twostroke

My Feedback: (6)

Has anyone noticed that the auction sites are crazy. First if you find a good item it sell for a unreal price second most of the new rc stuff is cheap toys not models that fly like bricks and the shipping is outragous on some. I seen one of these planes from off of *bay that sell as "twin motors" well it has twin motors alright and the steering is by shutting one off so the other one pulls it into a turn(no rudder). I beleive some of this stuff really pushes people away from the hobby. I seen a norvel .074 NIB go for 60.00, you buy them at most hobby stores for 52.99 and get a warranty! Maybe its just me but its getting harder to find good buys on stuff at auction sites. Oh well there is still swapmeets!

TLH101

My Feedback: (90)

Yes it is getting much harder to find decent deals, but they are still there. You just have to wade through the toys and knockoff arfs.

Rcpilot

My Feedback: (78)

Learn to set up your MY EBAY page.

Set your searches to filter out all the junk.

Add good guys to your Favorite Sellers page.

Why am I telling you this? Your just competition for the good deals.[>:]

I find good deals all the time on Ebay. But, I spend a fair amount of time--visit everyday--and I watch what comes on new and I watch items that I'm interested in.

Learn to snipe. It doesn't do you one bit of good to be the high bidder untill the very last nano-second of the auction. Don't EVER bid on ANYTHING untill the last seconds of the auction. Sometimes you win the bid and other times you didn't go high enough--but at least that way, you'll never pay more than your willing to pay. It helps if you have DSL or Cable. Trying to snipe with dial-up is harder.

TexasAirBoss

My Feedback: (22)

Overall, I would say that Ebay has been a real miracle for me. I have manged to collect many, many kits from my youth. I couldn't afford these kits when I was younger and I am thrilled to have a second chance to own them. I am very picky about the condition of the kits I bid on. But I am willing to pay a little extra for the effort someone took to preserve these kits for decades and decades. If you took the original price of these kits and adjusted it for inflation, I am paying about the same price these kits sold for when they were new. So 200 or 225 for a 30 year kit in new condition is actually a steal.

As for newbies getting burned by purchasing junk kits and junk ARF's, The hobby has always taken advantage of newbies. Before Ebay, before the internet, the catalogs and magazines were full of junk merchindise. It IS sad that people buy it and have a bad experience with it. But it isn't anying new. Its just the media thats changed.

gboulton

My Feedback: (15)

Ya know, it's strange, but I've begun looking for sellers not with a HIGH feedback rating, but rather a LOW one. (By which I mean few feedbacks received, not a low percentage of positive feedback)

For example...if I see someone with, say, 2,700 positive feedbacks, even if their percentage is 100%, I'll avoid that seller...that's typically someone who's making their living (or trying to) by selling items online...their source(s) for these items is/are questionnable at best, and who knows what, if anything, the seller knows about the item.

On the other hand, a seler with 50-100 positive feedbacks, and a good score, is likely someone who is or was genuinely interested in the item they're selling, or has some experience with it. This person isn't trying to make a profit, just trying to recover some investment when cleaning out the shop, or moving on to a new hobby or new project. They are, imo, far more likely to be reasonable to deal with, and fair and honest in their pricing and service.

Just my $0.02, reader pays shipping.

P-51B

My Feedback: (5)

Personally, I prefer to put in my max bid on day one. If someone wants to "snipe" at the last second and pay more that I am willing to, then more power to them...they can have whatever it is. That way I don't get tempted to get into bidding wars and never pay more than I am willing to pay.

Cyclic Hardover

My Feedback: (3)

The deals are there if your patient and careful. But the auction sites also show how many stupid people are willing to buy that junk.

Rcpilot

My Feedback: (78)

Right--but I have no idea what your max bid is. Ebay will proxy bid for you up too your max bid. You may hold the high bid all the way up to the end.

My snipe bid may be $3 or $25 LESS than your max bid. So, you'll get the item in the end.

Or, my snipe bid may be $2 MORE than your max bid that you placed 3 days ago. In that case, I will get the item.

With sniping--you take a chance of not winning the auction, but you never pay more than your willing to put out.

I don't HAVE to win an auction. I'm not like that. I decide what I'm willing to pay for it and then "watch" it on My Ebay page. I make notes as too the max bid and then I wait. 5 or 10 minutes before the auction is up--I get set up to snipe it. I put in my max bid and I either get it or I don't.

Sometimes, the item is already well over what I'm willing to pay for it by the time it gets down to the last few minutes. In that situation, I just delete it from My Ebay page and walk away. Never even bother to bid because it's already over my max.

Different tactics. Same end result. Never pay more than your willing to pay.

Rcpilot

My Feedback: (78)

I used to be able to buy NIB JR 8411 digitals for $50 on Ebay. Not anymore. People have caught on. They rack the bids up to $100 or more. To me, thats STUPID. If your going to pay more than 75% of retail--then go buy it at the store and get a reciept and a warranty.

I won't pay more than 50%--60% of retail for a NIB item. If I can't nab it for that--let some other sucker pay through the nose for it. I'm on Ebay to get a DEAL . Not to pay full retail for something I can get from Tower or the LHS--then pay shipping and deal with a total stranger on it.

NEVER pay more than 25%--30% of retail for a used item. Used is used. Doesn't matter if it's been flown twice or only had 2 tanks through it. Used is Used.

I can't BELIEVE how much people are willing to pay for used stuff. CRAAAAAZY...........[:-]

js3

My Feedback: (3)

If every bidder decides what their max bid is and bids that amount, the person with the highest bid will win the item. Sniping is only for those people who get caught up in the drama of the auction and who want to win the auction only for the sake of winning.

There was a thread on RCU a while ago where the guy was complaining about being outbid by just a couple of dollars and how awful that was. My answer to him was that his bid wasn't high enough. If he was willing to pay more for the item, he should have bid more.

Sniping makes no sense.

gboulton

My Feedback: (15)

Gotta agee with the non-snipers.

It seems silly to me to invest time and effort (or a pipece of software) in withholding bids until the last moment.

Evaluate the item, decide what you're willing to pay for it, and bid that.

If BillyJoeJimBob wants to pay $100.01 or $5,000 for an item I thought was woth $100, I frankly don't care...he liked it more than me, so he won it.

Besides...every sniping program I've ever seen makes you enter a max bid ANYWAY, so i really don't see what the difference is beyond when the auction site gets your bid.

*shrug*

piper_chuck

My Feedback: (12)

Actually, it does, but it's not worth arguing about.

js3

My Feedback: (3)

OK. [&:]

Rcpilot

My Feedback: (78)

Edited to protect the sniping secret.

Prop Nut

My Feedback: (3)

I have used Sniperite, not as much to snipe, but for thier shopping function. You can set it to look for and bid on a certain item, it will automatically bid on that item when it gets near the end of the auction. The program will stop bidding on specific type of item once it has successfully won an auction. You set the max bid. If you dont get the first one, maybe one of the others that come along later will be the one you win. You do need to ok the auction before it will enter your list, just in case the program misread the auction title. Works very well.

Jim Thomerson

I keep up with a few things on ebaY and sell there some. If I bid, I bid one of two ways. (1) it is an interesting item I don't really need, so I put in a low bid just to reward the seller and get things going for the seller. Very rerely I will get the item, which is OK. The other way is something I want. I bid as much as I want it. I get it or someone who needs it more gets it. Good deal. I get about one out of every 15 items I bid on. I got too much junk already, so the person who outbids me is actually doing me a favor. n There is one engine I want to the tune of $150. There have been four or five of them on ebaY and they have gone from $400+ to $800+. They were all sold by someone I know. I emailed him that I hoped he could saturate the market as I wanted one for $150.

Another engine I like, but I have several, comes up from time to time. I bid $52 if I can get in quick enough, just for tradition. Actually got a couple some years ago. Now they usually go for over $100. Scored a nice one at a swap meet for $65. Hey, $52 + shipping and insurance is @ $65, mas o menos, right. Chance favors the prepared mind. [&:]

js3

My Feedback: (3)

All right, the suspense is killing me. What am I missing about sniping?

If everyone bids what they are willing to pay, what difference does sniping make?

JollyPopper

My Feedback: (6)

Actually, sniping is the only way to bid on an item you may want. A good sniping program will proxy bid for you. That is to say, if I see an item I want and determine that it is worth $50.00 to me, I enter that bid in my sniping program. My program, let's call it "Sniper", holds that bid in its memory until six seconds before auction close, then bids only the amount needed to win up to the limit of $50.00 that I set three days previously. I don't need to watch the auction at all. If the item goes for $50.00 or less, I win without ever looking at the auction again. If it goes over $50.00, someone else determined it was worth more to him than it was to me and he gets it. The six seconds before auction end that Sniper bids is adjustable by me--it can be any time interval right up until auction end, but six seconds gives Sniper time to calculate and place the bid for me and very little time for someone watching to see the bid and outbid me. For instance, say the above bid I placed in Sniper for $50.00 is within seconds of closing at $29.00. With six seconds to go, Sniper places a bid of $30.00 for me. By the time Sniper places that bid and the auction shows it, there may be only one or two seconds left--not enough time for someone else to react and outbid me. The greatest advantage of sniping is that nobody else has any idea that I have an interest in the item--thus I am not driving the bid up. Hope that explanation is clear enough to understand. I had the impression that some of the folks who responded did not actually know how sniping works.

mkranitz

My Feedback: (60)

Well, there's always RCU's "no sniper" tool or simple classified ads!

jettstarblue

I have bought a lot of things from e-bay (hate to use the term "won"). I just "watch" the item, then if the price is reasonable and I really want it, I'll bid with a few minutes to go.

I have never paid too much and if it goes for more than my "high bid", well that's tough. I wouldn't pay more than my "high bid" anyhow.

e-bay only bids enough for you to get the item, not the full amountof your "high bid"....so forgive me if I don't understand the need for bid sniper.

js3

My Feedback: (3)

This is exactly right. Bids on eBay already use the proxy system so sniping programs are unnecessary.

While I understand the logic here, I really don't think it matters all that much.

A while back I spotted a NIB Eagle Tree Systems V2 flight data recorder. I was going to purchase a new one anyway so I decided it was worthwhile for me to place a bid on this auction. With about 5 or 6 days left in the auction, I set my maximum bid at 75% of retail. The current bid sat at about $40 until the very end of the auction. I was watching the auction at closing and I had to laugh at all the snipers as they sniped away in vain. My bid "won" the item and I was happy. The eBay proxy bid system worked perfectly for me.

Crash90

My Feedback: (17)

JS3. The advantage of snipe software is simple.

Joe smith wants to buy a new Jr DS8611. He jumps onto Ebay, finds one and decides that his maximum bid is 50.00. He places the bid. There is 3 days left in the auction. Now, I jump on Ebay looking for the same thing. I find the same servo and decide that my maximum bid is 80.00. I place my bid. Now, seeing that he has been out bid. Joe smith re-evaluates his position and decides that he will add 10.00 to his bid. Now, my price on the servo jumped to 0ver 60.00. If I were using snipe software that only placed my bid in the final seconds of the auction then Joe Smith would not have had time to increase his bid and I would have got the servo for around 51.00. Make sense? Not real complicated. Now, that being said, I do not use snipe software.

Rcpilot

My Feedback: (78)

Edited to protect the snipers secrets

ctshepherd

My Feedback: (34)

Completely agree! The system you describe is the one that I use when I see something on Ebay that I want. No use jacking up the price early when you know that auction lasts another 5 days....

Be patient and if you are lucky, the item will be yours.

Rcpilot

My Feedback: (78)

Edited to protect sniping secrets.