You're right on all counts Tom. However, many times there are good buys to
be had on EBay. I already know going in what I'm willing to pay, but I
*never* bid until the last 10 seconds of an auction. Why start a bidding war
when there's 5 day left? I put in my maximum bid, and when there's 10 secs
or so left, I hit confirm. Usually, no actually every time, I've won the
item for less than my max (if I win). The trick is to have two windows open.
One listing the auction, that you can refresh to get the time left, and the
other, your bid window with the confirm button.

Some sites (non-ebay) don't allow this (like for some sporting events), and
if someone places a bid with less than xx seconds left, the auction is
extended for 5 more minutes. Sellers on ebay would love that, but buyers
would rebell.

--Mike

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 5 Dec 2007 19:47:12 -0800, "Mike" wrote:

They say it's not by stealing usernames and passwords, there's another
method... wouldn't elaborate (I don't blame them). I changed my password
anyway. ;-)

There are lots of scams on eBay and I've been a "victim" in the sense
that I was out bid, then asked if I wanted to buy after the "winner"
backed out. It works like this - you put some items up for sale, get
some of your friends to bid, use different computers yourself to get
the bid up under false names and drive the bid price up.

I know this happens because I had somebody tell me that's how she does
it for glass jewerly materials and her own creations.

Not everybody scammed by having their accounts taken over is stupid
and phished - there has to be a hole in the system in more than one
place.

I gave up on eBay after bidding on some of the deep blue Ande fishing
line I like to use. When the price went past what I can get a 1,000
yard spool for from Cabela's or Bass Pro by a few dollars, I noticed
it was all the same bidders. Then I watched the next sale on the same
stuff and it was all the same bidders pushing the price up.

It's all a scam and as an "auction" site, it ain't what it used to be.