E-Bay is confusing me!

[Wcross]

I am bidding on a digital camera, one of many at an e-bay store. They are all of the same make and model, all brand new. There are at least six units for sale. I picked one and bid a reasonable 100 bucks.(I want it, I didn't intend to steal one) The other units have bids ranging from .99 cents to 90 dollars.
I get an e-mail this morning that I have been out-bid! I go back to the site and the other cameras still have lower bids! The .99 cent one was still there yet this guy bids 102.50 for the one I bid on!
Do you think the guy is a shill or just stupid?

[matcom]

1. check when the auction ends

the one you are bidding on is probably close to being over. the .99 one probably has days to go.

good EBAY tip: decide what you are willing to pay for something and "watch" it. if it is still under what you are willing to pay, bid on it JUST BEFORE the auction closes (talking seconds here). you'll have a better chance.

i have made some WONDERFUL EBay purchases (ex: bought a Kitchenaid mixer for $130 when it retails for $270.

good luck. its addictive

[Wcross]

3. Other auctions ending on at same day or before! n/t

[matcom]

4. if there is no reserve.....

pay $20.00 instead of $100 then!

[DiverDave]

2. This is why

http://www.bidsniper.com/

nuff said.

[PsN2Wind]

5. I just sold

an NOS Corvette part that was sniped with 9 seconds left in the auction. Although I got more than I had expected for the piece, it still bothers me that others who had bid lost out to a person putting in a single bid with only that much time remaining.

[RoeBear]

7. Why, exactly, would that...

...bother you? And by sniped do you differentiate between using a program to snipe or just bidding manually at the last moment?

[PsN2Wind]

8. Yes it's the sniping program

and I guess some irrational sense of fair play.

[RC]

9. bidsniper sounds like

something your common republican would come up with. Fair play? wazdat?

[RoeBear]

10. As a seller you want...

...the highest price possible. Buyers, of course, want to get it at the lowest price.

As the seller can you tell if an item you sold was bought by a 'program' snipe? I've gone in at the last minute and made one bid and won many times in the past.

[Mr.Green93]

6. Darn that bidsniper!

[FlaGranny]

11. My brother told me

he opens up multiple browser windows and puts different bids in each with one window being the absolute highest he will go. He watches the bidding at the last second bids off the correct window. ??? I don't have the patience for that and I've never tried it and I'm not sure how it really works, although he tells me he's gotten bargains that way. I've only tried to buy from e-Bay a couple of times and found that each time I tried, the bids went way too high. The whole thing wound up being a waste of time. I don't intend to spend more on e-Bay than I would in a local store.

Edit: Then you have to worry about shipping charges, not just the price of the item.