Originally Posted by
unterhausen
the times I've seen people ask for BIN it was because the seller didn't know what they had and someone wanted it cheap. One antique I saw had an opening bid of $10 and went for thousands. They probably could have gotten it if they gave the guy an honest (but low) BIN price, but of course they wanted it really cheap
Or it works the other way:
Gios Torino pantographed NR seatpost, opening at $5.99. Contacted buyer and asked if he'd considered or would consider adding a BIN. The reply was a polite no, which I accepted. On the final day of the 7-day auction there were still no bids. With two hours to go, the first bid was placed and the second with about 45 minutes remaining - we're up to $10.95 or so at this point.
I put in my max bid of $175 at 30 seconds. I won the post at $56 and was absolutely floored. Since I am in the pupa stage of getting stuff together for a future GT build, I could deal if my $175 was topped. I guess you could say I was testing the waters, although I do know that Gios panto stuff is like gold on Ebay and has been for some time.
The bottom line was that I would have offered the guy $175 if he'd have put a BIN on it, and I was willing to pay that much at auction. In this case, it worked out in my favor that the auction went to the end. Again, I try not to overanalyze Ebay anymore than I have to.
Sniping: for me, I do like to wait to avoid all the pumping up of the final value, sure. But what I really like is the last-seconds 'thrill of the chase'. Bidding 'early and often', as sellers seem to request more and more frequently, just isn't as exciting to me. If I win, cool - if not, better luck next time!