Overcoming the most Frustrating Situation on eBay

Written by Carolyn Schweitzer


It's happened torepparttar best of us.

You've been watchingrepparttar 116148 auction all week, and finally you're about to claim your prize--a rare bronze statue fromrepparttar 116149 Shang Dy dynasty. Or something just as tantalizing. You log on a few minutes beforerepparttar 116150 auction closes, and confirm that you're stillrepparttar 116151 top bidder -- no one has challenged you in several days. You're already picturing "your" statue prominently displayed onrepparttar 116152 living room mantelpiece, your friends green with envy as you tell them aboutrepparttar 116153 great deal you got on eBay. You refreshrepparttar 116154 page a few times, to make sure you're still #1. You even up your bid a little just to make sure no body tries to outbid you atrepparttar 116155 last minute.

50 seconds to go...30...10...the auction has ended andrepparttar 116156 statue is yours!! You refreshrepparttar 116157 page forrepparttar 116158 last time so you can see your eBay ID announced asrepparttar 116159 winning bidder. And that's when your heart drops to your toes. It's not your eBay ID at all, but some joker who calls themselves "speedyfingers147".

How could this have happened? You wererepparttar 116160 winning bidder with only 10 seconds to go!! Speedy or not, it just doesn't seem humanly possible.

Well, you're right. No one is that fast. Speedyfingers (I made that one up, so if it's your actual eBay ID, please don't sue me!) wonrepparttar 116161 auction inrepparttar 116162 final 4 seconds. It isn't humanly possible because "speedy" didn't actually placerepparttar 116163 bid. The bid was place on his or her behalf, from a remote server, using something called Bidding Software.

The act of placing a bid duringrepparttar 116164 final seconds of an online auction is called "Sniping" and it's perfectly legal on eBay. Bidding wars and sniping are an eBay sellers dream and a buyer's nightmare. Why, you're asking yourself, don't these people just use eBay's trusty proxy bidding process? Why not just discreetly enterrepparttar 116165 maximum they're willing to pay atrepparttar 116166 beginning ofrepparttar 116167 auction, then letrepparttar 116168 cards fall where they may? Well, for a couple of reasons. First, it's not human nature. If all you have to do is outbidrepparttar 116169 next guy by fifty cents or even five dollars to win, wouldn't you?

Second, it doesn't make economic or strategic sense to place a bid anytime beforerepparttar 116170 last five minutes of an auction.

Think about it. EBay encourages bidders to userepparttar 116171 proxy system and place bids early. What this means is that an inexperienced bidder who wants an item will to want to berepparttar 116172 highest bidder right away, and will keep upping their bid to hold that winning position. They'll only stop whenrepparttar 116173 bidding exceeds their budget. Thenrepparttar 116174 next guy comes along and continuesrepparttar 116175 process. If this starts atrepparttar 116176 beginning of a seven or ten day auction, and ends with a bidding war inrepparttar 116177 last 10 minutes,repparttar 116178 final price forrepparttar 116179 item can spiral out of control. Many items sell for far more than fair market value because people get caught up in "bidding fever" -- all they want is to WIN, they're not even thinking about whetherrepparttar 116180 price is realistic.

A better strategy would be for everyone to "watch"repparttar 116181 auction untilrepparttar 116182 very end. Again, there's two good reasons. One,repparttar 116183 price doesn't spiral up as just illustrated. Two,repparttar 116184 auction has zero bids, so it attracts fewer bidders-- less competition. It's a fact that once an auction has at least 1 bid , it becomes a magnet for additional bidders. Shoppers scanning an auction page tend to jump torepparttar 116185 ones with bids, figuring there must be something that attracted other bidders. The more bids,repparttar 116186 more interestingrepparttar 116187 item looks.

Wouldn't it be great if a seller started a two carat diamond ring at $0.99 and no one bid untilrepparttar 116188 last five minutes, and they all bid in fifty cent increments? Someone might winrepparttar 116189 ring for just a few bucks!! Of course, that never happens, but it would berepparttar 116190 ideal situation for a buyer -- and it would put eBay out of business in a hurry. EBay encourages early bidding and smiles uponrepparttar 116191 snipers ofrepparttar 116192 world. EBay makes their profits on listing fees and "final value" fees. The morerepparttar 116193 item sells forrepparttar 116194 higherrepparttar 116195 "final value". This makes eBay very happy. That's why you'll never find any tutorials anywhere on eBay telling you to wait untilrepparttar 116196 end of an auction to bid.

COLLECTING SHEET MUSIC

Written by LAURA THYKESON OF ICE ORIGINALS


Why do people collect sheet music? There are several reasons why. First and foremost, all of us have a favorite song. No matter what walk of life you are from, you have at least one song that brings back memories of days gone by. Whetherrepparttar memories are good or bad,repparttar 116147 song has still become a part of your history.

Many people collect sheet music, especially fromrepparttar 116148 early 1900's, because ofrepparttar 116149 beautiful artwork onrepparttar 116150 front covers. There were many artists that worked for different music publishing companies, and some of these artists also went on to design for Walt Disney, and other very well known companies. If you examinerepparttar 116151 cover of many of these old pieces of sheet music, you will be able to find whererepparttar 116152 artist signedrepparttar 116153 artwork. This always increasesrepparttar 116154 value ofrepparttar 116155 piece to a collector. You will find names like Starmer, Pfeffer, Barbelle, andrepparttar 116156 mysterious "Rosebud" signature, which is generally thought to berepparttar 116157 work of several different artists that worked for Harry Rosenbaum. This mark usually consists of a rose shape within a circle, with several different variations onrepparttar 116158 basic symbol, because ofrepparttar 116159 different artists involved.

The music ofrepparttar 116160 late 1800's and very early 1900's are sometimes collected forrepparttar 116161 style of printing onrepparttar 116162 covers. These earliest pieces usually had very ornately lettered front covers, using different fonts and line graphics that are highly sought after by some areas of collectors. Not as beautiful to look at as far asrepparttar 116163 later Art-Deco styles, but still beautiful in their own way. Most were printed using only black ink on white paper, becauserepparttar 116164 color printing process had not been developed well atrepparttar 116165 time.

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