

[Bill Carr]

Not sure if these'll be what you're after but I'm selling a Sekonda chronograph and an Accurist on ebay at the moment. PM for a link if you're interested - they'll certainly be cheap!

[DickyC]

AJI said:

Comfortably Dumb said:

AJI said:

I have also seen usernames bid up the price of a watch by £5 increments for no reason. ie. The bidding history (with automatic bids also shown) will show the same username bidding up the price with no other usernames bidding on the item.

No you haven't!

Ok......then it must be the bidding history that is misleading?

For example a typical bidding history on an item in my experience would look similar to below:
(with automatic bids shown too)


bidder amount

p**e £41.00
n**n £40.00
n**n £30.00
n**n £25.00
n**n £20.00
n**n £15.00
p**e £11.50
g**t £11.00
n**n £10.00
n**n £5.00
n**n £0.99


so if in the above example username n**n is not bidding pointlessly on the item, what is happening?
Why would n**n bid £10.00 when it could be 'won' for £5.00 ?
Why would n**n bid £25.00 when the previous bid by hem/herself was £20.00 ?

As mentioned I'm not a regular ebay user by any account... I would welcome some insight knowledge.

n**n bids. The minimum is shown.
g**t bids and it's not as much as n**n's maximum. So as he increses his bids, g**t is already outbid by n**n's original maximum bid.
When eventually n**n is outbid, he has a think and decides to increase his maximum and the cycle starts again with timid bidders trying to find where his maximum is without whacking their maximum in and then leaving it alone as tougher bidders would.

[tankplanker]

rev-erend said:

Could those bids be to try to find the reserve minimum price... ?

That's very much how I read it as well. If it was a timid bidder they'd start higher and usually stop well before or well after your maximum bid rather than always finishing just below your maximum bid. Why stop just below your bid when you are so unsure as to how much you want to spend when another £1 would seal the deal?

I always retract my bid as late as possible if I feel that the seller has a "mate" bumping up the price, leave them with the fees to pay and no item sold. I've had a fair few suspiciously quick second chance offers over the years from auctions that have had this bumping going on.

[poprock]

An Ebay bidding history only displays the highest bid at each point in time.

Say that Bob is currently winning an item for a fiver.

Jim then bids a tenner, but because Bob’s original maximum bid was for £20, Bob is still winning but now he’s winning at £15.

In that case the bidding history would read:
Bob £5
Bob £15

Jim wouldn’t get a mention because at no point was he winning the item.