- Phil_F_NM
- Speed Champion
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- From: Mid-Atlantic region
- Registered: 16-4-2020
- Posts: 267
Re: Your Ebay watch list
If this whole thing is actually upsetting, then there is some other work which one needs to do on oneself. There are support groups available. Seriously.
Phil Forrest
- overwood
- Speed Champion
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- From: Midwest
- Registered: 10-11-2018
- Posts: 285
Re: Your Ebay watch list
It would be ideal if nobody else ever bid on the things I want, early OR late. So out of consideration could you all please just stop bidding on portable typewriters? I'll let you have the standards. 
Some people will just bid the minimum amount and then walk away, hoping for a steal. Are they driving up the prices too? Or is it only the next person, and the next?
Auctions are weird, and hard to figure out sometimes, and you never know if something sneaky is going on when prices go high.
- skywatcher
- Moderator
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- From: The Prairies of Alberta
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 734
Re: Your Ebay watch list
Greetings All
Commander Data does have a valid point as bidding late discourages nibblers and shill bidding. Ebay says that shill bidding is against their policy, but how do they enforce it? Before now, I have put in my maximum bid on a typewriter that I liked on the 4th day of a 7 day auction. Over the next few hours, there were 50+ bids on that machine by the same bidder, all in increments of $1.00 until the bid price was $1.00 over my max.
The same typewriter was re-listed by the same seller about a week later with the starting bid at what my max bid had been the first time around and never sold. That machine was re-listed 4 more times at the same price, and as far as I could tell, never did sell. Had I have waited until the last minute to enter my bid, or used a sniping application, the nibbler or shill bidder would not have had time to nibble the price up closer to my max.
As I say, this was just one experience I had when bidding on eBay. I have seen it happen time and time again on machines I have had in my wish list and watch list but didn't place a bid. It's worth taking a look at the bid history (including automatic bids) on a machine that shows more than 20 bids before it sold. If the bids are from several different bidders, it was probably a valid auction. If the other bidder is listed as a private bidder, that might be an indication of something a little fishy. All the best,
Sky
We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
- Uwe
- Moderator
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,410
Re: Your Ebay watch list
Although I never buy anything on eBay anymore (the shipping rates since the company became a shipping intermediary have become absolutely ridiculous), I remember it used to be easy to figure out the shill bidders because you could look-up who was placing the bid. eBay then changed this and made bidding anonymous, or truncated what you could see regarding other bids. Sky's scenario is a familiar one, and in such obvious cases I used to report the seller to eBay - not that it actually did anything about it. Of course that's just the top of the list of scams that sellers can attempt. I'm sure everyone has experienced winning an auction at its starting price only to be told later by the seller that the item was somehow damaged before they could ship it and gave you your money back.
Live auctions - or online auctions - will always have the risk of those who don't know their pricing or what an item is worth, and will drive up the price as a result. I've been at live auctions and shook my head in amazement at those who were making bids that were higher than the full retail price for the item.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- Phil_F_NM
- Speed Champion
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- From: Mid-Atlantic region
- Registered: 16-4-2020
- Posts: 267
Re: Your Ebay watch list
There's an Adler Grundig Tippa S with italic type on shopgoodwill right now.
Phil Forrest
- Phil_F_NM
- Speed Champion
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- From: Mid-Atlantic region
- Registered: 16-4-2020
- Posts: 267
Re: Your Ebay watch list
Anyone out there in or near Spokane, WA? There is an Olympia SM7 Deluxe at the goodwill and it has a numeral '1' key, denoting the possibility of a script or italic font.
Phil Forrest
- Phil_F_NM
- Speed Champion
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- From: Mid-Atlantic region
- Registered: 16-4-2020
- Posts: 267
Re: Your Ebay watch list
Pink Unis TBM Deluxe on Goodwill. Yugoslavian keyboard.
Phil Forrest
- Phil_F_NM
- Speed Champion
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- From: Mid-Atlantic region
- Registered: 16-4-2020
- Posts: 267
Re: Your Ebay watch list
Olympia SG-3 Musicwriter on shopgoodwill.
Phil Forrest
- Pete E.
- Typewriter Talk Elite
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- From: Idaho - USA
- Registered: 23-6-2020
- Posts: 2,370
Re: Your Ebay watch list
There is a nice Olympia SGE30 on eBay for $ 99 USD asking. It started at $ 150 and then dropped to $ 125...now discounted even more.
It is very similar to my recently added SGE35 with the difference in looks and the Tab bar above the key-tops with the SGE30.
So I am fighting really hard and trying to convince myself I do not need a SGE30.
Then this one shows up for only $ 35 with local pick-up that is drive-able for me. And it was recently serviced in Ohio before a cross-country move.
I am still trying to be strong and resist.
Last edited by Pete E. (04-8-2021 12:16:29)
- Uwe
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,410
Re: Your Ebay watch list
Go get it! I can't wrap my head around spending $100 for most typewriters, but a $35 example is right in my cost wheelhouse and the SGEs are nice machines.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
