Well they do say that there is a very fine line between pleasure and pain!

 

There wasn't anything more on it anyway. It sniped me a second green Flagship box yesterday, and a project Constellation was already over my max snipe.

 

It's not those that you bought that remain deep in your mind, but those that you didn't...

Sometimes, after the hunt is over, it feels like a chapter is closed.

 

Shakespeare?

 

This one still haunts me a bit to be honest...



So the story was that it was up for auction on the bay, well known seller, and I bid but lost as it went a little high for me at that time. But not long after the sale fell through and it was relisted - I was determined to make this mine, thinking I was very lucky to have a second shot at it. I don't use a sniping program or anything, so had planned to wait late in the auction to place my bid. Of course it totally slipped my mind, and when I remembered, I was 20 minutes too late. Feck!

I logged in to see that it went for much less than it had on the first auction, and if I had simply entered a bid anywhere near close to what I had the first time, it would likely have been mine.

Still looking for one of these so if anyone has a lead, let me know...

Lesson learned.

Cheers, Al

 

Been there.
Al, can you tell us a little more about this
Birks Eterna that looks Military 40's
and why it's special for you

 

Well, I am not a "collector" in the sense that I have some specific goal in gathering specific watches - for me that seems far too much like work, and since I work on watches all day every day, I really don't need more watch work.

However the one area that I do have sort of a "collection" is military watches. I don't spend hours on end searching eBay for them, but when one pops up that catches my eye I will jump on it. I only have one Canadian issued military watch (the rest are British), and that's a Tudor Submariner I bought directly from the ship's diver who it was issued to. So this being a Birks watch (Birks is a well known retailer in Canada, often referred to as "the Tiffany of Canada") I was certainly interested to have it as my second Canadian issued watch, and I also simply love the shape of the lugs.

Indeed it is a WWII era watch. Every once in a while I'll search for one of these, but they are either in very rough shape, or the sellers want crazy money for them. After making my first post I did find one (maybe incorrect hands on it though), but I'm not going to drop a grand on one of these...

Cheers, Al

 

My original tag line: "Your collection isn't complete until you own them ALL!"

 

Why wait til the last second to bid? The way ebay works is you put in your maximum bid, it doesn't mean that's what you'll end up paying. The system keeps you as the winning bidder as long as someone underbids you and if you win you pay 1 tick above the second highest, which could be way below your max. Set and forget!

 

Many bidders get auction fever. They see your "set and forget" bid is higher than their bid, and they rationalize a higher bid until they have outbid you.
That's why...

 

Before I used a sniper, I would often 'go Ashley' to make sure I won an auction; but often over a period of days I could track bidding patterns and see the next highest bidder coming back with new, higher bids again and again. I still won, but it cost me more money every time than if I'd gone in at the last second. Now I snipe every single time.

 

Have you ever heard of shill-bidding?

 

Exactly.