Never impulse buy

synergy said:

This is probably straight forward advice but I've found my best strategy on eBay is to to decide how much I'm willing to pay for something- bid that and then walk away. eBay will do it all for me and let me know the outcome.

This means I'm never in a bidding war with anyone and pay too much

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I'm going a bit off-topic here, but I'll bring it back...

I agree that you should decide how much you are willing to spend, and then stick to that. However, I always wait until the last few seconds of an auction to bid.

If you bid early what happens is this: other people bid, and are told they were outbid. So they bid again and again until their bid finally tops yours. Or they give up if it's getting too high for them. But the result is that the price of the item gets driven up higher than it might be otherwise. Early bidding is great if you are the selller, but bad for a buyer.

If you wait until the final seconds, you don't show your cards. No one knows how much you have decided to spend. The price hasn't been prematurely driven up, and you can see if it's likely you can win, or if you're already priced out. Everyone is feeling pretty sure about how the auction will finish, then in the last few seconds, I swoop in with my bid and steal it away.

The only time I ever lost an auction is when I've accidentally clicked the wrong link, gone to some other page entirely, and missed bidding in time. And that's only happened once.

Now that I've given my secret away, I hope I don't come up against any of you in an ebay auction anytime soon!

Just a couple of weeks ago, I had my eyes opened about store pricing. I went to my local Sam Ash with a bit of cash, and a Paiste Signature to trade in, for which I wanted to get a Paiste 2002 22" ride in return. I got into a long discussion with the manager about how little they were willing to give me for my mint condition Signature, and the bottom line amount I wanted to spend. As I was leaving he said that classic line: "What can I do to make this deal today?"

Long story short, it turned out that even though he was limited as to what he can pay out for used gear, he had a ton on leeway on the sale price of the 2002. I gave him a price I'd seen on the internet, and he beat it.

In the past I've gone into Sam Ash and GC and just given them the asking price. From now on, I'm gonna bargain!

criz p. critter said:

..........I gave him a price I'd seen on the internet, and he beat it.

In the past I've gone into Sam Ash and GC and just given them the asking price. From now on, I'm gonna bargain!

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I've tried that very unsuccessfully with Sam Ash and GC. But, I am glad it worked for you though. Normally the higher the ticket price, the more room for bargaining there is. At least that is rule I heard years ago.

evolving_machine said:

I've tried that very unsuccessfully with Sam Ash and GC. But, I am glad it worked for you though. Normally the higher the ticket price, the more room for bargaining there is. At least that is rule I heard years ago.

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Maybe the manager was in a more-than-usually flexible mood because it was right before Christmas and he needed to move a lot of gear. Or maybe because they gave me a kinda low price for my trade-in. Whatever. I walked away a happy man. I will try the bargaining again next time. Can't hurt.

I took my own advise and drove many of the stores crazy. I got the best price and best customer service. I purchased a new Pearl MCX 924XP/C, color 259.