Ebay BS ? What do you think ? I'm ****ed Any advice ?

[Duntov-097]

I listed my car on Ebay. I was in constant contact with about 20 people that had all committed more than the final price the car was bid to. No surprise there. Right ? Only problem is now at least 10 people have Emailed saying that they tried to put higher bids on the car in the last 90 secs and couldn't. Some have said sniping software can cause this. :crazy: I have notified Ebay.

I kinda fiigured most of the offers without bids were BS but felt a few were legit as they were made with the stipulation I end the auction early.

Heres a link. Anyone know about this sniping stuff ? How's it work ?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4540456118

Should I
A. relist
B. relist with buy it now
C. Try auction at Bloomington / Carlisle

 

[WayneC]

Check with eBay, my guess is that if any of those folks want to make you a firm offer, you can probably sell it to them... if that's not what you want, you can relist it and email those that said they tried to bid. I'm not sure why eBay would be at fault if the bidders all tried to get in at the last second. I believe that if you relist, and the item sells, eBay refunds your relist fee. I've heard some discussion about users wanting eBay to extend an auction if there is an unusual amount of bidding at the last moment, but I don't think they've implemented anything... in a way it's unfair to those that get into the bidding thinking there's a specific auction end time.

Here's some verbiage on sniping: http://tinyurl.com/5nljr

 

[ChuckG]

This is just my opinion, but I truly believe that "sniping" is already a huge problem, and that EBAY will have to do something about it.

Everybody's doing it, even on "trinket" Corvette items. I don't use sniping software, but I have to say that most of my "Corvette buds" do.

I buy and sell small/minor Corvette parts on EBAY, nothing as valuable as your car. Everybody tries to be "cute" with sniping software, trying to get their high bid in within the last 5 seconds or so.

Problem is that MANY are trying to do the same thing. Even on my $10.00 items that I sell on EBAY, there's a flurry of activity within the last 30 seconds. It amazes me.

THEN...I get EMails from people offering to pay MORE than the winning bid, because their "snipe" bid of $11.02 didn't make it in time, and somebody else won the item for $10.50.

Items will sit for an entire week, with 12 "watchers" and no bidders, and then all "heXX" breaks loose in the final 30 seconds. It's not right. I know people want to get the cheapest price, BUT sniping hurts sellers and buyers alike. Chuck

 

[DUAL QUAD]

E Bay

I would sell it to the pearson who can come up with my price and the cash.Just becareful . A word of caution Make sure the funds are in your bank and watch out for bougus counterfit bank checks good luck,Bob W

 

[Rowdy1]

I Agree

Sniping is wide spread and is going to have to be addressed by eBay. I know of quite a few people using it, for various reasons, auction ending during the sleeping hours, slow hookup, etc. I'd probably relist it and do as you said with legit bidders but make sure you get a "real" check in hand.
On a side note, not meaning to hijack your thread, where did you get the dual master cylinder? I have the front disc conversion kit but I need a new dual master before I do it.
Thanks
lj62@optonline.net

 

[IH2LOSE]

My suggestion forget what you were told by bidders,Relist the item,Contact the bidders who said they really want the car and let them know you relisted,

Set a buy it now price of what you want,If the bidder were not full of it they will not take the chance of losing the car and will chose the "buy it now" option and the car will be theres

I use an snipper on every thing I purchase off ebay.Good for the buyer,not so good for the seller. I just set the absolute highest price I want to pay,and my snipeer bids up to 100 times a secound in the last 6 secounds of the auction.

The truth is that who ever had the highest bid in first will allways win the auction regaurdless of the snippers.

On your auction it seems no one bid high enough to go over you reserve


Good Luck on the relist

 

[studiog]

MHO: The up side is that you had a chance to test the waters so to speak and see what kind of interest is really out there. Awesome car by the way. Carlisle & Bloomington will give you higher quality "approved bidders" but you don't have a world market like you get on Ebay. My take on the sniping thing is that the snippers are looking for a deal and if there is one out there they will win it by getting in that last second bid of a dollar more than the previous bidder. It is to the snippers benefit that people wait till the last 30 seconds to start serious bidding.

 

[Tyler Townsley]

I bid early to the full amount I am willing to pay. From what I have experienced the auction defaults to the earliest highest bidder at closing. If I have a $50 bid on an item that I established before you started your snipper program at the last minute my bid will trump the highest snipper bid say $48.50 at closing as long as I have a bid greater than that placed at closing. Which means I will have to pay $49.00. The best way for the seller to avoid being beat is to put a buy it now price and a starting bid, this gives someone who is really serious a chance to get the item. I have used the buy it now for an item of test equipment I had not seen before and really needed. So I like to see items listed that way.

Tyler

 

[Duntov-097]

I have 21 emails claiming that they could not bid. I sent them to Ebay and they say they will get back to me. I would guess maybe half could be BS but all of them ?

I have been offered considerably more than the last bid by several bidders since the auction ended. 11 people have made some sort of offer. My point is that I am not maximizing my potential selling price if people really couldn't bid or by continuing the auction over the phone. There is no sense of competition or urgency without the auction to validate offers.

Obviously they are trying to spend the least and I am trying to get the most.

I buy cars from an online auction on a daily basis. To combat sniping they have come up with the following. If a bid comes in during the last 30 seconds the person that was out bid has 5 minutes to counter. If he does, the other guy has 5 minutes to counter an so on until someone wins. It works great in that environment but I don't know if it would work on Ebay.

Oh well " It is what it is ....and thats all it is.
I was just kind of ****ed when the emails started coming in.
Thanks for the replies. I'm glad to know that the sniping thing cant
jam up other offers as I was told.


Rowdy The master came on the car I just rebuilt it. I got the on for the other car from ECI at Fall Carlisle it was like $200 a few years ago

 

[paul67]

But surely the last snipe came in under the reserve with their max?? What is the problem? You snipe to a maximum bid. Your reserve was over what people wanted to pay. You just re-list if you wish. Or negotiate with late bidders.

 

[Duntov-097]

But surely the last snipe came in under the reserve with their max?? What is the problem? You snipe to a maximum bid. Your reserve was over what people wanted to pay. You just re-list if you wish. Or negotiate with late bidders.

My reserve might have been met if everyone could have bid at the end. |I'm told sniping has nothing to do with this anyway. The winning bidders max could have been close to my reserve but only beat the last bidder and so it was not revealed.

 

[EttevroC]

Confessions of a Snip-er-ing

First I would suggest, as have others, to let those people who contacted you, that you will be relisting your Vette. My only addition to that would be set the end of the auction to the earliest day you can so that these interested people can get a jump on those who are sniping.

I have to admit that I “Snipe” all the time, but not with software; I just wait till the end of the auction and place my highest bid and let Ebay automatic bidding bid for me. I learned a long time ago with allot of lost auctions, that other people wait to the very last minute to enter in their final bid.

IMHO I don’t think that it is wrong to snipe if it is done manually like I do it because I’m right there bidding for myself, if I get out bid before the end of the auction, and I want it bad enough, I frantically enter in a higher bid. Maybe these other bidders had done the same thing as I do and couldn’t increase their bid in time.

Anyway I never thought that what I was doing would somehow cheat the seller; I may have to reconsider my opinion. What does everyone think?

 

[John Mcgraw]

Bob,

I sure hate to see you part with that car, but I understand why you are doing it. I wish I was not so deep in projects right now or I would probably consider buying it. Make Ebay relist it for free and hold out for what it is worth, you will get it eventually! This will make someone a great restoration project. Cars like this do not come around every day!


Regards, John McGraw

 

[Duntov-097]

Anyway I never thought that what I was doing would somehow cheat the seller; I may have to reconsider my opinion. What does everyone think?[/QUOTE]


I don't think the way you do it is wrong at all. I just don't like guys using a program to beat the system.

 

[Duntov-097]

Bob,

I sure hate to see you part with that car, but I understand why you are doing it. I wish I was not so deep in projects right now or I would probably consider buying it. Make Ebay relist it for free and hold out for what it is worth, you will get it eventually! This will make someone a great restoration project. Cars like this do not come around every day!


Regards, John McGraw

You know John sometimes things happen for a reason. I spent Friday and couple hours tonight putting the engine back in the Orange 57' and getting the other car ready to go to its new home. As I worked on getting the engine in I was thinking about the situation and the words many of you have sent me. There are a LOT of great memories in that garage. Every part, every poster on the wall, every tool told a little story. I stopped working on the orange car and focused on the other.

I pushed the car out of the garage tonight and aired up the tires with the air chuck my father bought at Carlisle last year. He bought ten of them because he could never find one.. It was easy to find now. There were still 5 of them in the tool box. (The old magnesium wheels my father and I found at Maple Grove have a slow leak in the cold.) While cleaning out the car I found a bag of bolts with a to do list my father wrote. While looking through all the parts I found a picture of us at Carlisle a few years ago a friend had sent us. I slowly began to realize that everything had a memory of him in it and like many have said. Time heals all wounds.

I fired the car up and drove it up the road tonight I found myself with a silly grin on my face. I remembered my father always telling the story of how after I got my first 57' fuelie I did'nt stop smiling for a month. ( I would of never gotten the car without his efforts ) As I pulled back into the driveway I remembered the last time I had taken the car for a ride.... My father was pretty weak at the time sleeping on the couch when I left... when I came back down the street there he was with the camera smiling and taking a picture of me pulling in with a big sh__ eating grin on my face.

My father had a good life with no regrets. He was an honest man that would give anyone the shirt of his back. He had many friends and a family he loved and that loved him back. When he got the news the end was near he told me he had come to terms with everything but the one thing that really ****ed him of was not getting to see the car done. I told my mother that story over dinner and she said that was the first thing he said to the doctor too.

This hobby isn't so much about the cars as it is the journeys the cars take us on and the people we meet. I will be keeping the car. I think I will just leave something off so it won't ever be finished in my lifetime either. Maybe it was my father that FUBAR'd ebay.

I would like to thank everyone for their emails, pm's and posts. One of the bidders that I exchanged numerous emails with actual helped me with this decision with stories of his own family. Now that is a true Corvette guy !
Thank you Dean

 

[studiog]

You know John sometimes things happen for a reason. I spent Friday and couple hours tonight putting the engine back in the Orange 57' and getting the other car ready to go to its new home. As I worked on getting the engine in I was thinking about the situation and the words many of you have sent me. There are a LOT of great memories in that garage. Every part, every poster on the wall, every tool told a little story. I stopped working on the orange car and focused on the other.

I pushed the car out of the garage tonight and aired up the tires with the air chuck my father bought at Carlisle last year. He bought ten of them because he could never find one.. It was easy to find now. There were still 5 of them in the tool box. (The old magnesium wheels my father and I found at Maple Grove have a slow leak in the cold.) While cleaning out the car I found a bag of bolts with a to do list my father wrote. While looking through all the parts I found a picture of us at Carlisle a few years ago a friend had sent us. I slowly began to realize that everything had a memory of him in it and like many have said. Time heals all wounds.

I fired the car up and drove it up the road tonight I found myself with a silly grin on my face. I remembered my father always telling the story of how after I got my first 57' fuelie I did'nt stop smiling for a month. ( I would of never gotten the car without his efforts ) As I pulled back into the driveway I remembered the last time I had taken the car for a ride.... My father was pretty weak at the time sleeping on the couch when I left... when I came back down the street there he was with the camera smiling and taking a picture of me pulling in with a big sh__ eating grin on my face.

My father had a good life with no regrets. He was an honest man that would give anyone the shirt of his back. He had many friends and a family he loved and that loved him back. When he got the news the end was near he told me he had come to terms with everything but the one thing that really ****ed him of was not getting to see the car done. I told my mother that story over dinner and she said that was the first thing he said to the doctor too.

This hobby isn't so much about the cars as it is the journeys the cars take us on and the people we meet. I will be keeping the car. I think I will just leave something off so it won't ever be finished in my lifetime either. Maybe it was my father that FUBAR'd ebay.

I would like to thank everyone for their emails, pm's and posts. One of the bidders that I exchanged numerous emails with actual helped me with this decision with stories of his own family. Now that is a true Corvette guy !
Thank you Dean

That is a very touching story. Your Dad must have been a great guy and it is nice to see how much you treasure those memories. Also nice that you shared the same passion for old Vettes. You are lucky to have such fond memories.

 

[ZRGator]

It sure looks like there is a happy ending to this story. Emotional attachment wins out over bucks. I'd be willing to bet that after you made that decision, your Dad was the one in heaven with the big sh__ eating grin on his face. I just don't see how you can ever regret making the decision you made.

 

[Mac]

THEN...I get EMails from people offering to pay MORE than the winning bid, because their "snipe" bid of $11.02 didn't make it in time, and somebody else won the item for $10.50.

Maybe I'm unusual but if I were attempting to snipe (which I don't) and I was unsuccessful, the last thing I would do is send an email to the seller announcing what I'd done. What arrogance!! As a seller, I would probably register a negative feedback against anyone who admitted such thing.

-Mac