Thread: eGay Tips & Tricks from you lot please...

I'm after something as poxy as a Sky+ remote control as the kids have lost mine (ssshhh, but internally I am an erupting volcano at this ).

Two things here:

• I'm not shelling out the official Sky price of £24.99 out of principal
• I'm not shelling out more than seven quid, because I'm tight

In all seriousness, was after some tips on bidding, as I've always thought and used eGay as a massive warehouse and only click on the "Buy It Now" option but alas, these days I can no longer be so footloose and fancyfree with my spondoolies so I have to do this auction bidding whajyamacallit.

What I do is select ten remotes that end within a day (under a tenner with P&P of course), put them in my watch list and do the oh-so-exciting thing of watching the auction until it counts down - this is redundant by the way as I know I can put in a maximum bid and just leave the auction the hell alone - if I don't win, I don't win.

I've done this 2 days on the trot now and I can't seem to "grab myself a bargain".

What I was wondering is if I'm missing any fundamentals here or there's a better way of approching a bidding war (not interested in programs like sniper or stuff like that)... or is £10 not enough for a bit of plastic with a coupla buttons on it?

I don't bid on things I've just clicked on "Buy it now" in the past so I cant offer you any tips mate. But what about one of those 4 in 1 or 7 in 1 remotes that control lots of different electronic items? I'm not sure if they do Sky boxes but still worth checking out or even search for a sky remote clone?

Originally Posted by Bar

I don't bid on things I've just clicked on "Buy it now" in the past so I cant offer you any tips mate. But what about one of those 4 in 1 or 7 in 1 remotes that control lots of different electronic items? I'm not sure if they do Sky boxes but still worth checking out or even search for a sky remote clone?

No mate, got to be the real deal.
Not because of Sky authentication or crap like that but let's be honest, them 99-in-1 things look downright trampy

For £10.29 from Argos I wouldn't give a bollix

I would go to Argos Swipezster like Bar suggests but if you have to bid then leave it till the last10 minutes to log in and see if it's gone beyond wht you want to pay - if not leave it till the last 30 seconds to bid

One thing i never do on Ebay is put in a bid with or without a maximum price, by doing that if someone else bids against you... The price goes up.

I usually leave it to the last 20 seconds & put in my maximum bid, that way other bidders have 10 seconds to enter a higher bid

I do tend to stick to 'Buy it now' though, so much easier... It's just finding the things cheap enough

Forgot to add... I've got one of these & they are excellent, you can program the buttons to do what you want them to via USB to your laptop

I've got mine controlling the SKY, the TV, my Technics amp & my microwave

Logitech Harmony 300 Universal TV Sky Virgin BT Remote | eBay UK

You've done the right thing so far imo. I usually add a few to my watch list over a few days/weeks to see how much the auctions end at, I don't physically watch them myself tho. I'll go into my eBay to check their end prices and search for recently finished auctions at the same time aswell. Armed with that info I'll then find a live auction for the same thing, check out the seller's feedback, make sure the auction isn't populated by shill bidders for the seller, and wait til 10 mins before the end of the auction to actually log in to do any bidding or just buy it now if there is 1 and the price isn't too far fetched compared to real auction prices.

i find something,log in,watch wait,BUT NEVER BID as you will push the bid price up as others are bound to bid as well,generally to get there user names on the one whos presently bidding(ppl seek fame in all shapes and sizes)

then bid on the last 15 seconds or so,my girlfriend is a genius with ebay,and she has never lost a bid using this method.

There are computer generated ways of winning ebay auctions 100% by some computer programme that will automatically generate the next bid higher than the winners. I think there is a fee for it, and I dont know the name of the site, but your'e guarunteed to win , but you want to make sure you really want the thing cause you don't know how much you'll pay.

I always snipe if it's something important..

No too up on this sniping lark. Question: what if someone else is trying the same thing, who wins then?

Is it called snipe?


maybe the world would implode and we'd all die.

Originally Posted by dodders

No too up on this sniping lark. Question: what if someone else is trying the same thing, who wins then?

A snipe basically puts a bid in 10 - 20 seconds before the auction ends.. If someone else has bid more than you, they will win.

The thing with a snipe is you don't get into a bidding war.. put your best (maximum) bid in and it doesn't give anyone else time to react if you have bid more than them.

I use AuctionStealer UK - Free online ebay auction sniper software free ebay sniper esnipe ebay snipe site e snipe auctions ebay auction sniper site bid sniper

it's free.

Whenever I'm looking for something I check the 'completed items' to get a rough selling price of the item. I'd often see an item that sold (BIN) for below the average. Now, when doing a search, I arrange by the newly listed items first. I found this way that there's often a seller listing the item for Buy it Now at a decent price and if you're lucky the listing is fresh and you can swipe in there and buy it.

i use sniping software too, had more success with it than before i used it

just set it up then forget about it rather than watching a auction closely

set it to it bid in the closing seconds of a auction and no one has time to react