OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Off Topics Some eBay Bidders are Nuts!

Why do people go crazy at auctions? I'm not sure if the bidders actually read the description in this case. If they had they would realize they are only getting the middle snorkel in the photo, not all three.


Source: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/182612092647?ul_noapp=true

The funniest thing is another eBay seller had a brand new one listed as a "Buy it Now" at the same time for less than half this price!

No offense intended to whoever the people were who bid this item up to the moon, but I would have to say that in general some eBay bidders are really stupid. Perhaps for some people the thrill of competition and winning is far more important than the price paid? Reminds me of those drivers who cannot bear to see another car in front of them when they are driving. Then you catch them up at the first set of traffic lights. They get stuck behind a truck or get pulled up for speeding and you drive casually past them.

It's called "feeding the greed". It's the competitive streak in human nature with the "you're not going to beat me" attitude. Then they line up and realise they have to open their wallets, thus why there are so many "Non Paying Bidders" at many eBay auctions and sellers have moved across to BIN listings, which are generally way over priced.

Cheers,
BB.

What gets up my nose is if I'm the only person to put a bid on, generally at the low starting bid sometimes a week before the auction ends with my max bid and on the last day somebody jumps over my bid. I then jump over my max bid just so that they have to end up paying more for the item. Always gives me a smile when my new bid has been beaten.Then I delete it from my watch list and bidding list

This is why I prefer to place a bid in the last few minutes as I feel that adding my bid in the beginning will only increase the likelihood of the price going up. If I forget to place my bid in time, I see that as a sign I didn't really want it enough anyway and life goes on.

Very true. Placing an early bid is a sign to a buyer that you are interested. But the way eBay works is as soon as an item starts attracting bids it gets "promoted" to the head of their searches. The same happens with items that a lot of people are watching. So then more people are likely to see the ad and more people bid. At least that is the theory, and I am sure eBay is totally in favour of "bidding war" mentality.

And how much you want to bet, in the case of that snorkel, some of the bidders thought they would be getting all three snorkels, not just the middle one? It is amazing how many people do not actually read the description. Having sold a few things on eBay in the past I found this happened all too often. It would not matter how clearly you state that an item is only available for pick up from your house. Then somebody wins it and you see their address is in Germany or the United States. So you ask the buyer how they intend to pick up the item. They ask you for a shipping quote. LOL!

I don't win much on ebay auctions mainly because it is an auction and you have no idea if it is any good,complete gamble. I will put on a low figure and usually walk away, but sometimes I jack the bids up a bit just to upset whoever has bid over me. Sometimes I might end up winning but it will always be at a low price for whatever it is

Ten years ago I sold two different mowers on EBay months apart and the two buyers who lived only streets away from each other in a western Sydney suburb were flaky in some way.
The first guy wanted to know if I had a catcher for it even though I clearly stated in the ad that the mower did not come with a catcher and was being sold as is. He acted slightly irritated when I said no.
The second guy tried to flog off an electric cooker to me when I delivered his mower.
After that, and other slightly unpleasant experiences delivering mowers to other eBay buyers, I made it pick up only and it was a much better experience after that. I even befriended a nice fella who bought a few mowers off me through Ebay and did them up to onsell.

I attend a lot of farm clearance auctions and the same mentality manifests at those as well. People will pay over brand new price for items that they don't even know if they work. Other times though people will have no idea what they are looking at and no one else bids and you walk away with the deal of the century for $5 or even less sometimes. I picked up over a tonne of usable steel sections at one auction for $10 when none of the regular scrap dealers turned up.

The one and only time I got badly burnt at an auction left a really bad taste in my mouth. I have been very wary of auctions ever since. We use to have one of those big auction warehouses nearby that involved the buyers inspecting the goods a week beforehand and placing their bids. You had to write your bid on a form and hand it in. You had no idea what anybody else was bidding.

I always bid far too low on everything, although I always considered my bids to be fair. Well one time something caught my eye that I really was keen on. So I placed an enormous bid thinking that I would only be outbid by someone else. To my great surprise, this time I was the highest bidder and won the item. A momentary feeling of victory soon gave way to a bad case of "buyer's regret", because I then I had to pay for it. In all truth I found myself scratching the bottoms of my pockets! Unlike eBay, this auction place also charged the buyer a commission and other fees on tops of sales. So they were getting a commission from the seller as well as from the buyer. It was a clear case of "double-dipping" if ever there was one. So I ended up paying another 15% or whatever it was on top of what I had bid, making the item very expensive. Another problem was I thought I was bidding on only one of two items, when the fine print later revealed that I was actually bidding on two items. So even though my bid was "per item", I actually had to take the pair, meaning my bid was in effect doubled. So I walked out the place that day about $800 lighter.

The auction place only showed you the results of the bidding after the auction had closed. It turns out that the second highest bid was only $10 and I had bid $350. I never went back to that auction house again! Last I heard they had closed their doors. Good riddance I say! The staff were always extremely ignorant, hostile and rude in any case. Many times I stood there waiting and nobody would even serve you or acknowledge your existence. I cannot even remember what they were called now. Hardly matters. I still have the items - a couple of rusty antiques that do not even work - and valued at about a 20th of what I paid for them almost a decade ago. Never again!

Vint-mow I feel your pain. I have one here that is a buyer beware situation, all looks good on the surface but there is a trap in this one. I have had discussions with the seller explaining to him why the had been abandoned but his reply was "somebody will buy them" Any guesses what the big drawback is on this lot apart from the fact he wants $30 each for them?
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10-x-Vic...-fix-CHEAP-market-reseller-/182608621344

Stolen property is my guess or he hasn't gone through proper channels before putting them up for sale.

Nope, nothing to do with any legalities, these mowers are only worth probably $15 each because at least 7 of them I can see have an expensive problem with them

My bet is they are all stuffed from being run on normal fuel and not 2 stroke.

Cheers,
BB.

Going back to the auction topic, I've found that most of these small time auction houses that run a computer bidding system actually know what your proxy is and surprise surprise you end up at your top figure on the day as they manipulate the system which isn't transparent to the bidders.

Also while I'm at it, I hate the systems where every time you place a bid it extends the time by another 15 seconds so they extract the most amount of funds from you and other bidders along with their own intervention. This is an industry that has been feeding the greed for years and its a win win situation for them every time.

Cheers,
BB.

BB that is possible but it is not the problem that I can see that is wrong with them but good guess. The problem is visible if you look closely and the seller had to agree with me

Starter cords dangling out. You have said PT starters can fetch more than the whole mower. Some might just need to be cleaned and lubricated but you can't tell until you pull them apart.
Even without that issue, he should halve the price at least. He obviously needs to get them off his hands as he runs a storage facility and trades in SPACE not junk ( to him).
He can keep chasing rainbows of he likes or he can let someone get them off his hands at an attractive price.

You win the chocolates Mowerfreak, I can see at least 7 with starter cords hanging out which I pointed out to him, and the problem with a broken spring the cheapest I have come across because it is "Victa" is $20 plus the effort involved in fitting them. There is a bloke in Doveton that I have got bits from and he always pulls the starters out of the PT's because he gets more for the pull start than the complete mower. I have probably 10 motors here that came without pull starts, and the motors were/are probably fine but useless without the pull start

So I guess it isn't worth my while to get a seized power torque of mine going s it's starter is also seized up. As a matter of fact, probably better to take a good starter off any defective power torque and save it for a functioning power torque that has a busted starter!!
Just dice power torques that need work unless you have surplus starters. But should I just sell or hoard those starters??

I don't come across a lot of defective powertorques, the odd one that has been run on straight petrol. I find most of them will run, carby problems are usually the reason people give up on them and that is an easy fix. All depends on what is wrong with the starter, unless they are completely seized up I would keep them for bits. They are the easiest of any starter to replace the cord, takes about 5 mins

It is not only the bidders that are nuts, some sellers are a bit nutty as well


http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/c-1968-S...r-2-Stroke-Works-Complete-/322557576538?