I’ve noticed a trend lately of people watching a lot of items but not necessarily bidding on them. As a seller, I’ve used the watching ability to track certain items in order to see where they end up as far as a price, but I’ve mostly stopped that as I can now search closed auctions and see final values of many auctions at a time.
As a bidder, I’ve used this as a way to watch multiple auctions for the same item in order to eventually put a bid in on the one that has a lower price. This also is not very efficient. The best practice for doing so is to simply take the earliest ending of the auctions and decide on a max bid and then bid that price. This is best for both the seller and the buyer. For the seller it gives the opportunity for a good price and the ability to get a head start on packing up items. For the buyer, you won’t forget to make a bid or get pulled away from the computer before you can make a bid. Placing a bid right away makes it easier for the bidder to make a winning bid. Ask yourself how many auctions you have “watched” with the intention of bidding when it got closer to the end of the auction and then forgot about it? How many times did the item you were watching not sell? Sure, you probably got another in a later auction but for some items, that can mean waiting several days more to receive the item and possibly paying much more for it.
So, if you want to win an auction on Ebay, you might be best off to decide on a max bid, bid that amount, and walk away. If you don’t win, you still have to find another similar item, but if you do win, you may just get a deal.
[tags]ebay, bidding, auction, bid, max bid, win[tags]
About Shane Ede
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