Mountain Biking - Need advice from experienced Ebay'ers

Howdy folks! I am finally starting to embrace the internet and all its valuable opprotunities. Untill last night, i did all my bicycle shopping, components service and new bikes, locally to support independent businesses and my local economy. I placed a bid on a used bike on ebay last night and i do not think my life will ever be the same. It's such a cool bike and i want it really bad but i have already been outbid. Does anyone have any tips, advice, or bidding strategies they are willing to share? Any and all input will be much appreciated. Help me get this awesome bike!

The easiest way to win without regret is to place your absolute maximum bid at the very last few seconds of the auction. Also, make sure the seller is reputable (has sold things in the past). You sure the bike will fit ok?

As with any auction, have a firm personal ceiling in mind and don't let anything dissuade you from going over it.

I shy away from any form of payment that is not PayPal. Especially since ebay has taken it over, there are purchaser (and seller) protections built into a PaypPal transaction that cannot be beat.

Is there a firm, set shipping price? If not, is there an assurance from the seller that they will ship either by your preferred method or by the most economical means possible? (a hint: Fed-Ex Ground is most often half the cost of UPS)

Is the seller reputable? Read all of the feedback posts on that seller. Pay attention to how they answer questions posted to them about the item - -are they up-front in their answers or evasive or rude? Ask questions yourself if there is ANYTHING you are unsure of.

All of the real serious bidding will begin about a half-hour (or less) before auction close.

Good luck!

I am no expert regarding ebay but here is my $0.02.

I noticed that lots of the action during an ebay action takes place during the last minutes of the action. I will rarely bid on an item sooner because I don't want to tip anyone off that there is interest in the bidding because that will only cause the winning bidder to watch the bidding more closely.

Also, a fast connection to the internet in really helpful. The fast connection gets you through the bid screen and confirmation screen faster, allowing you to reload the page to see if someone else is bidding along with you. Using two browser windows is sometimes helpful.

Ebay has some cool tools that will allow you to watch you bidding like instant message alerts and text messages to your cell phone, etc. Some of these are not free so you can end up with not such a good deal, especially if it is a lower cost item.

Ebay lets you enter your maximum bid and will automatically bid against others until you reach your maximum bid. This can be very helpful and also keeps you from getting caught up in the heat of the moment and overpaying for something. I see many items go for more than what they would go for outright and I think some folks get caught up in winning - instead of getting the best deal.

I'm sure others will have some thoughts too. Good luck.

thanks for the input. I'm new to the whole game, but if i place my maximum bid at say 150, but the auction only goes up to 127.50, would i be paying my max bid price? i've only placed two bids thus far and there are just about two days give or take left on the auction. should i place a bid again right away or wait a day or two? and the bike will fit great! It's an 18 inch frame ss. assuming i win, i am going to strip the bike of its singelator and slap that on my old stumpy and then overhaul the new bike into a cyclocross machine. thanks for the help!

idleuser gave some good advise. On top of that the only way I buy from ebay is buy it now. I don't like to waste my time bidding. I also try to sell most of my items with buy it now. For example last night I sold an Ellsworth Enlightenment frame on there. I had a bid price of $400, buy it now of $500. It sold in less than 24 hours. Having a feedback of 220 with 100% positive does help though. :D

It will not go up to your max bid. Answers to many of your questions about the actual mechanics of the process are found on ebay's FAQs. They are very good and pretty comprehensive. Take a moment to read through them. j_a_espo's tips are good ones.

It's not as daunting as it seems. Once you figure out "what links with where", then you'll soon find that eBay'ing can be one of the best things on the planet ;-). And to clarify, if you are the highest bidder you pay the previous maximum bid (the one that you outbid).

very interesting. thanks a lot guys for all the input. i think with a little clairification from the FAQ, i will be fine and ready to go. if you stumble across my bicycle don't outbid me!

I'm probably unusual, but when I plan to buy something on eBay, I usually have a set price in my mind. I put that as my max bid and then forget about it.

When I first started bidding on eBay, I would wait until the last, but I was one of those that would get caught up in the last minute bidding war excitement and ended up overpaying for a few items.

My philosphy is that if I want something, I know what I'm willing to spend. If I win, great, if not, then there are always 3 or 4 similar items to bid on.

You really also have to do your homework. Check local prices and mail order. I've seen used items sell for more than an item costs new on closeout.

All great tips so far.

auctionsniper.com is your best friend. Set your max bid and forget about it. It will automatically bid for you at the last few seconds of the auction. That way you don't have to be around when the auction ends. Try it out. Has worked great for me. YMMV.

If I find something that I really like, then I log in and wait and wait and wait until 30 sec.
to see if that is right price that I can pay, then I bid max mount that I can afford.
So None other can bid within few sec. left.

Can't emphasize the shipping aspect - when you're searching for a particular item, use the screeners on the left - check off paypal only, North America only (international shipping can kill a deal!), and any of the other screens that appeal to you... And when buying new items, google it first - sometimes an on-line shop will have a better deal with free shipping. Use the shipping calculator on ebay if the shipping is not set. Add $10 to the calc price, and include that as a comparison to the other best deal you can find.

I think it's all been said here but i'll add a couple tips.

1. Determine a maximum that you will pay for an item. This has to be an absolute number right it down days, or minutes before the auction ends. Throw away your pencil.

2. When there are 30 sec. or less left in the auction, enter that amount and bid. Fiddle with the timing and try to do it as last second as possible. This eliminates the chance for someone to outbid you. Then if you win good, if not that is good too.

3.Always force yourself to review the sellers feedback, shipping charges, etc. Also re-read the product description multiple times to make sure it is what you want. Most newbies, skip at least one of these steps and end up screwed.

Yep in addition to setting a maximum, take note of exactly when the auction ends. I've planned to bid at the last few minutes of something but I was wrong about the hour it ended and I missed it. Bidding at the last minute is best to ensure you get a lower price because it doesn't give someone else the chance to bid, but if it's a rare item that you really really need and you really don't want to be outbid then you might want to bid earlier, so if you get outbid you can decide if its still worth it. My brother in law found some kind of rare RC car part he's been looking for for over a year, so he bid $1,000,000 to make sure he got it, then he rested assured that no matter what it was his, unless someone else had the same idea, and bids $999,999 then he's in trouble. Also I avoid sellers that don't mention a shipping price in their listing, they're either doing this because they're amateurs (read: unprofessional, slow service, bad packaging, possibly incorrect item) or they're leaving it open-ended so if the ending price isn't what they want they can stick you with an astronomical shipping cost. And review their feedback profiles, if they have 11,000 feedback and 97% positive that might seem good but its still 330 negatives. my profile has like 688 feedback and 2 negatives, and both of those were from morons.... which gives me a feedback rating of like 99.7% i think

eBay itself is an excellent system with many honourable users. Unfortunately it is also full of fraud artists, so take time to learn how to avoid scams. Check all feedback, not jsut the score, but the actual comments. If a seller has received good feedback for years for selling china figurines and is suddenly selling high end bikes real cheap, their account may have been hijacked by a scammer.

Watch out for "phishing" emails from people pretending to be from eBay or Paypal, asking you to go to their website and verify your password. The emails look extremely legitimate but in fact direct you to a simulated eBay or Paypal website, where you enter your password and they capture it and start using your account.

Don't correspond privately with a seller and negotiate a sale outside of eBay. You have no protection in that case.

Only pay by Paypal or some trackable method.

Expect delivery to routinely take a few days longer than promised.

Stuff on eBay is not necessarily cheap, especially when shipping is factored in. I use it for specific stuff I may want that's hard to find in stores. For "ordinary" stuff it's probably not any cheaper than a discount store or generic online supplier, but of course you can do your own comparison.

And as others have said read and re-read the item description...you may find details in the fine print that aren't evident in the picture, or that contradict it (eg. "saddle not included" etc.)

^^ what he said. that is very important. Read again the discription. You might find out very important thing.
And again, check feedback; more is better ( if there is 0 feedback, I won bid )

QUOTE]The easiest way to win without regret is to place your absolute maximum bid at the very last few seconds of the auction. Also, make sure the seller is reputable (has sold things in the past). You sure the bike will fit ok?[/QUOTE]
Took the words from my mouth.

The easiest way to win without regret is to place your absolute maximum bid at the very last few seconds of the auction. Also, make sure the seller is reputable (has sold things in the past). You sure the bike will fit ok?
Took the words from my mouth.