Wednesday, January 10, 2007
ebay
There are many coupons floating on ebay, such as 30 off 150 STAPLES coupons. However, I had never considered buying any. I am an old-fashioned guy who likes one hand money and one hand stuff. I was afraid to be cheated in case the e-coupons don't work. My mind has changed since my first transaction on ebay this Sunday.
I wanted to buy a coupon. There were 30 sellers around. I could buy it immediately for the price of $19.99, or I could bid it with a lower price. The drawbacks of bidding is that I may not be able to get it and I have to wait till the end of the bid. Before starting, I signed up accounts on both ebay and paypal. Then I looked at all the bids and picked one which would end in two hours. There were already four bids and the price was $10.01. I bid it with $10.51. After 40 minutes, I got an email saying that I was outbid with $12. Ten minutes later, a new bid of $12.50 came in. Then it went up to $14 in two minutes. It looked like two guys were bidding higher each other. After I had my dinner, there were only 20 minutes left. The highest bid became $14.50. If I wanted it, my bid had to be $15+. I hesitated a while and decided to give up, since I can always bid from other sellers. When the bid expired, I received an email from ebay, saying that my bid was $10.51 and the winning bid was $14.50, which is no surprise. However, one minute later, I got another email from ebay. In this email, it says that I have got a second chance and the seller wants to sell me the coupon for $10.51, my bid price. I immediately understood what had happened. The seller bid against himself to push up the price in the hope of my responding. Well, I did not. So he was not able sell the coupon and he had to come back to me. I accepted his offer and paid $10.51 through paypal with my master card.
$12 is a reasonable price for me, and now I got it for $10.51. More importantly, I made my first purchase on ebay.
I wanted to buy a coupon. There were 30 sellers around. I could buy it immediately for the price of $19.99, or I could bid it with a lower price. The drawbacks of bidding is that I may not be able to get it and I have to wait till the end of the bid. Before starting, I signed up accounts on both ebay and paypal. Then I looked at all the bids and picked one which would end in two hours. There were already four bids and the price was $10.01. I bid it with $10.51. After 40 minutes, I got an email saying that I was outbid with $12. Ten minutes later, a new bid of $12.50 came in. Then it went up to $14 in two minutes. It looked like two guys were bidding higher each other. After I had my dinner, there were only 20 minutes left. The highest bid became $14.50. If I wanted it, my bid had to be $15+. I hesitated a while and decided to give up, since I can always bid from other sellers. When the bid expired, I received an email from ebay, saying that my bid was $10.51 and the winning bid was $14.50, which is no surprise. However, one minute later, I got another email from ebay. In this email, it says that I have got a second chance and the seller wants to sell me the coupon for $10.51, my bid price. I immediately understood what had happened. The seller bid against himself to push up the price in the hope of my responding. Well, I did not. So he was not able sell the coupon and he had to come back to me. I accepted his offer and paid $10.51 through paypal with my master card.
$12 is a reasonable price for me, and now I got it for $10.51. More importantly, I made my first purchase on ebay.
# posted by yaping @ 4:08 PM 
