rdunniii "But, IMO prebidding or Ebay bidding is silly and, unless you do a closeout bid high enough to scare others away you won't win".
I'm not sure what you mean by that. On ebay I look at an item after I am convinced it's what I want and happy with the seller's information I put in a bid for the highest price I want to go PLUS the shipping to West Australia that is important as it is a part of the cost then I leave it and hope for the best. Of course if it's "buy it now" and the price is right there is no waiting or hoping. I have won many Auctions doing this maybe you would consider my offers are high and they might be, but I can't go to shows to compare anything so my offer is what I consider it's worth to me only I don't resell any of my trains.
If there is a case of really desperately wanting something and that is unusual for me I will try sniping them at the end I only try this with certain items (not Trains). Trains I don't care if I lose the auction for me there are plenty more sooner or later but these other items I am interested in are few and far between so I adopt a different tactic.
I only use auctions on eBay not anywhere else because I like to see the shipping costs in front of me before I bid I think at other auctions you don't have this control again this is shipping to West Australia where the shipping costs can go through the roof if you leave it to someone else to do believe you me I know I have been caught but only once on shipping sometimes something might be damaged I just fix it and live with it again this is rare and I buy a lot of things. Funny enough most of the well known American hobby shops are usually very good with shipping costs they seem to know what overseas customers expect to pay and charge a fair price mostly dealing through the US post office some of them will tell you the shipping costs before sending so everybody is happy.
I don't want to get into naming and recommending hobby shops and I state I am not a regular customer with NassauHobby but I wanted six covered 2 bay EL hoppers they had them listed on their website they do international shipping I had them within three weeks and the shipping charge was good they had my credit card details they are trusted I had no hassles and I had never dealt with them before it's just at the time I wanted what they had I was happy. I'm going to bed I have had enough of this I'm tired. Roo.
