I am in the lookout for a washing machine and was hoping to get a second hand one for a bargain. What better place to find bargains than at eBay, right?
At the onset, we were hoping to find one in a garage sale. Since it is spring cleaning time here, there are a lot of garage sales going on during weekends. At one garage sale we dropped by, we picked up an old microwave for $10 and we trying to haggle to get their washer for $40. The lady refused to give up her appliance for anything less than $50. We were lucky that she didn't because we found out that we were bidding for a DRYER and not a WASHER! (Ignorant newbies!)
So I am focusing my energies on eBay for the moment, until moving day comes when I would have to bite the bullet and acquire a new washing machine for hundreds of dollars.
Apparently, there is a science to winning in eBay. Of course it helps IMMENSELY if you are willing to place a fairly high bid on an item.
First you have to have an eBay account. Then you have to know what you are looking to buy. They have user friendly categories and sub-categories.
Plus there is an option to SORT the matches found.
For practical reasons, I always sort by DISTANCE : NEAREST FIRST.
Once the items which match your selected criteria are displayed, you can also see other details like current bid or the BUY IT NOW price, postage/payment options, time left and (if you're lucky) a picture of what is being sold. If you click on the item, usually there is some sort of description and history of the item being sold. The seller's username and the number of bids can also be found.
There is an option to WATCH THIS ITEM, where items you are interested in can be viewed in one of your tabs for quick reference.
Anyway, back to the science and back to the washing machine.
Anyone REALLY, really interested in an item would be logged into eBay and watching the TIME LEFT count down on the desired item. And that person would also be counting SECONDS, not just minutes, when placing a bid. The system allows a user to do AUTOMATIC BIDDING where one simply specifies the MAXIMUM BID one is willing to make on the item. The system will place an amount higher than the latest bid but not exceeding your maximum bid amount. For example, the latest bid was $1.00 and you put a maximum bid of $10.00, the system will queue a bid of $2.00 for you. If there is no bid higher than the maximum bid you posted, it is possible for you to win the bid at a price lower than your specified maximum bid amount. (In my example, you could get the item for $2 instead of your maximum bid price of $10.)
The secret is in clicking the CONFIRM button within the last few seconds of the bidding process so that hopefully no other bidder will have time to react and place a new bid higher than yours before the time runs out.
Earlier that day, my brother-in-law was logged on to place a bid for an orange shirt for my nephew. The current bid was $0.99 and the postage was about $7.50. Since their budget for the shirt was $25, he placed a $17.50 bid a minute 20 seconds before the 6pm closing bid time.
They won the bid and got the shirt for $0.99!!! (Essentially, they paid a total of $8.50 for the brand new shirt. A real bargain.)
Last night, we logged on using my account to place a $70 bid on a Fisher Paykel washing machine that was about 4 years old. My heart was pounding. I was hoping that we'd get the washing machine and get this whole thing over with. The second hand of the clock seemed to move slower than usual. We had synchronized the wall clock to the eBay clock. We were hoping to get the bid in at the last 20 seconds.
My brother-in-law entered $70.50 (just in case there was a $70 bid and we were tied at that price) and waited until about 15 seconds before hitting the CONFIRM BID.
We waited for a while until we saw the message flash saying that we had LOST the bid. Upon closer scrutiny of the details, we discovered that someone had entered a bid ten seconds after we had, a mere 4 seconds before the closing bid time. Surely the bid was higher than ours because the washing machine was sold for $71.50. If we had not come in and entered a bid, that washing machine would have been sold for $34.00. Now THAT would have been a real bargain.
Notice the AUTOMATIC BIDS. I was up there at $34. If the eventual winner hadn't entered a bid, I could have been the lucky one. (Oh well ... I guess I just have to try, try again.)
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