VGCollect Forum
General and Gaming => General => Topic started by: bikingjahuty on January 12, 2019, 01:55:45 am
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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
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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! >:(
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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. ;D
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. :(
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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.
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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.
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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.
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It taps into the same thing as a gambling addiction.
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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....
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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Auctions arn't there to save you a buck, you're just bitching you can't get a good deal every time you enter one. There are several reasons people use auctions instead of buy it nows when it comes to condition, location, or how rare it actually is.
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Auctions arn't there to save you a buck, you're just bitching you can't get a good deal every time you enter one. There are several reasons people use auctions instead of buy it nows when it comes to condition, location, or how rare it actually is.
It's not that people expect to do better using auctions vs. buy-it-now... it's that auctions require the greatest resource we have: time. You have to spend time on an auction. You have to watch it progress & keep track of the bids. You have to clear your schedule around the time it ends so you can get in your snipes/defend from them. And you have to make this investment of time without any guarantee you'll actually get the item, let alone get a deal on it.
It's obvious why a seller may prefer an auction- if they're lucky, they'll get more than the item is worth out of it. But there is no blanket reason why we as buyers would prefer to use auctions, aside from the chance to save money in exchange for time. Of course there will be exceptions- but I don't see a problem with people getting frustrated with a system that applies gambling mechanics to commerce.
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Auctions arn't there to save you a buck, you're just bitching you can't get a good deal every time you enter one. There are several reasons people use auctions instead of buy it nows when it comes to condition, location, or how rare it actually is.
I don't expect anything. I go for auctions because there is the possibility of getting a better deal, but I go in knowing that the auction could go high or stay low. What doesn't make any sense is when people drive auctions past the current BINs when it would have been far easier for them to just click But It Now on another listing instead of waiting out 7 days, hell even 24-hours just to pay more of an item they could have bought elsewhere for cheaper and easier. There is always the possibility that the seller is shill bidding on their own item in order to drive the price up, but given how often this happens I doubt this is the case the majority of the time. Besides, I've heard eBay has got very good at being able to detect shill bidding.
Various other things like people getting in bidding wars days before the auction ends and fixating on a specific listing when they could just get it elsewhere make little sense. I don't think that sense and rationality have anything to do with people overpaying during auctions, no, it is something way more instinctual and irrational that causes this behavior.
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I actually don't see the problem here why people are complaining about ebay auctions.
Ebay actually kinda **** it up as far as auctions go
Time is not extended when somebody snipes an offer at the very last seconds. The mental aspect of a bidding war is like pretty much gone thanks to this. Bidding war damage is at a minimum even with very rare items since you cannot endlessly bid someone up at those very last seconds unless you do it beforehand when time is plenty before it ends but that's not the same as doing it before an auction might actually end since in a bidding war at the end you cannot think clearly since time of only 1 minute is pretty limited.
As far as auctions go I'm pretty sure a buyers should be lucky with a site like ebay, since on other auctions sites where time actually gets extended at the very last second when someone bids those are the places where real bidding wars might occur.
Prices will stay lower at ebay auctions thanks to the non extensions of time. obviously if somebody really wants an item they will just put in a high offer but those extra bids will most likely not happen with the ebay system. In those rare chanches it is higher it's usually with very special items or if the condition is just way better than any other examples on the market.
Also I'm pretty sure that the bad system of ebay auctions without the time extensions that would prevent sniping like any normal auction method are the reason why there are way less auctions now than in the past. Auctions can end very low thanks to sniping rarely does one see a bidding war thanks to this. Good for the buyers for the sellers it's a gamble wich is not in their favor unless an item is very special but even than you might try your luck with offers on other sites instead of risking it on an auction.
For the buyers you will most likely save some money unless the item is in very nice shape a better example than the ones listed in the current market only than chances might be high for an auction to end up higher than a buy it now but even than thanks to ebay systems since an auction ends at a speicific time with sniping there is still a higher chance that it ends up in the lower end.
Sniping is called sniping for a reason, people miss there chance to bid on an auction since they originally thought they had the highest bid. but with the ebay system it is kinda impossible to place another bid when somebody snipes at the last second. Have seen plenty of people missing auctions thanks to a snipe wanting to place another bid. ebay has a great system for buyers to keep the prices in auctions lower than on any normal bidding system.
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Relevant to this topic I remember something that someone told me several years ago regarding their response to someone outbidding their top dollar on a game they were bidding on. I will call this revenge bidding since the point of the bidding is no longer to win the item, but to make the person who outbid them pay more money for the item. What this person did was if his maximum bid, aka is real bid that he put in to actually win the item, was outbid, he'd then start bidding a few bucks higher for no other reason than to make the person who outbid him pay more money. Obviously this can backfire and he could mistakenly outbid them, then becoming the top bidder on an item that is now way overpriced. According to this guy, most of the time the person they were punishing for outbidding them would mistake their bidding as a challenge rather than an attempt to make them pay more money, and then they'd outbid his revenge bids.
Keep in mind the guy who told me this was one of the most sleazy, unethical collectors I've ever met. He used to tell people their games were worthless in order to get them for a better deal, tell employees at pawn shops that their games were really valuable once he found out other collectors/resellers were beating him to deals at those pawn shops, and all kinds of other petty, stupid shit. Revenge bidding was just another tool up his sleeve of underhanded douchbaggery.
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For those who haven't or just plain refuse to use ebay, I will say that there are a great many collectibles I would have never acquired otherwise. Including my Iron Maiden First Ten Years Japanese box set. ;D
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I don't bid, I don't have the free time to snipe bids on ebay.
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A lot of people use automatic bid snipe apps now that pre-bid for them by running script commands, so that has a lot to do with it. Also, people think it's a game now to place stupidly high bids to outbid the other person, just to ruin the auction for them. Troll bids. They will never pay for the item, the seller relists the game, and they go onto the next one. They use throwaway eBay accounts to do this with that have no PP account attached.
I was bidding on a copy of Twilight Princess for the Gamecube last year because I have an ex-Hollywood Video rental and I would like the original copy. Some idiot moron comes in with a $444.00 bid an hour before the auction ends just to be an asshole. he won the auction not surprisingly. I emailed the seller and I said "can you just sell the game to me for my max bid (I had placed a $25 bid on it) since the bidder that won it is a shill bidder?" It took him about 2 weeks to reply back, but I guess he finally seen the bidder that won was not going to pay the $444.00 and he was going to be broke either way. I got the game for my maximum bid that got pegged from the troll bidder and paid within 5 minutes.
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I haven't bid on an eBay item in 7 or 8 years. Unless it's available for Buy It Now I don't bother anymore.
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Im a last sec bidder because why would you want to go at war with many days remaining. Once it gets to the nitty gritty is when you start to decide how bad you want said items. Sometimes I have gotten lucky with items where is like 1 bid the whole time and with only one person watching said item resulting in an easy win. But for the most part, I prefer the buy it now or even best offer option. The first item I ever won a bid on which was also a last minute sniping was my 60GB PS3 which as of a few days ago now that I think about it happened 10 years ago. Damn you father time.
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I only go for auctions if it's something relatively rare (only has auctions) or if all BINs are ridiculously high and auction is the only chance of a decent price.
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I only go for auctions if it's something relatively rare (only has auctions) or if all BINs are ridiculously high and auction is the only chance of a decent price.
This too
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On auction listings, I’ll pick a price I want to pay and bid at the last second. If I win, great. If not...I didn’t spend more than I wanted to. Everything else purchased on EBay is “buy it now”.
On a side note, if I see the same bidder with 2 bids in a row, I can’t help but bid it up by one increment
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What are my thoughts? Let them be morons.
This is more a thing of shill bidding rather than people being morons, although I won’t deny mentally impaired people roam eBay quite often. Shill bidding is against eBay TOS, but it happens everyday, whether the seller knows it or not; it's a common occurrence. People fuel a bid war simply to raise the value of an item. Scarcely will you ever see any one of these auctions get completed.
Nonetheless, bidding wars are a thing to behold, and they've entertained me quite often.
I personally prefer BINs (with BO if possible), but I do bid from time to time. I have no shame admitting I snipe the stuff I want, as I’ve gotten a good number of deals this way. I hate having to wait for auctions to end, though.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the commodity of thrift stores and the like around where I live, so eBay has for the most part been my only option.
Auctions arn't there to save you a buck, you're just bitching you can't get a good deal every time you enter one. There are several reasons people use auctions instead of buy it nows when it comes to condition, location, or how rare it actually is.
I've personally saved money when choosing an auction over BIN. Granted, I have a set amount that I am willing to spend and don't go over that amount regardless of how much I want whatever I'm bidding on. But yeah, you can save money if you choose auctions over BINs, especially if all the BINs available are ridiculously priced. The truth of the matter is auctions can be a waste of time, whether you win or not...especially if you don't.
I only go for auctions if it's something relatively rare (only has auctions) or if all BINs are ridiculously high and auction is the only chance of a decent price.
Pretty much what I do, too.
On auction listings, I’ll pick a price I want to pay and bid at the last second. If I win, great. If not...I didn’t spend more than I wanted to. Everything else purchased on EBay is “buy it now”.
That's what smart people do, otherwise you'll end up buying out of impulse and have buyer's remorse when eBay recommends you another listing for the same item at a better price.