Warning! Ebay and Auction Sniper users beware

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I've had good luck using eSnipe for many years. From a buyer's perspective, there are many good reasons to use sniping services.

You don't want to alert your competition that there is an item in which you are interested, as that will raise the price. You don't want to get into bidding wars, where you are jockeying for top bid constantly during the duration of the auction, raising the price ever higher.

You also want to discourage shill bidders, either affiliated with the seller or not, who have no intention of winning the auction. They only want to drive the price up, either to benefit the seller, or just for amusement value.

Of course from the seller's standpoint (and that of eBay), sniping services are bad, for exactly the same reasons. They want to push the ending prices ever higher.
 
ebay and other mental abberations

Quote: But as the saying goes when you want something done right, do it yourself. *LOL*

Launderess, I do fully agree. Why not keep watching ebay while the auction is going?
If you really want the item then you can at least take the effort to keep watching and bidding (otherwise you do not want it anyway - my opinion).
Launderess: your pic keeps irritating me, this lady is frightening ;-)

Joe (twintubdexter), quote: "I have never heard of these things called "Auction Sniper," "Auctionstealer," Auction Kleptomaniac" etc"
Me neither and I find the idea quite repulsive: snipe/steal/klepto etc. are syllables to me that suggest something "illegal" or at least "out of good manners and taste" (and obviously they are->> so no sympathy from my side to those using them/and seeing them fail)
Joe, your pic keeps irritating me (in a very good way ;-)

Launderess, quote: "They are constantly messing with the website"
Absolutely right. They keep fidgeting around, changing this and that, altering this or the other link button or checkbox and EACH bloody TIME something FAILS what comes to their functionality.
Have been writing more than half a dozen angry mails to them, they keep shrugging them off. And their website keeps getting worse, more pc-power laden and slower and slower and slower....

Quote (several writers here): "eBay is more and more filled with junk" - Absolutely right. 80 percent commercial plastic junk sellers vs. some rare 20 percent private attic clearances (at least here in Germany, my experience).
Just the same development as it was with fleamarkets some decades ago: Grandmas and families with boot sales going back while Turkish neon mobile sheaths junk plastic sellers of the commercial type keep conquering the fleamarket grounds for good. No more use going there (back then) - no more use browsing ebay (now).

Even the goodwill shops here have installed marketing managers in order to check second hand prices compared to ebay ("is it retro? check ebay! do NOT tag it for 4 euros, make it some 15,- or so! The retro freaks will buy it anyhow")

On top of it all, ebay is some sort of an A....hole company just in itself, the do NOT care about any transaction gone wrong, not about any item misplaced or mistagged, not about any client having an issue to be resolved: They just keep their filthy fingers out of everything as long as the coins keep rolling and ringing in their piggy bank.
The rest is shrugged off and the client gets an email: "Please see the following link..."

I personally have changed to all other (mainly local) platforms here and I keep avoiding this Arschlochfirma ebay.
 
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.  I'm not going to get up at 4 AM when an auction might end just to place a bid.  I'm also not going to play games with sellers who may be inflating their items with fake bids.  Snipers serve to level the playing field. 

 

If I had other  options I'd use them, but I am not a yard sale person, that takes too much time and gas money so I'm limited to online sources, the only two I know of that might have the mixmaster I'm after at the price I'm willing to pay is ebay and good will.  I'm only willing to pay $20-$30 for a complete white model 12 delivered to my door, the one I lost was $19.95 plus gas to pick it up.  If I came across the yellow I'm after I'm willing to go a lot higher, but still risk it arriving in pieces.  I once bought a model 10 from a member here that arrived shattered to pieces, I'm all for avoiding shipping.

 

I'm still quite angry but have no recourse.
 
No it ended with zero bids.  I wonder if it will be relisted or tossed.  No takers at $20 so he might not feel it's worth it.  I have checked his auctions to see if it's relisted, it has not been.

 

I might shift my focus to units without bowls.  I did pick up a small bowl at goodwill for $1 a few weeks ago, but have not seen the larger bowl anywhere local.
 
If you were in contact with him prior to the auction ending(about pick up for it) you can get in contact with him again and see about buying it from him for that $20. That way he won't have to pay the ebay fees either.
 
As far as issues with bowls arriving all in pieces, that is the fault of the seller for not packing properly. If it doesn't arrive as described in the ad, then you can go after the person via ebay and get your money back. I know that doesn't help with wanting/needing the bowls but maybe you should also email the seller prior to shipping explaining how to properly package an item.
 
Auction Ended With Zero Bids

I've missed auctions before and they ended with no bidders. I just send an e-mail to the seller and make my offer. Sometimes they'll say that they'll just relist the item in a 1 day auction. I bid and then win it. I've never had a seller turn me down for doing this. They want to get rid of the item.

And I have definitely sent sellers packing instructions. They never said anything about it, but the item arrived packed as I requested. I don't know where some sellers get the idea that a single sheet of newspaper is adequate packing for something that's breakable.
 
My last experience with broken bowls left a very bad taste in my mouth.  I PAID for shipping, yet UPS would only deal with he shipper, said he had to file the claim.  I told the UPS guy that was delivering the broken box, I could hear it rattling I did not want to accept it.  He said to take it and deal with the person who shipped it from what I can recall, The shipper got a refund not me.
 
I had a problem very similar to Matt's when I bought an AE50 wall phone from a seller in Canada. I paid for insurance, but it did me no good. The idiot seller had a very strange idea about what proper packing was for a heavy vintage Bakelite phone. They placed it in a box with some Styrofoam peanuts and then for whatever reason they wrapped the handset independently in saran wrap, so as it made its way to L.A. the handset proceeded to beat the tar out of the receiver body which arrived in several pieces. The post office here said the shipper had to file a claim, while the shipper insisted it was my responsibility, so I got nowhere. The whole thing was very disappointing.
 
d-jones, if you bought it on ebay, then you can go after the seller through them. Besides, it is not the shipping company's fault, that the shipper doesn't know how to pack.
If you purchase an item on ebay and it arrives broken, you first talk to the seller. They have the option of giving you your money back or blowing you off. If they blow you off, you then go to the next level of ebay. Notify them, open a claim. They will then give the seller a second chance. Eventually if the seller doesn't comply, ebay will refund your money for the item and for shipping.
If you didn't use ebay and used another site, you may contact them.
 
This Thread Is Morphing Widly Into Many Directions! *LOL*

First, eBay's TOS forbid side deals. Not sure what sort of software is used and or how much of communications are monitored but members can be bounced out for violations. This is one reason why telephone numbers are not allowed in eBay messages between sellers and buyers. It is also why contact information such as emails and telephone numbers are only available to winning bidders.

If you arrange a side deal outside of eBay then you are on your own. Seller could send you a box of rocks or non-working and or damaged goods with little recourse available. Paid with PayPal? Well they are part of eBay so the information may be passed on. Don't get the item? Again tough cheese as you'll be on your own.

UPS and claims:

UPS deals with the "customer" who placed the shipping order regardless of whom paid. When you think about it for most retail purchases almost always someone else has paid the shipper who then arranges delivery.

As for the OP, just keep your eyes peeled. Have found nearly 99.9% of the time unsold items are relisted sooner or later. For one thing sellers cannot seek a refund IIRC unless something hasn't sold after at least two listings. Another reason eBay runs so many free listings and or offers to relist for free that it simply makes it worth a seller's time to do so. [this post was last edited: 6/17/2014-16:27]
 
Justin

The incident I described happened a long time ago(2003 or 2004) under a completely different set of rules. The phone wasn't paid for using Paypal, so there wasn't going to be any refund through eBay and in the end the only recourse I had left was to leave negative feedback, which I chose not to do since that would have lead to retaliatory negative feedback for me, and I had already received a retaliatory negative feedback not much earlier from another seller that never bothered to ship the item I'd paid for. (I know he didn't ship it because a few weeks later he re-listed it) These two incidents caused me to scale my eBay usage way back and be much more cautious about seller feedback.

 

In the end another AE50 body came up for sale all by itself and I was able to pick it up for about ten dollars plus shipping, so I still ended up with a complete AE50 at less than half the typical price. It just took me a couple of years longer to get it.
 
UPDATE...

Well the seller relisted the Mixmaster, this time at $49 with $18 shipping and has a bidder!  Last time it ended at $19 with no bids.  Oh well,  I did score a mixmaster for $18 shipped, however with clear glass bowls.  I won’t be too upset if they get broken in shipping, I much prefer the correct bowls.

 

I might follow the comments in another thread and simply refurb it myself and might even paint it yellow -- if I can find a paint close to the original color.
 
I've used sniping when I know the auction will end at a time when I'm not likely to be at my computer -- specifically "mybidder.com."

 

This worked to my advantage just within the past week when I was the sole bidder, but just in case set my snipe at 4 seconds before auction's end, and another bidder had come in out of nowhere with 6 seconds left.

 

What I've never been clear on is whether I have to place a bid on eBay first in order to have the sniper work.
 
UPS deals with the "customer" who placed the shippin

Actually, UPS deals with their customer, a.k.a. the person who paid them. Whether or not their customer (the seller/shipper) was reimbursed for the cost is of no matter to them.

USPS will deal with either for filing an initial claim, last I checked, but will need the physical receipt or electronic proof of the shipping, charges, and tracking that needs to come from the seller in most cases.

If you need a claim filed and the seller refuses to file it or provide the necessary receipts, go to your item's eBay page and put in a claim for "item not as described." Tell them what happened. With very little doubt, you'll get the claim filed because the seller won't want to lose the money and the item, as well as having that strike against their account.

As for sniping and the like, back when eBay was newer, I used to plan the days and times that I would list items. Sniping had to be done in person, and many buyers did it for reasons mentioned above, plus we had people that used to watch our bidding history because Rich and I would take the time to ferret out odd finds because of search terms like misspellings (we learned not to bid early pretty quickly lest we pay more than we had to). For example, I would never have auctions going off on a Friday or Saturday evening or night as a lot of people were out and about. Same with Sunday daytime. My best times were Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings between about 8 and 11PM which gave the left coast a chance to get out of work as well. There weren't any smart phones, so it had to be done from a computer! With sniping, smart phones, and the international side of eBay opening up, almost any time became a good time.

It's still the best game in town, not that it makes it any better. If you're careful about your search terms, show lots of pictures to protect yourself, and give good descriptions, your items will sell and you'll average less than 12% paid to eBay. Try to sell things and pay that low of a fee anywhere else!

Chuck
 
MattL- did you call UPS to tell them that your driver wouldn't accept your refusal of the box? Almost guaranteed you'd have gotten an apology and they'd have sent someone to retrieve it if you had not yet opened it. Best of luck with your mixer!

As far as eBay being loaded with junk, yes, it is! However, there are still plenty of things that can be gotten using the correct search terms and Boolean operators to thin the herd. We needed a new motor for the pool pump. Local dealer: $349. Local dealer if you ordered it on their website and had it shipped: $203 + shipping. Buy It Now on eBay with free shipping and delivered in 3 days: $152. Same replacement motor, brand and model.

Chuck
 

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