eBay[c] The Missing Manual
On eBay, it's not uncommon to see the bidding rocket past what everyone knows is a reasonable price. People sometimes pay more at auction for the same item they could buy in the discount store across town. And sometimes the bids might reach, say, $22, even when the seller notes in the item description that she has similar items available for a fixed price of $17.99 in her eBay store. What's going on? It's simple: the excitement of a timed auction and the thrill of competitive bidding can make bidders lose their heads and pay more than they meant to.
Don't be part of the headless masses. If you do your research and keep calm, you'll avoid overpaying.
3.2.1. Do Your Research
You don't have to jump into the bidding as soon as you discover eBay. To avoid getting yourself into trouble and becoming the winning bidder at $40,800 for a haunted toothpick, take a step back and click around the site while you collect yourself.
Do these basic things to cool out and get more info on an item. Use eBay's comparison-shop feature (Section 3.2.2). Put items on your Watch list to see where their final price lands and get a sense of the going rate. Visit a seller's eBay store (Section 7.3) to check whether the seller offers the same item for a fixed priceand how much. Read the discussion boards (Section 10.1.1) related to the things you want to buy.
Note: If you're concerned that you're going to miss a deal on a unique, never-going-to-be-available-again, ghost-infested item, bear in mind that nearly everything turns up on eBay over and over, given time. To see whether something similar has sold recently on eBay, check the completed auctions, described below.Next , avail yourself of other resources that can help you determine value:
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Research closed auctions . Checking out what similar items have sold for in the past few weeks can give you a good idea of what your item is worth now. To research closed auctions, from almost any eBay page, click Advanced Search, type in your search term , then turn on the "Completed listings only" checkbox before you click the Search button.
Your search results page (Figure 3-14) lists auctions that have ended in the last 30 days. You can sort the results by date, if you want to see how hot the market is right now by checking recent sales against older ones, or by price, if you want to get a feel for the price range or the average price. (You can also sort by distance, which could be a factor if you're looking for a bulky item or hoping to find a seller with a brick-and-mortar store near you.)
Figure 3-14. When you search completed listings for an item you want to buy, you can learn how much similar items have sold forand which ones haven't sold. If an auction ended with no bids, click the auction title to see whether the seller has relisted the items, perhaps at a lower price. After you've finished researching prices, click "View similar active items" to find current auctions.
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Use a comparison-shopping engine . There are many resources off the site to help you research prices. For new items, use a comparison-shopping engine like Froogle (http://froogle.google.com) or mySimon (www.mysimon.com) to get a feel for the item's price range. You can also check out some of the price-analysis tools described on Section 4.1.1. (For more on comparison shopping on eBay itself, see the next section.)
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Consult a standard reference . If you're a collector, you're probably familiar with the standard reference books in your field. These provide a good resource, but in the world of eBay, prices can change faster than printed books can keep up. In some cases, eBay has brought prices down because its worldwide market place has dramatically increased supply. You don't have to travel to flea markets or antique stores to find things for your collection, and you can buy from sellers from Anchorage, Alaska, to Zarephath, New Jerseyand beyondas easily as someone who lives on that seller's block. On the other hand, competition among buyers has also increased, and when an item becomes hot, prices can soar. The upshot: use reference books for a ballpark value, but keep in mind that eBay prices fluctuate a lot more and a lot faster than the books can keep up with.
3.2.2. Comparison Shopping
eBay has so many auctions running at once that it can be easy to lose track of what you've seen. The sheer volume of what's on offer can make shopping difficult; by the time you've looked at your seventh or eighth MP3 player, it can be hard to remember exactly which one had the 20 GB storage capacity and an FM radio but was a little cheaper because it was missing the headphones. eBay's Compare feature means that you don't have to fool around with making lists or managing a bunch of browser windows when you want see how several items stack up against each other.
To see the details of several auctions side by side, first conduct a search. The search results page, shown in Figure 3-15, makes it easy for you to select items you want to compare side by side
When you click Compare, a new page opens, showing the items you've selected side by side, as in Figure 3-16. The Compare Items page shows up to four items at a time, each in its own column.
Tip: If you're comparing more than four items and you click the Show All Items link, all the auctions you've chosen appear on the same page, but they're not all visible at the same time. You have to scroll sideways to see them.
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As you narrow your search to the auctions that really grab your interest, you can remove items to focus on the best ones. Click the Remove Item link at the top or bottom of the column you want to ditch.
You can bid on any item by clicking the Bid Now! button, or you can add one or more items to your Watch list: click the appropriate "Watch this Item" link, or click the Watch All button to slam-dunk the whole screen onto your Watch list. If you want to start over, click Remove All.
| UP TO SPEED Price vs. Value |
| Researching prices gives you an idea of what price the market will bear at this point in time. But sometimes, you might want something for reasons that have nothing to do with its price. It boils down to these questions: "What's it worth?" and "What's it worth to you ?" You get the answer to "What's it worth?" when you do your research, as described in the preceding section. The question "What's it worth to you?" is trickier. Only you can answer it. Sometimes, there might be a good reason to pay a little more than the market price: to complete a set, to get living-room drapes in precisely the right color , to buy something that reminds you of your long-lost Uncle Ernie, or to get your hands on something you need as of yesterday . When thinking about what you're willing to pay, take a few minutes to answer both these questions. You'll be happier with your purchases. |
3.2.3. Bidding Wars
One way to avoid paying more than an item is worth is to be a bidding pacifist. Bidding wars tend to happen when two or more bidders each get to thinking of the item as their very own. Emotions take over and possessiveness flares up: "No way I'm going to let that bidder have my musical beer stein for $83.50!"
Use these strategies to keep from losing your head (and your hard-earned cash):
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Watch and wait . The best way to stay out of a bidding war is to wait until late in the auction to decide whether you're going to bid. Put the item on your Watch list (Section 1.5.1) so you can monitor the situation. When you add something to your Watch list, you've taken a step toward a possible purchase, but you're less likely to think of an item as "yours" if you're just watching it. As the end of the auction nears, you can check the current price and see if the item still looks as desirable as it did when you found it.
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Let someone else bid for you . Another way to avoid bidding wars is to use an automated sniping service (Section 3.3.2.2). With automated sniping, you make your bid as early in the auction as you like (through the sniping site or software), but the sniping service places that bid in the final seconds of the auction, saving you from getting emotionally involved.
This method seems similar to proxy bidding, but there's an important difference. With proxy bidding, eBay's computers tip your hand by upping your bid the moment someone else places a bid. That means bids can creep up and up well before the auction's end. When you use an automated sniper, the competition is sitting there, thinking they're on top of the bidding, until your bid comes along and zaps them out of the auction in the last three seconds. Sniping means that the winning bid is less likely to reach your top limit, because the clock runs down before the competition can fight back. It's all in the timing.
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Let it go . Sometimes a bidding war drives the price higher than you're willing to go. When that happens, don't think you've lost out. If an item sells for a very high price, be assured that other sellers are watching, eager to get in on the demand. Other auctions will appear in quick successionand often these jump-on-the-bandwagon auctions don't command the high prices that the original did. In other words, you could actually be better off in the long run by paying less for a similar item in the third or fourth or fifth auction. So when you're tempted to bid past your budget, remember this: auctions are like buses. If you miss one, don't worry, because another one will be coming along in a few minutes.