New(?) eBay buying strategy that seems to be working

[jdds]

If it's a REALLY unusual timeshare, you might get somewhere near asking. What are the listings on redweek saying? (Don't GO by those, but just see what people ask. Realize that a lot of people ask a ton of money and never get it)You're not wrong; MF matter quite a bit and yours are definitely on the lower side. It really depends on how anxious you are to sell. If you want, leave the auction up and see what happens. You may get some lowballers or whatever. Once you're dead serious, put it up as "no reserve", start it at seriously like $1 or $100 or something and let it go. I think we all know that timeshares are not investments, so you look at it as you are off the hook for that $1700 yearly MF.

Sometimes it takes a certain level of maturity and understanding to realize that most (but not all) timeshares are not worth very much. Last year I very much wanted to buy a Marriott property and approached several sellers who were selling what I wanted. None of them could admit that what they said was almost worthless and most were very angry. I doubt any of them sold their properties. Me? I waited and got what I wanted for the price I wanted to pay.

I priced mine lower than the similar listings on here and on redweek. I'm not sure if any of those have sold. I also checked the SVN post on here of past ebay sales in 2008. they were selling for double of what I'm asking. I realize I'm not going to get anywhere near what I paid for it and that is totally okay. I'm going to ride the listing out and see what happens! I think it's all a crapshoot at this point! Thankfully, I'm flexible! I almost hope there is a sniper out there. hehe

 

[garyk01]

Bids

i have placed bids to a amount i thought was fair. I bid it up to a point and quit. Auction ends and low and behold , i get a email saying that i am the new high bidder as the other bidder has cancelled their bid. Do i want it at my previous price ? This could be a scam or the seller has more than one and figures to sell it to me at the price i went to.
Who knows.

 

[jdds]

i have placed bids to a amount i thought was fair. I bid it up to a point and quit. Auction ends and low and behold , i get a email saying that i am the new high bidder as the other bidder has cancelled their bid. Do i want it at my previous price ? This could be a scam or the seller has more than one and figures to sell it to me at the price i went to.
Who knows.

That's a tough one. It's possible that the high bidder was scamming the seller, so once the seller figured it out, he/she decided to turn to you as the second highest. Does the seller have a lot of positive feedback or have they been mentioned on here? I almost hate to automatically dismiss the seller as being a scam just because I'm trying to sell my timeshare on ebay and I have 100% feedback from only 16 transactions, none of them timeshares, so one could take that to be sketchy. You could always ask the seller why the previous backed out as well. GL!

 

[MOXJO7282]

That's a tough one. It's possible that the high bidder was scamming the seller, so once the seller figured it out, he/she decided to turn to you as the second highest. Does the seller have a lot of positive feedback or have they been mentioned on here? I almost hate to automatically dismiss the seller as being a scam just because I'm trying to sell my timeshare on ebay and I have 100% feedback from only 16 transactions, none of them timeshares, so one could take that to be sketchy. You could always ask the seller why the previous backed out as well. GL!

Same thing happened to me and I was happy to take the deal. However in my case I knew the seller to be reputable. In fact he did have two and I ended up buying both from him.

So as recommended, if you can determine the seller is legit and as you said your bid was fair, then consider making the deal if its in your best interest.

 

[kaio]

Snipping isn't recommended by eBay is it? I mean, it is a 3rd party auction tool? What happends if you snipe an auction with no bids and 7 days, and the seller swaps the auction with another ownership [for what ever reason] and you fail to follow up and check the auction, which results in your snipe bid winning the auction? Wouldn't you be at fault as eBay allows edits without any bids, and sniping is not encouraged? just food for thought....

 

[Egret1986]

You do not have to follow through with the transaction

Snipping isn't recommended by eBay is it? I mean, it is a 3rd party auction tool? What happends if you snipe an auction with no bids and 7 days, and the seller swaps the auction with another ownership [for what ever reason] and you fail to follow up and check the auction, which results in your snipe bid winning the auction? Wouldn't you be at fault as eBay allows edits without any bids, and sniping is not encouraged? just food for thought....

I forget the wording, but you are not required to complete the transaction even if you have a winning bid. The seller cannot give you negative feedback. Snipe services may not be recommended; however, they are not against eBay rules.

 

[Dave*H]

What happends if you snipe an auction with no bids and 7 days, and the seller swaps the auction with another ownership [for what ever reason] and you fail to follow up and check the auction, which results in your snipe bid winning the auction?

Never set up a snipe for an auction that has no bids because the seller can change the auction. Once a bid has been placed, the seller can only answer questions. If no one else has bid, bid the minimum amount and then set up the snipe.

 

[kaio]

I forget the wording, but you are not required to complete the transaction even if you have a winning bid. The seller cannot give you negative feedback. Snipe services may not be recommended; however, they are not against eBay rules.

Which would result in an unpaid item case/dispute being opened. And eBay would favor the seller in this scenerio. Dave *H, you are entirely right. I was speaking on experience from a sniping buyer that won an auction that was swapped with another ownership at 6 days left with out any bids, the sniper failed to put an initial bid, nor check up on the auction until after they won, then insisted it is not what they bid on. lol :rofl: Unpaid Item case was ruled in my favor, strike was issued against the Buyer for not paying as there snipe bid was placed at the near close of the auction, 6 days after the auction was changed.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Rick just gave me permission to bid higher on an auction that was closing tomorrow. I had bid some low amounts and was outbid within a few hours, right after I asked questions on the week.

So I kind of knew there was interest in the auction and wanted to ensure my bid would hold until the end by bidding tonight. I lost it to a Buy It Now person, apparently. I am so disappointed to lose this particular week. I was going to pay over $3K for it with closing costs. It's not a Marriott or Starwood or anything like that. It is just a generic resort that we love and already own.

I hope the buyer got a bargain on it, or maybe I don't hope for that. Maybe I hope they paid more than I could talk Rick into paying. I am so sick about it.

 

[jdds]

I'm sorry that you did not get that week. I have been searching eBay over the last week or so for various things and have been getting increasingly frustrated. As I mentioned in another post in this section, I just changed my listing from a "buy it now or best offer" to a traditional auction. No action with that yet and I'm not sure if I should have set a low starting price and a reserve or no reserve and a higher starting price. UGH. Too bad I'm not selling what you are looking for! We would have both won!

 

[PamMo]

Ooooh! I know just how you feel! Sorry you lost it - hopefully you'll find another one and great an even better deal.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I purposefully bid on this one, to let the owner know I wanted the week. It's a PCC seller, and I have purchased others from her. I cannot believe she took a Buy It Now, knowing there was additional interest in the week, an unknown person who might be willing to bid a much higher amount.

It seems a bit nonsensical to end an auction early, with another interested bidder who may have a sniper set for it. I was just going to bid high tonight and hope my bid held up. Shoot!

 

[PamMo]

Cindy, the same thing has happened to me several times with PCC sellers. There is a lot of bidding, but the auction closes early with a private deal on the side. It just drives me nuts! It appears they want a sure thing and don't want to wait the auction out to the end. I guess it sort of makes sense...

If you can't beat them, you might want to adopt their tactics?

 

[NWL]

I purposefully bid on this one, to let the owner know I wanted the week. It's a PCC seller, and I have purchased others from her. I cannot believe she took a Buy It Now, knowing there was additional interest in the week, an unknown person who might be willing to bid a much higher amount.

It seems a bit nonsensical to end an auction early, with another interested bidder who may have a sniper set for it. I was just going to bid high tonight and hope my bid held up. Shoot!

If the auction listing has a "Buy it Now" option, don't play the auction game. Make your best offer and see what the response is. You could even make a low ball offer and keep raising it until the seller says "yes". A listing like this is a way for the seller to get around the "Reserve Auction" fees when they have a certain price in mind.

By the way, was it "Buy It Now" or "Best Offer"? If it was the former, then there should have been a price listed.

Cheers!

 

[rickandcindy23]

It didn't have a Buy It Now option, but the seller sent me an email when I asked a question, saying if I am interested in the auction to call her directly. I guess that meant she was fishing for a high bid and reason to close it early.

Here is part of of the email that should have clued me in:
If you are interested in purchasing this item or another item directly, please contact me at

But on the email, eBay says this: Do not respond to the sender if this message requests that you complete the transaction outside of eBay. This type of offer is against eBay policy, may be fraudulent, and is not covered by buyer protection programs

So I thought this seller might be breaking a rule or something. Then I read the rules tonight, and the seller is perfectly within her right to sell this outside of eBay.

I am just feeling sorry for myself tonight.

 

[NWL]

I am just feeling sorry for myself tonight.

Don't kick yourself for trying to do the right thing. It's a lesson learned , and, as Scarlet said: "Tomorrow is another day!"

Cheers!

 

[Dave*H]

It seems a bit nonsensical to end an auction early, with another interested bidder who may have a sniper set for it.

Sniping really has very little to do with it. For all they know, the high bidder could have bid a million dollars.

 

[jdds]

I came to the conclusion this morning that eBay is just way too frustrating. No matter what I do, I can't predict what will happen. It will either work out really well, or it won't work out at all. I think I'm too much of a control freak for it.

 

[chriskre]

I came to the conclusion this morning that eBay is just way too frustrating. No matter what I do, I can't predict what will happen. It will either work out really well, or it won't work out at all. I think I'm too much of a control freak for it.

I've purchased 5 of my 8 TS's on ebay. Don't get discouraged. You can set up a search for a specific resort and ebay will email you when it becomes available. I've had success with this with a small resort that I wanted another week. It took a few months but I got it. I've also used this to get great deals on rentals.

I've also used the Buy it Now feature when I felt there would be interest in something and I thought it was a fair deal. I didn't want to be like Cindy and be so upset that I lost it. I'm so glad that I did that with one of my weeks because it hardly ever goes to ebay.

I've only been involved in a bidding war twice on ebay and that was before I knew better. Probably paid more than I could have but I've gotten my moneys worth over the years and I've been very happy with what I won.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Chris, I wish that one would have been a Buy It Now. It wasn't. Instead, this seller took an offer from the high bidder, apparently, which stopped me from continuing to bid. I think the seller would have made more money, but I don't know how much the person paid.

I need to let it go. It's making me nuts thinking about it.

 

[PamMo]

What was I thinking?

I feel really stupid. I know better. I've been watching a great spring break week on Sanibel for sale on eBay, knowing it was a perfect fit for our family. The auction was to close in a couple of days. Eight bids on it already, so I thought this auction would go to the end. Nope. Somebody put in an offer that the seller accepted and the auction was closed early. Argh! A reminder to myself: Contact the seller directly if I really want a timeshare listed on eBay!

 

[RX8]

I feel really stupid. I know better. I've been watching a great spring break week on Sanibel for sale on eBay, knowing it was a perfect fit for our family. The auction was to close in a couple of days. Eight bids on it already, so I thought this auction would go to the end. Nope. Somebody put in an offer that the seller accepted and the auction was closed early. Argh! A reminder to myself: contact the seller directly if I really want a timeshare listed on eBay!

I was following one that ended early as well. I e-mailed the seller asking if it was still available (sometimes the auctions close due to listing errors and eventually relisted). It wasn't as he said it was sold outside of eBay (I am sure it was an offer that came in through eBay). I was surprised however that he answered my question as to how much it sold for. This added info gives you a good idea of what to offer the next time this same resort pops up the next time.