QUOTE (Saint Johnstoun @ 23 Jun 2008, 18:56)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>I'm trying to locate a Bachmann V3 in BR (LNER) Green livery with BRITISH RAILWAYS on the tanks rather than the LNER version. Number was 67684. Attempts on ebay so far have resulted in me being pipped at the post twice literally seconds before 'time up'.
Any ideas?
If you are a regular Ebay user there are a number of programmes that you can use to 'snipe' a bid, if you aren't aware of them, what they do is you decide what you are prepared to pay for an item, then put it into the 'snipe' programme and the programme does the rest, if you have put a sensible amount on it and the other bidders have already bid then it is possible to get the item literally seconds before the end at or below your preset amount. Mind you it dosen't always work, other people are using similar programmes so it becomes the 'battle of the computers' towards the end of an auction. Having said that, if you do the research on Ebay, then you know pretty much how much you will need to pay based on previous auctions, if you don't want to pay exhorbitant prices just hold back - it doesn't cost anything to bid - and wait until another comes along. There are always people out there that see what a particulatr item goes for and decide to put theirs on too, but the fact of the matter is that the best price is usually the first price realised and any subsequent auctions will realise about the same or slightly less, as more people list their items. In 'real' auctions when I was involved in disposals of assets for Major clients in the Resource sector here, if an item sold for X then the auctioneer would offer the similar or same item to the room at the same price as he had just sold the item, very fair as you didn't have to go through the whole bidding process again.
My advice;- decide what price you want to pay, stick to it and use a sniping programme, they are quite legal on Ebay and can net you some wonderful bargains!
(try Googling "Snipe Programmes")
