I hate ebay! - struggling like mad here!

Hi I'm back! (the arrival of another rugrat has kept me away and out of the saddle).
Does anyone have any tips, tricks or advice on how to nail a purchase on ebay? I was outbid at weekend on a couple of Konas and now it's happening again! How do I get past all you professional collectors on here? I suspect I am bidding against people who want shiny garage queens when I want a proper, decent ride :cry: :cry: :cry:
Come on guys, lay off the Konas for just a week - please?

Oh, and it's good to be back

Congrats on the new nipper


e-bay can be a real bastard sometimes. Patience and the use of something like www.auctionsniper.com are all I can suggest. And trawl other classifieds (here, stw, mbuk etc).

go in at the last few seconds , and bid more than anyone else ...
nothing to it :?

Beat the gits on ebay using www.bidnapper.com it's the business, no software to download and you get the 10 days free from when you first register so time your registration when you know there's stuff your after.

I've used this loads of times and its puts your bid on in the last 5 or 6 seconds.... although watching the item at 10 seconds to go and your bid hasn't appeared gets you sweating a bit!!

Good luck and let me know how you get on!

It's funny - I've always had limits on what I was willing to pay for items before, so it's a game of chance whether someone else is willing to pay more. The other day something came up that I really wanted, so I just placed an obscene bid and relaxed in the knowledge that no-one was going to out-bid me. If you've got a price limit, it's just a matter of patience until something comes along within your range. Otherwise, as someone else said, just go at it with no limit.

you have my word that I'll never bid on a kona

how to win? add £2000 to what its worth & c'est voila ;D

Tip

Use a random figure.

Lets say you are prepared to pay £100, the item will probably go for £100. If you bid £100 maximum and a few other people do also, it goes to the person who first placed the £100 bid.

Most people bid up to round figures, £10's £5's and £1's so make your maximum a random figure, say £103.74.

It is likely that other people will maximum bid £101 or £102, but much more people will bid to the £100 mark. sticking the £3.74 (for example) nudges you past the masses of people who only think in round figures.

It is not guaranteed to win because there will always be the odd person who is willing to put a maximum bid way more then the real value to secure a win but it strips away a lot of the competitors.

And like a lot of people say - patience. I've got my fingers burnt on Ebay more than once because I convinced myself that a particular item would never come around again. I bought a SRAM Betsy rear mech for a shade over £100. It had a lot of watches and a lot of bids. Last night one went for about £15. B u g g e r.

Hope this helps & Congratulations!

yeah I have had my fingers burnt a few times too. Nasty business. Also watch out for shill bidding too (when the seller uses other names to push up the auction) as this is becoming very common.

Ebay is a funny business - they dont seem to worry about shill bidding too much as they pretty much benefit anyway if the item goes for loads.

Buggers.
And dont use Paypal - just dont get me started on how weak their protection policy is...

is that why your paypal adress is what it is ??
i did have a little snigger when i saw it

Yup!

Probably why I get such bad service from them