I have always wanted a 40 ford coupe. Saw a really nice one on ebay and after much trepidation decided to go for it. Spent most of the weekend figuring shipping, taxes, and delivery process, etc. Talked to the owner and was confident about the car. I looked in several other venues for a decent coupe at a reasonable price and this car and price was just what I wanted. To get right to it, I was the high bidder until 2 seconds and got sniped for 100 bucks. From now on I will offer what I am willing to pay and to hell with wasting time and effort like this. rant over! MickeyC
Well if it makes ya feel better... You might not have been snipped by $100 that was just the bid increment. Maybe the winner had put $ 5,000 more on it? You never know. But I do feel your pain. I too have been snipped,been the sniper and shot myself in the foot too!
Hello roughneck, true it may have had a higher bid than what was seen, my mistake was not having a couple hundred bucks more in my max bid. This was the first time I bid without my sons help. He very rarely losses an auction attempt, and would have built a cushion in the bid. Of course he enjoys spending the old mans money and watching me squirm as he does so.
That sucks. If you are bidding to get a car (or anything else on ebay) just put in your max bid and walk away! Otherwise you are gonna be pissed, or WAY over budget. Sounds easy.... It's not. Kevin
It takes a while to learn that lesson on eBay... it's nearly impossible to time it if it is a desireable item. Put in your max bid and let it ride...
I ALWAYS wait until the last 3 seconds to place a bid on fleabay. Not what you want to hear, but I have been done the same way, and learned from those that do it. It werkz too, I have gotten stuff for way less than I was willing to pay for it more times than not
Contact the seller, many times people are not able to complete their deal and the owner re lists it later. Ask him to contact you if the deal falls through.
Or,Next time sign up at a "snipe site"yourself.I used one a coupla years ago & the site gave me 3 free "snipes" so it didnt cost me anything.I only used it twice.
How is the winning bidders' feedback? He might back out of the deal and you may get a 2nd chance offer, especially if its' a big purchase. Contact the seller and tell him your offer still stands if the deal falls though. I have won a few items this way. Watch for the feedback to go through on the purchase. Then you'll know for sure.
I do the exact same thing. I throw in my max bid with just a couple of seconds left. I never could understand driving the price up on a "bidding war" beforehand.
Yep. This is the only way I do eBay bidding anymore. Just put it the max you'll pay and check back when the auction is over. Screw trying to refresh the page and all that shit.
yeah, thats really what you needed to do. I got very lucky on my Cadillac that I won off of eBay. I wasn't even looking for one, just stumbled upon it with a little over 4 days left, so I decided to watch it and do a little research in the meantime. After my research, I had serious doubts that I would win based on the fact that cars in worse condition without the power options were listed for more than I wanted to spend elsewhere. Needless to say, over the next 4 days I continued to watch the auction to my surprise it was still within reach even during the last hour. As the clock ticked down, I realized that I couldn't let it get away and I wasn't going to let a couple extra bucks ruin the party. With time down to 32 seconds, I started the bid process and tossed on an extra $352 over what I was planning on bidding. Sure enough, I had TWO more bids come in after mine with less than half a minute left. I got bumped up, but not out and ended up winning it for $50 less than what my original bid would have been. I'm glad I tossed on the security money cause that was just too close for comfort. The real ironic part is, two days after I won, I found the seller had the car listed a few weeks earlier with a reserve that had not been met. The kicker is, that reserve auction ended with reserve not met, for $0.01 less than what I ended up winning it for. I guess luck was on my side with this one.
Like with live auctions, I set a maximum and not a penny more because at the end there always seems to be just me and one other bidder and he usually has deeper pockets than me. You can get into a lot of trouble and regret if you don't control yourself.
eBay rookies. I'm not going to lie,I have a way to snipe a bid at the last second,and it took me getting sniped a few times to learn how it was done. Now,I don't get sniped anymore.
How do you check the winners feedback after the auction is over? Thanks for the tips guys. I will use them next time. MickeyC
I don't think you can check the winner feedback unless you're the seller. eBay stopped that a while back to "protect" us. They said they did it because they didn't want fraudulent second chance offers being made, part of it was that the other part it cut into their profits. I think too many people were using the bidder IDs for off site offers to sell same time items.
A real word of advice... I am still looking for pieces parts for my '39 deluxe. If you will do a google search for craigslist and hit the "more" option under the search engine result, another search box will pop up and it will do a nation wide search for what your looking for..... http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/1535355894.html http://newjersey.craigslist.org/cto/1533424613.html http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/cto/1535281271.html http://stlouis.craigslist.org/cto/1510293973.html There were others but you have to look, and you have to keep on top of it if your serious.
Just to make you feel better this one was bought on Ebay by a friend. He paid $9k and another to get it home. Buy the time he was done it required a new frame and all of the sheet metal was replaced from an inch above the drip rails. It was a piece of shit but looked good in photos. The only thing he was able to use was the hood, trunk lid and top. Every other panel and drip rails had to be replaced. I counted nine patch panels in one rear wheel well and none of them were Ford. It’s a good thing he was a good sheet metal man. It took him about 9 months of hard week ends to break even.
I lost out on a 34 ford pickup back in 2008 like that. The truck was over a 1000 miles away from me. But, someone I knew lived 1hr north of there and was going to be coming down here to my house a week after the auction was going to end. So, they were going to haul it down here for me. It was a really sharp old hot rodded truck that had just been sitting for a long time...I wanted it so bad... And I had the cash!....Everything seemed to be going great for me... for some reason it seemed like the truck/auction wasn't getting a whole lot of interest... It was getting down to the last minute or two, and I was the high bidder at around $4000. I put another bid on it for a little over $5500 just to be safe. getting closer and it still looked like I was gonna get it for close to $4000!... got down to 12 seconds left in the auction and I got outbid...I didn't have time to place another bid!... lost it by about $30 ....I couldn't believe it! I can't explain how dissapointed I was... I would've paid more for it. There was just something about it...it had character. I know some of you probably think that's stupid, But as soon as I found the auction and saw the first picture, I knew I wanted THAT truck, not just ANY 34. I just kinda gave up on finding a 34 pickup after that... maybe I'll find another equally cool 34 one day though...I don't know...
UUh...what's a "snipe site"? Also, e-bay is pretty easy when you think about it. You have to come to terms with how much you're willing to pay for something and bid accordingly. You may get it for less, but if someone bids more than you they obviously wanted it more than you did! Move on, don't look back !
that right there is why i never really even look at ebay. i hate getting attached to something before i own it, only to NOT own it!
After many burns, I finally started using a snipe site. If the auction doesn't have any bids, place a small one to get the auction locked in and then put your high bid through a snipe site. Your chances of winning are MUCH better. Putting in your high bid days before the end of the auction is a waste of time as someone will just come along and nickle and dime the auction up until they get past your high bid. With all that being said, good deals are hard to find on ebay anymore and I hardly ever use it. Craigslist and forum classifieds are the best place to find what you need for a decent price.
I seem to have done alot of buying and selling on eBay, craigslist and the like lately. As a seller I will say this: if you really want something and are waiting until the last minute to bid on items that have not met the reserve, it may get sold elsewhere first. If I have some watchers and no bids, I start advertising elsewhere. Sometimes people contact me directly with a good offer and I'll put a buy it now on there for them. I can't tell you how many times people have contacted me saying "I meant to bid on this, is it still for sale?" Wah wah wah, nope! Also, if I haven't put a bid in on something I want, often I'll forget to check at the ending time, then I'm the one crying!
Bid cheap for a deal. Bid your top dollar for something you really want. Do not mix up. And yes, best to bid last possible second no matter which way.
eBay is not really the place to find deals, because people get the mentality they want to win regardless of what it costs, and if your max bid is $7500 and someone comes along and just wants to beat you, he can bid $10,000, $20,000, a million dollars, whatever, either way he wins. But if a car doesn't sell the first time, it won't get bid as high the second time, I had an O/T late model car that "sold" one year four times. $2000 to a deadbeat, $1500 to a deadbeat, $1000 to a guy who seemed for real but never showed up - he could be dead for all we know, never heard from him again - and finally $550 to a guy who actually came and got the damned thing. I watched another O/T get bid to $4500, $4000, then $2000 the next time.... I don't know what the guy wanted for a reserve, I was glad to sell one I had just like it for $1600 that had a little higher milage on it, I could get one with the same milage as his at the auctions for a grand or so. '40s are not that terrible hard to find if you don't mind a project... buddy has one of those. Needs floors, rest doesn't look bad, has window garnishes, doors, dash, but no fenders or front clip except for a crappy hood, and just a bare frame. But it can be looked at in person, bought outright, and even dicker some on the price.
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