eBay: Notes from the front

- by Bruce E. McKinney

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There are a few caveats. The first is that your percentage of wins is going to increase. The second is that the prices you pay will drop a bit. Posting bids as soon as you find items, even if the bids are low, is probably going to get you more wins than you expect so you may need to adjust your bidding strategy, that or build a wing on your house. I also suggest you revisit your PowerSnipe account every few days to adjust your bids both up and down according to what is happening. If you are experiencing too much success you can always cut your bids or drop items altogether. Here is a chart of eBay's bid increments in effect as of 6/29/2007.

eBay Bid Increments
FromtoBy
$0.010.99$0.05
$1.004.99$0.25
$5.0024.99$0.50
$25.0099.99$1.00
$100.00249.99$2.50
$250.00499.99$5.00
$500.00999.99$10.00
$1000.002499.99$25.00
$2500.004999.99$50.00
$5000.00and up$100.00

Here is a link to PowerSnipe: www.powersnipe.com/ebaysniper.html

The second eBay issue concerns spam-listers. These are the folks who take their four line listings and add the entire contents of the New York City phone book. It creates excessive matches and wastes time for countless eBay buyers whose searches keep bringing up these matches. To those who do it I guess it's your right but for those who use AE's Matchmaker to automatically search for eBay matches you now have the option to eliminate such seller's listings from your results. To do this we have added a panel [the kiss of death] where you can add their eBay name to exclusions on your matches. They will still internally match but then be dropped into the ocean. You can of course at any time restore them. The goal here is to save time, not punish anyone. If you are a Premium member an explanation is posted on your AE Matchmaker start page. For those interested to sign-up for Premium membership here is an illustration of the Kiss of Death. All eBay handles are made up, all decisions entirely private.