Idiot bidder :(
I posted a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet on eBay and it sold for £156.99, the bidder has 100% feedback so I thought great .. some extra pennies for the holiday budget.
I sent the buyer an invoice through PayPal but got no response so after 2 days I sent him a message asking if he still wanted it or should I relist it.
So at 23:22 I got a his reply, I couldn't be arsed replying as it was late .. so I went to bed .. this morning I check my email and there's another 10 emails from the guy!
First email
Hi,
Sorry, not been able to get to the bank in time which is in another town (the top half of a tree crashing down across the front door hasn't helped), I'll be there and back by 3.30 tomorrow though.
However, if you would like to re-list the item (I think you should), that will be OK with me as I don't have any particular need for the item, I only bid knowing I was likely to get it at below market value, which of course I did.
The reason it went for up to £60+ below market value is because you listed incorrectly for maximum exposure. As you know the Intuos 4 range of tablets are highly sought after & graphic artists usually won't settle for less from what I can make out. This means there is always a group of people trying to get one at a reasonable price, which of course tends to push the price up to the extremes on occasion. What happens is they save a search which has been filtered to exclude graphic tablets of different brands, suppliers from other countries, other Wacom tablets that are not the 'Intuos 4' series, and so on. Unfortunately the eBay search system is irritatingly too specific (which is the problem your listing encountered)& the filters are far too aggressive to use for the most part without filtering out much of what is actually wanted.
Almost every search/saved search for these tablets will be 'intuos 4', 'wacom intuos 4', with or without the size i.e. 'medium' on the end. Due to the specific nature of the eBay search tool, your listing did not appear in the results of any such search!, meaning anyone specifically searching for an 'Intuos 4' of any size would not have seen your listing!.... without the '4' (even the 4 in PTK-640 does not help) it was doomed. A Google search would not be so fussy, it would just show 'intuos 4' results generally higher on the list... not leave them out all together like an eBay search will.
******RUN OUT OF SPACE, WILL FINISH IN NEXT MESSAGE******
Next email
CONTINUED: The early bidders that did stumble upon your listing were just looking for a cheap graphics tablet, the 6 late bidders, including me, in the last 15 seconds, were just taking advantage of the situation, hoping that by keeping quiet no one would get spooked & put a large bid in at market value or above.... ruining any hope of grabbing a bargain that they could resell at a profit or at the very least break even with or sell on another site with lower fees as a 'buy it now' for a profit. Because it was unlikely that anyone that seriously wanted one of these tablets would be in on the bidding due to their regular search terms not revealing your listing, I guessed that the top bid under the circumstances would be no more than say £155.77 & just needed to top that by a small amount to win it, but of course that figure & my top bid were below the going rate. It's nice to know I was right about everything & didn't need to cheat by slapping an above market value bid on to win it for sure. I get a thrill out of judging what's going on in the head of other bidders & beating them by a gnats whisker. Under the same circumstances, it is of course though a lot more fun to find something you actually do need to get & It's great putting a bid on in the last few seconds at the lower end of it's market value & winning because two bidders insist on playing cat & mouse with each other instead of just bidding what they are prepared to pay. Worse thing to encounter, which unfortunately happens most of the time, is two determined bidders that obviously have no idea of the cheapest new price for the item they are bidding on (pockets loaded & only 2 minutes of checking prices), they in fact completely ruin the auction for everyone by bidding far too much, effectively killing the chance of a good deal for a sensible bidder.
******NO SPACE AGAIN... To be continued!...******
Next email
CONTINUED... a bit more!: I've got a folder loaded with things that sold very close to the lowest new price obtainable (not counting the fake con merchant prices out there), or indeed have sold for more than the new price!!, in fact the 'Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch - Small' is one of the worst offenders, the old version can be got for £45 & the new for £50+P&P (most people won't be aware that the eraser function has been removed from the new small version... so not a good deal & will catch many out), but they ALWAYS sell on eBay for between £37-£55+ used, I got an opened but unused one myself for £15+£5 P&P BIN!, I had opened my saved search for tablets that included them in order to update my watch list with any newly listed... & there it was!, the last thing to be listed in the last hour, way below market value, so snapped it up straight away!... nice... that was about 6-7 weeks ago & I still have yet to plug it in!. I got a new PC in Sep'10 (still not used), & just weeks ago I won a used recent self build PC... which is still in the box!!, couldn't resist though, it's got a six core processor that alone sells for £130, I judged correctly where the cat & mouse game would take the bidding to in the time & only bid less than £2 extra (I guess I was really hoping I'd just miss considering I didn't need another one... I'm still using a 17.4" laptop)... I beat the top bidder by 27 pence!!!, he probably stared at the screen for 2 hours shaking his head & chanting 27p...27PEEEE!. Work out the price at which the good deal will start to become a bad deal, then bung a little extra on to beat the others that do the same, bid that amount at 6-7 seconds to go (allows for network lag, but allows no time for others to react), you win at a OK price, or with luck get an unexpected bargain... or you lose because the bidding exceeds an acceptable level, no point in doing it any other way. I have to bail out of most auctions before they end due to others overbidding too early
Next email
Wow that was another 2000 characters?!.
There is some software (yet to compare it to any others of its type) that I plan to get, which allows you to set it to alert you when something is listed as a 'buy it now' item at below the market value, meaning you get it before anyone knows it's there!, I was lucky with that 'Bamboo' tablet, but it makes one wonder about how many of those type of bargains I must miss. If I was to research enough products to determine the guaranteed minimum they would sell for, I could possibly live off the resell profits!. The tricky thing is finding products who's market value isn't depreciating all the time due to new models being churned out, or older products that have proven to hold their value or even increase in value over time.
My dad took me inside a second hand shop when I was young, it was like walking into Aladdin's cave, since tat day I always dreamed of having my own second hand shop... but of course the charity shops, eBay, franchise second hand shops, & cheap Chinese versions for almost anything you could possibly need, have killed the dream. Still, it seems there is room for one more guy on eBay selling Chinese goods (so I may well do that soon), some products sell like hot cakes... even if they're not the lowest price on eBay or elsewhere. Not quite the same thing but then second hand shops were never great for making a living, so probably a good thing that I never got into it.
Anyway, as I say, I'm quite happy for you to re-list & go for the jackpot, it would be nice to see it make £200+ & I've had my fun which is what it's all about for me, besides it'll give me some more ammo to fire at my next target!, lol. I've got my eye on the large version with a misspelling error, that normally sells for a good £280+ but I doubt this one will, I've not checked to see if they normally bid on this type of thing or if they bid small on multiple items trying to grab a bargain which would give me a better idea of how it will go,
Next email
CONTINUED EVEN MORE...thought that last one would nail it!, never mind.
Forgot where I was...so anyway, if I do manage to get the large one (as things look at the moment, I reckon I will if I don't nod off before the finale), I'll now have 3 tablets in total, not used a mouse before & can't see any good reason to, but I'm guessing the large tablet would be better for a large screen...assuming I ever get round to setting these PC's up!. So you see i'll probably just pile it up with half the other things I've bought & never used, with some idea about selling it all off on eBay one day. I bought a 'Sony Cybershot DSC TX-100' camera off eBay recently & I'm waiting for a near impossible to find LCD display charger to arrive from China, when that gets here the idea is to photograph all this stuff & start selling, preferably faster than I'm buying!...I dread to think how I'm going to tackle over 5000 LP's (that I'm supposed to play, find the best tracks & turn them into MP3 first!)...The stress of worrying about such an immense task will probably finish me off before I even get started!, then they'll all get thrown on a skip or dumped outside a charity shop...horrible thought. I bought a twin CD recorder...not even plugged it in, probably don't even need it what with having 3 computers that I dare say can do the same job just as well.
So let me know if you want to play for big money or not at some point tomorrow, but remember to change the title to...Wacom INTUOS 4 Medium PTK-640 Pen Multi Touch USB PC Mac Software Graphics Tablet, anything after PTK-640 is not so important especially "Graphics Tablet" because you will be placing it in that section plus people know what they looking at before reading that far. "INTUOS" should be in capitals as that will be the keyword they look for if quickly scanning an unfiltered list for items ending soon. The "4" MUST be included because it is always used when searching for these tablets & it won't show up without it.Bye,nospace!
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(you should copy & paste some exciting details of the product for this purpose), they may have little time to find out if they really do indeed want it or find the magic rock bottom price, that would prevent them from taking all the way to the end. I've seen a lot of new eBayers win auctions because partly they just want to win at any cost the great gadget they stumbled upon 10 minutes beforehand, but mostly I think they just haven't got a clue about the real market value used or new because they haven't got enough time to look into it. They can be quite annoying in an auction as they are all too often prone to bidding way beyond the norm. I watched an auction I had bailed out of, the new guy had 1 or 2 stars & was out bidding the guy with 400+ stars every time, then the new guy put a big chunk on, the other guy was obviously irritated that the noob hadn't done his research on the new price, & so he methodically added small odd sums until he located what was his.....
Next email
Oh well, in for a penny......I think my one fingered typing speed is improving here!...I may even try two, one of these days.
Although related, the other words are unnecessary for the tablet itself, but they will act as extra keywords that will possibly gain you a few extra bidders. Many people new to eBay/graphics tablets/Wacom products, will be searching for other computer bits & bobs. If someone searches for "usb" to see what all the latest gizmos are that can be powered by simply plugging in to to a USB socket... your tablet will be in their list of search results....they may like what they see, after all it's got more shazam than a bendy LED light, fan, or cup warmer. Same if someone is doing a curious general search for "software", up pops your tablet & suddenly you have bidder that only just found out they want an Intuos 4. It can be a good thing to reel a bidder in this way because if they decide from your description that this is a must have gizmo
Next email
maximum bid & then stopped!, LOL, OK 1 more.
I must admit I did that myself when some guy was buying up every one of the exact same hard drive that a seller had a number of, I was looking to get a couple but he wanted the lot it seemed, & at a price I wasn't happy with... the same amount every time... so I pushed him to his max on every one hoping to teach him a lesson, I mean honestly, if you've got enough cash to pay silly money for something second hand, why not buy new & let those that are on a budget pick up a bargain?, he must have thought the auctions were rigged!, lol.
This PM box is 1/2 the size, & what with all that copy & pasting
I've forgotten what my last word was going to be...oh got it, I think the idea that Sunday is the best time to finish an auction is wrong, more sellers listing than people buying if you ask me. Thursday, Tuesday or Wednesday just after 7.30pm or 8pm during the TV ad breaks is the toughest time for a bargain...so the best time to sell.Regards Pete
Next email
Done right you can expect to get up to £220 for it. It depends mainly on how many other items of the same are close behind yours & if they say things like immaculate or pristine etc., which usually helps get top dollar. With a sought after item like this it's best to check out the competition, then pick your moment for a 3 day auction, this helps ensure there is no tough competition on your tail, the majority of bidders will find an item in the last 48 hours, it also means that once found they have less time to check what the competition has to offer & less time to change their mind about wanting it. 7 & 10+ day sales are fine for things that don't sell easy, they need to be out there for a while to find a buyer. For things that sell like hot cakes, 3 days is plenty, in fact quite often a 1 day sale will achieve just as good a price as you can expect for such things, but I would not recommend it...24 hours is a tad risky coz not all regular searchers will search every day.THE END!
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Look at the activity on this one & compare to yours...huge difference in what is happening. They are ending the sale at a very dodgy time of the day though, so the working guys with the money won't be around for the finish which can put a big dent in the final selling price, not necessarily though....a couple of them could be off work with the flu!!.
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Here it is (think I forgot to paste it):
http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI...m=160729835161
If for some reason you can't get to it using this, just search for intuos 4 & choose time ending soonest, should see a fuzzy pic of it near the top with over 30 bids on it as I recall. Click on "Bids" near the price to see the bidding activity there are currently 17 different bidders!.
End
Is this guy on crack or what????
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Re: Idiot bidder :(
Originally Posted by AspectUK
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