posted on September 8, 2005 11:34:30 AM new
Hey all, me again. It's been a while since I've posted, but I've crawled out of the woodwork again!
Just had an interesting experience. I sometimes buy rare car parts for a vintage car my father and I share. People who shop parts for this car have become very savvy and most of the bids are last second snipes. To be honest, I've been using a paid sniping service for several years becuase I just hate losing and/or paying too much.
So anyways, I see this vintage part that comes on eBay maybe a few times per year, and the last minute snipes always push it over $100, sometimes even more. A seller who sells mostly parts for newer cars put up this rare vintage part for a seven day auction, listing it at $49.99. NO BIDS all week. (no surprise there, everyone was ready to pounce on it at the last second). I used my trusty sniping service, but then got a notification email that the end date was extended.
Yes, the seller, seeing that NOBODY bid on after six days thought that he'd better extend the listing to a 10 day auction. I got impatient and on the eighth day, I emailed him and mentioned that I saw he extended the auction, and that I was interested, and would he be willing to add a Buy It Now option, or if I bid, would he end the auction to sell to the highest bidder.
He replied and said there were 10 people watching the auction, but no bids. And since I was the first one that came forwards, he would sell to me! Within minutes he added a Buy It Now option, which I quickly used to purchase the item for $49.99, probably much to the chagrin of the other nine people watching the auction and getting ready to snipe it in the last few seconds on the tenth day!
Illegal? No. Immoral? Maybe. Fair? Yes. All I did was ask... ask and you shall receive! Although I almost feel guilty...
posted on September 8, 2005 11:39:36 AM new
Wow! Did you luck out! I would have offered the Buy It Now feature for you, but would have bumped up the price to at least $60-$70. Maybe he needed the money right away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Caroline
posted on September 8, 2005 11:42:31 AM new
Yeah, guess I was just lucky! I was expecting him to bump up the price a bit, and would have paid it. My guess is that he's not used to dealing with vintage parts, just newer parts, so maybe he thought nobody wanted it and was just glad to get rid of it at whatever price. I don't think he was too hard up on money though, he had a lot auctions running, so probably a steady flow of money.
Caroline