Another eBay gripe ...

[Osi Osgood]

OK, it's been awhile since my last gripe. This one I run into on a constant basis, easily dozens of times. An item will be on eBay. It will be on there for days, no bids. You put an offer up for it. Magically, out of nowhere, within minutes of having placed an offer, SOMEBODY magically has placed a bid on it, (according the seller), right after you have made an offer. Waaaay to circumstantial to have just happened.

[Stuart Budd]

It may just be coincidence. It's on ebay, there's interest, ebay want to promote and all of a sudden, a bid.
But I wouldn't bit past your offet Osi, just either auto bid or walk away.
Have a look for Sold and Completed to see if it's been up befor and failed to sell as the seller didn't pay (excuse). Also check sellers other items and do the Sold and Completed on that search too.

[Ed Gordon]

Many sellers have an automatic decline on offers they would consider too low.
Posters to the Seller Boards seem to agree that anything more than 10% off would be ignored.
The benefit to a buyer of an automatic decline is that the seller cannot combine it with automatically Blocking someone who bids insultingly or crazily low— like a $5 offer on a $200 listing.
And of course, some sellers by coincidence are at their desks when an offer arrives, but sellers have 48 hours to respond.

From: https://www.quora.com/Why-do-offers-...y-want?share=1

[Osi Osgood]

It wasn't an automatic decline today. He had a starting bid price of 14.00, I made an offer of 20.00. mysteriously, it had been bid up, in a matter of minutes, to 21.00.

[Erkki Tikkanen]

Usually when I want something on eBay I just bid the amount I am willing to pay for it. eBay automatically adds my bid on top of the bid list if my bid is more than the earlier bidder. If somebody bids over my top bid, I can decide if I pay more.
Check the system here: https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bid...idding?id=4014

[Osi Osgood]

Erkki, we all know this, (and thanks for your contribution), what I am speaking of is a more than coincidental "bidding" right after putting an offer, even an offer a good deal above the starting price, when there were no bids on it previously and then, suddenly there are bids on it, giving the seller the opportunity to say, ohno, there's a bid on it, can't accept offer.". I mean, granted, no seller has to accept any offer, it's the way it is done.

[Michael O’Regan]

Perhaps someone is watching the item and doesn’t want to “show their hand” until someone else starts the bidding. There are several possibilities. I have to say it doesn’t sound suspicious.

[Ed Gordon]

Automatic biding guaranties that the bidder with the highest limit will always win the bid. You have to decide the maximum bid you want the computer algorithm to make when you set up automatic bidding. If any of the automatic bidders have a higher limit than you do, they will always win. How fast will this happen? It will happen in milliseconds after anyone makes a bid.

[Tony Ferrara]

Does anyone know why eBay suddenly doesn't allow you to place a duration on your offer -- it is always 24 hours. Just a month or so ago I could choose up to 48 hours. Is this something the seller configures? I haven't sold on eBay in a really long time.

My strategy in the past year or so has been to add things to my watchlist (which I and I'm sure everyone else does anyway) for non-make-an-offer items, and the majority of the time I get an offer from the seller within a day. Sometime just viewing an item gets you an offer.

I have seen my offers declined because someone has placed a bid. But that's the minority. I have had great luck in getting my offers accepted or receiving acceptable counter-offers. This applies to all things, not just film related.
I know what a fair price is for what I want to buy, and the sellers seem to appreciate it. I have been pleasantly surprised when I occasionally put in a low-ball offer and it gets quickly accepted. Even better is the auto-accept as soon as I place the offer.
So at the end of the day, I am very satisfied with the prices I pay.

I have also done buy-it-now when they also had a "make-an-offer". Sometimes the price is really a bargain and I don't want to risk losing it. I like the "buy-it-now" combined with "make-an-offer" items -- at least I know what the price ceiling is. I don't like the auction combined with "make-an-offer" since I am not as good at "reading" what the seller has in mind. No ceiling. But I have made offers on those that were accepted, too.

I wish all sellers would look at the "sold" history for an item. That's what I do when I buy. Amazing how people want like 10x the price of what the average was in the last 3 months for an item in similar condition. I think sometimes they put the decimal in the wrong place, lol!

My eBay seller gripes:

1. For projectors, not listing the lens specs, nor the type of lamp it takes. I always wind up going to the Super 8 database, which is not always accurate -- plus sometimes there are different options, like the choice of lens. But that site doesn't list 16mm or Standard 8mm-only machines. The pic of the lens might be there, but more often than not you cannot read it, or only the text "Elmo Lens", e.g., is in view.

2. Multiple pics of the film box and reel(s) from different angles -- and often not showing the side of the box that shows the title of the film (which is not even listed in the auction title or description!)

3. sellers who use run-on sentences with no punctuation and clearly do not have any writing skills and just keep typing and sometimes copy and paste and include text from their other listings and forget to check for accuracy and then just keep typing this is a great item but i don't know how to use it and am no expert shipping to the continental US only no returns sold as-is and happy bidding

4. It is one thing not to know anything about a projector, but for crying out loud, please take 30 seconds to clean off the surface dust with a rag or a feather-duster before taking a pic, and definitely before sending it to me!

5. This is a good one I have seen: "Film has been stored in a climate controlled environment -- in my closet." You can't make this stuff up.

6. Selling a 50 foot silent Standard 8mm copy of "Have Badge, Will Chase" with Abbott and Costello with a starting bid of $30 and a buy-it-now of $50. Then keep re-listing it for weeks on end without lowering the price since nobody wants it.

7. Similarly, thinking that 200 foot b&w silent editions of Sound/Color movies are worth more than a few bucks.

8. Listing a film as "complete" just because the Castle Box says so. (Hey, it's about the size of a DVD or Blu-Ray so it must be the complete movie!) Then stating it will run on 8mm and 16mm projectors for the same reason.

9. Sellers who sell anything and everything with the disclaimer, "We are not experts in any field!" I wouldn't exactly brag about that fact! lol

10. Not knowing if the film is 16mm or 8mm/Super 8. I can understand not being able to differentiate between Standard 8mm and Super 8, but for crying out loud, 16mm film is 16mms wide, 8mm film is 8mms wide (but in both case, not exactly.)

11. Calling a film "tape". I have forgotten what words some people have used instead of "reels" as well.

12. "It looks like it was never played" for both films and projectors. But it has been stored in my hot attic in Florida for the past 30-40 years.

[Osi Osgood]

I literally did fall out of my chair laughing, great post!

[Tony Ferrara]

I hope you didn't get hurt!

Now I am ROTFL!

What's really funny is I did not exaggerate one iota!

If I were selling something I did not know anything about, I would do some research. I haven't sold anything on eBay in probably 10 years, because I am paranoid about nit-picky buyers. As a buyer, I enjoy the bargains and buyer protection. But now I wouldn't like to be on the seller side. As I understand it, the fees have gone up, but I believe the listing fees have been eliminated. I remember when I was selling that the fee was based upon the opening bid or the buy-it-now price, whichever was higher. And I think you could only re-list once for free. Now I see the same film sitting there re-listed again and again for well over a year. Some sellers, which are probably collectors like ourselves, really want to maximize the sale price. Not that I blame them. The other reason I don't sell is that I see what films I have are going for. Factor in Paypal fees, and eBay fees, and it is not worth the effort. If I am only going to net $15 for a 400 foot Super 8 sound short, fuggetaboutit. Especially when I paid up to $50 per short before eBay existed. Plus there are only a handful of prints I would even consider selling -- only because I upgraded it to 16mm. It is still hard to part with Super 8 print with no splices because I have one in 16mm with a few (and sometimes more) splices.

I have had great luck with bargains from sellers who don't know anything about film. I have pretty good intuition if it is a junk print or not. And if I have received a junk print, and I contact the seller, they usually refund the entire cost including shipping and tell me they don't need it back -- even for as-is with no returns. IMHO, as-is cannot apply to on-line sales. In person, you can give it a once-over. Online, you can ask questions, but still have to rely on the seller being honest. I rarely complain, since I don't expect perfection. I am an honest buyer and don't take advantage of anyone. But a film with long sections of sprocket damage that won't even run through a projector, and if cut-out would turn a 400 footer to a 200 footer, that is a different story.

I'm sure you have all figured this out, but sellers with a huge amount of items for sale, even as low as 200, are eager to sell, especially the non-film collectors.

For condition, Super 8 sound prints are usually in great condition with regard to splices and sprocket damage, even if they are library prints. People who had Super 8 sound projectors were not ham-fisted projectionists. Silent prints are a different story, especially Standard 8mm. An original box in good condition is usually a very good sign that the print will be in good condition. Library prints are hit-and-miss, but that being said, I have bought some in excellent condition. YMMV.