Ebay is so frustrating

[sablebrush52]

Hi Nate,
All of that is true, but there is a wrinkle to it and when I say this it won't be a popular sentiment. A lot of collectors wouldn't know a fake if they bought one. We get blinded by our enthusiasm. That Nordh that I mentioned was spotted by a number of members here and it was an obvious and clumsy fake. Ugly shape, ugly grain, cracks, misaligned stampings all visible in the pictures, yet somebody plunked down $8300 for it, absolutely sure that they bought the real goods.
Nor would a lot of collectors spot questionable attributes on an estate up for sale, like, say, an unmentioned replacement stem or a stem that has been doctored - something that I see quite a lot. And not all sellers are really expert on all of the pipes that they move, including reputable ones. One could hardly expect them to be. Sellers get duped as well.
Pulver wrote an article a couple of months back on restorations that are so complete that the pipes pass for unsmoked or even new. I'm pretty sure that one of those, a Barling bulldog, just sold on eBay for a pretty good sum. It's listed as unsmoked, yet the stem logo is almost completely buffed off as are the stamps. And the only reason that I'm not sure that it's a reconditioned pipe is that there wasn't a good shot of the chamber and there's a telltale I look for in the chamber walls of "unsmoked" Barlings. Someone plunked down a grand for this pipe without having a good view of the chamber.
By and large buying on eBay is a refined and safe experience. But there's a reason why fakes began popping up on eBay in the past few years. There's money in them thar ultra high grades. Regardless from whom you buy, buy with your eyes open.

 

[xrundog]

xrundog, Which snipe service/app do you use? I only recently became aware of these. Like sablebrush52, I think sniping has less utility than in the past, but I still see a couple of benefits.

I've been using auctionsniper.com for a long time.

 

[grizz]

I feel your pain ebay has always been frustrating for me also. Maybe it just wasnt ment to be. I did luck out the other day and grab a David Jones poker though. Better luck next time.

 

[daveinlax]

If that's the case why is an addon needed???

It bids in the last second not giving other bidders another chance to up you and preventing a slow connection or other computer issues from preventing your last second manual bid from getting through. 8O

 

[sablebrush52]

Hi Booker,
The theory is that early bidding drives the price higher than it would be if everyone waited until the end. People get into bidding wars which push the price up, something that theoretically wouldn't happen if everybody sniped.
Years ago there may have been more validity to it, but today, so many fire off a bid at the end that the result is largely the same as early bidding anyway. Instead of a bidding war that goes over hours or days, it's a shootout in the last few seconds. I've seen auctions where as many as a dozen watchers fire in the last half a minute. Since so many snipe, some snipers figure that the only way to win is to put in a high bid.
Sometimes sniping causes the opposite result because two snipers, aware that others are waiting to pounce, decide that they're going to put in an extremely high bid to ensure winning the auction and you see sniper collision and death in the ionosphere.
It's pretty entertaining.
One of my favorite examples happened a couple of years ago when two snipers collided at over $2300 on an 8 dot Sasieni that should have gone for about $800 tops. It was at about $420 a couple of seconds before these geniuses dropped their bombs. I later contacted the seller to congratulate him and he said that he was still in shock.
Happens a lot.
There are a number of apparently very wealthy bidders who put in a high early bid and don't care what it costs. So glad that I bought what I bought when I bought it.

 

[peteguy]

I find that I rarely win on ebay anymore. As my eye has leaned towards better pipes my pocketbook hasn't followed. ebay pipe sellers are on a hot streak right now as the interest in the hobby climbs. I don't know if it will get as high has cigars did in the late 80's early 90's but prices are moving up on the nicer pipes on ebay.

 

[buckaroo]

Just need to plan a bit more. How much do I want this and how much am I willing?

 

[rx2man]

Its funny how the whole ebay thing works. I have stuff I am watching and see it go for cheap and think I should have placed a bid......but then realise it does not matter as I probably would not have got it for that low of a price as now I am bidding against the winner and do not know his max bid. So while I would have been happy getting it for the winning bid it does not mean I would have "won" it for that price. Lucky for me I am not bidding on pipes in Sables world and am happy with my $30 Kaywoodie flame grain.

 

[ssjones]

Newbie nails it, by my experience. Even if you use a sniping tool, if your max snipe bid wasn't enough, you still lose. That's the way it goes on Ebay. If I really don't want to lose, a crazy high last second bid or snipe is a good way to ensure victory, but it's a big risk (ie putting in a $600 max bid on a pipe that might to $300). The question is, do you want it that badly to risk paying twice the value if some other fool drives it up that high?

I am sorry to hear of your loss but the problem is not really that you were sniped but that you just didn't want it bad enough to put in a strong enough bid to win the auction. The winning bidder could have put in his sniping bid days ago and he was just willing to pay more for it. Nothing more and nothing less than somebody wanted it more than you did. Yes it is frustrating and aggravating to lose it from your grasp in the last seconds but somebody just wanted it more. Once again sorry for your loss.

 

[allan]

I enjoy ebay. I love looking at available pipes, watching the bidding process and partaking now and again. The thrill of the last few minutes, watching the clock tick down and wondering if your max bid will do the job.
As others have mentioned, some folks absolutely want the item without regard to price, and you cannot know. In the beginning when I lost a bid by the next increment, say 5.00 or so, I would think, gee, if I only bid 10.00 more bucks. But of course, that is not the case at all. The buyer could have been 100.00 or more prepared.
As exciting as I find ebay, a real auction is very tense. Fifteen years ago I went to a local auction because I needed a very large jewelry safe, a high rated English brand that didn't have UL ratings (TRTL 30 x 6 or 60 x 6) but my insurance company said to get it no matter what. It was that good.
The room was crowded (it was a jewelry store auction going out of business, so the public was there along with dealers) and when the safe came on for bidding, quickly only a few of us were involved.
I never knew that I could sweat that much standing still. It was me and one other guy. His bid, 6,000. My bid, 6500. Back and forth to 8,000 when I realized that I could purchase an Israeli safe ISM for about the same money and I let it go.
Afterward, I talked to the winner and found out he was willing to go above ten grand, and all I did was raise the price for him. Hey, that's the way it goes.
I ended up with a fantastic safe from a buddy of mine who had several, spent about the same, and it worked out in the end.
But, the tension, the excitement!
It is a thrill, but my heart can't take it. LOL

 

[wyfbane]

I love ebay. I get quite a few pipes there. It is a lot less stressful to pipe hunt on ebay than watch my Seahawks shit away a 2nd Superbowl win. Lol

 

[brudnod]

I don't use snipe very often but when I do it is when I really want the pipe and know that if I kept up with the bidding I would probably go WAY beyond my limit. Put in a healthy bid, as has been suggested, and forget about it. You get it, GREAT! You don't, well that was beyond your limit. Simple if not painful sometimes...