Luke

Want to buy a set of headphones......... never bidded on e-bay before. What tips would you use to ensure getting the last bid in etc??

Cheers

*Sonic*

wait till theres only a minute left, and wack in a price that wont get beat

no one will have time to up the bid lol

btw im no good at it

yoza

Ive found a winning formula here, if you treble the value of the article and then add £100,you always get what you want,people just dont seem to bid after that.

Later Yoza

I got a nice $20 Rolecks for £200...bargain

DanTheMan

Sonic is spot on there, wait till the last 20 seconds and bang in an extra quid and a penny for good luck....

Warwick-hunt

make sure what your buying is worth it, i was after a nokia 3410 the price on ebay was more than in the shops, same with the ericsson t300? you can get them sim free from the link(advert in the sun)for £99 + free camera, the last time i looked on ebay one was at £110 no camera!

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

Yup, keep hitting refresh, 15-20 seconds to go, whack on as much as you are willing to pay.

*Sonic*

yeah Ive seen a lot of stuff on ebay dearer than new !

but good luck to the sellers, if they get away with it

ChrisB

Add something like five pence to what you set as your top limit. You might find as the auction closes that you bid the same major value (ie £50) as somebody else but that 5p will make it yours.

Don't get carried away - set a limit and be prepared to walk away. Check the new price in the shops - when it gets within £20 or £30 on the auction, I'd just say sod it and go buy it new.

south-star

I'd just say offer what you think its worth,if you win,well done,if not,there you go.


Dont get carried away.

P1Fanatic

Yep - always make sure your getting a good deal as a lot of people will bid over and above brand new prices. Console games are a prime example - people bid over £30 and you can buy one brand new for £31.99 at loads of online sites.

Use proxy bidding, which means you enter the maximum amount you want to pay and then Ebay bids for you automatically.

As the others say, wait until the last minute to bid, Ive no idea why anyone bids on something that has 9 days left as your just upping the price.

I always have one window open refreshing and another with my maximum bid already entered so I just have to click once to submit it.

Adding 1p is an old trick now so choose something a bit more subtle like 9p or 12p etc.

Simon.

Kevin Mc

There are also utilities to put bids in for you in the last seconds of the auction:


http://www.auctionstealer.co.uk/home.cfm

http://www.auctionsniper.com/default.aspx

alistair

Don't forget the P&P charge when comparing prices.

I've also seen a few sellers stating that VAT has to be added too.

Others want 3% for PayPal & don't offer an alternative !

Apparition

Yeah that 3% or more for paypal is a treal rip off.... when I subscribed to paypal it said in large print that it was a cost free way of paying.....total rubbish.
Having said all that, I bought a mobile this week (£40 cheaper than the stores) and used pay pal and had it in my sweaty mitts 2 days later. So it Does speed things up.