Online Worlds > Second Life

Any auction / eBay experts here?

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Califgirl:
Actually, they don't have to have friends bid to inflate the price to what you want. Anyone can set a 'reserve' price on their item, and if the auction doesn't reach the reserve they don't have to sell it. (They may if they choose, but they don't have to). 
While the price doesn't necessarily go higher with a reserve, what friend is going to want to get stuck with your item? They'll just end up giving/'selling' it back to you. You might as well set a reserve and not inconvenience your friends.

bezoar:
In SL, there have been reports of people making VERY high bids, and then refusing to pay. (Apparently, you can get away with that once or twice.) Then, the auction goes to the next higher bidder.

Now, combine this with a "friend" who will be the next higher bidder, and you can see the abuse.

- "fair" price L$3000
- "friend" bids L$2000
- "guy who refuses to pay" bids L$5000, and then forfeits...

There are a lot of sneaky people in the world.

PirateDaisy:
Yes Adventure, what you are talking about is called "shill bidding" and against ebay rules. If I feel that something is going way higher than it should, I simply do a search by the bidder I believe is doing the shill bidding. If I see that that person has only been bidding on that seller, I don't bid on that auction. Of course nowadays it's fairly easy to create new accounts each day, so you just never know. The downside to shill bidding is, if the shill bidder ends up winning the auction they are obviously stuck with their own item and seller and buyer fees. That is why it's much better to have a reserve on your item or you can start it at the lowest amount you're willing to let it go for. The only thing about reserves is that it really turns a lot of people away from your auction, since many people don't like wasting their time on a mystery amount.

Be, it has always been that way since the day I first started buying on ebay. I think you did well for your first auction, I remember mine didn't go so well. lol You get so caught up in the bidding when someone outbids you in the last minute but common sense kicked in on my second and it's good to set yourself an amount you are not willing to go over. If you do not want to sit there until the very last minute of the auction there are these programs that do the bidding for you. These programs are called "snipping" and completely legal in Ebay; though many buyers and sellers don't think it's fair. How it works is, you go to the website that offers you bid snipping(some you pay for, some are free), you enter your ebay information and you enter the highest amount you are willing to pay for. The programs waits literally until the last 5 seconds to bid, that way if your bid is the highest, the other bidders will not have enough time to outbid you. So you can see why a lot of people may not like it but I must admit I've used it myself to try and get the best deal and not have to stay up till 3 am for an auction.

Good luck Be, if you have anymore questions just let us know!  :thumbs:

Purpleduck:
As a rather avid buyer from Ebay, I am one that waits for the last few minutes, even if I had already placed a bid.  I lost enough Donald Duck items by having this happen to me.. so I feel somewhat qualified to explain my tatics.

Let's say I want to spend no more than $40 on an item.  (I NEVER start with my high bid. Almost guarantees you will not get it.)  I may place an early bid of $20, but can generally watch that be outbid.  If that happens.. I then choose to wait for those last two minutes (my computer is sometimes not fast enough to get a fresh bid in too much under that 2 minutes).

As long as the highest bid is less than my $40 stopping point.. I will put in a bid of say $39.52.  First off, by the time my bid gets in, if anyone sees it.. they hopefully won't have time themselves to try to outbid me.  Secondly, with the qwirky $.52 cents.. most people don't outbid me, cause they work with the '5' or '10' cents. So the extra 2 cents serves to secure the item, cause by then.. time is up.

I still lose stuff to someone that will WAY outbid my last minute attempt.. but I managed to stick with my highest I would go - cause there is no time for more bidding!  I am very happy, once I learned to do this, that I almost never lose what I truly wanted.  ;)

bezoar:
Oooohhhh.... eBay pros...

Well, with still a full day left in the auction:

--- Quote ---You have been outbid on the following Second Life auction:

High Bid: L$27850
--- End quote ---

Sort of silly, because even as a novice, I think I can predict that the final price will probably be in the range of L$60,000. I don't think I'll be placing any more bids on this one :)

Besides, who wants to live on a snowy mountain?

<sigh> I want MORE LAND...

(Yes, I'm conflicted, lol)

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