Another bright idea from the big brains at Ebay

[spiral]

Originally Posted by LOUIEBLADES

Spiral

Ebay currently hides all bidder IDs once the item exceeds $200 the new rule basically will hide all bids from $1.00 on up.

Lew

Thanks Lew, I understand. O well ebay is not the place it was years ago. I used to enjoy it, but there were more raritys at cheap prices 6 or 7 years ago.

Spiral

[A. G. Maisey]

Lee, I have dealt mainly with one Sydney auction house since I was in high school. Up until perhaps 25 years ago, this organisation charged the seller a 10% commission.

There was no buyer's commission, the operation was plain, simple, no fancy catalogues, no up-market auction rooms. In a word:- basic.

Then they started to get delusions of grandeur, moved out of their dark dusty auction rooms on the edge of Chinatown into a historic building on the edge of the corporate heart of town. Polished floors, elegant lighting, auctioneers in suits and ties.Very beautifully produced catalogues on art paper.Big advertisements in Saturday's newspapers.

Seller's commissions rose, then buyer's commissions were introduced, and over the years it has just got worse. Currently, I think, the seller pays 25%, the buyer pays 22.5%.

I still buy from them. I've never stopped.

But I only ever pay what an item is worth to me. I recently bought an antique Chinese day bed. I knew a new one would cost me about $1500. I would have rather had a new one, than an antique one, so to me, this day bed was worth around $600-700. I lodged a bid of $550 ($550 + 22.5% = $673) with the auctioneer and went home. When I rang back I found I had won the day bed at $450. $450 + 22.5% = $551.Well inside my budget.

What I have found is that all regular buyers at auction adjust their bid downwards to cover the buyer's commission. The only people who do not do this are the occasional buyers who have little or no experience, or who do not have an understanding of the value of something before they start to bid.

I do understand the way in which sniping works on ebay, however, I feel that if you know the value of something, and you are prepared to pay a fair price, then sniping is not necessary. You simply lodge your maximum bid with ebay, and if nobody has placed a higher value on the item, you will win, and ebay will apply sufficient of your maximum bid to allow you to win, even after the auction closes.The whole philosophy of winning at auction is to know the value to you of the item being auctioned, and be prepared to pay that price to buy it. It could well be worth more to somebody else, but that should not concern you:- you have named the maximum amount you are prepared to pay to own the item, and if somebody else is prepared to pay more, well that's up to him.

You do not win at auction if you pay more for something than it is worth to you, and this is what can happen if you do not make an objective evaluation of the object long before any bids are lodged:- you just say "this is worth $X to me", leave your bid, and walk away.

[ward]

I think most of you had better get a slightly more realistic view on how much auctions cost. I have been buying from auctions since I was a child and selling on them when I hit 16. I have had customers in my computer bussiness who were auctioners and have a slightly more realistic view of what a bussiness cost to run. They have to be heavily advertised you have to hire people to run the auction,you have to store the items,you have to clean them,you have to research the item, pay rent, catalogs are what the public wants, you have dead beat buyers. All of this cost real money. Maybe the huge auction houses are making incredible profits but I know most smaller auction houses are not making the dollars you think. Regarding ebay sometimes you do well sometimes not. Yes the auction fees are less but the seller does all the work not the auction house.I have been selling on ebay for a long time and so has charles and a few others ask him how long it takes to set up a auction.
I agree you should come to a auction with a set price of what you are going to pay for a item, but I do that whenever I buy antiques

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by ward

I think most of you had better get a slightly more realistic view on how much auctions cost. I have been buying from auctions since I was a child and selling on them when I hit 16. I have had customers in my computer bussiness who were auctioners and have a slightly more realistic view of what a bussiness cost to run. They have to be heavily advertised you have to hire people to run the auction,you have to store the items,you have to clean them,you have to research the item, pay rent, catalogs are what the public wants, you have dead beat buyers. All of this cost real money. Maybe the huge auction houses are making incredible profits but I know most smaller auction houses are not making the dollars you think. Regarding ebay sometimes you do well sometimes not. Yes the auction fees are less but the seller does all the work not the auction house.I have been selling on ebay for a long time and so has charles and a few others ask him how long it takes to set up a auction.
I agree you should come to a auction with a set price of what you are going to pay for a item, but I do that whenever I buy antiques

Who needs a "more realistic view"? We're talking about internet auctions. Specifically eBay. Forgive me for not feeling bad for that monster.

[ward]

Actually most of what I wrote refered to comments regarding standard auctions I do not have any love for ebay it is a tool I use for selling and if a differnet venue presents itself I would use it along side what I currently use