I love ebay

I use eBay all the time to buy things, but I'm very strict with myself if it's a bidding auction rather than Buy It Now. I've noticed, on numerous occasions, that people have bid more for an item than it would have cost in the shops. Either they don't know the 'real' cost or they've become caught up in the excitement of the bidding itself. You do have to be careful

I like vintage stuff, and the house is full of it. Yesterday, I picked up a set of fruit bowls from a charity shop. They are of the 'Empire range' (Crinoline Lady) and date from 1941. They are all perfect, apart from a bit of 'rubbing' on the base of the large bowl. The whole lot came to £3.25. When I was faffing about on eBay last night, I had a look to see if there were any for sale and what was being asked for them. There was a set of 6 small bowls which were being sold singly for £8.50 each...... This is just a silly price, I do think.

I know! But I suppose it's a combination of - how desperate is the seller to lose the items? (as in, DBH would only part with a few of his grandfather's items for a VERY good price, way beyond their worth) and lack of knowledge on both sides as to the real value?

MiL was selling her very good dinner service on Ebay and couldn't understand why no-one else wanted it. I had to point out that it wasn't at all fashionable at the moment (in fact it's hideous, IMO) not even as 'Retro'. I found someone else selling the same service for a fifth of what she was asking, they have been relisting it for a year now and still no luck.

I love Ebay. I'm watching several new cardis and jumpers at the moment, all around £40 from the various stores, but if I get them for less than £10 I'll be happy. I do like vintage kitchen stuff and recently picked up a cream coloured 50s flour bin, French, for £15. It's like brand new and identical to one my mum had when I was small. My best bargain is a 100+ year old Victorian Violets teapot from the USA for £8 plus postage about £10. It matches my collection and there was another one that sold for £79 in the UK at the same time. I've managed to hone my bids down to between 10 and 15 seconds and often get lucky.

Soop I use the same process as you and don't confirm my bid until the last few seconds I always go up to the max I will pay (sometimes more) if I really want something and most times I have been lucky,a couple of months ago I was looking for the Midnight series cups & saucers from a discontinued Denby range and found 4 starting at £28.00 (finished at £42.00) but then a couple of days later found 2 x sets of 2 for £5.00 & £6.00 a set from different sellers I was lucky to get both sets for £19.00 and was very pleased,a GNer kindly told me to check ebay for my collection I hadn't thought of it before and then you told me to check for wedding hats etc which again proved successful.

It's still a bit of a gamble - especially if your broadband decides to do a Go Slow. I have clicked and watched the blasted thing whirl round and round and round.... and find I was too late. I have also forgotten I was meant to be watching and left to poke the fire, and come back with 8 seconds and still managed to get my bid in, so it works both ways I suppose.

Yes, I have some lovely old kitchen things too. I really want some huge flour bins, as I make almost all our bread and have flour stored all over the place, but bakers snap them all up for £100s. I found one that would fit under a counter, it went for almost £400.

jr there are supposed to be days which are better for winning bids than others according to those who use it often,and my friend said her items that finish just after 9pm on a Thursday/Friday always sell best I find it very strange sometimes.

Sunday is a dreadful day for buying, but excellent for selling. The whole world seems to spend their day looking for impulse purchases on quiet Sunday afternoons.

I suspect that the best time for male purchases is during sports events on tv.

After 9pm - I'm not surprised. That's when the children have gone to bed, dinner cleared away, house tidied. As a non-tv watcher, that's when I tend to go looking.

I've just done ok. Won the bidding on two new Boden cardigans for £25. That'll do very nicely

I also watch and bid at about 12 seconds. This week I got a lovely full length quality cotton nightie and robe for £5.49.

I also bought a beautiful new Alain Weiz dress for £15. It was too big and so I listed it for £20, to recoup cost and postage. Within an hour it had a bid.

This week I've had a bit of a clear out of my wardrobe and tomorrow will post 8 sold items. This way I manage to fund my wardrobe and also move on my mistakes.

Well done when and coolgran - I've been out all night at a family do, just logged on to find I'm the proud owner of 5x25m rolls of green plastic coated galvanised wire fencing at 6' high.

Want to swop?

I like the buy now option, especially on vintage jewellry. If it's something I like and a good price then it's nice to know you've secured it.
I too forgot to bid on something yesterday afternoon. A bit annoyed with myself! x

Anya..... I won't bother swopping.
Though I'm sure I'd find a use for it somewhere.

I haven't bought anything from E bay but DH just bought a new Calloway golf driver from there for £17.99 almost new - they cost nearer £200 when new. I must have a look at it.

number's query on her thread asking about the potential alteration of an episode of Eggheads reminded me of what happened to me on Ebay last week. A lovely Phase Eight cowl neck top came up for sale, in black. So I watched it, it would be excellent for choir. Then the same one came up in navy blue, a week later but I thought it would be useful and so watched that one too.

I won the black one. The parcel arrived - and it was navy blue. I thought, I must have won the navy one and it arrived faster than the black (It has been a very busy week or two on ebay so it wasn't surprising I got muddled!). I checked, and no, it was for a black top, and the navy had still another three days to go, so I contacted the seller. She got back to me a day later, and said I was wrong, it was navy on her site. I went to have another look - and miracle of miracles, talk about turn wine to water - it now says Dark Navy!

I wanted a navy anyway, and got it at a reasonable price, but didn't leave a good star rating by way of revenge. It's the first time I have been sure that someone has altered their site, but how can you prove it? I could have asked for my money back, but then I would have had all the faff of returning it.

Janer If you look at your purchase on eBay, it should show "original listing". Check that and see what it says! I had the same experience a few months ago. The seller had sneakily changed the listing, but either didn't know that the original would still show up or thought that I wouldn't know! Good luck

Thank you so much for your PM, I hadn't thought to look there! I checked - and guess what...

Am now off to plant out some more tomatoes, I find gardening a very good time to think out evil revenges.

Brilliant Hope your tomatoes are in a suitably malevolent mood to give you some good ideas

I think a seller can't change a listing if there is less than 24 hours to the end of the auction. Or at least that used to be the case.

I find ebay so much cheaper these days as at Amazon most things now say free delivery over £20 spent on items very much lower than £20. So I now see if they have the same thing on ebay and buy it from there as most times it is free delivery without conditions. I don't know why Amazon have done this but they have lost a lot of my custom because of it. I am not always buying things to the value of £20 and refuse to pay postage if I do not have to. Has anyone else noticed this?

What a fun thread! I filled in pieces from my 1975 wedding pottery set. I accidentally ordered 9 extra soup bowls. But after I bought the tea-pot I felt much better

Ok, off to see if they've got something I need! Nighttime shopping is the best.

coolgran this one managed it after the sale! I said I would be keeping an eye on her, and would report her to ebay if I saw any further evidence. I have saved her as a 'favourite' so she won't get lost in the system. Why on earth some people's first instinct is to cover up, rather than admit a simple error, is beyond my imagining.

Yes, I am collecting my old china too! Maybe you are one of my competitors?

Covering up is definitely not in the spirit of eBay. Very bad form!

MariClaire Yes, buying in the early hours is usually followed by the morning cry of "What on earth did I buy this morning?" . Similar to the mornings of the night before when I used to think, with a hangover "Who do I need to apologise to today after last night?" Lol.

I once sold a rather nice M&S top to someone who demanded her money back because it was the wrong colour. I'd given a very detailed description of the colour and the photo showed it reasonably well but I couldn't be bothered to argue. I relisted it and sold it to a lady who was delighted with it.

I love ebay for things you can't find anywhere else. It's great for obscure books. I recently found a book I hadn't read since the 60's. I couldn't even remember the author and to complicate things further the title had been changed in later editions!