Who got the trunk?

[cactusjack]

There was a Voyager trunk for sale on eBay, it was in very nice shape - red, w/o a backrest. I had been bidding on it and watching it and it went from $86 to $202 in the last hour of the auction. The auction ended around 05:30pm PST today. Just wondering if one of you snagged it?

[rksaw]

Not me. I was watching it because it looked like a color match to my '99, but when it approached $100, I didn't even give it a second thought.

[phenrichs]

Wasn't me I got a 83 venture trunk for $19. Of course with shipping it came to almost $100. I saw that red one too. Looked good. My auction started at $5.99 and in the last 5 mins someone jacked it up.

[cactusjack]

Hmmm..I didn't really care. I already have a trunk and I do plan to upgrade it someday, but I'm not going to pay big money for a 20 year old used piece of luggage. If I could have picked it up cheap I would have. It was $30 earlier in the day, then jumped to $202 for the winning bid.

[goldstar225]

I was in the same boat recently. A clean looking trunk (early 80's) but no backrest or rack on ebay. Initially it was going for a decent price but the bidding war started and it topped out at around $220.00. Like a dummy I was playing for a while but dropped out and let it get away. I'm glad I did cause I'd probably still be cussing myself if I had won for that price.

[Top Cat]

Thats how Ebay works. Everything starts at a reasonable price. You put in your top dollar amount you are willing to pay. Then at the last 2 min. everybody who has it in their watch this item section start bidding. The price goes through the roof.
The only time you get anything worth having on Ebay is if you are willing to pay the buy it now price or if most of the people who wanted the item forgot to bid.
I got a lot of stuff on Ebay for my bike and for my archery hobby. Most of the bike stuff was a buy it now price.
The archery stuff was 5 to 10 years ago when you could actually get a deal on there.

[phenrichs]

I have often wondered how many people have dual accounts so they can log in last minute and run up the price so they get more money.

[Top Cat]

Originally Posted by OP

I have often wondered how many people have dual accounts so they can log in last minute and run up the price so they get more money.

The problem with that is they may end up buying their own item. Then , if I'm not mistaken, they would have to pay ebay all the fees incurred on the item. Listing fee, selling fee, etc.

[VulcanE]

The last hour, especially the last 20 minutes the price really takes off. If I find something I want, I look for the ending date to be in the week (not on the weekend) and time to be pretty late. the ending times on e-bay are pacific times.

[v0lusia]

Also there are several pieces of software available for snipe (last 5-90 seconds) bidding on e-bay. You put in the auction and your highest amount and the software throws in bids at the last minute so it is tough for you to be outbid.

[rksaw]

Originally Posted by Top Cat (TC)

Thats how Ebay works...
The only time you get anything worth having on Ebay is if you are willing to pay the buy it now price or if most of the people who wanted the item forgot to bid.

That's exactly how I got my Saddlebag Liners.

[goldstar225]

I've only allowed myself to get in a biddling war twice, fortunately I lost both times. My norm is to set the highest price I'm willing to pay. My thought is that if I win, I'm happy because I paid my price for the item. If I lose, I'm content because in order to win I'd have paid more for the item than I wanted to.

I recently bought a 2002 Honda Shadow ACE on behalf of my son. When I started bidding the price was $2600. I set my max at $3700. Twenty minutes before the end of the auction my bid was bumped to $3500 by a challenger. With 15 seconds to go someone tried to snipe me and pushed my bid to $3605. Was I satisfied? Sure, I got the bike for a price I was willing to pay (actually $95 less). I felt the bike was an outstanding deal for the price. 6300 miles and $3000 in add ons (bags, seat pipes etc...)

Bottom line, put in the max you'll be happy paying and let it ride.

[dantama]

Originally Posted by goldstar225

I've only allowed myself to get in a biddling war twice, fortunately I lost both times. My norm is to set the highest price I'm willing to pay. My thought is that if I win, I'm happy because I paid my price for the item. If I lose, I'm content because in order to win I'd have paid more for the item than I wanted to.

I recently bought a 2002 Honda Shadow ACE on behalf of my son. When I started bidding the price was $2600. I set my max at $3700. Twenty minutes before the end of the auction my bid was bumped to $3500 by a challenger. With 15 seconds to go someone tried to snipe me and pushed my bid to $3605. Was I satisfied? Sure, I got the bike for a price I was willing to pay (actually $95 less). I felt the bike was an outstanding deal for the price. 6300 miles and $3000 in add ons (bags, seat pipes etc...)

Bottom line, put in the max you'll be happy paying and let it ride.

I either do that, or snipe it at my highest price.

There was one item that I was after and I missed it by a buck. I wished I had gone a little higher, it still would have been a hell of a deal. Then I realized that a little higher might not have done a thing for me.

If I put $3,000 as my high bid, and I'm the second place bidder, the winner might have put $4,000 as his. It only places enough of a bid to be on top, so it only looked like I missed it by a buck. If I was playing along, it might have taken a thousand more to win.

So sometimes it looks like you barely lost, but it might have taken a huge amount to be the top bidder. EBay is an amazing set up.

[Top Cat]

Quote by Dan
I either do that, or snipe it at my highest price.

There was one item that I was after and I missed it by a buck. I wished I had gone a little higher, it still would have been a hell of a deal. Then I realized that a little higher might not have done a thing for me.

If I put $3,000 as my high bid, and I'm the second place bidder, the winner might have put $4,000 as his. It only places enough of a bid to be on top, so it only looked like I missed it by a buck. If I was playing along, it might have taken a thousand more to win.

So sometimes it looks like you barely lost, but it might have taken a huge amount to be the top bidder. EBay is an amazing set up.

Exactly. When I first started on Ebay I thought I was getting outbid by a dollar also. Finally figured it out.
Now I just go in at the last min. and if it is higher than I want to go I don't bid. If it is not then I will put in the highest dollar amount I'm willing to spend at the last sec. If I win fine, if not I didn't need it that bad.
Here's a thought. If you win an item that nobody else bid on, did you really win? I mean you ended up with an item nobody else wanted.

[phenrichs]

Yeah I feel that they should not have that automatic bidding feature. That is the point of the "you've been outbid" notification. If somebody forgets to keep an eye on the item they want then they are s**t out of luck. I think a lot of people get screwed out of a fair auction that way.

It would be fun if you could see what the other guy put for a max bid. That way if someone wanted it, they put an outrageous number in for max bid ( like $3000 for a pencil) you could run them up to $2800 or so and they would get stuck paying it.