I had no idea how addicting eBay can become. I posted my first item for a 3 day auction, thinking I could cash in with the last minute Christmas shoppers. The trouble with eBay is you put your item out there in the eBay universe, but you don't get automatic bid notifications to your email, so you slavishly check your account every few hours. After you get one bid, you now feel you must check more often--every hour, every half hour?
Here's my chronology:
Friday 11pm - listed item after much debate about starting price $350 and reserve price $400 (minimum I would accept that is not visible to bidders)
Saturday 8am - listing not showing in search yet. eBay had said it might take a while, but, hey, this is only a 3 day auction. I'm losing valuable customers! Panicking...
Saturday noon-- up and running. Picture of item looks good. No bids.
Saturday 3PM--just noticed I had 2 messages--oops, one from Friday. Pepe and Jac each want to know if I'll end the auction early if they guarantee $430. I didn't know I could do that. Call eBay to find out and get a complicated set of instructions where I have to cancel this listing and re-post another with a Buy It Now price. But if i do that and they don't respond, then I'm stuck with the higher price. I re-read the messages.--both reflect either careless typing or not-English speakers. Hmm...and why are they so anxious to end it? Can't we just play by the rules, people, it's only 3 days. they can tell I'm a newby (0) next to my name for completed transactions. Am I being played?
Saturday 3:30 I check out the other listings and actually write down the name codes for the 20 people bidding, cross check with all the listings. u...r is a player- 4 bids; p..a with 3. But I don't see P...e for Pepe. hmm?
Saturday 5:30 FIRST BID at starting price. Hooray! Message appears under product description :Reserve not met." What's the effect here? Would it have been better to list a lower minimum? Worry, worry.
Saturday 9:47 pm 2 more bids so we're up to $380.
Sunday AM -- no new bids. trip into NYC to see Rockefeller Center tree and Met museum. Nice day, but I'm anxious to return to my auction. Crazy, I know.
Sunday 3pm - 3 other auctions ending over the next few hours; a friend who's an eBay whiz explains how i can check the final sale amounts:
Am i getting greedy now? I just want to get rid of this item!
Sunday 3:41pm $395 bid from Pepe but still below my minimum. Flurry of messages from Pepe, but I'm holding firm. Watch a round of Texas hold 'em on TV for inspiration. No Pepe, I am not "all in" yet! What ever happened to Jac?--no more messages; she faded away.
Sunday 11 pm Final message from Pepe: "I respect your position. Good luck, my friend." Now I feel like it's a High Noon standoff. "I've got to, that's the whole thing." I reply, Gary Cooper-like.
That night I toss and turn wondering if I should lower my reserve price. I want this sale to go through and unless the miminum is met, there is no sale.
Monday 8 am. (you'll notice I'm getting up a lot earlier now--no sleeping in until 9:30--the excitement of the hunt!)
At last! New bidder Panama comes through with a $400 bid. Whew! someone is going home with this baby, even if it's not Pepe.
Monday 8:30 I check the other sellers--exact same item and they've got bids of $450? What?!
My pageviews are up--50 people have read the ad or does that include the 33 times I've checked on it myself? Hard to tell.
Monday 10 am - must get dressed, wrap presents, go grocery shopping. I bet there's an eBay mobile app--There has to be! Resist temptation. One last check and then wonder briefly about approaching the 12 hour deadline. Seems to be a watershed in eBay world. Lots of rules for before 12 hours and after 12 hours, but I'm confident I have my $400. To the A&P!
Monday 2:40 pm Woo, baby. the bids starting coming in...$420,450,460,470,480, and finally at 10:00 pm- top bidder-- $485! "Gary, this is so much fun!" I yell into the family room.
Monday 11:00pm Uh-oh. trouble on the horizon. Just out of curiosity, I checked the top bidder's address on Google maps and then the USPS--does not exist. Then an email message from him: would I consider sending the blackberry to West Africa because it was a gift to his cousin. He'd do it himself but he was currently in Belize. (both missionaries-praise the Lord). The dreaded Nigerian scam. I called eBay and they advised me to cancel the sale. Knew it was bad when the bidder ended his first message with God Bless.
Monday 11:30 pm So...back to scratch? Not quite. There's an option in eBay where you can then send a Second Chance Offer to your highest bidders to consider. But it's painstaking--you send it one at a time and give the buyer 24 hours to decide. Back to checking every half hour!
Tuesday 9:00am eBay had said I should send the 2nd chances one at a time, but now I'm getting sick of this. Found out I can just blast it to everyone (but not Pepe -- for now. Not sure I want to give him the satisfaction that he won after all)
Tuesday 9:15 am An M10 Security message from eBay---sounds like Judi Dench in James Bond. Or was she just M? Someone I messaged with had hacked into an account--but I can't tell which one. Presumably it was David the Missionary, but what about Pepe? Did he hack a legit user,too? This place is way too corrupt for me! Gee, it's like real life. As I always told my kids, if it looks too good, it's a scam!
Tuesday 6 pm No offers. I don't understand this. I double checked the other auctions and Johnny and Alexis were still bidding yesterday. They should jump at my offer! This is not so fun any more. I guess my addiction was short-lived after all. A careless fling.
Tuesday 7pm A new Security message from eBay--upgraded to an M67. Yes, David the missionary is confirmed as a bad guy and eBay then deleted all my listing information and 2nd chances. I'm setting a record for calling eBay customer service. Third time is a charm? Very helpful guy answers my questions, although we have to repeat many things, starting with the spelling of my name. "F as in Fwank," he says."No, I reply patiently, "Eth as in tham--I mean, S as in Sam." Got to hand it to eBay for being an equal opportunity employer. Speech impediment? No problem--we'll put you on the phone! As it turned out, I had no recourse but to re-list, but now it seemed a drag. I'd gotten no replies to my reduced offers on the 2nd chance, so I lowballed this listing. Sigh... I just want to get some money before eBay sends me another message--maybe it would be an M80 at this point.
Tuesday 9:02 pm Annoyingly had to eat dinner and go pick up the car--Gary just doesn't understand the commitment of an eBay-er! Listed the new offering.
Tuesday 9:04 pm Saeed went for the Buy it now price, so I could dispense with the auction. 2 minute response, so I guess I really did low ball it.
Tuesday 9:13pm Message from "wetrustinGod" -- do you have any more of these?!! Definitely underpriced it, but what is with these guys invoking the Almighty? The God-guarantee is stronger than the eBay or PayPal buyer/seller protection.
Wedneday 9:00 am Package is gone, money in the bank. Hooray! Don't know how soon I'll be venturing back into eBay country...
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