How do YOU determine how much you bid on eBay?

[ForteKitty]

Just askin because i'm curious, and bored today because it's too gloomy to go out for my break.

I usually buy diamond jewelry, and I determine my max by pricing the center diamond on the search engine here, and take off 40% if it's under 1ct, 30% if it's larger than 1ct-1.5ct. Of course, I dont buy much over $2k on ebay, so i can understand why the 30% off a 2ct diamond wont quite work, ha.

My best deals to date are probably:

- 0.90ctw G VS diamond earrings for $450 (gave those to my mom)

- dangling diamond pendant w/0.50ct H VS rb, diamond halo and bale, 18k, for $225 (so sparkly!!)

- platinum Kelege flower band for $300 (mom and i share since it's a 4.25 and it fits my middle finger and her ring finger)

- GIA 1.15ct H, SI1 oval diamond in plat solitaire for $1425 (seller had crappy pics, but i saw potential so bid anyway. then I drove an hour east of where i lived to meet up in a police station.. got some weird looks when we explained what we were doing!) I later reset this into a Maytal split shank, and set something else into the plat setting and gave it to my mom. apparently all these rings fit at least one of her fingers...

- GIA 0.76 D VS1 marquise in 18k solitaire for $700. (no story, it's still waiting for a reset... once i can decide what to do with it since the ring is a size 5. my mom wont wear it because she's afraid she'll poke her eye out)

- the ring in my avatar- 0.90ct E VVS2 marquise in plat pave setting for $2100. It was a better deal back then because a similar diamond came up as $4300... now it's under $3700. boo.

Anyhow, it had crappy pics, so after i verified the GIA number online, i followed it for 6 months as it dropped from $5k to $2500. Then negotiated with her, and met up while i was driving back from Lake Tahoe since she was on the way. I brought my loupe, checked the laser inscription, matched the tiny fleck of dust they called an inclusion (that was fun), checked it for damage, gave her cash, then left! that was pretty interesting since I had a caravan of 15 people w/ me that day and we were camped outside starbucks waiting for her, haha. It's still my pride and joy because it was the first big piece I bought after I started working!



Due to laziness, i usually don't account for melees, metal, or anything else unless the mount is really special and it can be sized down to my stupid finger size of 3.25.

What is your method? Do you account for accent diamonds or metal? Do you calculate how much you can get for selling the scrap metal?

 

[kelpie]

I do comparison shop to see how discounted it is but it is often hard to compare apples to oranges. I often just have a price in my head what I'd be willing to pay to own it. I also use http://dendritics.com calculators for gold weight, ect. which are very very useful!!!

 

[starryeyed]

Wow fortekitty, you're very scientific about your eBay purchases! Sounds like you've had some great finds!

I generally don't buy anything that doesn't carry a name - I'm too afraid of getting burned. When I was MUCH younger, I fell for the 1-carat diamond tennis bracelet for $200, F-G, VS stones. I was so proud of myself until I took the bracelet to a jeweler who said, "I hope you didn't pay any more than $100." Ugh. The Seller wouldn't accept the return, so I re-listed and sold the bracelet - glad I could get rid of it.

Ever since I only buy a name brand where there's a known threshold for quality.

 

[ForteKitty]

It is really hard to determine how much something costs sometimes, that's what made me think of this. Like with old cuts... i would have NO idea what to do. so i just stay away, haha.

the few times i wasn't scientific about it, i regreted it. they were still good deals, but i just felt like they could have been cheaper! I searched a long time for a pair of flower looking diamond earrings w/ 7 diamonds- 1 center & 6 around all the same size and set in same height (i dont like when the center sticks out), in studs. I found a pair of nice ones w/ a diameter of 9mm so they were pretty large, w/ H Si clarity for $380. and for some reason, maybe because it didn't have a bigger center stone i can actually look up the value for... i just feel like i overpaid. even tho realistically i know i didn't.

After that, i stopped buying pieces with small diamonds started concentrating on pieces w/a main diamond. It helps when i want to resell too!!

 

[joxxxelyn]

First you should make sure it's not overpriced and/or you can't get it for less elsewhere, then you should not exceed your own relative valuation of the product (what it's worth to you individually). After that there needs to be room in the budget for it.

 

[that_someone_special]

I think ebay people hate me. I try to get the lowest price possible, and am not afraid to put in a best offer that is 50% lower than they wanted. It has worked.. but I mostly use it as a jumping off point for them to come down in price anyways...

 

[ForteKitty]

ha that method almost never works for me. when i try that, people just flat out say no... they dont even bother counteroffering!

 

[that_someone_special]

lol sometimes I have flat out asked "OK, can you help me out here?" I think it's SO silly when sellers have a BIN price and then a Best Offer price... but don't accept ANYTHING lower than the Best Offer.

 

[Sizzle]

As a seller I am put off when people are INSULTING like wanting a certified 1ct diamond for $300, but as a buyer, I find it annoying when people have the best offer up and then they send a counter offer thats just a few dollars off. Just do a BIN for what you want then!

 

[RockHugger]

I won't pay more then 50% of what a diamond is worth retail.

For example, I purchased a .7ct I, SI1 for 600 today. Will be my alternative ring. Retail, the stone is worth 1400-1800.

I have purchased an emerald cut 1.15 H SI2 for 750

And my fave was my husbands 2.5 ct stud for 100. It wasn't the best diamond, but was good for him.

I am also one of those obeyers that will offer half of the BIN. Has worked well on a few items, but I have gotten some nasty emails because of it.

 

[Circe]

I mainly use eBay for antiques ... so it's usually a pretty subjective question of the value of the materials vs. the beauty of the piece. For example ... for our last anniversary, I got a Deco eternity band with french-cut ruby baguettes. I've seen similar bands going for what I paid, though none lower ... and I value mine more highly for the unusual cuts.

eBay can be a nightmare, though: I bought one piece for stones only to find that every single diamond was chipped, and the setting mangled. Happily, those guys had a decent return policy. In my mind, that's one of the most important elements in the equation - can you return it? If it's a seller who won't accept returns, I don't bother, no matter how cheap the price or beautiful the piece ....

 

[afreebird]

I wish I could be scientific about it. eBay brings out the impulsive shopper in me. Just depends on how much I want the item at that moment and how late I'm up browsing eBay. I'm bad about shopping from my phone in bed while my husband's blissfully snoozing. You would figure accidentally dropping my phone on my face late at night would knock some sense into me, but it hasn't yet. No method to my eBay madness, unfortunately.

 

[PinkTower]

I take everything I buy as an individual case. I can't shake the feeling, more and more it seems, that there are "planted" bidders bidding against me. I feel this is more commonplace since they allowed the bidders to become anonymous.

 

[LGK]

I shop for jewelry a *lot* on ebay. I actually do the reverse of what a lot of people do - I tend look for specific things when I'm shopping on ebay, so I have a budget and then I'm looking for a particular item. Occasionally i will run across something that's a shriekingly good deal and just have to go for it, but in general I just watch a particular area for months or whatever, and thus have a good idea of what the range of selling price is. I generally go for antique pieces, which makes pricing a lot less scientific and more gut-level guessing. I do generally have a good idea of what various pieces can sell for retail though, and what they sell for on ebay, at least if I'm actually shopping for something.

For example: the chandelier earrings I got from Dover Jewelry, I'd been looking for a pair of gorgeous filigree earrings for months. I had a budget of $2K. The Dover Jewelry earrings were a higher carat weight than I'd been looking at (I'd mostly been looking for around 2cttw, rather than the 3.5cttw), but were sterling filigree rather than platinum. I'd seen them on their website and was considering them for the $1500 they had on them there, but while I was thinking on it, they put them on on auction for no reserve. I put a snipe on them for the $1500, and got them for... $600 somethign I think. I definitely got a steal on those!

Generally even with the method I use- looking for a specific type of piece- you can still find the serendipitously good deals, because you're combing a particular area carefully over time.

However my 3.5ct OEC was not a planned purchase. That was one I saw and was like, whoa- that's a once in a lifetime find. It's insured but I pray I never, ever have to use it, because I couldn't replace it. Same with the 2 carat transitional cut diamond.

It took me a year to find an antique setting to fit my 3.5 ct OEC. Finally I found it on ebay, with an amethyst in it. Platinum filigree, Edwardian, about 1 carat of melee, for $600ish. That was a good deal for sure- many similar pieces I'd been quoted from $3K to $5K on.

 

[Amys Bling]

As a seller I am put off when people are INSULTING like wanting a certified 1ct diamond for $300, but as a buyer, I find it annoying when people have the best offer up and then they send a counter offer thats just a few dollars off. Just do a BIN for what you want then!

haha I agree. I think if you have a best offer, you need to be willing to accept an offer of 10percent off up to 20percent off of yuor BIN price. Otherwise what is the point?

 

[Gypsy]

I haven't really bid on much jewelry because it's so subjective and I'm not a risk taker. I bid too conservatively and usually get sniped. And my best offers are usually well below what the dealers are willing to sell for.

Also the auctions I am likely to big on are from popular vendors with detailed descriptions and lots pictures. So basically, the ones that are the most popular and get bid up fast.

I've been trying to study bidding (I'm a geek) by watching items and seeing if I can identify patterns, but haven't been able to.

I just bought some great nightstands though and I just got them in today. I find it much easier to buy other stuff on ebay.