Interesting EBAY Story

PA Knives · Post by **PA Knives** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 3:48 pm

HEY!

Thought you guys might find this interesting. I have bought a number of knives from EBAY, but have slowed down considerably. The prices are now getting to high for the items that I am interested in. As soon as someone sees antique they assume it is worth $$$$$. Well, I was watching this Pennsylvania Cutlery knife very closely. I waited until the last two minutes to place my bid. The knife was at $32 before my bid. I bid a comfortable $150 thinking this would insure my success and was high bidder at $64 with 32 seconds to go. At 6 seconds a snipe bid came in a won for a few dollars more.

OK that happens, I guess if I really wanted it, I should have gone higher. The funny part is that the bidder was a very good knife friend. Had I known he wanted it I wouldn't have bid, "visa versa" and one of us could have it for $64. That would have been a good price. Unfortunately there just isn't anyway to avoid such an occurance and no doubt all of you have had similar expereinces. The bidder was concerned that I was upset by it.

Not really, I thought it was funny that we bid the same knife.

No doubt he will enjoy it just as much as I would have. Friends are far more important than knives! Unless of course it is a CASE Mfg Warren PA then that is out the door!

skip · Post by **skip** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:44 am

Good story Pa
I have bid on a few peanuts and every time I bid, I get the someone has outbid you. One of these days I'll get one.
Skip

CCBill · Post by **CCBill** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 1:22 am

Hey, paknives, did you see the Eldred Cutlery on ebay? Probably so. Got a blade broken. Old knife. Item # 6575481011. It's over in an hour and a half from now...

Hawke · Post by **Hawke** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 3:23 am

This is a good subject. Since weve started the Peanut Gang forum and club, it has gotten off to a slower start than I anticipated. There is one friend I have that he and I do communicate together on our bids of the same knife.

I dont get upset either if I lose to him, We often say, "Well at least it's in The Club" But sometimes he will ask me not to bid on one that he really wants for his collection and vice-versa. Sometimes its just plain fun to try and outbid each other, but then again, why waste money.

Communication is the answer, but problems come with that too. I wonder if the need for some privacy on ebay might be part of our slow start with the peanut gang club.

Oh well, life on the internet has its own set of issues too. With every good venue, comes a few snags.

PA Knives · Post by **PA Knives** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:50 pm

Yea on bid on the Eldred knife and lost.

With a broken blade and cracked handle I figured $110 was my limit, As you can see it went higher than that. AS I said before, ebay has inflated some prices in my opinion. That is why places like this site can offer us knives at better prices than the bid market. Hopefully more vintage knives will show up for sale and then I won't have to play the auction game anymore. If you've got one for sale, let me know. I would much rather give my money to you than ebay, but unfortunately that is the best place to find older names at this time. JUst my thoughts

jwm1960 · Post by **jwm1960** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 5:37 pm

This is not the best time buying or bidding on items found on ebay. I don't know if it's the Christmas rush or what but prices are always inflated. New bidders on ebay go crazy with their bids. A lot of times they actually pay more for an item bidding than what they could buy it from somewhere else. They just don't do their research. About a month after Christmas things usually return to normal until people start getting their tax returns. Then it starts all over.

I still bid on some items this time of the year but rarely find myself the winning bidder. Sometimes you can get a bargain on ebay but they don't come as often as they did 5-10 years ago.

ivanskee68 · Post by **ivanskee68** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 11:45 pm

Howdy everyone. In response to your dilemma as regards bidding on eBay. I'll tell you how I do it and I've lost very few this way. When I see an item that I'm interested in I will put it on my watch list w/eBay. When it gets to about a minute or so before closing, i will put in what is the very maximum that I'm willing to pay and wait until about 30 seconds are left on the auction and hit confirm. I have lost very few items using that procedure. There have been times that i have put in a very low bid just to test the waters and then shoot'em my maximum bid. This is strictly for what it's worth.
ivanskee68

Hawke · Post by **Hawke** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 12:34 am

Ahhh ...the ebay sniper has revealed himself! Hehe, ivanskee68, we all do it that way. ebay forces us to really.

Thats the thing about ebay which makes it not a real auction.

There is at least one other online auction where they will make the auction go for 5 more minutes past the last bid. Ebay could do that if they wanted to. BUT.... There not into making a "real auction" there into closing them to get that fee.

however its the best selection online therefore they do draw us online geeks. WHen someone makes the 5 min more in the scripting of the auction you see many sellers go there instead. Wish I had the money to buy the servers!

ivanskee68 · Post by **ivanskee68** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 1:01 am

I don't see any benefit in going 5 more minutes all your are doing is extending the auction for 5 minutes more.. I'm glad everyone is doing it this way. This way nobody should lose an item for sale on eBay.

Hawke · Post by **Hawke** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 1:53 am

I didnt explain it well...
5 min past the last bid if the deadline is met already.

ok, well think of this ivan... if you were the seller. you would want as much for the item as you could get. extending the deadline an addtional 5 min after each bids made after the deadline would allow the item to get its max worth.

From a collector standpoint, like Bryans Price Guide, a benefit it would show is a little more accurately what a item might bring at its best, thereby giving us collectors a better idea of the worth of our knife.

make sense? I could be missing something here, just discussing it.

Rest easy.... from a buyer standpoint, the deadline is fine and from ebay standpoint I see them making their fees faster. The 5 min extension would hurt ebay big time overall, so I dont see it happening.

jwm1960 · Post by **jwm1960** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 4:06 pm

I like the idea of extending the bidding another 5 minutes after the last bid. It would do away with the last minute jump in bidders like ivanskee68 ..... and myself sometimes.

To be honest about it the last minute bidding is about the only way to get anything on ebay now. Like you said I doubt ebay would ever extend an auction 5 minutes more after the last bid.

By the way, Hawke, I took a look at you knife collection. Nice. It gave me a few ideas.

straybulletbmc · Post by **straybulletbmc** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 11:12 pm

I am the Ebay Sniper, lol I am the guy whom sits there with a stopwatch and hits the bid with 3-5 seconds left, never missed a knife after I learn this procedure.

joerc2002 · Post by **joerc2002** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 2:59 pm

I just make my max bid, my max bid..
Anyone bids over me thats ok
I hate snipers LOL LOL
unless im the one doing it
And I'm going to snipe a peanut on 1/21 LOL
Joe

galvanic1882 · Post by **galvanic1882** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 2:06 pm

Yea I admit it I am the knucklhead that out bid a friend on the PA knife. That will not happen again. I agree that talking before you bid is the best way to not let that happen. I have meet some great people through ebay and most of my experiences have been good using the site. It seems that every time someone starts a new auction site just for knives it does not generate the following of ebay. Wish it was not true but sorry to say it is. There is a bladeauction site that I sometimes check out but I do most of my bidding on ebay and yes I am a sniper. There are 2 reasons for this. Sometimes people are auctionong off knives and they are not posted to have the best exposure, like posting old knives under the newer knife listing. I work hard at finding good knives at a lower final price this way. If I bid early and someone is checking on what I bid they find the knife I am hoping no one finds but a few of us that really search for. I wish ebay got rid of the ability to see what others are bidding on and than it might go back to being a true auction. The other reason is if I get into the frenzy of bidding I find that I pay too much for the knife as emotion gets in the way of judgement for me.

I think that some of the knives go for higher prices on ebay but not entirely. I have some Mint etched Utica knives from the Factory Collection that have inked Salesman's Numbers on them that if I were to sell them off ebay they would bring less than ebay prices. That is not for all knives though. I also think that ebay has put into perspective how RARE knives are and are not. When I first started collecting knives some of the brands you see on ebay often I never found at shows or all the other places I used to look for knives, flea markets, garage sales etc. But you see them often on ebay.

I had an email from a man in Oklahoma about a Nagle Re-Blade display case. I had sold some nagle blades on ebay and after the auction this man emailed me asking if I knew anything about Nagles because he had a display case from the company that he wanted to fill with knives!!!! After a few emails I ended up buying the case from him. If it were not for ebay and the exposure it give to people that case would have stayed in Oklahoma and not in my collection.

The pen knife in the picture is the PA knife I outbid PAKnives for. The Nagle Display is folled with Nagle knives and blades.

Happy hunting to all.

PA Knives · Post by **PA Knives** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 5:58 pm

You can see folks that Galvanic and I have become very good friends and that knives have brought us together. He shares my love of the hobby and unfortunately that gorgeous Pennsylvania Cutlery knife too.

"just had to say that"

Mike is a great guy with tons of knowledge. He is very focused in his collection and I admire that. He only collects pieces in the very best condition. Loved the photo's and would always like to see more. I believe that Mike is attending a show next month in Lewisburg some of us need to try and attend that so he doesn't get all the good stuff

I just want to say that this guy is a very special person

Thanks

ivanskee68 · Post by **ivanskee68** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 8:24 pm

Hey PA Knives, That show that you mentiond in Lewisburg. Is that in PA and if so,when and where is it?
Thanks, Ivan

galvanic1882 · Post by **galvanic1882** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:54 pm

Hi Ivan, The show is in PA on the 25 & 26th of Feb. If you can make it look me up I will have the Nagle Display

Mike

ivanskee68 · Post by **ivanskee68** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 1:44 am

Hey Mike, Thanks for the reply. I know how to get to Lewisburg, but where is the knife show being held?
Thanks, Ivan

galvanic1882 · Post by **galvanic1882** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 1:59 am

Sorry Ivan sometimes I am asleep at the switch. It is being held at the Country Cupboard Inn in Lewisburg Route US 15.
4 miles south of interstate 80.

Hope to see you there.

Mike

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