Except for what I did with my maximum bid, I will now lay out a sequence of how to bid successfully on eBay and get what you want virtually every time! This will be done pictorially with short blurbs.

Case #2 - As Before, Without the Funny Stuff

I found this Game Boy Zelda game! I did the research on the seller by looking at the feedback. All's good here! Has a 99.8% - one negative feedback - the item arrived after the estimated shipping time! It wasn't the seller's fault! This is a Buy-It-Now offer, $29.94 with free shipping! Notice there are 2 watching (and I was wrong. it's not in red letters.)

Great :)

Then I Found This...

As you can see, very same items being offered here. When I first found it, there was 18 hours left. I decided to wait it out, did research on seller, etc. I looked, even though it is 100% because the seller is new at this being (28.) It is $15 plus shipping of a little over $2. There had been no bids up to this point (2 minutes, 58 seconds left.) Nobody is watching, At this point, most people are working in the US, which accounts for the lack of bids. Under a minute left, I placed my bid but did not confirm it yet...

At 5 seconds Left, I Confirmed My Bid...

Notice I only bidded the $27.42. This is the price of the Buy-It-Now listing above minus the $2.62 to compensate for the shipping in this auction. Make sense?

Also notice there are now 2 bids! There was someone else doing what I did - sniping and lurking in the background, ready to strike...

One more thing here... Notice where it says "Really want to win? Try raising your high bid amount." That's eBay playing on your emotions! Don't fall for it.

Well I outbid the other bidder. Here's the outcome...

Success!

Here's a bidder that just started, however he did one thing right! He decided to do it in the stealth mode like me and waited to the last second to place and confirm his bid! He too, was aware of sniping to get what he wants!

The only thing he did wrong was not consider that there may have been someone else lurking in the background (muahaha!) and placed the minimum bid!

I more than adequately outbidded him (or her!)

What I Paid for This Auction...

I paid less than the maximum bid I had placed. I'm a happy camper! This also covers the stupid thing I did in the first case and came out of it with a few extra dollars!

Final Thoughts

This isn't about online marketing, websites, campaigns, etc, but many of the same concepts apply.

• You must learn the ropes to get good at something.
• Business is no place to be playing games or being foolish in any way.
• However it doesn't mean you can't have fun and love what you do!

I hope you enjoyed my Resource and that the advice in it helps you when purchasing (or selling) on eBay. eBay is one of my most favourite places to shop and I have always enjoyed video games. I wish I had more time to play them, but I rarely do and most of my fun comes in collecting what I do love in gaming - RPG (role-playing games.)

Feel free to comment and "like" if you found this helpful, entertaining or just plain liked it!

Thanks for reading!

Daniel