Just need to vent

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pa knives

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Jul 28, 2004
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I watch ebay very closely for old Pennsylvania related knives. This passed week I watched a Platts Brothers Eldred PA and it was at $33 with one hour to go. As many of you know, these things don't play out until the last second. I was tired after a long weekend and decided that it would probably end up over $100 as most do and I wasn't in the money to pay a whole lot at this time. Well, when I check the next day it sold for $36 and I was crazy. I would have paid double that and been happy. Yea I know, it would have been higher if I had bid on it but the thoughts of that knife just drive me crazy. I like to watch knives just to get a feel for average prices and availablity. I enjoy that. Thanks for letting me vent.
 
pa knives said:
I watch ebay very closely for old Pennsylvania related knives. This passed week I watched a Platts Brothers Eldred PA and it was at $33 with one hour to go. As many of you know, these things don't play out until the last second. I was tired after a long weekend and decided that it would probably end up over $100 as most do and I wasn't in the money to pay a whole lot at this time. Well, when I check the next day it sold for $36 and I was crazy. I would have paid double that and been happy. Yea I know, it would have been higher if I had bid on it but the thoughts of that knife just drive me crazy. I like to watch knives just to get a feel for average prices and availablity. I enjoy that. Thanks for letting me vent.
Click to expand...

I know how you feel, I have went to bed winning an auction and woke up to find I lost buy .50 cents. AGGHHHHH
 
The "snipers" kill ya on ebay. Just lost one last week by .50 cents myself. A couple years ago, it was not as bad for that. I kind of do like pa knives and just put stuff on my watch list and see what happens with stuff.
 
I know how you feel. It makes you sick when you realize you could have gotten a deal.

I try to be careful as there are some real fakes out on ebay.

I know the couple times I have questioned the sellers, they do not respond, and, or the knives disappear from the list.
 
Timing can be everything. I've gotten some good deals on auctions that have ended in the wee hours of the morning or at other times when folks are preoccupied, Christmas morning is one that comes to mind.Last Christmas, some guy put a unused 125OT on with a 20$ buy it now price, so I did. Sometimes if you want it bad enough, you gotta brew up a pot of coffee and follow it to the end.
 
Bear in mind when you 'lose' by .50, it could have been a very much higher bid. Last week I bid $100 on a knife I wanted just before I went to bed. I couldn't stay up to the close of the auction. The previous high bid had been $24. Of course, the way Ebay does the proxy bidding, the high bid (mine) was shown to be $24.50. Someone tried to snipe at the last second, but they only bid $50.00... So I was the winner at $51.00. Did the under bidding sniper lose by one dollar (the 'bid increment changes as the price goes up')? Well, he may think so, but in reality he lost by $49.

Phil
 
You might want to try Bidnapper sniping software www.bidnapper.com free trial.......takes all the worry out of it.

I got up at 2AM once to bid on a lot of estate sale knives....the prize in the lot was a Case Tested 5-blade stockman, green bone, #6592....near mint...and no, I'm not going to tell you what I paid.....
 
I feel for you; I lost out on a ATC tactical tomahawk by not using the "buy it now" option. found it last night, went back to it this afternoon, sold. AAAARRGHHH!!
 
When using eBay, I simply bid the maximum amount I'm willing to pay for the item. eBay raises my current bid by proxy until it goes over my max. If someone's bid is higher than my max, they can have it. That's why it's called an auction.

The proxy bid feature has eliminated any advantage to 'sniping.'

-Bob
 
auctionsniper.com

I've had great luck and been very satisfied with AuctionSniper. I only use it when I'm out of town...or going to be asleep. Mostly...I live for the thrill of the hunt. Seriously...I've been very happy with AS over the past couple of years. More or less 25 cents a pop....
 
I've gotten some great deals on ebay...I've also missed some fantastic deals.

One deal I missed was a great bowie by a big name (fortunatly for me the details are fading :) ) that I'd been watching since it was put on. I thought the knife should finish in the thousands easily. It went for a mere 4-5 hundred dollars. I had that much $$...I could of bid!! Instead I assumed that I had absolutly no chance in heck of even coming close to the final bid price. I'm still kicking myself over that one. :mad:
I think PhilL ended up with it...and he was as surprised as I was at the final bid...but he was smarter and actually put a bid in. :mad:
At least it went to some one I know and like. :D

I did get a Trace Rinaldi Sharkstooth for a mere $70 from a seller that had no idea who made it. It is one of Trace's first 30 knives he made. :eek: At that time he used a coating on the blade that hid his makers mark somewhat. But to me it was easily identifiable as a Rinaldi. Score!! :eek:
I haunt ebay every night at 12-1 a.m....but most of the items i bid on end at 10 a.m. so I don't know how much that affects me. I've never spotted a knife that I used the buy-it-now feature on.
I too like to watch items to see how the pricing is going...BUT there are always those few items that go for so little or so outragously high that they will skew a curve if you aren't aware.
 
As much as they are maligned, bidding tools work and can give you the advantage.

I typically bid early to get my proxy bid in and as the auction plays out if it looks like it's something I want to win I'll set it up to bid whatever amount I'm willing to pay. This way I don't have to be there to bid.

The other night a mint Sawby/Mullin slipjoint sold for $230, I had my bid set to $300 but a server error prevented the bid from being placed, first time that ever happened and I was pretty bummed out.
 
A common experience it seems. I was "sniped" last night by a buck to a fellow Forum member on a knife. I guess it just depends on how you want to play the ebay game. Usually I bid what the item is worth to me and forget about it. It just isn't worth it to me to sit by my computer at home and try to get the last bid...I have a life, or would like to believe I do...LOL. Probably 80% of the time I get sniped by a very small amount on my bids. This definately keeps me from collecting even more "junk" than I already have, so maybe it is a blessing in disguise.

As for that fellow Forum member who won last night...I've already got one of that model knife and you paid too much! ;)

Jeff
 
You know the bottom line is that all of us are trying to get the item for the very best price and trying to win by .50 cents seems to be the winner. I like the idea of saying, I will pay $XX.XX for this item and no more. Setting that bid and forgetting it. The problem is, that most do not know what the fair price is and are just hoping for that .50 cent win. I guess there is nothing wrong with that, but don't cry (LIKE I DID) when you lose your auction. Lessoned learned for me.
 
Snipping is a true bargain hunters trick, like me.

The more I want "it" at "any price", the less likely I am to snip. I just put in my maximum and let it play out. I do tend to put my maximum at at odd number, like $51.75 instead of $50 - what's 1.75 more on a 50 dollar item?

On the other hand, I snip items that are low$$ and I only what if I can have it low. Sniping helps prevent bid wars and when I snip, I put in the maximum I am willing to pay, plus a small percentage just to save me that 50cents worth of losers remorse.

Sometimes my "method" works, sometimes not. In the end, my biggest regret is not having bid on more auctions as, like many have pointed out, there have been some real bargins slip by.
 
Proxy bidding aside, there is still an advantage to sniping. If you proxy bid $100 on an item that's at $55 and someone else keeps bidding it up until it hits $100, they might be able to talk themselves into going up to $105 to win. On the other hand, if you have a snipe bid for $100, then the $55 bidder thinks he has it until the last minute, and he might not have the time to talk himself (or his wife) into the higher amount.
 
I think most of you guys are missing the point. Sniping is so that someone else will not just come along and keep bidding the price up 50 cents at a time untill they find your maximum bid. The purpose of sniping is to save money, not win the auction.
Mike Morris
 
Learn to snipe, and use it well. That's won me a great deal of auctions on Scout items through the years. Got my rarest piece- An Eagle Scout certificate signed by Franklin Roosevelt- on a 3 am snipe one night. I've hunted out pieces like that for years, and that one eluded me- until then! :D
 
Sorry to sidetrack the thread... but wow, Sword and Shield, that is quite a find!
Phil
 
You're not kidding, Tex. Paid a good bit, but having a piece once handled by one of the greatest Presidents in American history is worth it.
 
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