Am I being cheap?

[Tony the Tiger]

Sailor 1911 mid-size w/ Music nib, or a regular size 1911 w/ a Zoom nib. Everytime I bid on each, and they get over about $65, I back off. Really want a Sailor though, and I hear both of these niba are awesome, if you like wet and broad smoothness.

Zoom nib

Music nib

[andyk]

Are they going much above your 'glass ceiling' if you are talking about $10-15 more and you really want the pen, grit your teeth and bid higher.

 

If it is much higher you need to seriously think about how badly you want the pen.

 

You can often get a good idea of average prices by looking at completed sales on ebay, but bottom line is how much is the pen worth to you?

 

Andy

[lingyuki]

I feel your pain! I wish I could afford a Sailor....

[ArPharazon]

I think I may have outbid you on one! I just bought a black/gold 1911M with music nib of eBay . . . paid $102. It's way higher than you're looking for, but it was still less expensive that the online stores that sold them. I suppose I could have kept waiting for a lower price, but I needed to get it before Christmas.

 

If you're willing to take other colors than black, you may have more luck. I saw a black w/red cap 1911M music that went for only $51. I think I also saw a blue one go for a pretty reasonable price.

[SGreen]

I find waiting and not putting a bid in until about 20-30secs to go and then putting in what you're willing to pay usually gets better results than getting into a bidding war with someone while they have plenty of time to react.

[Tony the Tiger]

 

If you're willing to take other colors than black, you may have more luck. I saw a black w/red cap 1911M music that went for only $51.

Actually, I'd like the red/black w/ Music nib. Guess I just need to be more diligent. $51 would be fine, but not $102.

[FrankB]

Tony, if you have established a ceiling for the price you are willing to pay, stay with it and be patient. Yes, you might have to reassess that ceiling if too much time passes. But I would suggest you remain as rational as possible.

 

I decided a couple of months ago that I wanted another Pel M-1000. I set my ceiling price and I went to war. It took me the better part of 10 weeks, but I got a great pen, the nib size I wanted, and stayed within $10 of my ceiling price.

 

Very unfortunately, I fear SGreen is right. I hate snipers! They make on line auctions a horrid experience. But sometimes you have to play the game. I got my M-1000 by out sniping a sniper. I didn't like it at all, but I was effective.

 

Good luck.

[extrafine]

Effectively, sniping changes from an outcry-type auction to a closed bid one (I'm sure that there are formal names for these things), more like a tender process. I suspect that if *everyone* did it, prices wouldn't go as high, as there would be fewer bidding wars. The current system encourages bidding wars, so yes, sniping is the rational behaviour.

 

Sometimes, when I have time, I trawl through eBay listings for some of my favourite pens... and look for ones that have no bids and are close to closing. I've gotten some incredible deals that way (a Sheaffer Balance for $5.50 that cleaned up nicely, and a Sheaffer 46 Special for under $10!), but they are definitely rare and far between. I've also gotten complete junk... but at those prices, I figure I take it as it comes and I don't get annoyed at the seller over things like cracks in the cap and so on.

[jmkeuning]

I do not want to turn this into a war over the benefits of sniping, but I only bid on ebay by sniping.

 

I use a program called esnipe. What this allows you to do is set up bid groups. In this case, Tony can set up a bid group for his 1911. Then he can set the program to bid on the pens at his price. When you lose an auction, the program will bid on the next one. This continues until you win. Once you win an item in your group, it stops.

 

For example, if I want a PFM for $100, and there are four listed on ebay, I open the program, and put in $100 for each of the four auctions. As long as I have them all in a group, the program will stop if I win one.

[Gojira]

There are good deals to be had on Ebay if you're patient. I've scored some pens at pretty good (though not sumgai) prices. Sailor pens seem to be hot items on Ebay so you may have to raise your ceiling a little. I managed to get a few at decent prices before but the prices recently have been far too high for me.

 

Good luck with your bidding!

[DougS]

TTT,

 

I think you need to be more persistant. This guy got his last week for cheap and there seem to be others.

eBay link

 

--Doug

[ArPharazon]

Well, to be honest I actually screwed up on my Sailor auction.

 

I misread the listing, and thought I was bidding on a full-sized 1911 (it didn't say '1911M', but instead '1911 Black 14kt mid sized music nib' . . . the listing did include the pen's measurements, though). I am also a 'sniper' practically all the time, but for some reason on this one I just put in my absolute max bid of $120. It immediately shot up to the $102 point, and stayed there for a day and I won the pen. I'm just glad someone else didn't bid me up any more!

 

I thought about contacting the seller and telling him after I realized my mistake, but that was more about wanting a 1911 and not a 1911M. After a lot more reading here and elsewhere, I decided I might be better off with the slightly smaller model. So I figured 'live and learn' . . . next time I'll be more careful when I read listings. As I said, though, the least expensive online store I saw had the 1911M for $120, and many had them for up to $160. So I consoled myself with the fact that I still got it nearly $20 less by going to eBay.

 

I actually also liked the red and black version, and it made my plight harder seeing that one go for only $51. This is a gift to me from my wife for Christmas, though, and she really wanted me to get an all-black and gold pen.

[ArPharazon]

... This guy got his last week for cheap and there seem to be others.

eBay link

 

You know, this auction does not have any reference to '1911M' or 'medium size' or 'mid size' in it at all. Aside from the 135mm capped length, you might assumed that this is a full-sized pen for sale. Unless the 1911M is called the 'Profit' in Japan . . . is this true?

 

I realize that English is a second language here (and I can't speak let alone write a lick in Japanese) . . . but this could easily be considered a bit misleading.

 

But back to the original topic . . . it seems that non-black models can definitely be had for very reasonable prices!

Edited November 27, 2007 by ArPharazon

[Pete]

Yeah, nowadays you can easily have an item gain about 90% of its value in the last hour. I sold something on ebay not too long ago, and it went for 60$ to around 176$ in the last day, most of that in the last hour. Sometimes I will put an earlier bid in so that my only bid isnt a snipe, kind of a courtesy to the seller. Frankly though, any bids you make that arent snipes arent in your self interest.

 

Theres a feature in the "advanced search" option that lets you see completed items, Tony--you just tick a little box that says "completed items only", and that lets you know if youve got a reasonable chance of getting the item you want for the price that you want. I use it all the time... usually resulting with me saying "theyre paying that much for it?!!"

Edited November 27, 2007 by Pete

[DRP]

Waiting until after Christmas or even mid-January may get you a better price. People are bidding higher now so as to get Christmas gifts. Prices oftentimes take a tumble after Christmas.

 

What to do? Keep bidding & keep watching completed deals so as to see what happens. If nothing else, you get a sense of where the market is at any given point in time.

 

When I bid, I simply put out my highest price early in the game. If somebody wants to snipe at my price, fine. I know how high I want to go. If they want it more, let them pay for the privilege.

[captnemo]

Exactly. I only snipe, and I drop my bid at T-minus 10 seconds, not enough time for a counterbid. I do not mean to offend anyone by saying this but I feel that bidding well before the close of auction is foolish. All it does is invite and provide psychological justification for someone else to bid higher.

 

Having had an eBay store and also sold many different items in auctions my desire is then the opposite of course. I do everything possible to get a bids on the board as early as possible because a bid invites another bid.

 

But when buying, if I find an item I want, I calculate my max bid to the penny, including shipping, and I record it and set an alarm in my computer that alerts me 10 minutes before close of auction (which might be days in the future). When the alarm goes off, I stop what I'm doing, I go to eBay, check if the bidding has not gone above my planned bid. If not I set up a second screen with the bid pre-loaded and ready to fire, I sync my clock to eBay time, and then I simply wait and push the button 10 seconds before close. Then win or lose I walk away, no emotions involved.

 

Yes, sniping is actually a "sealed bid auction" but it avoids contributing to any bidding war. And I certainly don't want to be the first bidder on an item, heaven forbid. An item with no bids attracts far less attention than an item with bids. Once that first bid is up there, the gate is open and the game begins, and so I sure won't be the first bidder, no way.

[PAKMAN]

Hang in there and hold to your guns! I too don't bid at all until the last few seconds of an auction. I don't mind spending weeks and looking at a dozen pens to get the one I want at the price I want!!

[captnemo]

Hang in there and hold to your guns! I too don't bid at all until the last few seconds of an auction. I don't mind spending weeks and looking at a dozen pens to get the one I want at the price I want!!

 

Yes. Among some of my friends, I am known as "the eBayer" and they sometimes call me and ask me to snipe for an item on eBay for them. I usually tell them that it will take several weeks because I like to observe several auctions of similar or identical items go off in order to get a handle on where I should bid and this takes two to three weeks. "Watching" is handy for that. Once I get a handle I talk to them again, tell them what I found and then get from them their absolute max threshold of pain figure they are willing to spend. With that info, I can go get it.

 

I also never bid an even amount. I figure that amateurs often bid in round amounts, $24.00, $24.50 so my bids are $24.05, or $24.55. More than once this method has enabled me to win the auction, by a nickel. Haha.

 

The majority of the time I win the item for considerable less than my snipe bid.

[alvarez57]

Boy! I have a very different approach...

first, I don't think I NEED a pen (another one).

I bid my personal max, I don't have time to follow a bid. Maybe that program Cpt. Nemo mentions..but nah!

If I get it, nice, if not...many more will come.

It is not "aggressive" nor full of adrenaline...but it works for me, and mind you, A LOT of my pens come from FleaBay.

[blak000]

Yeah, I do the same thing, alvarez57. I just bid the maximum I want to, and then forget about it until the auction is done. It might provide psychological justification and all that, but I just don't care. If the person bids higher than me... then I guess I'm not getting that item.