A major event in my life – today I finally lost my virginity … my eBay virginity !!
Yes, after all these years, I have finally bought something through eBay.
I’ve been looking for a print server attachment for my laser printer to network enable it … but this part retails for over $500 – a bit much to justify.
I decided to check out eBay and discovered they were selling there for less than $200. I decided to give it a go – it’s not the type of thing to “wear out” – they will just generally keep working no matter how old they get.
I signed up and bid on one auction that was closing the next day, but discovered I got outbid at the last minute.
I then found two more auctions and decided to bid on one of them – it closed this afternoon – and I won !
I’m yet to complete the transaction and take delivery of the goods, but I got a good price (under $170), so I’m pretty happy so far. I’ll let you know how the rest of the process goes.
im SO disappointed that sniping has taken over Ebay.The fun is gone.No build up of bids to add to the excitement during the week.As a seller its frustrating not to know if its worth selling a good item. As a buyer its frustrating with bids all jumping in at the last second.Should be banned.
It’s actually called sniping. I personally think it will be what allows a competitor to eat eBay’s space in the end. Many sellers find it frustrating, some rage against it. A few who do enough volume at a decent margin ignore it (I used to be in that camp).
Any normal auction the auctioneer cries “going once, going twice, going for the third and final time. Sold!” Sniping removes that.
I find it informative that the SmartNumbers auction being run by the ACCC does not allow sniping. Everybody interested gets some time to review the latest bid before the item ends.
Congrats Sim! :)
If I can help it I never bid on an item until the last few mins, and if I know I’m not going to be available to bid I put my biggest bid in, it doesnt mean you pay that much but Ebays auto-voting system will ensure that someone trying to outbid you at the last moment might need to put in 2-3 bids to discover how high you’ve gone..
Also there’s some sites dedicated to Ebay Ambushing, they’ll bid on your behalf at the very last moment using software.. very cool :)