[JiF][AARP]Tissueman wrote:
The other problem was a very good seller who went off the deep end. He sold a lot of stuff he didn't have all at once. He went from a very well respected seller to a thief overnight. I don't know the whole story, but from what I put together he was having financial difficulties and got involved in drugs and stolen property. We were very lucky as he owed us $400, but we got it back a couple of months before he went off the deep end.
Tissue
I apologized Tissue, you don't have to keep bringing this up
I have an encouraging story...
Back before I married my wife, I was looking for a simple wedding band to go with her engagement ring. Of course, after I started looking, it became less "simple" and I started looking at bands that had diamonds.
Long story short, I found a really nice platinum band with a row of 5 little diamonds. It was obviously some sort of estate auction so I bid a minimum and moved on without a second thought thinking I'd never get it...$200.
Long story short? I won it for exactly that... $200. I received it shortly afterwards and promptly took it to my jeweler friend who raved about it's vintage design/workmanship, the quality of the diamonds and appraised it at $3500. That was 7 (!) years ago, I wonder how it's appreciated now?
I waited until after we were married to tell my wife. It made her much less critical of my Ebay habits
Of course it's quite rare to get a deal like this on Ebay.
Always set a low initial bid. Always set a personal price cap based on what you are willing to pay and what the going price range for an item should be (always research!).
Always check the shipping, a lot of sellers up the shipping rate so that they can snare people with what seems to be a low price with the end result of padding their profit.
Check a sellers feedback.
You can tell a LOT about a seller based on how they respond to negative feedback (if they have any). When in doubt, don't bid.
These days, almost everyone that is intent on winning a particular auction will place their final, and more often than naught, winning bid in literally the last seconds of the auction.
A lot of them are using programs/services that do this for them too.
Being a purist, I've never used anything like that.
I feel that if you want something too much then you should not be bidding... you'll just end up spending more than you should have.
Chances are quite good that there will be another listing and another chance at the same sort of item, so be patient.
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