I bid on an auction on something I really wanted for awhile, not at a "steal" (sort of a high price actually, but still fair because it's in great condition).  I bid on it awhile before it ended sort of expecting to be outbid, but I wasn't.

Not really sure how I feel about it.  I don't exactly have buyer's remorse because I wanted it, yet I can't help but feel like I could have found a better deal.  Just wondering, have any of you ever (or regularly? XD) done this?

I think this has happened to me twice, actually. But not a common thing.

This happened to me recently. I put a max bid of $125 on a Genesis game lot auction while it was still in the $30 range. I figured the lot would either go well below $125 or well above $125 (which was the max I'd be willing to pay.) At the last second a sniper put a bid of $124.77, making me the winner at $125.

I wasn't expecting to actually pay $125 on the dot, and I was kind annoyed at the sniper. Had he not bid, I could've gotten that lot for about $30 less.

>< well the weird thing about mine was I bid just a couple cents higher than it was already at and I still won. I didn't put in a max bid. Just felt a little weird about it, but I think it'll be better once I have it in hand

Yes with a complete copy of Final Fight 3. I placed a max bid of what I was willing to pay near the end. Ended up winning with my max bid. Felt confused at first because while I won, that was my max bid man and it kind of hurt.

But any kind of regret I had in me went away the moment I got it in the mail and had it in person.

I've had this happen on multiple ocassions. It's like the sniper knows exactly how much your bid is and just jacks it up to it. I know it's not the case but I just find it odd how I've had it done multiple times, sometimes on the same sellers auctions.

I haven't bought on ebay in over a year,but when I did I almost always manually sniped on stuff I really wanted. The stuff I kind of wanted I usually put in a lower than market value max bid on the item so if I won it I got a good deal and if not no big deal and I didn't overpay on it.

This happened to me a couple of times. I can't even remember what games it was for. But sometimes I get myself into these messes. I see something that is going for a low bid, so I bid my max I'm willing to spend (which is still usually below market value), and I still don't win. So I then take it as a personal vendetta to get the bid as high as I can so that the winner is at least paying market value. Douchey, I know, but it's kinda fun, I guess like paying Russian roulette or something. The most recent time I did this was actually with a Turbo Express system. Sadly, I had to back out of the transaction on that one, which still haunts me because the final bid is still to this day lower than I've seen one go for. I just really didn't have the money that particular week to go spending on stuff like that. In that case, I really didn't expect to win at the price I bid, so I guess I just wasn't prepared for the what-if situation that turned out.

Back when I used to buy stuff on ebay, I'd occasionally just drop a lot of early bids on a bunch of different auctions and see what I ended up winning.

Quoting this to preserve it.  What a grade A douche.

Hey, no harm no foul.  The seller was actually pretty relieved.  He didn't want it to go that low.  He re-posted a few days later with a starting bid $50 higher than what my final bid was.  I don't remember if it ended up selling or not.

"Never fight unless you're sure you can win." If you bid not expecting (or even WANTING)to win, (in my opinion) you're a shill bidding asshole.

I disagree here.  Buy trying to screw the guy who was willing to pay more than you, you cost him the chance to win the auction at a reasonable price and perhaps get a good deal.  It may have helped the seller in the end make more, but it's still a pretty crappy thing to do.  There was harm to the guy who didn't win the auction, and a foul from you.  I don't understand the mentality, "If I can't win the auction, I'll make the other guy pay for it."  Who cares if the other guys willing to spend more than you.  Just move on to the next auction.

Oh well.  One of the most common things I've heard since joining NA is how "cutthroat" this hobby is.  Why do we always gotta be the ones getting our throats cut though?  This kind of shit happens to me all the time, so why the hell shouldn't I bid someone else up?  Why can't you look at it from the seller's perspective?  First of all, it's not like I'm doing this everyday.  But from the seller's perspective, I'm getting them more money for their item.  The Turbo Express was the one time in over 15 years since I've been on eBay that I've had to cancel a transaction.  

He obviously wasn't willing to spend that much.  It was only a dollar or two.  He probably did the same thing I did, set a low bid early on and just forgot about it.  If he really wanted it, a few bucks more shouldn't have kept him from it.


* and I can see how there's some confusion here.  I think I messed up in my original post.  The TurboExpress situation was more of a set a low bid early situation than a bid it up situation.

Good to hear :-)  I'm hoping that's how it works out for me!

Yeah, it happens from time to time when you get something almost spot on your max bid. My maxes are generally pretty low so it still works out, but every now and then I set a pretty nice max, usually on something Mint. Those are the ones that can sting when you win at the max.

But as said, once the item is in hand and on the shelf, it's usually out of sight and out of mind. No regrets about any of the purchases I've made.

Yup, it happens to me once in a while

A few months ago I won a Xenoblade Chronicles pre-order art book. I was drunk when I bid on it and thought I needed it to go with my sealed first print Xenoblade to legitimize it as a first printing. When I sobered up the next morning I didn't really care to own it but I ended up winning for a so so price. I guess it's not an accident but I put my high bid more than I would have and forgot to use Gixen.

Harsh, but sounds about right.

It used to happen to me all the time. Now my gf is in charge of the ebay/paypal combo and it hasn't happened since then lol The takeover was a good thing.

Double post. I<3Internet

I don't think I have ever done exactly that on an item I didn't have an intent to pick up, but I have put bids on super cheap on things I wouldn't mind having and won them on rare occasion so it's ok. I do have one odd case from about 2 months ago where I put 2 placeholder bids on a set of famiclone carts with adapters on them, one I wanted a lot, the other was a $10 placeholder for another member here to keep an eye on it knowing it definitely should have gone higher. Before I hit the sack that night (it ended 3am my time) I put a true bid on the one I wanted(got it for crazy low too) and the other won on the $10 and I had figured he'd have bid on it. Ultimately I got him the adapter at cost and got to keep the game so everyone won on that.

One other time I can remember doing this was actually pretty recently.  There were two items from the same seller, ending at the exact same time.  One item I really wanted, the other I would just want if I won the other.  I bid on both, the one I didn't really care for just the minimum starting bid.  The other I watched up until the last minute, as it went considerably above my max bid.  All the while the other one had no activity.  So I ended up winning that auction, which with shipping factored in, was not worth the price I ended up paying.  Shipping wouldn't have been a factor had I won both auctions.

If I don't want to buy something, I don't bid on it. Period.