You don't have to be stupid to buy from Ebay, but it helps.

[phillipb]

I was watching a couple of auctions which had "buy it now" options.
One of them had a starting price of $150 and buy it now price of $250. For the first 4 days nothing happened, then someone put a bid for $150 which meant that the buy it now price disappeared. The auction just finished at $305 go figure.
The second one is heading the same way, it's almost reached the original buy it now price and there's still 9 hours to go.

[gstark]

Phillip,

Well observed.

[georgie]

I often think this too and actually find it frustating to wait for the week or so to pass for the auction - I am thinking of setting up my own rival to ebay and calling it "www.buyitnow.com" and you can only list a price you want for the item now.

Ps - if you do go to this website it refers you to ebay so there goes my whole idea

[Onyx]

I applaud the seller for profiting from stupidity of others. After all, there is that saying: A fool and his money...

[avkomp]

it never fails to amaze me what some people will do.
a friend of mine had a decrepid old shed in the garden which he wanted removed so figured on selling it on ebay for 50-100 bucks.
listed it starting 50 buy now 100 and got no bids.

on anothers suggestion he relisted it with a starting price of $1 no reserve.
to his utter amazement the final price was $350 and he was so embarrassed when the guy came to collect it, felt like wearing a ski mask.
The buyer though seemed happy with the goods though.

Steve

[blinkblink]

I get amazed at some ebay buyers. I bought a DVD at KMart for $12.90. Watched it and then sold it on ebay for $28.00 3 weeks later. They had to pay postage as well.

If you are going to buy on ebay it really pays to know what the retail price is.

[Dug]

Auctions ! you can see people spend more for worn out second hand Cr@p than they would for the same item brand new!

Do your homework set a price and stick to it, regardless.

[Steffen]

There are many tactics at work on eBay, one of them shill bidding, of course. Another one, sometimes used by sellers, including myself, is to set a normal auction start price (like $0.99) and put up a pretty high but still fair buy-now price. For mere psychological reasons. If this price displays for long enough it might sway potential buyers' opinions about what the item could be worth...

In my case the buy-now usually gets squashed within hours...

Cheers
Steffen.

[ipv6ready]

As a person with a stake in an ebay business with 1000 feedback. I can say the buying habits of some people are crazy.

Once had a bidding war on a used D100 battery pack between a UK guy and a Japanese bidder who bid it up to $351 final price!!!!!! original BIN $169.

The Yen won the day.......But not to waste an opportunity I sent a second chance offer to the uk bidder for $346...thinking NO WAY is he going to buy it.

Alas he did!!!

The crazy thing is I had three brand new ones finnishing every other day that had a buy it now for $225. One had to be relisted due to no bidders. you do have to wonder where these people earn thier money. As I would not employ them