I have no problem buying or selling things on ebay.

We're all after a bargain and if we can get good quality cheaper than the shops, hey I'm all for it. Going to Costco can be a bit costly at times *cough cough*

In any case. Talk about Tumi bags and Bose QC2 here made me have a look. Didn't find anything of Tumi I wanted but found the Bose. 10 day listing so I put it on my watch list.

Starting price tag was (key word here) �5 last night. less then 12 hrs later it's up at �50. Do people really think they'll win an auction by getting in early?

I do't get it. Why don't they just hang around and wait until the last minute?

Or you could end up with Bose QC2 for �200 or more. That's almost $400!

As I said, I don't get it.

Emma - always on the hunt for bargain travel items that will make my life easy.

One word:

esnipe

The world is full of people that can't use Ebay. It is what makes Ebay a sellers dream.

The days of finding a good deal during an auction style sale are pretty much over, as there is always one sucker out there that doesn't know the real value and overbids, or outsnipes the sniper...

I sell a lot on Ebay (silver powerseller) but stopped using the auction style sales some time ago, all my items are now sold with BuyItNow, and come with free shipping. I find that selling like that is far more effective.

From what I see, more and more people just want to pop in, look for a deal and pick the one that comes with the least hassle, pay&ship is what they like.

With the rise in auction sniping it has become almost impossible to use Ebay like in the old days.

You are the type of seller I seek out. I'd say 80% of my purchases are "Buy It Now", it would be 100% if more sellers thought rationally. ^

I was amused when I sold a Canon Digital Rebel on ebay late last year for more than the after-rebate price I paid. With the triple rebate offer, I netted about $200.

Yea, I used to get some good deals and still do occassionally but more and more I end up at buy it nows. A couple weeks ago I was trying to buy a Namiki rollerball. It was up once but I missed it. It had missed reserve so was relisted. A couple days before the auction was over too people apparently started bidding, whether it was legit or not I have no idea, and the thing ended up being like 30% more than it was at US list days before the auction. It sold way over what a comparable pen would sell at in one of the large discount retailers in Manhattan. It was a discontinued model which could have driven the price up a little but I thought it was a crazy price for the pen. I just figure out what something is worth if I force myself to only get it if it is a good deal. Then I will only go that high. Miss a lot of things, but dont overpay that way.

When I sell something on auction I need to wait the whole 5/7/10 days, my BuyItNows all end within 2 days on average.

eBay still has some good deals here and there. A lot of people gouge (e.g. charging 5+ times more than it actually costs) on the shipping, however, so you have to be careful. And if you've got an eBay coupon code, the discount is even bigger.

I never bid early - I always snipe at the end. But I do it manually, not with a sniping service.

BuyItNows are also really good when I'm in a rush and they're a reasonable price - i.e. less than Amazon, etc., want including shipping.

Sniping (bidding at the last minute) only helps you win an auction if the other bidders are bidding irrationally.

If bidders bid their true maximum, it doesn't matter when you place your bid--the highest valuation will always win.

Of course sniping sometimes does help for two reasons:

1. Many other eBay bidders are also trying to snipe, leaving auctions priced artifically low until the last minute, when some snipers forget to put in their bids.
2. Some bidders' valuation of an item changes as they see other people bidding more on it. For example, A might value an auction at $50, but when A sees that B is willing to bid $51, A reevaluates and decides the auction is really worth $60.

Other than these two scenarios, however, sniping is simply irrational--unless you're counting on the fact that somebody else hasn't thought through their bidding process very well (which might not be totally irrational... )

Selling things with a reasonable "buy it now" is great for items that have a fairly identifiable value but some things aren't that easy to sell. My parents deal in discontinued china dinnerware. When it is a rare piece to a discontinued pattern people will get into bidding wars, especially if it completes a set of grandma's china that was passed down to them. It's one item that people bid with their hearts. I don't think people get as attached to electronic gizmos and such.

I just made my first Ebay purchase last week and used the buy it now feature. It was a great price and I didnt want to deal with the extra BS of the auction. My only frustration was a small one - the seller actually was passing on an amazing deal from www.outpost.com. Good for him for making a decent profit and allowing me to get a great deal on a pair of Polk R50s.

Have you tried www.craigslist.org yet?

Ive purchased on Ebay but Never saw a Buy It Now price that was atractive. It seems to me that its way out of line with my top price Id offer, then alot of times the sellers has a large S&H fee on top of that.

As for bidding early no such thing, I always figure the total amount I want to spend (so if S&H is $10 then I deduct the $10 from my max offer). So the offer can be $9.99 if Im willing to pay $45 with a $6 S&H Ill simply Bid $39 as my top bid, and let the bidding go where ever it does. I Do Not Chase any item (much like buying a stock either I get my price or I forget about it till the next time).

It does amaze me at the prices people end up paying for some of the things. I do a few times under bid just to play with the other bidders then when it hits my top price Id go away.

ive picked up many an item at up to 25% below what the going price usually is. As long as one has patience and isnt in immediate need of the item, then set your top price if you dont get it try again.

As the above poster said, its all about looking at shipping costs carefully, and being patient.

I like to use Buy It Now when buying event tickets, so that I can then plan my trip knowing that I have my event set. We had a fabulous time last year flying to baseball playoff games whose tickets we got on ebay.

Recently I have been burned by a couple of sellers though. Small value items, under $25 each, but I am still put off and I have been shopping there a lot less.

I used to bid and bid for the fun of it, now I am much more likely to put in my max price whenever I spot the auction and then just leave it alone.