Bidding wars

I have to admit to sometimes hating the way that eBay works and the way some people behave on it

OK I had found a Land Rover of the type I had been wanting, but knowing it was an auction I was happy up to a certain price and up until 50 minutes before the end of the auction the price was well below that.

The full story is a little sad. we were away for the evening with friends having been out to the funeral of someone who had been one of their closes friends and someone we had come to know and like very much in his later years. The wine was flowing and we were all talking about the adventures we hoped to have in the future. Chas our late friend had been seen off with a mix if jazz, morris dancing and real ale, and now we were enjoying some red wine before an evening out. My dilemma came out in the discussion. could we afford to leave such a bargain? A few more glasses of their fine red wine and it was decided... A maximum value would be £7654.32 so I entered that into eBay and we all went out for a meal at that point.

A hour or so later we came back. I logged on and  I HAD WON !, but the way people had been bidding in the last 20 minutes had driven up the price by £2000. OK that was still within my price or otherwise I would not have won, but is it really necessary and what does  it say about the sort of people who can't decide what something is worth and just place a bid in.

All of this last minute bidding doesn't mean a bargain unless someone else has only bid very low - if they have you will win, if not they will win. I have yet to see that this last minute bidding does anything for anyone other than cause a lot of stress

I have to admit I often won't even bid on some things if they are auctions  whereas if there was a reasonable buy now price I would just buy it

That's it... Just a personal view if you are selling via eBay please take note!