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[Dusty]

I'm wanting a Garmin zumo 550 for my bike. I have been watching ebay and have a question.
I have seen them posted with no reserve, so why do the fools bid on the dang things days before the auction is over and drive the cost up to retail? I'm thinking the seller is bidding on it as well. Wish I knew how to get him busted. 

[Morgan Buchanan]

The number of no-reserve auctions should (if the sellers are good) outnumber the number of people who are in the market.  If someone puts something on an auction for a dollar but it's reasonably worth 300, and the "buy it now" on all the OTHER examples that DO have a reserve is 325, the people watching are STILL going to bid it up to close to value.  There's almost always someone who's really happy getting $10 off an item.

your point COULD be tru... but I doubt it's the case very often.  Remember, if the auction is a no reserve, if the seller has a straw-bidder that accidentally goes over the highest bidder's top, the item "is sold" and the seller gets charged full fees, including no lessened re-listing.  It's simply not worth it to GOOD sellers.

[nomercyambulance]

If I find something that I would like, I usually wait until the last moment then
bid the maximum that I am willing to pay. So far, I have had pretty good luck.

[murray_61]

Morgan, that is true, but you can always have a buddy (or a fake/dummy account) to bid on your items in small increments, then when they go over the highest bidder, cancel the last bid.  That leaves the highest bidder at his highest bid.  I didn't do that myself, but I have seen it done, it sux, and it works...

You can also bid on an item early (friend/fake/dummy account doing the bidding) to drive up the price, and then cancel the bids when it gets close to selling time.

On the buyer side, you can set up a couple of dummy accounts, have a bidding war by yourself, and drive the price way up so no one will bid on it...  then just before selling time, cancel all those bids, and swing in with your real account to bid a low price on the item...

I don't condone any of that, I'm just throwing in my 2 cents...

[Dusty]

If I find something that I would like, I usually wait until the last moment then
bid the maximum that I am willing to pay. So far, I have had pretty good luck.

I don't shop it too often but that's the same method I use. That's why I don't understand people driving it up to the buy it now price of other auctions.

I guess it's like Morgan said. Some folks are happy with saving $10 bucks. I want to steal the thing! 

[Morgan Buchanan]

I've bid sniped and won and lost a lot of auctions... I've never personally run into an auction that I won or lost that had suspicious bid withdrawls.  Ebay doesn't like bid withdrawl.

Hell, I withdrew a bid on an item the other day because the auction didn't SAY it was non-functional, but it was... and I got some grief over it.  Thankfully it was only a dollar item.  LOL

[jmdaniel]

Bill, I have read over on the Feejer forum that Best Buy has some good deals on them, as they are being closed out. You may want to look into that.

[hooter]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcat17080&type=page&qp=crootcategoryid%23%23-1%23%23-1~~q70726f63657373696e6774696d653a3e313930302d30312d3031~~cabcat0300000%23%230%23%237n~~cabcat0301000%23%230%23%239~~f396%7C%7C4f6e2053616c65~~nf396%7C%7C46726565205368697070696e67&list=y&nrp=15&sc=carSP&ks=960&usc=abcat0300000&sp=-bestsellingsort+skuid&list=y&iht=n&st=processingtime%3A%3E1900-01-01

[Dusty]

Thanks Guys, 

I may have to just wait or pick another model. Bestbuy want's $900 and they are going on ebay for $600.
I wanted the zumo for the satelite radio feature that's included.  I havn't found that feature yet in the other models that are MC friendly.

[jmdaniel]

Bill, here is the thread from the Feejer forum.

http://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=106728&st=0

Folks are getting them for a lot less than $900 from Best Buy. You just have to call around, see if you can scare up a deal. To get XM, you do have to buy the XM adapter, and pay the monthly XM subscription fee. Good luck! 

[RocknRoll]

You can get it for $673 from www.gpsdiscount.com  There are others but I have used these folks and found them to be excellent.

The scary thing about E-bay is you may not get the unlock code.  You would have to get one from Garmin.  Not cheap.

I have the GPSMap 276 Color.  Not nearly as fancy as the Zumo.  I have the radio, cd player and XM on a different system.  I plug the unit in to my cigarette lighter.  Let us know how the Zumo works out. 

[Lucky]

Morgan, that is true, but you can always have a buddy (or a fake/dummy account) to bid on your items in small increments, then when they go over the highest bidder, cancel the last bid.  That leaves the highest bidder at his highest bid.  I didn't do that myself, but I have seen it done, it sux, and it works...

You can also bid on an item early (friend/fake/dummy account doing the bidding) to drive up the price, and then cancel the bids when it gets close to selling time.

On the buyer side, you can set up a couple of dummy accounts, have a bidding war by yourself, and drive the price way up so no one will bid on it...  then just before selling time, cancel all those bids, and swing in with your real account to bid a low price on the item...

I don't condone any of that, I'm just throwing in my 2 cents...

damn, I guess I'm just too innocent to think of such a conniving scheme...or try to live by the "Do unto others..." philosophy

[Txcajun]

Bill stay away from me with any info on auctions! I need to slow down on the toy purchases for a little while. But you also need to be careful, Faron has gotten burned twice on trying to purchase a new Zummo.

[Todd]

If you are buying the Zumo 550 for the XM Radio, you'll want to know that XM will NOT transmit via Bluetooth.   The XM Radio can be heard through the mono car speaker mount, but cannot be heard via Bluetooth (in a helmet, for example), unless you buy a separate dongle and plug it into the output (headphone) jack.  Strange as it sounds, that's the ONLY way to pipe XM Radio into your helmet speakers, without a cord.  I bought one for my Alaska trip and played he!! trying to figure it out, the first time.  The dongle works well enough (background hiss is drowned out by engine noise), but it requires charging the battery every day while on the road. 

For reference: 
Jill (voice directions) work fine via Bluetooth.
Your bluetooth phone will work through the Zumo (on screen dialing, etc). 
MP3 music can be heard via Bluetooth, but only in mono.
XM Radio requires a separate dongle (then might as well run everything through the dongle).

XM Radio works fine in the US.
XM Radio works sporadically in Canada by using ground based towers (OK near larger cities).
XM Radio does not reach Alaska - the satallite is in the wrong position to reach over the curvature of the earth and no towers are installed. Some say they can get an XM signal in Anchorage on good days - I never did anywhere in Alaska.

Just something to think about - if you plan on using your Zumo on the bike.  Other than that - I love it!

As stated before, be carefull buying on Ebay.  Try PCNation (or any site listed on Garmin's website as an authorized dealer).  PCNation sent me a sealed box with all the accessories and the "yellow paper slip" with the unlock codes on it.

Todd       

[hooter]

OK Tood, I don't want to appear as a dumba$$ but some electrical terms I don't understand. What the fook is a Dongle?