This is why sniping is the best way to bid

[giantslayer]

I put in a nice bid a few days before the auction was ending and let the dang proxy system do its thing. Look at how this guy kept bidding and changing his mind of how much he was willing to pay until he could beat me.

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=5808273482

 

[9f9c7z]

My understanding is that sniping is the use of software to place your bid. It is a no-no and Ebay will kick off any sell that suggests bidder snipe. I don’t snipe but I am a last minute bidder…ok, last couple of seconds bidder. Possible with DSL, wasn’t possible with dialup. Other than that, $71 for those BIC spkrs doesn't seem like such a bad deal.

 

[giantslayer]

Yeah, I mean bid-in-the-last-minute by snipe. I went away for the weekend and thought I wouldn't be back in time to place a last-minute bid. That's why I put a high bid up front. It turned out I did get back in time and I decided to snipe him. I was waiting for about 5-10 seconds left, refreshing and all that. I hit that window, clicked, and the auction was already over. DOH! Looks like it's a few seconds behind from when I hit refresh (I tried to take the loading time into consideration and have an decently fast internet connection). Oh well. Now the question is: should I wait till another one shows up on ebay or try to get a good deal for new?

 

[CaliHwyPatrol]

I don't bid at all until the last 30 seconds.

If you bid early, some dope is going to beat it just so he can be in the lead. All that does is mark it up enough to where you wouldn't want it. Bid at the end and you will get it cheaper!

~Chuck

 

[giantslayer]

I don't bid at all until the last 30 seconds.

If you bid early, some dope is going to beat it just so he can be in the lead. All that does is mark it up enough to where you wouldn't want it. Bid at the end and you will get it cheaper!

~Chuck

Exactly! And this is a classic example of one of those dopes.

 

[Rob Babcock]

I don't think bidding at the end results in many instances of getting something cheaper, at least not much cheaper. My long standing rule is to bid most of what I'm willing to bid right away, saving a high bid til the end if I happen to think of it. The best way to spend more than you intend to (and more than an item is worth) is by getting caught up in that last minute bidding war at the end.

My advice is to watch for auctions ending at "bad times", ie times when not a lot of people are online (say, midweek in the day). Then enter a proxy bid for the most you're willing to pay. Then sit and back and let it do its thing.

If someone outbids you, remember that in a moment of calm & collected thought you put a rational limit on what the product is worth. If someone "wants it more," just bear in mind that to bid more would mean you paid more than you "knew" you should. Sit tight and wait for another item to come up. It usually will.

 

[hifiman]

My understanding is that sniping is the use of software to place your bid. It is a no-no and Ebay will kick off any sell that suggests bidder snipe. I don’t snipe but I am a last minute bidder…ok, last couple of seconds bidder. Possible with DSL, wasn’t possible with dialup. Other than that, $71 for those BIC spkrs doesn't seem like such a bad deal.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something here, but ebay supplies the means to increase your bid automatically.

 

[Shadow_Ferret]

Yes, that's called proxy. You bid a high amount, but Ebay will only bid enough to keep you in the lead when someone else places a bid.

Sniping is something else.

And I never bid until the last minute on any item. I used to bid by proxy but too many times I was outbid by other people who kept bidding incrementally until they became high bidder, then either I was too late to put in a new bid or they had gone above what I wanted to bid.

I've found that in many instances if I wait to bid at the last minute I can get it cheaper. Or so it seems.

 

[Bodymechanic]

It seems like most people bid at the end. I just sold an item for almost $500 on Ebay last week. It was going for $120 up until the last 2 hours and then the bidding went nuts. There were 11 bids in the last 15 minutes.

People who use Ebay seem to find that is the best method.

 

[DaveOCP]

It depends on how much interest there is in an auction as to wether last minute bidding will help or not. When I bought my Mirage OM-10s off Ebay, there was me watching, and one other guy bidding. Strangely nobody else had any interest, so I waited until the last 10 seconds or so, outbid him by $5, and got the '10s for myself at an absolute steal, $350 for the pair.

On the other hand, if there's 10 or 15 people in a bidding war in the last few hours of an auction, last minute bidding is basically worthless as the price will have already shot up by huge amounts.

 

[Pyrrho]

I don't think bidding at the end results in many instances of getting something cheaper, at least not much cheaper. My long standing rule is to bid most of what I'm willing to bid right away, saving a high bid til the end if I happen to think of it. The best way to spend more than you intend to (and more than an item is worth) is by getting caught up in that last minute bidding war at the end.

My advice is to watch for auctions ending at "bad times", ie times when not a lot of people are online (say, midweek in the day). Then enter a proxy bid for the most you're willing to pay. Then sit and back and let it do its thing.

If someone outbids you, remember that in a moment of calm & collected thought you put a rational limit on what the product is worth. If someone "wants it more," just bear in mind that to bid more would mean you paid more than you "knew" you should. Sit tight and wait for another item to come up. It usually will.

Absolutely. If the last minute bid is higher than what you are willing to pay, then what is the problem with someone else getting the item instead of you paying too much at the last minute instead?

I think the problem people have is that they often do not put in the highest bid they are willing to pay, and then someone else bids higher than their low bid. Of course, if you don't put in the most you are willing to pay, it is your own fault that you lost the item on a low bid.

Having said that, I sometimes bid at the last minute, and sometimes not. Sometimes when I wait to the last minute, others bid it up too high for me, so I don't place a bid at all. That, of course, is fine, because I don't want to pay too much for something, and it is a pretty rare item that doesn't come up again soon.

 

[eddiem67]

I win all my bids by sniping, or shadow sniping...keeps the price down on the product and you set the amount of what your willing to pay for it withoug jacking up the price to that amount.

 

[9f9c7z]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something here, but ebay supplies the means to increase your bid automatically.

Yeah, I wasn't clear. It's like Shadow said, sniping is using 3rd party software to place your bid just seconds b/4 the close...computers watching computers, that kind of thing. Used to cost 25-cents/bid to snipe. Here's one of the popular sniping websites that will bid on your behalf:

http://www.auctionsniper.com/

 

[scorrpio]

In my experience, when dealing with a hot item, you almost always end up with a price that's real close to 'Buy it Now' prices for same item. If I am interested in an item, I set it to watch, and bid at the last possible moment. But I'll never bid more than what I still consider a good price.

 

[ljbrun]

FWIW - In the past I've won a couple of auctions by doing the following.

When there's just a couple of minutes left on the item I want. I open a 2nd browser window where I log in to ebay and fill in the maximum amount that I'd be willing to pay and submit, but do not confirm. I watch/refresh "my" item in the 1st browser window until there's <10 seconds left. Then I go to the "logged in" browser window and confirm the bid submission. This gets your max bid in with the least amount of time left and also makes it difficult for you to bid higher than your max (you know, the amount you thought was the max back when you were thinking rationally).

People do get carried away sometimes, especially when they don't do their homework. A couple of years ago a woman won one of my auctions for a book on CD, "Atlas Shrugged". Her winning bid was actually more than what I paid for it at Barnes & Noble. When the auction was complete I emailed her and told her that I couldn't, in good concience, take that much and suggested that she pay about 20% less. She took advantage of the offer and seemed to like that idea, but apparently not enough to bother leaving feedback .

 

[Nomo]

I'm in the "last minute" crowd as well. I've done the same thing on Ubid. Yeah it's kind of a crappy thing to do, but when every one else is doing it..... doesn't that make it OK?

 

[Ron Temple]

FWIW - In the past I've won a couple of auctions by doing the following.

When there's just a couple of minutes left on the item I want. I open a 2nd browser window where I log in to ebay and fill in the maximum amount that I'd be willing to pay and submit, but do not confirm. I watch/refresh "my" item in the 1st browser window until there's <10 seconds left. Then I go to the "logged in" browser window and confirm the bid submission. This gets your max bid in with the least amount of time left and also makes it difficult for you to bid higher than your max (you know, the amount you thought was the max back when you were thinking rationally).

.

That's a very good idea. I think I will use it the next time I want an item. I was looking at receivers on ebay for about 2 months and bid on maybe 10 of them. I either backed off when the price got too high or I stayed until the last minute, but just didn't win. A couple of Sundays ago, I happened to look at my watched items and an HK 235 was in my range with a minute to go. Didn't think, just put the min. bump, refreshed to see who else did and got my "You've won this item"

After having paid too much attention and effort trying to win during "feeding frenzy", a casual lucky click was what won it.

Never will I establish an early max bid, it jumps the selling price way to much before it counts.

 

[Hanse18]

Question: If there is an extremely good deal going on at Ubid (better than normal), is it going to show up with the rest of the normal auction items, or in some special place. I have been looking for some BIC Acoustechs and of course I heard about the Ubid specials, but will I just find them along with the other speakers when they are at the special price?

Thanks for clearing this up

 

[jaxvon]

Great uBid deals are just treated as normal items. Just search for the item you want and see if it comes up.