Actually the guy who bid 35 times is still in second place. He stopped at $400. The high bidder's amount is over $405. They both clearly have not been on eBay long (6 feedback for each). Still, this is one for the record books of unbelievability.
I have bought stuff from Dan to. He is one of my favorite sellers on Ebay. This reminds me of a Kato NS 80mac and 70M I put up before Xmas, both when to the same buyer for over 200 a piece, but the buyer look to be someone who was buying for someone else with cash to burn.
I guess I'll have to go against you guys with Dan as a seller. The first (and only) dealing I had with him were supposed nib and when I got them, they were missing pieces. He said sorry since he assumed they were nib, but didn't have time to check them. He also did not take them back (as I wanted), only refunded a partial amount of the cost. He left it up to me to track down and purchase the missing pieces. Needless to say, I haven't dealt with him again. It's a shame too, since he has good stuff for sale. Oh well. :no6qp: -Mike
Ben,that's not how it works.If every time a bid is placed,the same guys name pops up,that means that somebody bid against his presently showing bid,but his entered maximum bid was still higher,so his automatic bid comes up as the next higher bid over the last guy that bid against him.Either he entered a first bid of 400 bucks,and 35 guys bid against him and all lost up to 400 bucks,or he kept upping his bid to stay on top before the next guy outbid him.In any case,if only his name comes up,nobody that bid against him was high bidder yet,until the last guy who's name is on top bid over 400 bucks.Your name only shows if you have high bid..Think of it..If I bid $410 bucks right now,and the guy that has high bid has a max of $420 entered,his name will come up at $411,my name won't come up at all..
I'm not confused about how it works. Just go back and look at the bids on the auction and you'll see that the guy who bid 52 times is the second highest bidder, not the guy who won the auction. Regardless of whether he ended up winning or not, the fact that the guy bid over 40 times in a row, for almost eight minutes, is pretty hilarious! I just can't imagine sitting at a computer and doing something that many times without asking myself if I should be doing something different.
I too am amused by the prices paid by eBay users. We have been collecting and operating in N Scale for over 40 years and I have never paid over $100 for a single engine or car even when the collector value far exceeded that number. I try to stay far from the Bay but when I do go there, I know what I want, how much to bid and if I win or lose that is fine with me. The items that amuse most are those that can be purchased at a local hobby shop or online from a reputable dealer for less than in some cases the starting bid let alone the final one. As far as estate sales, tomorrow we are heading out to purchase an entire layout with all the engines, cars and buildings and vehicles. I love being able to see the merchandise before we pay and even better bring it home with you the same day. And no uniformed genius to bid against you! Once we get a chance to sift through this purchase, our existing collection and runners we will post them in the train store here in the next few weeks. Keep watching this space for further details.
latest bit of ha-ha!!!! http://cgi.ebay.com/Con-Cor-union-p...66:2|39:1|72:1205|240:1318|301:0|293:1|294:50 grampa must have loved this one
I was thinking this was pretty funny...not sure how he got to nearly ten grnad for the thing..but ya never know...he mighta got it... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250436770968&ssPageName=ADME:B:BODO:US:1
The one I've never understood is how people will start bidding like crazy on say, a lot of cars that starts at $1, until the highest bid goes up to $70 or more. I've seen this happen on a bunch of junk cars that weren't great even when they were new 20 years ago. But you can put up a great collection of cars with a starting bid of say, $49... way below what they're worth... and you won't get a single bid from anybody. So they over pay on junk because it had a low starting bid, and totally pass up a great deal, because it had a more than fair starting bid. I can't believe people are that illogical, but apparently they are.
Wow, that description cracked me up! "Made by REAL ACTUAL ARTISTS!" Also.. when did eBay change their look? I don't know about anyone else, but I'm not digging the new look.
I believe there are two forces at work here. One, not many buyers out in Bayville have a clue what an item is worth. This goes for people pricing their equipment as if were made of 24k gold and the people who are bidding. The second factor is many buyers bid with their hearts (that's my favorite railroad, engine, boxcar, etc) instead of with their heads. EBay of course loves uninformed sellers/buyers as they both continuously add to the bottom line. Of course there is also the problem of easy graders (where were these people when I was in school) who think they have a c-10 piece of equipment if you don't mind a few missing wheels or other parts. Nick My calendar always says March 31, 1976
Sad thing is people WILL spend that much on a pre-built layout (hell people pay that much for one they did themsleves, just over time). They'd rather have it up and running than do it themsleves. No time, don't have the patience, or don't think they can do it right, or just want to run trains not build scenery.
I looked at this and the other layouts this person offered. Prices were way way high. Workmanship looked pretty poor. No bids on anything.
"The curves are 18 degree, we can make yours with 22 degree curves" Surely they mean inch radius, professional model builders? Yeah, right.
I just sold about 20 PR of X2F couplers for more than 20 PR of McHenry Whiskers...I should be ashamed of myself, but if people want this stuff...and I know they do!! I made out like a bandit on my last round. It was my "bottom of the barrel" stuff, all started at $0.99, some of that a little over priced. over 30 auctions, I figure I should have only cleared maybe $30-$60, some of this was really good stuff. The Wiking seimi tractor and trailer, for example, sold for only a little more than a dollar. And the pair of Roco Minaturs Fire engines, a GRAT pair, sold for $2.00. But the rest...geeezus. Hence why I LOVE Ebay. I get the best price for my junk by letting the market dictate my final price. No controls by me the seller, beyond my picture and accurate descriptions, - and barely even that - whatsoever!!
I have some stuff in that category. I am going to try your strategy. I always set minimum bids that were the least amount I wanted to sell stuff at. Most of the time it sold, but many times it only got 1 or 2 bids.
don't know if this is humor,but creative http://cgi.ebay.com/Kato-N-scale-SD...66:2|39:1|72:1205|240:1318|301:1|293:5|294:50
Ummmm...no, not humor...he is selling the engine custom painted into any scheme you want..the pic shows what looks to be a stripped down UP unit ready to be painted out into another scheme..I have considered this auction, but am not wanting to spend 170 right now...few other things to do first...other than that, good eye, keep looking, ebay comedy is everywhere these days..ya never know what will give us the giggles next....
