Ebay Virgin at my age.

[#1]

Quote from: AverageWhiteBloke

Ahh right it all seems a bit clearer, my bids going well 2 days left and no other bid unless someone jumps in at the last minute which is probably how things work to be fair.

Yes, bidding for common and/or popular items generally heat up in the last few minutes and seconds. It's not unusual for an item to stick at a couple of low bids for days and then get loads of bids in the last seconds (a.k.a. sniping).

[#2]

A trick I use for last second bidding, is somewhere on the eBay site it specified which ntp time server they synchronize to.
If you set you PC's clock to the same ntp server (although recently the local UK ntp servers have been close enough), and also set your PC's clock to display seconds,
then it makes timing your last second (or three) bid much more accurate.
This also has the advantage that if you do get outbid, then you are not tempted to keep raising your bid - because it its too late.

[#3]

Interesting stuff, I don't usually buy things of too high a value abroad for the reason I'd like it to be someone I can get my hands on if I get ripped 
A couple of lads I work with bought a full set of De-Walt gear in a case, Rip saw, drill, jigsaw etc a few quids worth from the U.S.A and I know they got their pants ripped off by the tax man. End up was cheaper to get here.
Annoys the life out of me when the Tax man takes a little perk in life like that and still wants a slice of the action. It should be based like alcohol and tobacco for personal use and limits set for the value you can bring in.
Fair enough if your buying 200 mp3 players obviously their not for you but one item tsck.
Not going to get started about tax in this country you'll never stop me 

[#4]

Ebay has a built in countdown timer now so you can see exactly how much time is left.  The countdown starts at 30 minutes before bidding closes.

[#5]

While that is true, the remaining time countdown is only visible on the item description screen, but the countdown is NOT visible on the confirmation of bid screen - which is the page you really need to be on to get your bid timing accurate.
Unfortunately it can often take more than ten seconds to switch from the description screen, to the confirm bid screen, particularly on a popular item in the last 30 seconds.
You can do a work around by entering your bid value and pressing "Place Bid" which takes you to the confirmation screen, at that point you open another tab in your browser and navigate back to the item description.
So you now sit watching the countdown (in the second tab), then in the last seconds switch browser tabs and hit the "Confirm Bid" button.
That is a useful technique if you can't get your PC system tray clock to show seconds (as in some versions of Windows), or if you can't synchronize your PC's time to an ntp server (atomic clock).

The countdown starts 60.00 minutes before the end of bidding - not 30 !.

[#6]

Another tip if sniping is to log out of Ebay and log back in again a little before the end time. This prevents the Ebay session timing out just as you make your final bid 5 secs before the end time and then being presented with the login page.......

[#7]

If you have a "Nectar" loyalty card, then ALWAYS remember to login to eBay by using the eBay link on the the http://www.nectar.com website.
This way you can quickly add lots of Nectar points for virtually no effort ! 
If you do use the Nectar card, and you are buying several items on eBay in one session, then you have to go via the Nectar site between each successful purchase to ensure all the points get correctly accounted for !

[#8]

Yep, always do that and as you say the points keep coming - and what do points make

[#9]

[quote=artmo]and what do points make 
A very cheap Christmas ! - Last Xmas I had managed to save enough Nectar points to buy my son a Nintendo DSi with accessories, plus games - he was thrilled, and so was I 

[#10]

Wow I did not know that, I thought Nectar Cards were for getting ice off the car windows. Now where did I put that card. 

[#11]

When you find your Nectar card you could spend the points on a can of de-icer 
I use my expired plastic cards for glue spreaders, polyfiller applicator, or grouting tiles !

[#12]

Over the last year or so, I have found that bidding for items on a Sunday is a complete waste of time.
On Sundays there are too many people competing and the final price is nearly always exceeds what would be reached on any other day of the week.
So Sundays is good for sellers - bigger profits, but for those buyers who know what items are typically worth - then it is much more down to luck than judgement if you win an item without exceeding your maximum bid.
Good times for buying a bargain are -
1)  Friday evenings - unless the weather is bad when people don't go out and go online instead.
2)  Weekdays between 14:50 and 15:15,  when all the Mum's are doing the school run !
3)  During major sporting events (like the world cup), or if there is a major breaking news story, as everyone is watching TV - and therefore not watching eBay.
4)  Mondays recently seem to be good for volume of items, and bids don't usually get too high (compared with Saturday and Sunday).
5)  Wednesday evenings are often quiet, with the least number of items listed and correspondingly fewer people are watching, so you often have a better chance of winning.

[#13]

Have to agree with you there Purleigh.  It's an art knowing when to bid.  The weekends are not good for buyers.  I find late evenings another good time to bid.  Unfortunately the sellers know these rules as well

[#14]

[quote=artmo]Unfortunately the sellers know these rules as well 
Fortunately there are several types of seller, including -
1)  Business sellers - who price their items higher than the going rate, but lower than high street shop prices - good for end of lines.
2)  Business sellers - who have very competitive prices on their own little 'cottage industry', as they don't have the overheads of a shop.
3)  Private sellers who want to make good money - who set quite high prices, usually on a Sunday, to trap the casual browser who have not done their research.
4)  Private sellers who are house clearing, and getting rid of stuff is more important than profit,  these are where research and calculated bidding really pays of.
5)  Private sellers who can't be bothered with taking stuff down the dump, so price their items for a penny, or 99p, so the winning bidder collects their 'rubbish' for virtually no effort.
But as always research is everything 

[#15]

Quote from: purleigh

5)  Private sellers who can't be bothered with taking stuff down the dump, so price their items for a penny, or 99p, so the winning bidder collects their 'rubbish' for virtually no effort. But as always research is everything

I'm always amazed at people who start at 1p or 99p.  Many of the items actually go for this price.  It's not worth the bother.  Ebay keep a check on postage costs these days so the seller can't even rely on this to make a profit.