One of the Great Mystery's of E-Bay...
OneCent
Posts: 3,561 ✭
There are some individuals that habitually bid like $2.01 on a coin that will sell at a value in the hundreds of dollars. These e-bayers are not newbies and you will generally see the same handles time and time again with these "token" bids. Why even bother? They are well aware that the value of the coins they are bidding on will sell 50 to 100x's their insignificant bid. The only purpose they serve is to get play for the auction in question.
Frankly, it somewhat annoys me.
Frankly, it somewhat annoys me.
Collector of Early 20th Century U.S. Coinage.
ANA Member R-3147111
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Comments
Frankly, whenever I see those $2 and $100 bids on $1000 coins,
they rarely come back and bid at a more reasonable level. I can
make no sense of it, esp on generic coins where prices are well published.
roadrunner
Don't normally do it to BIN items though.
And then sometimes I am hoping for a rip, or as mentioned I put in a follow-up snipe.
<< <i>Some of these people eventually return as snipers. They might be placing these low bids so that they can keep track of what they're actually bidding on in their My eBay page. >>
that's exactly what many seasoned ebayers do. Not this one, however.
<< <i>
<< <i>Some of these people eventually return as snipers. They might be placing these low bids so that they can keep track of what they're actually bidding on in their My eBay page. >>
that's exactly what many seasoned ebayers do. Not this one, however. >>
I somewhat understand the logic of placing a token bid to keep track of the auction but not completely. The entire purpose of the watch feature is to keep track of the auction without placing a bid.
I think the above poster hit the nail on the head. These lowball bidders are effectively the sellers "groupies" that want to see the auction do well. Sort of like a "misdemeanor" form of shilling!
Collector of Early 20th Century U.S. Coinage.
ANA Member R-3147111
I have to agree that most of them don't come back as snipers, just a very few.
John
TD
Your watch list is limited; you can only watch a certain number of coins. Once you run out of space you need to place token bids to add a coin to your bidding list. Two lists hold more coins than one!
When buyers do searches, the search result screen lists the number of bids an item has received. As a seller, the more bids the better. Starts a feeding frenzy. Everyone thinks that everyone else sees something good...
Bring it on!
-David
<< <i>There are some individuals that habitually bid like $2.01 on a coin that will sell at a value in the hundreds of dollars. These e-bayers are not newbies and you will generally see the same handles time and time again with these "token" bids. Why even bother? They are well aware that the value of the coins they are bidding on will sell 50 to 100x's their insignificant bid. The only purpose they serve is to get play for the auction in question.
Frankly, it somewhat annoys me.
There appears to be a large number of ebayers that for whatever reason simply bid on everything they see priced under $5.00. Doesn't matter what it is. And most of them never revisit the auction once they're outbid. When ebay limited the watchlist to 20 items many people would bid token amounts on auction they were interested in as a makeshift watch list, and some still do, but that doesn't explain the behavior of the massive quantities of lowball bidders. I suppose new to ebay the prospect of winning the lottery on something that goes overlooked is there, so why not take a chance by bidding $5 on everything under the sun--even though the chances of winning something of value for $5 is 0%, they aren't necessarily aware of these piss poor odds. As for killing the BIN, hahaha, everytime they do that my items go for more than the BIN anyway. Internet shopping is a massive playground for people who are otherwise too stupid to drive the necessary 3 miles to the local store to purchase the same item. That doesn't apply to everyone of course, especially not me!
AL
Ebay is not really a mystery at all.
<< <i>I do it to take out the BIN price so I can try and snipe it later. BIN is the dumbest money spent buy sellers on Ebay. >>
LOL!
I list oodles of (5) silver eagle lots for $69 BIN, the bin gets killed, the final selling price by "snipers" is $78 or more. Yes, the sniper is smart!
<< <i>Your watch list is limited; you can only watch a certain number of coins. Once you run out of space you need to place token bids to add a coin to your bidding list. Two lists hold more coins than one! >>
If I filled up my watch list with coins, I would soon be in serious trouble! The more I watch, the more I buy.
I only have one bid out there right now, goodly amount, but if I get it, it'll be a bargain. Time will tell!
Joe G.
Great BST purchases completed with commoncents123, p8nt, blu62vette and Stuart. Great coin swaps completed with rah1959, eyoung429 and Zug. Top-notch consignment experience with Russ.
I placed some multiple auctions of an item that I figured might sell for $3-$5... but with the million similar items out there I wasn't even getting in double digits on the page views. So, I decide to blow the extra 10 cents and put a ridiculous (to me at least) BIN of $24.99 to catch attention on the search page. After all, if I'm scanning listings and someone has a wacked BIN amount, I read the auction to find out why. As soon as I did that, I had a bid on one of the auctions (starting price 99cents)... I was happy.
Until - I ckecked back a few hours later and someone had asked a question (in my messages) about one of the auctions... and I noticed that they had already used the BIN feature on TWO of the others?!?! (I, of course answered the questions, and don't expect the buyer to follow through on his delirious "purchase"... unless he insists).
I'll lowball in the 60% range, and on occasion I win and am very happy to buy it and flip it.
Fighting the Fight for 11 Years with the big "C" - Never Ever Give Up!
Member PCGS Open Forum board 2002 - 2006 (closed end of 2006) Current board since 2006 Successful trades with many members, over the past two decades, never a bad deal.
Ditto, I do the same, wipe out the BIN.
BIN-stomping is also a fun game -- every seller learns eventually that a low start with a BIN and no reserve is just a waste of money.
Sometimes if the coin is rather famous for some reason I'll put in a super-low bid just to be "part of the scene".
The serious bidders bid in the last 10 seconds of an auction.
I happily throw bids on board members auctions, just for the sake of bidding. Ive noticed more than a few bidders on some of my auctions come from these boards, so Im happy to peruse their auctions and throw a bid their way now and again.
I mentioned to a friend that we should go in on a bid to be part of the scene. He actually bid $100,000 on it! I was nervous we might win it although I thought it would to for several times that amount. Anyway I was relieved when we were outbid.
<< <i><<Sometimes if the coin is rather famous for some reason I'll put in a super-low bid just to be "part of the scene">>
I mentioned to a friend that we should go in on a bid to be part of the scene. He actually bid $100,000 on it! I was nervous we might win it although I thought it would to for several times that amount. Anyway I was relieved when we were outbid.
LOL!!! If it was THAT good a deal (if you won it), you probably could have flipped it before you even paid for it.... Sell the rights to the option on it........ and make a quick profit too....
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
<< <i>I always like Ebay sellers who complain about the "dumb" buyers. Like they would be selling anything with out those "dumb" buyers. I place those small bids also, mostly to pull down the BIN for obvious reasons.
AL
Ebay is not really a mystery at all. >>
Actually Al, without the "ignorant buyers" I would have much more time on my hands. I spent about 3 hours on ebay today. 1 hour on the illiterate from Florida that can't read an auction properly and 1.5 hours on the financial genius from Arizona who thinks a personal check is the same thing as a postal money order.
Not every ebay buyer is ignorant so as sellers we want the smart buyers who get it.
If this was the case I could have taken my kids to the park this afternoon instead of hand holding the LCDs. But it's not a perfect world so I will continue to live with the bottom 10% who often take up 75+% of my time on EBAY!
We can expalin it to them but we can't understand it for them!
Rob
"Those guys weren't Fathers they were...Mothers."
<< <i>We can expalin it to them but we can't understand it for them!
LOL... That was one of my dad's favorite sayings... "I can teach it to you, but I can't learn it for you!"...
Yeah, if they are gonna be ignorant... couldn't they just once be completely, 100% ignorant?? (...like David... the Magic Bean buyer)
After all, there IS a difference between a Misleading auction... a Joke auction... and a Descriptive auction.
<< <i>
<< <i>I always like Ebay sellers who complain about the "dumb" buyers. Like they would be selling anything with out those "dumb" buyers. I place those small bids also, mostly to pull down the BIN for obvious reasons.
AL
Ebay is not really a mystery at all. >>
Actually Al, without the "ignorant buyers" I would have much more time on my hands. I spent about 3 hours on ebay today. 1 hour on the illiterate from Florida that can't read an auction properly and 1.5 hours on the financial genius from Arizona who thinks a personal check is the same thing as a postal money order.
Not every ebay buyer is ignorant so as sellers we want the smart buyers who get it.
If this was the case I could have taken my kids to the park this afternoon instead of hand holding the LCDs. But it's not a perfect world so I will continue to live with the bottom 10% who often take up 75+% of my time on EBAY!
We can expalin it to them but we can't understand it for them!
Just out of curiosity, what could you possibly be talking to these people about for an hour? I mean, there's only so much to say, like, "Sir, your personal check is no good. You must submit a postal money order or I will not ship your coin. I will give you one week to send the postal money order or I will consider you a non-paying buyer." End of story...no argument...no discussion.
US and British coin collector, and creator of The Ultimate Chuck E. Cheese's and Showbiz Pizza Place Token & Ticket Guide
they rarely come back and bid at a more reasonable level. I can
make no sense of it, esp on generic coins where prices are well published.">>
I'd consider contacting these bidders and ask them why they are bidding the way they are.
.............
I'd like to see eBay reconfigure the BIN so that it stays until the bidding gets to within $10 of the BIN.
<< <i>
Just out of curiosity, what could you possibly be talking to these people about for an hour? I mean, there's only so much to say, like, "Sir, your personal check is no good. You must submit a postal money order or I will not ship your coin. I will give you one week to send the postal money order or I will consider you a non-paying buyer." End of story...no argument...no discussion. >>
Joe,
You make a great point there Champ, but again ebay levels the playing field for the LCDs (Lowest common denominators) through the feedback program. EBAY also places most of the ownership on the seller when it comes to disputes.
So, when I went to my PO Box expecting a money order with merchandise ready to ship and I saw the personal check normally I had 2 choices: Send it back as you say or cash it and wait 10-14 days. If I sent it back and email him that I rejected it, he very well could get frustrated and start a flurry of emails asking “why”. Remember we are dealing with someone who is unable to follow directions in the first place. He might open a dispute charge insisting that he sent payment and requesting his $$$ back. That alone takes a few hours to reconcile with ebay even when I am correct.
In this rare case I actually had a 3rd choice. The check happened to be from my bank in another state. So after weighing what might happen if I played hardball with this guy compared to going to my bank verifying funds, placing a hold on his said funds to make sure that check clears and then going back to the post office to ship. I chose the latter instead of going back home and telling the guy to send me another form of payment or pound sand. The latter took me an extra hour.
I will admit if the check had not been from my bank or I could not have verified funds, I probably would have just sent the check back and rolled the dice on the repercussions as you so astutely suggested.
I hate to say it again but I have found that you can explain things to people but you can’t understand it for them. Unfortunately the excruciatingly painful thing is when they don’t get it, they keep coming back and asking why. I made a decision given the clarity of the auction and the estimated reading comprehension level of this person that it was best to spend the extra hour now, avoid hours of frustration later and keep my solid feedback rating.
Maybe not the best logic but it was my rationalization at that time.
Thanks again for the suggestion.
Rob
"Those guys weren't Fathers they were...Mothers."
<< <i>Some of these people eventually return as snipers. They might be placing these low bids so that they can keep track of what they're actually bidding on in their My eBay page. >>
I agree 100% with the above comment. In fact, I do just that sometimes.
<< <i>
<< <i>
Just out of curiosity, what could you possibly be talking to these people about for an hour? I mean, there's only so much to say, like, "Sir, your personal check is no good. You must submit a postal money order or I will not ship your coin. I will give you one week to send the postal money order or I will consider you a non-paying buyer." End of story...no argument...no discussion. >>
Joe,
You make a great point there Champ, but again ebay levels the playing field for the LCDs (Lowest common denominators) through the feedback program. EBAY also places most of the ownership on the seller when it comes to disputes.
So, when I went to my PO Box expecting a money order with merchandise ready to ship and I saw the personal check normally I had 2 choices: Send it back as you say or cash it and wait 10-14 days. If I sent it back and email him that I rejected it, he very well could get frustrated and start a flurry of emails asking “why”. Remember we are dealing with someone who is unable to follow directions in the first place. He might open a dispute charge insisting that he sent payment and requesting his $$$ back. That alone takes a few hours to reconcile with ebay even when I am correct.
In this rare case I actually had a 3rd choice. The check happened to be from my bank in another state. So after weighing what might happen if I played hardball with this guy compared to going to my bank verifying funds, placing a hold on his said funds to make sure that check clears and then going back to the post office to ship. I chose the latter instead of going back home and telling the guy to send me another form of payment or pound sand. The latter took me an extra hour.
I will admit if the check had not been from my bank or I could not have verified funds, I probably would have just sent the check back and rolled the dice on the repercussions as you so astutely suggested.
I hate to say it again but I have found that you can explain things to people but you can’t understand it for them. Unfortunately the excruciatingly painful thing is when they don’t get it, they keep coming back and asking why. I made a decision given the clarity of the auction and the estimated reading comprehension level of this person that it was best to spend the extra hour now, avoid hours of frustration later and keep my solid feedback rating.
Maybe not the best logic but it was my rationalization at that time.
Thanks again for the suggestion. >>
A simple "Joe, I didn't want to risk getting a negative feedback" would have taken you much less time
US and British coin collector, and creator of The Ultimate Chuck E. Cheese's and Showbiz Pizza Place Token & Ticket Guide
<< <i>There are some individuals that habitually bid like $2.01 on a coin that will sell at a value in the hundreds of dollars. These e-bayers are not newbies and you will generally see the same handles time and time again with these "token" bids. Why even bother? They are well aware that the value of the coins they are bidding on will sell 50 to 100x's their insignificant bid. The only purpose they serve is to get play for the auction in question.
Frankly, it somewhat annoys me.
You are missing the point entirely of why we place low bids early in the auction. Our watch list is limited to 100 items. By placing a low bid early, we are able to easily track the auction for later. As the auction gets closer to the end, we can decide if we want to dance or let it go.
US and British coin collector, and creator of The Ultimate Chuck E. Cheese's and Showbiz Pizza Place Token & Ticket Guide