Collectors on Ebay acting like morons

[bikingjahuty]

I've been using Ebay for a very long time now, and it still amazes me how incredibly stupid people are when it comes to bidding on video games. To be fair, this isn't something exclusive to video games, but since video games are primarily what I've bought on ebay for several years now it's what I'll talk about.


So basically, I find it hilarious that people go on ebay looking for a "deal" and end up getting in a bidding war with someone or several people on an item that will be posted as an auction again within a week or two. Sometimes there are multiple auctions up for said item at the time of the auction, tet they seem to act like the one they bid on is the only copy of that game in existence and they severely drive the price of it up. All it takes is a few of these morons and before you know it, everyone and their mom is marking a specific game up around that new benchmark. And what does the winner of the auction tht caused this have to whoe for it? An overpriced copy of an otherwise plentiful game.


I've seen this happen several times and I can't help but wonder what mentality makes these people want to throw their money away just so they can outbid someone they'll never meet for a game that will be in ebay again shortly. It especially baffles me when people do this with days left in the auction. If they really wanted to save money, they'd all bid within the last few minutes of the auction, but nope, they want to drive it up with 5-days to go....


What are your thoughts on this and do you have any interesting stories about this sort of irrational behavior?

[vivigamer]

I personally never bid on eBay, very very rarely has it lead to pleasant results - Often having the item swept away at the last moment. I think the only thing in recent memory I won via bid was a guide to Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep - As i had not seen it on sale for a good price in months. But it's not soemthing i even consider an option usually.

[bikingjahuty]

I personally never bid on eBay, very very rarely has it lead to pleasant results - Often having the item swept away at the last moment. I think the only thing in recent memory I won via bid was a guide to Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep - As i had not seen it on sale for a good price in months. But it's not soemthing i even consider an option usually.

Unfortunately outbidding people at the very last second (literally) is really the only way you can walk away with a good deal on something. It's an annoying reality that has burned me more than a few times, but I've also got lucky a lot too.

[sworddude]

I personally never bid on eBay, very very rarely has it lead to pleasant results - Often having the item swept away at the last moment. I think the only thing in recent memory I won via bid was a guide to Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep - As i had not seen it on sale for a good price in months. But it's not soemthing i even consider an option usually.

Unfortunately outbidding people at the very last second (literally) is really the only way you can walk away with a good deal on something. It's an annoying reality that has burned me more than a few times, but I've also got lucky a lot too.

I mean to be fair in the cases that I have seen this it's espeically with older stuff in excellent shape mainly cardboard releases wich don't come up to often in the excellent upwards condition and are otherwise almost never available unless it's super overpriced from certain sellers.

Not to mention that in the rare case that it does happen for allot of common stuff in europe there are also plenty of times that less important items go for allot less auction style thanks to sniping

I mean if ebay would increase the auction by a minute for every last bid like any normal proffesional auction prices could have been allot higher on ebay

[gf78]

I usually don't bid. If I find something I want, I look for Buy it Now or Best Offer and contact the seller. Even if they aren't accepting offers. It never hurts to ask.

The bidding wars drive me nuts. The few times there was something I just had to have, I ended up overpaying for it.

My other issue which was touched upon is that this causes other sellers to think they are sitting on a gold mine and try to charge ridiculous prices. My local game shop based a lot of their prices off ebay sales. Not only do they end up asking more for something than it's worth, they do so regardless of condition. I'm sorry, but a copy of Mario Kart 64 with someone's name written on it with marker and a label faded and practically destroyed from Cheetos grease isn't worth the same as a like-new one!   

[marvelvscapcom2]

I've been using Ebay for a very long time now, and it still amazes me how incredibly stupid people are when it comes to bidding on video games. To be fair, this isn't something exclusive to video games, but since video games are primarily what I've bought on ebay for several years now it's what I'll talk about.


So basically, I find it hilarious that people go on ebay looking for a "deal" and end up getting in a bidding war with someone or several people on an item that will be posted as an auction again within a week or two. Sometimes there are multiple auctions up for said item at the time of the auction, tet they seem to act like the one they bid on is the only copy of that game in existence and they severely drive the price of it up. All it takes is a few of these morons and before you know it, everyone and their mom is marking a specific game up around that new benchmark. And what does the winner of the auction tht caused this have to whoe for it? An overpriced copy of an otherwise plentiful game.


I've seen this happen several times and I can't help but wonder what mentality makes these people want to throw their money away just so they can outbid someone they'll never meet for a game that will be in ebay again shortly. It especially baffles me when people do this with days left in the auction. If they really wanted to save money, they'd all bid within the last few minutes of the auction, but nope, they want to drive it up with 5-days to go....


What are your thoughts on this and do you have any interesting stories about this sort of irrational behavior?

People always make fun of me for being a buy it now guy, but the auctions are just so tiresome and you don't really save anything.  I always thought the whole point was to save money by getting a good auction and buy it nows were so much money.  Did auctions once or twice, always pay close to or more than a buy it now and have to deal with sitting around sniping bids.  It's so redundant.  And most people just do it to compete.  I don't want to battle some guy from arkansas over a 10 dollar game. 


I think a good portion of your statement gets into the issue of people hopping into the fad not knowing much about it with more money than know how.  And it really does ruin it for the rest of us when prices climb.  Their are 2 culprits I noticed. 

1. The guy selling it for ridiculous prices
2. The guy paying the ridiculous price.

Both equal necessary evils.  The guy shouldn't be selling it so expensive, but if nobody baught it he'd be forced to lower.  but people decide they have to buy it.  it's why the 1 dollar NES bins are long days of old. 


The one I notice it most with is Smash Bros Melee.  It's the best selling gamecube game and it pushed over 10 million copies.  It's so common I see it on the way to check the mail.   I trip on them.  I can't leave the house without seeing 3.   But they are always 50-70 dollars.   I remember just 5 or so years ago Game Crazy having them for 10 bucks in buy one get one bins when Wii was out.   You couldn't give them away.  But now it's rare because people say it is.


What annoys me more on ebay lately is sellers listing a game cheap,  and then backing out by refunding you the money, relisting the game for more and acting like it never happened.  Totally disrespectful, instant negative feedback.  I have accidently underpriced something and had to ship it but your word is worth more than gold.   


I also hate on ebay lately, people who bid and then pull their bid last minute or have fake paypals. 



Or paypal holding your funds for weeks at a time.   

[Cartagia]

There's only one way to really buy something on an eBay auction.

Determine what you maximum pay out price would be.
Put that in the maximum bid section in the last 5 seconds of the auction.
Good luck.

[hoshichiri]

People always make fun of me for being a buy it now guy, but the auctions are just so tiresome and you don't really save anything.  I always thought the whole point was to save money by getting a good auction and buy it nows were so much money.  Did auctions once or twice, always pay close to or more than a buy it now and have to deal with sitting around sniping bids.  It's so redundant.  And most people just do it to compete. 

I think you've stumbled onto the real culprit here- it's the competition that gets them. I didn't just buy the game, I WON the game. Behold my amazing sniping skills! I am the master! I claim the prize!

And while that guy is patting himself on the back, people like you and me mosey up to the buy-it-now seller: Yeah, can I get that game? Thanks- what's with him? Oh, he camped an auction for 3 days, won, and got this same game for 3 bucks off? Well, I'm glad he's happy... I've got errands to run, I'll see you later.

Not to mention eBay's coupons are terribly short on their useable timeframe, you often can't wait an auction out.

I think the worst I personally was around for was years ago, an auction for Vagrant Story's case... no actual game, but case, manual & demo disc. I'd just gotten the game disc-only during that Classic Plastic $5 blowout the Game Crazy chain did back in the day (I'm sure some of you remember that.) I figured, why buy a $20-30 CIB copy when this case is only ten? Then watched dumbfounded as several people bid it up to $35-40 by the auction's end. Needless to say, I'd long since stopped bidding and bought the $20 CIB copy the seller marked down becuase they had to resurface the game disc. The only bidding war I ever participated in was for an animation cel to give as a birthday present- I give myself a pass there becuase that's inherently a one of a kind item.

[bikingjahuty]

I certainly do prefer auctions since you do definitely save money on them, at least when idiots don't get involved and drive the price way up. I actually won two auctions earlier this week, the first I saved about 40% off what I would have paid with a cheaper BIN, and the other auction I got for 65% off what i would have spent if i'd done BINs for everything included in that listing. But as many of you have pointed out, this doesn't always happen, and sometimes you're looking at a few bucks or maybe 10%. But depending on what it is, for example a very valuable game or console, I'll gladly take that 10% discount.


But yes, sometimes I don't want to mess around with auctions and just go for a reasonable BIN that gets posted. Hell, if you look regularly you can sometimes get a BIN that's better than any auction completed listing. Unfortunately most BINs are much higher than the auction listings, especially once some idiot pays some other idiot's ridiculously high asking price for a specific game and then everyone assumes they can get the same and jacks their prices up. And then of course there is the instance when people get into bidding wars on an auction and essentially cause the same thing to happen through their careless bidding.


But I think Hoshichiri sad it best; these people who get into bidding wars at some point no longer care about getting a good price and just care about winning the auction, damn the cost.

[gf78]

It taps into the same thing as a gambling addiction.

[bikingjahuty]

One thing I forgot to mention is a story about how I witnessed the game Fox Hunt on the PS1 go from a $30-40 game to a $150 game in one auction. To be fair, Fox Hunt never came up that often on ebay at the time, auction or otherwise, but finally someone posted a pretty clean copy with a starting bid price for a penny. The auction went up slowly over the course of the listing, until the final few minutes. Before everyone bidding on that game lost their minds, the auction was sitting at something like $50, so already slightly over what people had been paying for it for a while now. But then it starts shooting up, and then with a minute left, it's at over a hundred, and then finally ends for around $150. I essentially threw my hands in the air and knew that I'd never own that game unless I got incredibly lucky and found it for next to nothing somewhere. It has come down in price since, but is still way higher than it used to be, but for a couple years after that, nearly every BIN was over $150 for that game as a result of the idiots that just couldn't let that auction go....

[aliensstudios]

There's been times where I see the promoted listing or whichever one appears at the top get bid way up, and then a listing of the same item not even get looked at. Heck, I saw a copy of Spyro for PS1 get auctioned all the way up to $44, while I won another listing that ended roughly at the same time for $13. Certainly, some kind of underlying mental deficiency is playing a part in two or three guys bidding way up on an item just to say "I won the auction! I'm the master!" and then going on Reddit and saying they found it at a garage sale. 

Often my strategy is to see a listing under what I'm willing to spend, wait until there is 5 seconds left and then putting in my bid. I probably win 2/3 of the time I do that.

[pizzasafari]

I never bid on ebay, it's way too much effort and no guarantee there'll be a payoff. Though saying that I got my Panzer Dragoon Saga in a bidding war on Ebay, near-perfect condition for about £160. That was a good day. But 99% of the time there's no reason at all to choose an auction over a buy it now. I think some people just like the rush of it, maybe.

[oldgamerz]

I never bid on ebay, it's way too much effort and no guarantee there'll be a payoff. Though saying that I got my Panzer Dragoon Saga in a bidding war on Ebay, near-perfect condition for about £160. That was a good day. But 99% of the time there's no reason at all to choose an auction over a buy it now. I think some people just like the rush of it, maybe.

I never use ebay and I feel sorry for the poor people that use the bidding service, first off the rich man always can win buy putting in the highest bid at the last second. As some had mentioned and I don't feel like I will ever get the game if I use ebay, I don't know anything about ebay though. I just assume it's all about the highest bid price wins. You could bet $99  and someone else can be an asshole and bid $99.25 (99 dollars and 25 cents or $100) and win, so I see no point. But I live less than 1 mile from a all year round flea market and a disc replay so I am vary lucky

[jirachiswishes]

The way people act on bidding is why I won't attempt it. I just use Buy It Now with anything I buy on ebay.