What are these people thinking?!

[Pleater]

I just 'won' three kilt style skirts for 13UK pounds, plus the postage - not arrived yet but if they are even wearable they are bargains.

I often see overbidding on skillfully described old machinery on eBay, or books described as out of print when they are actually easily available in a new edition.

I supose it is a case of 'there's one (a fool) born every minute' - the shyster's motto.

It does get a bit worrying when the article is honestly described and it is still fought over like crazy.

It has happened with things I have sold and which were resold for three times the new price, but somehow it never happens on my auctions.

[GlassMan]

It is stuff like this that always has me asking: "Does anyone really 'win' an auction?"

I guess it can happen. I have "won" an auction and paid less than the going rate for the item. But that is rare. I just can't put myself in the position of knowning that out of all the people who wanted the item, I was the guy that paid the most for it. It just goes against my Scottish nature.

-ian

When I'm actually bidding on something, which is rare these days, I always set my maximum bid I'm willing to pay at below the going market rate, and then leave it alone. If I get outbid, I get outbid, no big deal. I just can't feel like I've won anything if I know that I've been taken for a ride.

Even on relatively rare items, I don't let myself get caught in a bidding war. There was a tie clip recently that I thought was really amazing and that I had never seen before. It was vintage 1930s and was amazing. But the bids rapidly rose higher than what I was willing to pay so I didn't bother to visit the listing again.

I guess we have a lot more self-restraint than most people on eBay.