every 'watch' your own item to stimulate interest?

[dealsagent]

although eBay might keep sending you updates about your own item and when it sells they'll apologize to you for missing out and direct you to a similuar item

[thatsallfolks]

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@omgitlightsup wrote:Some time in the early 2000's it became impossible to stop an auction in the last hour. That restriction may have been lifted since.

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I just noticed this gem. Again, not true. For as long as I've been an eBay member, sellers have been able to end a listing AT ANY TIME. In the last 12 hours, they must SELL TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER if they want to end it.

I'll put this in the same bit bucket as your "bidding on your own listing was absolutely permitted" proclamation.

[thatsallfolks]

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ke4fpb wrote:.

As a seller, I noticed that when people are allowed to compete, I'd make more money on the sale.

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And you "allow them to compete" by ... cutting off the bidding process early.

Right.

[omgitlightsup]

haters gonna hate, they say...

So here's the thing. Back in 99-2000, at any time you wanted, you could end an auction. My tack was to end them about five minutes early, unless there were recent bids on it.

At some point, eBay made it impossible to change anything at all, including listing info or photos, or to stop the bidding.. within a certain window of your end time. You could still add to the listing, but not change what was already there. The only reason you were permitted to end the listing is if "the item is no longer available for sale," losing out on the bids you had. The rules flipped and flopped over time, but the end result was that if I wanted to do my "end early" trick, I had to chop pretty much an entire day off the listing, turning a three-day listing into a two-day listing. For this reason, I stopped doing it.

But yeah, if you've never been to an auction, at least watch a video of one some time. The auctioneer will actually attempt to goad previous bidders into rejoining the fray, and even drop the bid increment, to encourage more bids.

"Fifty lemme hear sixty, fifty gimme sixty, fifty sixty, fifty gimme fifty-five... gimme fifty-five? bidder in the red, fifty-five? Fifty-one? Going once, going twice..."

The idea is to get people to spend just a little more. But if people start actively outbidding each other again, they will go right back to asking for tens and twenties, as long as people will keep upping the bid. That's how they make their commission fees bigger and get more money for their clients.

With some other auction sites, there's sometimes a "five minutes after last bid" option. eBay never chose to pick this practice up, for whatever reason. But yeah, I assure you that there's a reason people save their bids til the last second, and it's not for their own convenience or the greater good of the eBay community.

Seriously.. there are colleges where you can go to learn this craft. It's an amazing and complicated blend of public performance, salesmanship, and finance, and there's far more to it than most people understand.

[*help_no_brakes*]

" there's a reason people save their bids til the last second, and it's not for their own convenience"

Of course it's for their "own convenience".

I'm not about to go without some sleep for 7/10 days to babysit an auction.

Why would I want to continually bid against those who do not understand how eBay auctions work when I can ask my Snipe Service to place ONE bid for the true maximum I am prepared to pay & fully understand that I may be outbid by a previous proxy bid?

Something which seems to have escaped you.

Btw I have been attending auctions for 48 years & conduct charity auctions.

I also understand the difference between live auctions & eBay auctions.

[thatsallfolks]

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@omgitlightsup wrote:

haters gonna hate, they say... 

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Only people who are afraid of a logical argument say that. Anyone who disagrees with them is a "hater" (or on these boards, an ebay employee).

Do those colleges neglect to educate their students on the many different auction formats, and the reasons for each? Maybe a tuition refund is in order.

[omgitlightsup]

I've created a thread to avoid monopolizing OP's. Feel free to weigh in.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Bidding-Buying/Do-you-bid-at-the-last-second-Why/m-p/27274515#M225238

[*help_no_brakes*]

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@omgitlightsup wrote:

I've created a thread to avoid monopolizing OP's. Feel free to weigh in.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Bidding-Buying/Do-you-bid-at-the-last-second-Why/m-p/27274515#M225238

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Thank you.

[emerald40]

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@omgitlightsup wrote:

Back in the 90s, you could bid on your own items.

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You could never bid on your own items.

Shill bidding was always against the ebay rules.

[emerald40]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

I don't remember that one but I didn't start until 1999. I do remember being able to leave feedback for anyone.

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Shill bidding was never allowed.  But I am sure there were underhanded ways that sellers tried to get around it.

And yes, you did not have to buy anything to leave feedback.  I once got glowing feedback from someone just by anwering a few of her questions she was confused about.

[emerald40]

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@omgitlightsup wrote:

I remember that too, and when you could

• post your phone number right in the listing
• offer "other items and services" right in the listing
• accept checks and cash in the mail
• accept any form of payment
• stop an auction any time you wanted to (like five minutes before the schedule end to deter snipers)
• link to your TOS off-site
• link to your own personal or business website

'__________________________________________________________________________________

Or when you were too cheap to purchase a reserve and did not get your price.  Imagine if you were the potential buyer who just wasted a week of her time or in my case actually stayed home from work so I could jump on a particularly good deal.

Or link to your business website and sell off of ebay  while everyone else played by the rules.

I remember where sellers would blatantly say in their description that if you help him avoid ebay, he will reduce equal in half the fees.

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[emerald40]

If you think ebay's search is awful, then H*ll does exist and it is called E__y search.

I was looking for a diamond band the other day, and there is no way to remove certain words like Moissanite, which accounted for half the listings.

And many are made to order with a price like $500+ but they will show you the top of the line item, making you think that is the price.

Or that every time you do another search, it goes back to the default.

[emerald40]

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@timemachine777 wrote:

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@thatsallfolks wrote:

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@omgitlightsup wrote:

Back in the 90s, you could bid on your own items.

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I wasn't aware that shill bidding (a crime) was ever permitted on eBay. Not believing that one.

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It wasn't that eBay allowed it. They just didn't have the software in place to prevent you from doing it. Most shills were done via family and friends. That way you had different ID's appearing. Only dumb people would bid on their own stuff with linked accounts.

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I wanted to buy something, but no one else was bidding so I could not meet the reserve.  Woman had her boyfriend open up an account and bid it up so I could meet it.

Was a good deal but yes, if you played underhanded there were workarounds.

[emerald40]

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@thatsallfolks wrote:

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@timemachine777 wrote:

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@thatsallfolks wrote:

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@omgitlightsup wrote:

Back in the 90s, you could bid on your own items.

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I wasn't aware that shill bidding (a crime) was ever permitted on eBay. Not believing that one.

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It wasn't that eBay allowed it. They just didn't have the software in place to prevent you from doing it. Most shills were done via family and friends. That way you had different ID's appearing. Only dumb people would bid on their own stuff with linked accounts.

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That's definitely not what ke4fpb is claiming. Read it again:

"It absolutely was permitted to accept bids from other sources, and submit them on behalf of your buyers."

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Why didn't buyers just open an account?

And if there was a problem what "recouse" did these buyers have.

And how did they leave feedback.

I have been here since the beginning and I never remember that being allowed in the rules.

[emerald40]

In what year do you remember this being allowed?

It had to be prior to 1998.

[emerald40]

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@pingpong517 wrote:

ah those were the days

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@omgitlightsup wrote:

Back in the 90s, you could bid on your own items.

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... and no shipping fees.... good ol days.... ah the menories...lol

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I have been here since the beginning and the good old days were not that good for buyers or honest sellers who played by the rules and did not list an item for $5.00 and shipping for $50.