Can someone explain to me, how you can bid on an item, and INSTANTLY be outbid by someone else???? How can this be?? Is this illegal? I tell you what, eBay was started as an online swap-meet. I can do a search for "nitro RC cars" and get thousands of results, and of that 1000, theres probably 10 actual USED cars!! The rest are new cars sold from eBay online stores. This is sad and very irritating. I think there needs to be a NEW eBay strictly with USED items and no new stuff. I know we have a diverse marketplace here on RCUniverse, but an online bidding website like eBay would be better and more well known.

Thanks for the read and listening to my rant.

Jay-

I think it is people with Proxy Bids that automatically outbid you like that - its just how the site works.
with proxy bids you say "I will pay up to x amount" and then it will bid $2 higher than the last bid, automatically until it reaches the max you are willing to spend. I guess it saves E-Bay having to have as many people logged in all the time.

Ahab is right.
If you read the way ebay works it only bids in increments that are specified.
That is if the increment is $5 say.
The item current high bid is $25.
You could bid $100 but it would only bump the bid to $30 providing there are no other pending bids with limits.
The easiest way to learn how it works is to watch a few items that you know will have activity.
Hope this helps.
JLK

first off... when you enter nitro rc cars of course your going to get thousands of results, many of them being new... narrow down your search to lets say.... traxxas tmaxx rolling chasis or rc10gt suspension arm (for example).. the key is to be specific in your search...

second, they way ebay works is like this: lets say a tmaxx is currently at $100. lets say the current high bidder put in a maximum bid of $150. This means that ebay will automatically bid for that person until the price passes $150. Therefore lets say you entered $105 for the tmaxx... ebay instantly bids the other person ahead of you because they put in a higher maxixmum bid...

Wow, I had no idea. It still kinda pisses me off. I could set a bid proxy at $1000 for a $200 radio and bidders that keep getting outbid will get discouraged and leave and i could rope in that radio for well under $200. I don't know, it seems like cheating. This has to be new cuz back in the day I would get into bidding wars for sports jerseys down to the last seconds.

Thanks for the help fellas, I like having the knowledge rather than bidding blindly.

Jay-

... a fine plan - unless someone else comes in with a $999 proxy bid - then you will wind up paying 5x more than the radio is worth as it will bid and bid and bid till one of you hits your proxy limit.

you can still sit there and try the "bidding at last minute" method, if the timelimit runs out before Ebay can process the proxy bid, then you can still win, but it takes luck, timing and a really low ping.

HAHAHA no ****!!!! Didn't think of that.

What I dont like is that someone can outbid you by One Cent ($0.01) it sucks. You have your max proxy at $100.00 and the current bid is $95.00 with one minute remaining, some one comes in to the auction and bids $97.01 my bid goes up to $98.00, and if he puts $100.01, i get out bid, and they win. I have lost many stuff because of being outbid by One Cent.

So you should have bid 100.02 lol, its ment to be ur MAXIMUM bid, no higher. You can get something caled a ebay sniper which means thet ebay votes at the very last possble second for you.

Ben

I understand thats my max bid, but One Cent, that just made me want to hurt whom ever bidded.[sm=punching.gif]. But what can you do but try again, and hope to get it.

couldnt it just mean somebody has a higher max bid??

o believe me, people dont get discouraged.. if they want that radio, hell they'll go for it... thats a rather dangerous method...

what i always do is enter a Maximum bid of about 5 cents over the dollar ($100.05) this is a good method because most people will either bid on the dollar ($100) or about 1 cent over ($100.01)

lol if u put 2 max bid the price would go until 1 million