I'd be really grateful for any advice on BUYING a valuable item on ebay ...

[Mintyy]

I haven't used ebay for ages and, when I did before, it was for buying little bits and pieces of not much value.

But now I have my eye on an item of furniture that I really like the look of.

The seller appears to be new (no previous feedback).

She says the item is from a particular shop. But there's no photographic evidence of that.

There is one bid on it at the moment. Sale ends Tuesday 1pm ish.

What should I do now?

I have a top price in mind. Should I just bid that now and forget about it, or wait til last minute on Tuesday?

Thanks for any replies.

Not much experience either I'm afriad, but if it were me and I was paying a lot of money I'd be a bit dubious about the zero feedback.
If it is local I would arrange to go and view the item. If not I'd at least contact the seller to ask them a bit more...
Would you be paying by paypal? Have you checked their insurance policy (I'm not sure what it is myself) - if it goes up to the amount you're paying I suppose you'll be pretty safe.

Thanks mersmam. I guess I would have to pay by paypal. Can't imagine any other option. Do they have insurance? Don't worry, I'll go and check it out.

Anyone else want to help me with my bidding strategy if I go ahead?

Do not bid until the last minute. If I have a definate price I want to pay I always use a sniper that will bid for you in the last few seconds - very difficult to get timing right otherwise. I use the one at www,goofbay.com - it's free! - and have generally been successful with it, because it leaves it too late for anyone else to put a bid in after. Make sure you put in the maximum you would pay - i always add an odd amount of pence as well to up the odds of my bid being the highest. Ie if I was happy to pay £50 I'd make my maximum %50.67 or something.

HTH

Thanks Katy.

Any other words of wisdom from successful ebay bidders?

Feel a bit nervous ffs!!!!

Yup Katy is correct

if you bid high now someone will prob come along and try and outbid you...getting higher and higher and higher till they either do it or give up.

You don't want them to have the chance.

Don't bid till the last minute.

Contact the seller thru ebay and ask as many pertinent q's as you like

get a feel for how serious they are

They might let you look at it

Have a good look at it before handing over the cash (if you pay cash)
If you know you'll need to test it and can't be sure you'll know if it's ok until later, then pay by paypal as you have recourse to claim back money that way.

Good luck! I used to buy expensive stuff on ebay but don't really use it much now. Have been almost had a few times

Is it an item that is collection only? Is it local, If so i would ask to go and see the item first to ensure it actually exists and is in a good state of working/decorative order (not sure what you are bidding on).

I would pay cash on collection as apposed to paying with paypal and then arriving to a non-existing item. Pay-pal are pretty rubbish.

Someone won an iphone dp was selling 0 stars. Luckily he didn't send it as it didn't seem right and the guys communication was dodgey pigeon english. Anywho a few days after payment paypal called him to say that the payment had been made by an unautherised card. Luckily dp hadn't sent the phone because paypal wouldn't have refunded him the dodgey payment even if he had.

Basically beware of zero stars is all i can say.

Just incase any of you come back to this thread ...

I won the chest of drawers!!!

So many thanks to all for your helpful advice .

There were 46 bids and 9 other bidders excluding me. It went up from £200 ish in the last few minutes. My top price was £250. I used the sniper as per Katy's suggestion (thanks Katy) and felt a little guilty but, as I was genuinely out for the day at the sale end time, I didn't see what else I could do?

Anyway, goofbay sniped poor old bidder 9 at 2 seconds past their final bid and I got it for £220.

It was nail-biting stuff .