I always favor buying items that have a set price because I usually just want to have the product and pay for it and not have to be bothered with monitoring my purchase in terms of bids, and also I don't think I get to save that much anyway as the last price usually comes very close to retail price by the time the bidding period is over. However, since it is still a very popular method until this day, I can't help but think I am missing out on something and it makes me want to look at bidding as an option again. Anyone here who are veteran or amateur bidders? Would you care to share some of your tips or some of your favored bidding sites? Do you favor bidding over paying the set regular price in online shops such as eBay?
Yes, I like to bid here and there. When I was still living in the country I used to go to the farmer's market on weekends where you could bid on all kinds of things, mostly tools and household equipment. Once I was lucky to buy a small trailer for a real bargain price, as it was raining very hard on that day, and the seller just had to get rid of it. I was the only bidder.
Yeah I like to bid. Sometimes you can get the item real cheap if you are the only bidder. Sometimes it's worth it to bid on electronic items especially if you're already online everyday, because you can monitor the activity. I actually have won a brand new phone like 2 weeks ago and I got to save a substantial amount on the original price.
As an eBay seller, I can tell you that sometimes people get things for extremely cheap prices when the seller sets the minimum bid low and there is only one bidder. I've heard stories of other sellers who started the bidding at $1 and had to sell the item for $1 because only one person bid.
So bidding is bad for the sellers at times. But apparently they aren't as crafty as sellers on other sites. They make fake bids [as buyers] raise the price of the items and sell it to any sucker who'll fall for that. It's those kinds of disgusting things [some sellers dabble in] that make me avoid doing any bidding because you could easily get scammed.
Ebay is about the only online place that I do bid. I have gotten some really good deals that way but have also many times chosen to buy something at the "buy it now" price. It just depends, I guess. If it's something I like but don't have to have bidding can be fun. You know, you say, "Well, I'm going to bid this much and only this much and I probably won't get it but...," then you put in your max bid and forget about it only to be pleasantly surprised later when you actually get the item for your seemingly paltry bid.
