I'm no huge ebay veteran, I've bought about 50 items, total, from ebay, but for those that are new to it, do us all a favor and don't start bidding wars and run up the prices when there is more than a half hour left on the auction! I know the sellers like a frenzy and bidding war early on, but as a shopper who is always looking for deals and doesn't want to pay more than I think it's worth, the early birds are driving up the prices. Because of them, certain sellers over at Etsy and others on Ebay are charging hundreds of dollars for regular vintage dresses just because it has a full circle skirt. When I get a free hour or two, I'll write a blog about what my opinion is when determining the price of vintage and what people SHOULD be paying for vintage.
Enough of my rant...I have so much to write, but I'm still waiting on some pics, and have another night of social activities. I'll be blogging about the Time Zone Vintage photo shoot for the website that I styled and co-produced on Sunday, about seeing the Head Cat (picture with Lxxxx) and the Kim Lenz show tonight. Hopefully I'll get it all out here by the weekend.
A Feeble Attempt At Yet Another Blog Comeback
7 years ago
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12 comments:
ugh i totally know what you mean!!
either early bidding wars get on my nerves.. or when you're winning something and then you get a notification TWO SECONDS before it ends ..that you have been outbid. Like you just knoooow that they are sitting in front of their computer counting down the seconds til they can slyly outbid you! grrr. it sucks.
I'm guilty of doing that, but if you have a high enough bid in there, the sniper doesn't have time to keep bidding up. You still get more of a deal if you wait. email me and I'll tell you what I use to beat the snipers. kim@thebombshells.net
I have to say the price of some stuff is just getting out of control! Sometimes I think is it just because I've been buying this stuff for a long time and I remember what I used to pay 20 years ago, but I don't think it is.
I know some vintage dealers and what they charge for really good really rare stuff is what some people are trying to charge on ebay for a cotton dress!
I'm sorry but I blame the new brigade of vintage as fashion types, they have no idea what something is worth and assume if it's vintage it's worth a lot. I don't blame the sellers, why not get the most you can for your item, but it is all getting out of hand.
Sorry guys but im a sniper! I wait until about 12 secs to go then bid in and hope to win! If you dont do it, someone else will. Thats the beauty of broadband ;)
I always set myself a limit though, and once it goes above that I give up. I agree with STM, some vintage things go for silly money.
I'm a sniper too, and that's kind of my point. Don't let the war go on early, but wait until the last couple minutes. The price of vintage will stay in control if everyone did that.
I want to ad that I just can't imagine paying over $100 for something that has a flaw in it. Am I cheap?
I totally agree! I have seen so many high-priced, I mean crazy-priced items on Etsy! I can't keep up! I have seen listings for 300.00 USD dresses that are basically USED clothes! I have my limit too and I try to stick to it but I will not pay hundreds of dollars for vintage just because I "have to have it!"
I totally agree and I am a sniper as well. I really wish everyone was a sniper then the item would go to whoever wanted it the most and it would be more reasonable then driving the price up early on. Just yesterday I tried to snipe 3 cotton dresses that all went for over $70. I REFUSE to pay more than $50 for cotton so naturally my high bid was not enough and some gal, somewhere that wanted that cotton dress so badly, paid the high price. Seems fair to me.
I will pay over $50 and even more, if the dress is pretty special, but you are right, those dresses weren't so special. I do know that rare sized vintage often will sell high just because it's hard to find those sizes. That was what happened with those cotton dresses. They were a big size (you were looking for dresses you could alter for maternity dresses) and it is so rare for there to be vintage 40s in sizes like that, I can imagine they were worth a lot to the girl who can wear them without being pregnant. Size is a big factor in determining the price of vintage, I believe.
I use "Just Snipe", the sniping website. You simply sign up and it links to your ebay account. Enter the item number and how much you want to pay for it and the site does the sniping for you. It will enter your bid in the last 5 seconds of the auction and you don't even have to be there to see the auction end. It pretty much works every time AND you don't get caught up in the bidding and end up paying a lot more than you wanted to. You "set it and forget it"!
You can pay for a membership where you get unlimited snipes per month or just sign up and you get 5 free per week. It's a no brainer.
Yes yes yes! I've noticed this also!! I use esnipe to avoid raising the price. Drives me BATTY when something is listed and within an hour it's gone up to $100 unnecessarily! I shop mostly on Etsy now because I like buying not bidding :P I'm greedy :D
I find so much on Etsy gets overpriced or I see stuff that I know sold on Ebay the week before now on Etsy for triple the cost, and it's not even a special collector piece.
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