getting irked at repeatedly failing to win auctions!

Grrr. Just lost an ebay auction for the WFTSC promo full length versions, _again_. Must be the 6th time now. Curses on all you buggers who are prepared to pay more than me. Everytime I go a _little_ bit higher than before but there seem to be some of you who have no upper limit on how much you'll pay. Surely eventually you'll all have one and leave the next one for budget-restricted me. Or someone will flood the market with forgeries (fine by me, as long as they're not from mp3)

have patience & try bidding on ones that finish at more unusual times of the day.

picked up my promo of singles for under a tenner that way

Yeah, keep trying. I was losing auctions on that 10" promo and mine finally arrived in the mail about 15 minutes ago with the press sheet. I'm STOKED!!! Can't wait to hear it.

Also seems like that 6-track Promo CD with the picture sleeve is readily available for about $40 which is what I paid for mine.

The 5-track CD-r - I heard two things about it, please confirm:

1. That there are digital errors within the disc that make some cuts NOT play all the way through.

2. Martin Buttrich mix is the same as Secret machines mix. It's just an alias. Or something. One of those mixes is titled something different on another format but it's the same mix.

Yes? No? Please help.

Yeah, that's it: Martin Buttrich and Mobilegazer is the same person. I almost forgot about that mix.

I don't mind buying the official CD promos like GIAUE or that one in the picture sleeve or even something special like the mash-up 10" but throwing $100 down on that 5-track CD-r - I really have to try and justify that s**t. I finally heard the mixes for the 3x7" not long ago and although I LOVE REMIXES, some of the work on that release is not great. I'll save my opinions for elsewhere.

Best tip for ebay auctions is NEVER to bid until close to the end - all too often I see people bidding with days to go before an auction finishes... All that does is start a bidding war, and unnecessarily increases the final price.

So, if you REALLY want an item, bid on it with minutes/seconds to spare!

Spotnick wrote: Get a software that will bid for you at the last minute... that's how Mr Sultan does it ;)

Whats this Nic. Something that will bid up to a certain price while your asleep or at work? Sounds good!

this often happens to me, as well. occasionally i get lucky and i've managed to fill out my collection quite well, with help from online stores in the UK. of course, i'll never have 'an ideal for living' or 'licht und blindheit.' not unless i win the lottery, that is!

Andrew Sayer wrote:

Spotnick wrote: Get a software that will bid for you at the last minute... that's how Mr Sultan does it ;)

Whats this Nic. Something that will bid up to a certain price while your asleep or at work? Sounds good!

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Auction Sniper

Probably gonna regret passing that on.

:\pimp3:

Nah...auction sniper is NO FUN.

I rather the thrill of getting up at 2.00am, log on and wait till 5 sec left...booomm..but not often I come up trumps though cuz I'm a stinge bastard. Occasionally victory can be sweet.....I remember once I pipped some dude called 'dirtynumbangel' at zee last minute...sweet victory :D but can't remember which NO stuff that was though....

[orange]depthcharge[/orange] wrote:

Andrew Sayer wrote:

Spotnick wrote: Get a software that will bid for you at the last minute... that's how Mr Sultan does it ;)

Whats this Nic. Something that will bid up to a certain price while your asleep or at work? Sounds good!

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Auction Sniper

Probably gonna regret passing that on.

:\pimp3:

It's puzzling to me that 'sniping' happens. Logically everyone should just put a proxy bid for the maximum they are prepared to go to, and then forget about it. That is what I do, I admit. 'Sniping' really shouldn't work, but somehow it does. It seems to be because other people don't in fact put in a proxy bid for their maximum, but, irrationally, wait to see what others do. Also I guess what you consider your maximum price itself changes when you see what others are prepared to pay because it increases your estimate of the value of the item.

Anyway, all that happens to me is that _whatever_ I bid, the item eventually goes for £1 more than that. It always seems to be me versus one other person. I reckon its a conspiracy, everyone else has agreed not to bid against each other, so that if I don't bid it goes for a song, but if I do the price immediately rockets out of my range. I say again, Grrr.

404 error wrote:

[orange]depthcharge[/orange] wrote:

Andrew Sayer wrote:

Spotnick wrote: Get a software that will bid for you at the last minute... that's how Mr Sultan does it ;)

Whats this Nic. Something that will bid up to a certain price while your asleep or at work? Sounds good!

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Auction Sniper

Probably gonna regret passing that on.

:\pimp3:

It's puzzling to me that 'sniping' happens. Logically everyone should just put a proxy bid for the maximum they are prepared to go to, and then forget about it. That is what I do, I admit. 'Sniping' really shouldn't work, but somehow it does. It seems to be because other people don't in fact put in a proxy bid for their maximum, but, irrationally, wait to see what others do. Also I guess what you consider your maximum price itself changes when you see what others are prepared to pay because it increases your estimate of the value of the item.

Anyway, all that happens to me is that _whatever_ I bid, the item eventually goes for £1 more than that. It always seems to be me versus one other person. I reckon its a conspiracy, everyone else has agreed not to bid against each other, so that if I don't bid it goes for a song, but if I do the price immediately rockets out of my range. I say again, Grrr.

Sniping exists in order to prevent bidding wars, which only happen when someone has "laid their cards down" and put in a bid - it gives other people ammunition to try and outbid you with plenty of time to spare - similar to what happens in real auction houses...

The thing about ebay is that it ends at a fixed time, therefore if you place your maximum proxy bid as close as possible to the end time, then you're substantially less likely to get outbid by other people (who then don't have a chance to try and outbid you = no time left).

Once you've been on ebay for as long as I have (5 years with a feedback rating close to 1,000 - both buying and selling), then if you want to avoid paying unnecessary extortionate prices, bid in the last couple of minutes, or via AuctionStealer/AuctionSniper/etc!

If i really want something i tend to set an alarm for when bidding is due to end and zoom in there at the last minute, i am rarely unsuccessful.

It amazes me how many people keep upping their bids with hours/days to go. It only makes somebody else bid and you're bumping your own price up.

poisoned Snickers r yummy... wrote: Nah...auction sniper is NO FUN.

I rather the thrill of getting up at 2.00am, log on and wait till 5 sec left...booomm..but not often I come up trumps though cuz I'm a stinge bastard. Occasionally victory can be sweet.....I remember once I pipped some dude called 'dirtynumbangel' at zee last minute...sweet victory :D but can't remember which NO stuff that was though....

Hey Snickers you SOB! Is that a true story or are you just being a cheeky monkey?

Bugger the getting up bit. And that's the problem about bidding from down this way. Inevitably the auctions finish during the deepest of night.

:\pimp3:

Last night I was thinking exactly what 404 error said above.

If someone wins the auction using a bid sniper program then you haven't TRULY bid your highest amount.

I will submit my highest justifiable proxy bid 5 seconds before auction's end. If I lose by a dollar, then I am okay with the fact that I wasn't prepared to pay that amount. You have to draw a distinct line somewhere in the bidding process.

404 error wrote: It's puzzling to me that 'sniping' happens. Logically everyone should just put a proxy bid for the maximum they are prepared to go to, and then forget about it. That is what I do, I admit. 'Sniping' really shouldn't work, but somehow it does. It seems to be because other people don't in fact put in a proxy bid for their maximum, but, irrationally, wait to see what others do. Also I guess what you consider your maximum price itself changes when you see what others are prepared to pay because it increases your estimate of the value of the item.

I think the key here is "irrational". All sorts of irrational stuff happens during auctions because punters become too emotionally invested in the item they're chasing. You see it all the time. An item blows out to a princely figure because two bidders get carried away outslugging each other, each thinking they'll win the auction for "one dollar more". The next week the same item goes for 30% less because there's only one irrational bidder involved.

Sometimes you'll see a cheap item with a bid on and many won't be bothered getting involved because of the expectation the bidder's proxy will be too high. Yet if you fire off a cheeky last second snipe, you can be surprised. I use them a lot. Most fail but you can pick up a bargain. It only takes a few seconds to set them up. As long as you stick to your budget you can win.

Then there are still sellers bumbling along not knowing the true value of their items, although this is becoming rarer. I'd been chasing a cheap copy of Superhighways for years and yet it always seemed to go for 10 quid or more on eBay. Yesterday I nabbed one BIN in NM for GBP2.

:\pimp3:

MTO wrote: Last night I was thinking exactly what 404 error said above.

If someone wins the auction using a bid sniper program then you haven't TRULY bid your highest amount.

I will submit my highest justifiable proxy bid 5 seconds before auction's end. If I lose by a dollar, then I am okay with the fact that I wasn't prepared to pay that amount. You have to draw a distinct line somewhere in the bidding process.

Yes, but what's the difference between a bid sniper program (where you have to enter your highest amount) and bidding 5 seconds before the end (where you enter your highest amount)? Bugger all! :)

[orange]depthcharge[/orange] wrote: I'd been chasing a cheap copy of Superhighways for years and yet it always seemed to go for 10 quid or more on eBay. Yesterday I nabbed one BIN in NM for GBP2.

:\pimp3:

You mean Superhighways the CD album or CD single? I've got both but I remember back in the 'quiet NO time' in 1997, I saw TOT's Superhighways CD album for $5 in a music shop on George Street, Sydney.

Hey, that was a true story - sometime late last year, I remember tryin to bid for a NO stuff and theres some f-kwit called 'dirtynumbangel' kept upping the bid...so I had to go a KILL in the dying 9 seconds. Then I checked who the f-kwit was and noticed a Peter Saville skateboard...aha! we all knew abt some rich WA dude splurging big time on some decorated plyboard on wheels..

Anyway, I used to watch the BIN section on Ebay a lot cuz theres lotsa sellers unaware of NO /JD collectibles...I think I bought EGG Austrian CD single for only 5 EURO once, unfortunately that was few months AFTER I paid mega-bucks for my first one.

Ha ha Snicko, too funny. Wish I'd known it was you and I'd have thrown the kitchen sink at it.

Superhighways the album. Not a big fan but it's all part of the collection, innit?

:\pimp3:

Re 'sniping', I think I've got it straight now. If everyone behaved rationally and just put in a proxy bid for the max they want to pay then sniping would be pointless. But it works because people behave irrationally in two ways (1) they put a proxy bid for less than the max they are willing to pay, with a view to coming back and bidding again later, and then are suprised when someone beats them at the last moment and (2) people get overexcited in bidding wars and bid more than they would actually do if they stopped and thought about it. Bidding at the last moment takes advantage of people making the first mistake and avoids getting entangled with people making the second one.

I bet an economist somewhere has written a paper on this. Academia - money for old rope (I wonder how much old rope would fetch on ebay?)

About 6 quid.

Old Rope

:\pimp3: