Quote:
Originally Posted by The Ghost
It really depends on the item and the rare/uniqueness of it. Without knowing that it's hard to work out a strategy. But here's a few ideas.....
- Don't bid on it until the last moment. Creating interest in the item may create a bidding war. It only takes 2 interested bidders to drive up the price
- Look for possible typos in listing. Many times there are listings where the seller improperly titles or spells the item they are trying to sell.
- Use sniping software to put in your bid at the last possible moment. That or be online at the end of the auction
- Avoid items with reserves
- Avoid shill bidders. There are people that have their friends artificially bid up an item so it doesn't sell too low
- Don't get suckered into bidding too high period. Chances are the same item will be made available again soon, unless it truly is a 1 of a kind item
There are also sellers that will have multiple items, and sell them to the runner up bidders as well.
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It's always one of a kind thing for me, like a domain name.
So, it doesn't matter about the reserve, I have to meet it or forget it.
But all the things you said above are basically the general strategy and I'm thinking that this is all about being the "cheapest" rather than being about
getting what you want.
I'm just thinking that if I saw something I needed and say bid $500 for it
right a way and that price showed than people are going to back off.
But if th price is like $5 in the last hour then everyone is hanging out
and then go into a frenzy and bid the thing up to $800.