I am not only a “live picker” that is Estate and garage sales, etc. But, I am a “virtual picker”. I buy great deals from ebay and other online sources, and then turn around and sell them for the actual value. I’m not going to tell you what I just got today, but it cost me $55, and is actually worth $950. I suppose this is a form of EBAY ARBITRAGE! It works all the time.
But I am here to admit, I have been very dumb! (I’m sure some of you are just as dumb too).
I have been a pretty big user, until now, of the “Ebay Watch List”. It’s been part of the fun of buying stuff cheap, and selling high. Sometimes my competition is pretty fierce. My competition has in fact been caused BY ME!
Ebay advertises to other buyers, especially ones who are looking for similar items I have been watching, that I am watching what they want! Let me explain this better. If I am watching for a (let’s say for kicks, Pet Rock). I find a cool one for $.99 and I really really want it. I used to click as soon as I could to add it to my watch list. Now, when my competition is looking for a Pet Rock, and somehow missed the one I picked to watch, gets shown: “See what others are watching” and shows my item, because it’s on my stupid watch list! Dang! What a dummy I’ve been.
It would be better to just quietly save my searched item in a file, or an email. Or, if you use a sniping service like Esnipe, you can place your bid now, but it will not show up anywhere on ebay until the last second. You can still get reminders through Esnipe, etc.
I now use my ebay watch list just for pricing stuff, or reminders, etc. Everything of real value will be hidden from others.