Ebay help please??

[Farmer_Gyles]

i hate ebay with a vengeance .... trying to buy anything from it is a nightmare ....
anyway, me and the missus want to buy something 2nd hand .... i put in a bid, it tells me i've been outbid .... how does that work?

so now i just tried buying something at the last second .... it was showing £117 .... i would have paid up to £150 for it .... but to avoid this automatic outbidding thing, i put in a bid with about 10 seconds to go .... then had to confirm it .... then the screen refreshed and it showed the £117 price as the price it was sold for, so missed out again ....

ebay seems to be a real pain to use ....
how can i make sure i get what i want?

[Farmer_Gyles]

Ha! just tried another one, and was automatically outbid .... the other bid was placed 3 days ago .... so why wasn't it showing?? what a waste of my time ....

[rustylady]

Talk to TwoSheds, she is the Ebay expert

[Mikey]

I find that if I want something then I place a bid upto the maximum that I'm prepared to pay with about 2 minutes to go. If in the case of your item £150, as long as no one else bid higher than you, your value would be shown as soon as it exceeded the highest maximum bid of the existing bidder. I don't get into the last few seconds thing, as its too easy to lose it.

[Farmer_Gyles]

I find that if I want something then I place a bid upto the maximum that I'm prepared to pay with about 2 minutes to go. If in the case of your item £150, as long as no one else bid higher than you, your value would be shown as soon as it exceeded the highest maximum bid of the existing bidder.

huh?
totally lost me!

[Mikey]

OK, when you place a bid, it allows you to put in a starting bid, and a maximum bid.

Ebay only shows the lowest existing high bid, not the amount that someone is prepared to go to, so if the existing highest bidder has put in a bid of £117 upto £130, and you put in £121, your bid will still be beaten as ebay would raise the winning total upto £122, as that is still within the existing bidders limit. However had you put in your maximum of £150, then you would have become the highest bidder at £131 once you'd past the existing bidders maximum limit.

Does it make sense now?

[julesapple]

Okay it's like this;

You want to bid on an item. There is a few minutes left to go. There is already one bid on the item, which still sits at the starting price - let's say £10. You bid £11 and you are out bid immediately. This means that the person who started the bidding actually put in a maximum bid of more than the starting price. The bids will go up in increments. You can keep bidding until you either outbid the first bidder or you run out of time.

What Mikey means is put in one bid of the very maximum you are prepared to pay and then you have a very good chance of winning.

[Farmer_Gyles]

OK, when you place a bid, it allows you to put in a starting bid, and a maximum bid.

i don't see that? there's a box to enter the amount and a button next to it saying Place Bid
enter the amount and click the button, up pops a confirmation page says current bid and "Your maximum bid" (which can't be changed)
there's a red bar above the item saying You've been outbid. Next to that is a blue button saying "Increase maximum bid" .... but that button just does the same as above ...

Ebay only shows the lowest existing high bid, not the amount that someone is prepared to go to, so if the existing highest bidder has put in a bid of £117 upto £130, and you put in £121, your bid will still be beaten as ebay would raise the winning total upto £122, as that is still within the existing bidders limit. However had you put in your maximum of £150, then you would have become the highest bidder at £131 once you'd past the existing bidders maximum limit.

Does it make sense now?

Kind of understand that theory .... but i don't see where to put different amounts?

[Farmer_Gyles]

You want to bid on an item. There is a few minutes left to go. There is already one bid on the item, which still sits at the starting price - let's say £10. You bid £11 and you are out bid immediately. This means that the person who started the bidding actually put in a maximum bid of more than the starting price. The bids will go up in increments. You can keep bidding until you either outbid the first bidder or you run out of time.

so it's a *hidden* / sneak auction, rather than an open auction?

[rustylady]

so it's a *hidden* / sneak auction, rather than an open auction?

In a word, yes

[Farmer_Gyles]

In a word, yes

hmmmm ..... no wonder i don't like ebay .....

so there's another one .... £100, no bids ....
what do i do?

[Mikey]

Well, its an auction that allows everyone the opportunity to get an item, not just to be beaten in the dying seconds. As a seller you would much rather get the highest bid for an item rather than just the last bid.

So is it hidden well yes, but it is also open to you to bid as much as you want, but only pay a little more than someone else.

Personally I don't buy that much on it, and a lot of new things are more expensive on it than elsewhere, but its very useful to get rid of some things that I no longer have a use for, when I can get my rear into doing so...

[Mikey]

hmmmm ..... no wonder i don't like ebay .....

so there's another one .... £100, no bids ....
what do i do?

How much are you prepared to pay for it, and put your bid in at that level. It'll only start at the entry bid, not your highest limit.

[Farmer_Gyles]

so i enter the maximum i'd be prepared to pay, not the actual bid?
so assume it's showing £100 no bids, and i think i'd pay up to maybe £140, i enter £140?
and it shows the current bid as what? £100 or £140?

[Farmer_Gyles]

Well, its an auction that allows everyone the opportunity to get an item, not just to be beaten in the dying seconds. As a seller you would much rather get the highest bid for an item rather than just the last bid.

So is it hidden well yes, but it is also open to you to bid as much as you want, but only pay a little more than someone else.

it takes time to watch and bid and mess about .... and so much easier to go and buy direct from another website without all the nonsense of ebay .... if i don't get what i want this week then i'll just go for the private sale from elsewhere ....