I can't be the only person who was inspired by Ryan Davis' Bombcast talk of Super Famicom lots. Since that aired, I've been trolling ebay for good Super Famicom lots. And I have seen some terrible bidding practices from other people. I won't claim to be a "power user" whatever the hell that means. But I like to think I know a couple things.
- Losing is fine - If you go in to an auction with the mindset of having to win. You are doing it wrong. It's a sale, not a shooting gallery at the fair. Winning doesn't make you better, losing does not make you less of a woman/man. Losing means you weren't willing to overpay.
- There is always another auction - anything worth buying will get listed over and over. Do you actually need a pile of Super Famicom horse racing games right now?
- Lots of bids means it's likely overpriced - if you have 3 people pulling out all the stops to win, it is too expensive. Unless there really is something in the lot worth tons, a bid war helps nobody.
- Bid once - Ebay only moves the price up to a small increment over the previous bid. So if the bid is $2 and you bid $4000, it only moves to $3. Know what you are willing to pay before you bid. Time after time, I look at the bid history and see people trade bids back and forth, or somebody keeps upping theirs by $1 over and over.
- Bid late - Preferably as late as possible. More time just gives people more options to bid and raise the price. If you have a fast connection and can be online when it ends, sniping is the way to bid. I try to never bid if more than 10 seconds remain on the clock. If you can't be there when it ends, by all means bid in advance.
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