Ebay auctions and the intensity of it all!

Im not a big fan of online auctioning, I don’t really feel secure, plus you have to have some form of plan before you bid otherwise you’ll probably end up losing a bidding war approximately 100% of the time, to me it seems to much work just to get product, perhaps it’s cheaper and your making a saving, but your still putting a effort in to get a product which might not get at the end of it. But last night, I got a taste of what online auctioning and bidding was like. And I’ve got to say How freaking intense is eBay! I mean wow, you’d think that because it’s online it’s less intense, but my god it’s so the opposite!

I’ll admit, im not a big fan of eBay (or auction sites in general really) but it was a needs must situation, basically the reason why I was on eBay is because I need a screen replacement for my Toshiba Equium M40x-230 Laptop, getting a brand new screen It was looking to cost about £60 + (Excluding postage) and this is without the laptop lid, just the screen panel on it’s own. Now my friend (who is a computer technician) said you’d probably be able to find a screen replacement on eBay, but better still at a decent price. So what he suggested was, he looks on eBay for me and messages me with any finds (As I’d come to him with my question of “Where can I find a Screen replacement”) so for a couple of days he’s searching on eBay and then we both decide that we should both search to find a possible replacement. I was quite amazed how many Toshiba Equium series laptops are actually on sale on eBay, and it was certainly a confidence boost seeing alot of Tosbiha Equium series related products around too. We first came across a Laptop that was not in Toshiba Equium series, but we soon found that the screen unit itself had problems so it was already a back to the drawing board situation. We came across another auction that had my exact same laptop the Toshiba Equium M40x-230 on sale, problem is (And this is going to sound pretty backwards) it was in very good condition and there was like one fault with it, so the price of it was going to be quite high, and infact the laptop went for £135. What I was looking for is a laptop that was essentially being sold as a spare and had faults with (Yeah sounds so wrong but here me out) because realistically I only need the lid of the laptop, so anything else is a bonus and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter as im only after the screen. So essentially I was looking for some faulty/spare laptop that was going cheap and on 19th of January 2009 I found someone selling exact that.

From that day the item had 6 Days still the end of the auction and it looked like the bid was started on Sunday so it hadn’t been up for long as the bid was about £0.06 I messaged my friend about this find and he thought it looked interesting, so what we did was watch the item for the next 5 days, to see the activity and also check out the price of it. Amazingly there we’re quite a few people bidding, yet the bid amount was quite low, by 4 days into the bid the current bid was around £20, it seemed that most people bidding also wanted the laptop for the screen like me. But in general it looked good as the price had not increased massively only gradually and only by about £5 each bid. On the final day of the auction I literally had the eBay page open all day, I set a reload script on the page so the page refreshed every 5 seconds automatically so I could just leave the PC on and glance at the page every so often (As I was watching a film during the day) come about 15 mins before the end of the auction my friend rang me up saying “are you watching the item” and I was admitted I’d be glued to the page all day! In the final 10 mins of the auction the price was at £43, someone wanted this product also and stepped up and placed a bid, me and him we’re on the phone through out the final stages and kept reloading the page for any changes in the price. Suprisingly the bid amount did not budge after the bid of £43 was made, so this suggested a couple of people have called it a day or decided to do the lurking technique and put in a bid at the last 5 seconds. And infact thats what me and my friend did. Because he has an eBay account and actually has my laptop he’s offering to put in the new screen and pay for it, then when he’s fitted the new screen I’ll come and collect it and pay for it. So im here relaying information to him while he’s getting ready to bid. It was pretty tense seeing the price not actually going up which suggested people we’re going to bid at the last seconds of the auction and thats what did happen. With three seconds to go someone had bidded in £52.26 but we bidded in a £53.26 just after it. Now because the auction had set bidder ID’s to private we could not see who had bidded and even worse who had won the bid when it was over. Because we’re still both on the phone im waiting for the verdict from my friend and he just says “We’ve got it” and I’ve never been so happy from those words in my life!

Here’s the item that we’ve managed to get:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=140295739567&Category=177&_trksid=p3907.m29&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26its%3DI%26otn%3D2

Obviously you can see it’s selling the whole laptop but there are parts such as the Graphics Card which are broken, but like I said anything else is a bonus as im after the screen only, so anything else thats not broke can be re-sold to get some money back!

Total Cost: £61.26 (Inc Postage)

A good deal, seems I get a whole laptop which I can keep for spares and also sell parts to make cash back!

But my god online bidding is intense, you’d think it’s simple, entering the amount of money to bid and clicking submit, but oh no. You actually have to think about it logically and by that you have to consider the amount of bidders already, the current bid of the item and the approx amount of how much it’s going up to in the final stages. You have to think about lots, but oh my god, the waiting you have to go through! I mean I found that item 6 days before the end of auction and me being a “DAMN IT I WANT IT NOW” kind of guy it was really hard to watch and just wait! But we’ve bared through it and come out on top with a very good deal! Now I’ll soon get my laptop screen replaced and have my lovely Laptop again, which im dying to get back as it’s got Windows Vista on it and I’d gotten really comfy with Vista, but I haven’t seen it for 1 month, so im just itching to get it back!

If you we’re also bidding for this item… Sorry!

This has been James’ Epic eBay adventure! The word count on this post is over 1000 it’s pretty epic