Pet Peave of the Day!

[john page]

     Well, I got to watch the last minute bidding first hand the other day.
A transmitter I wanted came up on Epay and I decided after getting beat out
of others at the last minute so many times, that this one belonged to me no
matter what. So. I did some some research to see how much this thing had
sold for before. I took the highest price and added some more. And put that
in as a bid early on and one time only. Not the lowest price I thought I
could get away with but a HIGH bid. Now comes the late bids. A little higher
than the price it was at that time. They got the dreaded OUTBID. They raised
it a little. OUTBID. this went on for the last five minutes of the bidding.
Several gave up and one soul kept trying until the end. I had only bid once
and early and I still got it for what I consider a fair price and for far
lower than the top price I had researched.      john


>From: "Harvey A. Kader" <optom at ATTGLOBAL.NET>
>Reply-To: optom at attglobal.net
>To: HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV
>Subject: Pet Peave of the Day!
>Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 11:00:21 -0400
>
>Thanks George for the info. I use a similar technique to yours. Instead of
>a watch
>with a second hand, I use my Geundig Satellit 650 shortwave radio which has
>a
>clock which shows each second of the minute. A few minutes before the
>auction ends
>I calibrate this clock with WWV. Then I bid in the last 10-15 seconds of
>the
>auction. Works most of the time.
>
>I agree with you 100%. I do not believe in paying outrageous amounts of
>money for
>anything - I am too practicle for that. In fact, I search for bargains, or
>as I
>call them bargooons! ebay in 1998-99 was a great place to be for bargains.
>This
>was before most people knew about ebay. I bought great merchandide on ebay
>at
>great prices back then. But now, ever since investors and serious
>collectors have
>discovered ebay, prices of EVERYTHING I bought one to two years ago has
>DOUBLED or
>TRIPLED! If I tried to resell everything I bought I would make BIG money.
>This is
>great for the sellers, but bad for the buyers. So now I don't buy that much
>because most if the bargains are gone. I have to find another venue that no
>one
>knows about.
>
>It is too bad that ebay is not good for buyers anymore - too much
>competition.
>However, the new Buy It Now feature I really like because if the price is
>right,
>and you really want the item, AND you are the FIRST to discover it, then
>you  can
>buy it before it gets bid up in price. I had that opportunity recently with
>a
>sealed unbuilt Heathkit GD-49 Informer Alarm Kit. Bought it through Buy It
>Now
>feature for $90.00. To show you how this feature gives bargains, a few
>weeks later
>another unbuilt GD-49 came up for auction. Not even a sealed version, it
>was bid
>up to $125.00. That is a 40% increase. So if put my GD-49 back on ebay, I
>may
>realize a profit of 40%. Not a bad yield for just speculating(which by the
>way, I
>am not anyway). Now if I was rich, and bid $1,000.00 for the GD-49, I may
>end up
>paying $400.00 after topping out all bidders maximum. There is no way that
>I will
>ever be able to resell that kit for anything close to that amount. A good
>investor
>and money manager knows the market value of what he is buying, and does not
>over
>pay. I don't care how rich he is. To get rich, and stay rich, one must know
>the
>value of money. People who buy strictly on emotion always pay too much.
>What did
>Barnum and Bailey say about fools...
>
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