WTB: Affordable Power Meter

You may get lucky here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Powertap-Computer-Power-Meter-wheel-and-all-acc...

It's the original Powertap and those don't usually go for very much. Keep an eye on it.

Someone kept outbidding me, so I kept mine low...que sera sera

Edited by lobstergirl 2006-01-18 9:04 AM

I see it's your first bidding attempt on Ebay. What normally happens is that when someone puts in a bid, he/she puts in a maximum that they're willing to pay if the auction were to end in the next few minutes. In the case of this power meter, the other bidder might feel it's worth $300 to him so that might possibly be his maximum bid. However, the only bid amount that shows up is the amount required to stay above all other bids...up to his maximum. So if you enter $25, his will automatically increment to the next highest amount...until he reaches his maximum.

There are several Ebay strategies. One is to get in the bidding early, post your maximum and hope it survives and also hope it discourages other bidders since they see by the automatic increments that you want the item. This is what happened in your situation.

Another strategy is to wait until nearly the end of the auction, with a few minutes to go, and enter your maximum bid (as long as its higher than the current bid posted) and hope it's enough.

There are other things as well, such as proxy bidding by an outside agency etc. but they're better left to experienced Ebayers.

Yes, ebay will do the bidding for him, up to his maximum bid, say $300 in this case. But, if you were to put you maximum at $275, and his was $300, ebay would only go 1 step higher than your highest bid, giving him the win for $276. If the opposite were to happen and you put in a maximum bid of $350 and his was only $300, YOU would then win the auction for one step above his $300 bid. So, $301

Note the increments aren't always in one dollar. Some higher priced auctions go up in increments of $100(vehicles and higher priced items), while some are increments of $.25.

Have we confused you yet?

Edited by cmslone 2006-01-18 10:27 AM

No, as the winning bidder he would only pay the highest bid that is at least as great as the starting amount. Picture it this way. The seller offers the powertap and the starting (entry) bid is $10, with an incremental amount of $5:

Bidder "A" puts in a maximum bid of $101. But since he's the only bidder so far, the highest bid shows up as $10 (the opening amount required).

Bidder "B" comes along and decides to enter the action. He see's the high bid of $10 so figures he'll enter the highest amount he feels the item is worth, perhaps $75. He enters that amount and then when the page updates, he notices the amount from Bidder "A" is $80 (the next $5 increment, but still under "A"'s maximum).

Bidder "B" decides the item isn't worth that much so he doesn't bid any more. The auction ends with no more bidding and "A" wins the item for $80.

Now say "B" decided to put in a maximum of $150 instead. He'd then have the high bid of $105, the $5 increment over "A"'s maximum. If "A" now wants to get back in, he has to raise his maximum bid, to at least $155 to over-ride the maximum of Bidder "B".

You can see how all this can get into a bidding war, and often times results in items going for more than they might be worth! I've seen items on Ebay that were bid up to levels that were higher than what the item could be bought for at somwhere like Amazon. A camera for example! So the bottom line is to decide what you think the item is really worth to you, and enter that as your maximum, and accept the results. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes not. Obscure items have a better chance at being sold at bargain prices. Popular things like Zipp disc wheels etc are more likely to go for market prices.



Edited by max 2006-01-18 1:14 PM

Here's another lead for you:

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=688835;sb=post_latest_r...

This guy has two of the original powertaps for sale. Make him an offer.