–GG

But then I realized that that doesn’t work. The economic principle that Ebay works on is that the **second-highest** bid gets it (I don’t know the technical name — but some Economics dude won a Nobel Prize for dreaming up that approach).

As you know, the person who has **already** committed to a price gets ”dibs”. So, there’s **two** people who think the item is worth that amount: the first person, and the come-lately person.

Thus, if you log on, place the highest price that you’re willing to pay (but still think it’s a bargain) — and walk away, then either you’ll get it — or some other person will pay more than what you’d want to have paid, anyhow (good for the seller, anyhow…).

I gave up on Ebay after a while because it was hard to check for quality “remotely”, and shipping ended up eating up most of the savings from buying online…

–GG

Eric, I could add my own rant to yours about how everything on Ebay any more seems to be all about parting people with their money and not about customer service. Using a sniping service helps you bypass some of that bologna.

This is not in the nature
of a gloat – I don’t believe in them -
but I haven’t used “the ‘Bay” in
a long while since I have had
success getting what I need
(or think I need) thus far via
local auctions, flea markets
and Freecycle. Point is, I have
lost touch with the “psychology”
of the ‘bay and so don’t really
understand the logic.

Why not just decide what you’re
willing to pay, bid that amount,
and walk away? It has been my
experience that “there’s always
another bus” on the ‘bay.

Case in point – a tool – but not
woodworking. There is a little
mechanical wind up timer device
that attaches to a cable release
for your pre-digital camera so that you can
take a timed exposure in 2 second
gradations – i.e. 2 seconds, 4 seconds
etc. up to I think 30 seconds. It trips
the shutter and in a specified amount
of time, closes it via the B setting. It’s been
around in various guises since before
WWII. NOT high tech at all.

There’s one illustrated at the bottom
of this page here:

http://home.att.net/~drt-3d/toys/timers/index.htm

Last I looked, one of the big camera stores
in NYC had it for something insane like
$300.00, IKYN. On the ‘bay prices are
all over the map.

I wanted one so I religiously searched
the ‘bay every day for maybe a month.
I bid what I was willing to pay on every
one I came across (not many admittedly).
I just kept at it and eventually got one
better than I expected for what I was
willing to pay including S&H.

Wouldn’t that approach work with
“user” grade tools?