What's your ebay experience?

[MRSAMO]

I was bidding for a pair of lens on ebay and realised that the only person bidding against me was the very first one who started with $100. He/she bided a bit with somebody else until I raised it to $135. Then I was pipped by $2 but there's still 8 hours to go. I'm not bidding any more as this is for a secondhand and well $135 is as much as I think its worth (new is $175). Is there by any chance that this bidder is actually the seller? It would be funny if it was.

I'm liking ebay, far better than Amazon.co.uk which I had 2 terrible experiences one after another (lens that never arrived and camera batteries that could charge).

 

[idor]

So far my experience in ebay is good. So far, I have always recieved what I have paid for. The only complain I have is if the seller is from asia, it could take weeks before the item arrive. So I always make it a point to check their shipping method before bidding. The trick to ebay is not to bid early. what I usually do is taht i wait till the very last minute before I bid the max price i am willing to pay. If i happen to outbid someone, they would have no time to bid again. Many sellers usualy have second accounts or friends to help them push up the item price by bidding for the item. So last minute bidding strategy is one of the ways to prevent that from happening. Also, many times, i paid a lot less than the maximum price I bid because of how the bidding mechanism works. If you are more adventurous, you can bid at the last 20 seconds. That usually prevents people from jacking up the price on the last minute.

 

[MRSAMO]

Thanks for that advice, it seems that you're right. The final bid for that auction was $172!!! And its a second hand item!

 

[ianwurn]

Bid at the last 24 seconds. I sometimes even click in a bid the last 12 seconds..... just so to ensure no funny bidders coming to "outbid" u.

I find eBay easy to buy stuff and so far, everything's been good. I bought even wakeboards before and got them shipped here. Even dispute settlement is reasonable.

Just one word of caution if you're intending to be a seller, you need to understand the charges and price ur stuff right to move it.