Friday, January 10, 2014

The $0.99 Experiment

This post is about something I've been trying to do with my eBay bidding lately. It's pretty simple, I just place a starting bid for $0.99 on any card that would be a decent addition to my collection. The idea is to see how many cards I can end up winning for just that initial bid.

Now that I've decided to more actively look for cards on eBay again, it's been pretty easy to find stuff that I like with a $0.99 starting bid. I've even had a couple of auctions end that way so far this year. I may even try to keep track of which ones work and which don't.


Obviously if there is someting I just have to have (i.e. Super Script, Jimmy Howard, etc.) I will probably go beyond just the one bid as anyone normally would. It's just that much more satisfying when I end up winning an auction for such a great price. 

The only real downside to this whole thing is that most of the time $0.99 never actually means $0.99 after you account for the shipping costs. Not sure how I feel about paying more for shipping than the item itself, but I guess that's just the way it is with things like cards.

Anyone else do this as a "strategy" on eBay?

2 comments:

  1. I just place a bid for the max I'll pay (including shipping) and forget about it. If I win great, if not it'll come back around.

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  2. I've been playing a similar game only I'm really bargain basement, bids starting at .01-.06 with free shipping. I've won a surprising number of cards for between a penny and sixteen cents.

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