G250 crystal

[buddhasummer]

Currently at $52 4.5 hours to go, in the lead.

 

[Umuntu]

eBay works fine if you are honest with yourself, bid the maximum you are willing to pay and be done with it.

There are other buyers who love to nibble at eBay auctions, bidding small increments above the current price until they are the high bidder. By bidding early and high for items you want, you are just the stalking horse for the hunt. You end up forcing the price up with the automatic bids.

Patience … and snipes … are better.

 

[Umuntu]

If everyone is a rational player they would set their maximum bid equal to their utility from the item. If the item sells below the maximum the bidder is happy, if the item sells above the maximum then the bidder should be indifferent because the cost is greater than the utility. The twist is people are not rational and will bid to win and then suffer the "winners curse".

I'd like to think I'm a rational player. At a conventional auction, if I'm interested in an item and it's still below my utility price I will bid only just before the auction ends. That means at "going twice" I raise my paddle for the first time.

Psychologically it can be unnerving for a bidder who has been in the hunt from the beginning, thinks he has scared off everyone, and is just beginning to relax in the belief he has won. I guess I just like sniping.

 

[buddhasummer]

Drum roll...

$110 plus Japan domestic shipping.

 

[stuartv]

I'd like to think I'm a rational player. At a conventional auction, if I'm interested in an item and it's still below my utility price I will bid only just before the auction ends. That means at "going twice" I raise my paddle for the first time.

Psychologically it can be unnerving for a bidder who has been in the hunt from the beginning, thinks he has scared off everyone, and is just beginning to relax in the belief he has won. I guess I just like sniping.

Yep. The rational player will recognize that, facing a large pool of other players, there are going to be some irrational players involved and act accordingly.

I pretty much always just set up a snipe for anything on eBay that I want to bid on.

 

[Umuntu]

Drum roll...

$110 plus Japan domestic shipping.

Less than $120 too …

 

[buddhasummer]

Less than $120 too …

Sans shipping, yep.

 

[lexvil]

There are other buyers who love to nibble at eBay auctions, bidding small increments above the current price until they are the high bidder. By bidding early and high for items you want, you are just the stalking horse for the hunt. You end up forcing the price up with the automatic bids.

Patience … and snipes … are better.

If I want something I offer what it’s worth, I don’t engage in the game to win, I buy things I want and sometimes eBay is the only place to find those things.

 

[Bob DBF]

If I want something I offer what it’s worth, I don’t engage in the game to win, I buy things I want and sometimes eBay is the only place to find those things.

I do the same, over time I have gotten what I wanted for a fair price, when the game players move on or are too broke to play. Lord knows I don't really need more gear, just ask my wife.


Bob

 

[Umuntu]

If I want something I offer what it’s worth, I don’t engage in the game to win, I buy things I want and sometimes eBay is the only place to find those things.

I do the same, over time I have gotten what I wanted for a fair price, when the game players move on or are too broke to play. Lord knows I don't really need more gear, just ask my wife.

I used to put in a bid and leave it. Then my youngest son explained I would always end up paying more because people would "nibble" at your bid. So now I put in the same bid, but the software submits it 5 seconds before the end. I still lose auctions, so it's not about winning.

A couple of other advantages: 1. there's a central place to track stuff I'm interested in; and 2. If I change my mind about a bid, I can "retract" my unsubmitted bids without any hassle by just deleting it from the list.

And while I know there's a price I'm happy to pay, which may be different from what someone else is happy to pay, for used goods there really is no objective "fair price " or "worth". 2nd hand dealers who buy from estate sales and house clearances understand this well.