Don't Be a Frenzy Bidder!
Written: Jan 24 '02
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The Bottom Line
You can get a good deal if you do it smartly. Shop around. Bid Low, see what average winning bids are first.
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| Full Review |
Ubid is an on-line auction site. They get a large amount of goods from either the manufacturer or distributors and then try to make money by letting you bid (or overbid) on it.
Positives:
. Great variety of items to bid on. Some well-known brand names are available. Some items are actually the "hot" and "in-demand" items that folks are clamoring for. Others are not so popular (and hence will have a higher starting bid :-( ).
. A nice feature of ubid is the tracking. You can see your previous bids for the past thirty days. So narrow down what you want. Do some LOW, really LOW bids on it, so low it is guaranteed that you won't win. That bid will be captured on your bidding history (My Page) as an unsuccessful bid. And you will be able to see what the final winning bid was!! If you do this for a week or so, you will have a good idea of what the item goes for. You may even see that for some strange reason, the item goes for $100 less on Wednesdays (or a significant percentage of the price)! Another date you might get an exceptional deal is on holidays, so look for items ending on or around the holiday! Less bidders, lower prices!
. Ubid is a potential source for your wish list. You know, the items that you wish you could have but are too expensive. Set yourself an absolute maximum that you can afford and are willing to pay. Then follow the advice above to see what the going price is ranging. This will let you know if you can afford the item. If you can, just bid your maximum (or a little under). If you win, great. Otherwise, it wasn't something you absolutely needed. Or just bid again the next auction (but don't go over your maximum). Don't forget to factor in shipping prices! This can be significant on inexpensive items and ultra-heavy items (monitors).
Potential Negatives:
. Watch out for bidding frenzy. "Oh, I have the high bid. I feel great. Wait, that twerp just outbid me! I'll show him!" And before you know it, you have overpaid for the item!! On Ubid, there are usually more items tomorrow, so don't fall into this trap. Just be patient.
. Read the fine print ... take a break and re-read the fine print. Make sure you can live with the warranty BEFORE you bid. Re-read the fine print! For example, some "cheap" 20" & 21" monitors that come with their own video cards will ONLY work with that video card (or similar ones bought from supplier and they are more expensive since there is less demand.). These are older unix workstation monitors refurbished but they operate at a fixed frequency (Note that lately the high-end video cards can support some of these). This one got me, although I would probably do it again since it was such a great deal even with the chunk of change on shipping. If you want to look into this topic without having to bid, see http://www.bazarmania.com site.
. Be sure to factor in the shipping prices. For heavier items, it may make more sense to get overnight shipping. Maybe only a $10 difference. Or it just may be more economical to buy it locally! So be sure to run the numbers BEFORE bidding.
. Loss of reality! Let's face it, Ubid may not be as large as ebay, but it is bad enough. You may want to set a timer when you start "surfing" ubid since you could easily spend a couple of hours there looking at the product offerings, salivating over things that will clutter your house!
. Reserve prices now? I don't recall if this was originally on their site (definitely not some of their early advertising of "no reserve" auctions), but some of the products now has a reserve price that isn't published. I'm mixed on this development. I can understand ubid wanting a minimum price before selling the item but it does seem to go against the early "intent" of the web site.
. Auction swoopers! Ubid, just like Ebay, has its share of auction swoopers. You know the type. They wait until the last 10 minutes of an auction and outbid everyone. However, ubid combats that somewhat by supplying a 10 minute window. So, if someone swoops in and bids with one minute left to go, the auction is automatically extended 10 minutes! The extensions can be repeated forever. The auction won't be final until 10 continuous minutes have passed without a bid. Interesting approach, you decide whether it benefits the buyer or the seller the most.
. Bid Increment. Be sure to look at the incremental bid, it varies for each type of item. For items that Ubid doesn't expect to sell too high, the increment will be small. But on larger ticket items, the increment is large. Generally, even the smallest increment is larger than Ebay (on Ebay you are free to bid any price you want, they do have a bid increment too now). So on average, you are probably paying a bit higher for your winning item due to this larger incremental bid.
Free Advice:
. Be willing to walk away. Instead of becoming a frenzied bidder, let the Bid Butler handle late bids. If you have already set the price to the most you are willing to pay, then walk away. If you don't get it, don't worry. There will be plenty of items in the next auction (or even better ones). Bid Butler will faithfully increase your bid by the next increment until it exceeds your maximum set value.
Conclusion
. I hope you follow my advice and get a great deal at Ubid. If you have suggestions, please post them in comments and I'll integrate them here.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
CrazyTim
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Member: Tim
Reviews written: 72
Trusted by: 45 members
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