ebay snipping

[DaveNH]

Can any one help me with ebay snipers.
(Saga of granite splitting) Trying to buy a rotary hammer on ebay and twice now I've been outbid the last few seconds.
I placed my bid and it sat there untouched for 7 days with my single bid, then with a few seconds left some one bumped my bid by a buck and won the item. I tried a limit search on ebay (found there was a name for this, sniping) but could not find a counter move.
Any sugguestions?

We're all in this together! (3)

 

[Gatorboy]

That is the ONLY way to bid for items on eBay. It is only to the SELLERS advantage for people to BID early. I laugh when I see two people battling it out early on an item. What is the point of being high bidder with days to go?

I ALWAYS bid with 10 seconds left on an item I would like to buy. If I win - great - if not -- oh well. No need to pump up the price early.

The final price may have "looked" like he just bid $1 more, but he could have outbid you by $100, but the way eBay works is to only increase the price to the next highest increment when the current high bid is beaten. So my advice is to bid the most you would want to pay with 10-30 seconds left on the auction. One trick to use is to have two windows open -- one with the auction page up so you can refresh to get the countdown time, and another with your HIGHEST BID ready to go. Then when it gets down to the wire, you can just hit the Submit Bid button on your other window.



Dave

 

[Harv]

Dave -

You're probably getting nailed by proxy bids. I gave up on manual bidding long ago when I discovered proxy bidding. You decide what the maximum you are willing to pay is and enter that as a proxy bid. eBay will then automatically bid for you in minumum increments to keep you in the game. These bids will not show up on the bid history, and all the proxy bids get resolved in the final seconds of the auction. A brief explanation is shown here.

My success rate improved dramatically when I started using this approach. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[MossRoad]

Years ago I had to do the proxy thing on another web site. I was shopping for stuff and getting outbid at the last second. The proxy did the trick. I still got outbid by people willing to spend more than me, but at least I got a shot at it.

<font color=green> MossRoad </font color=green>

 

[Devildog]

Dave, You could of also been esniped Click here by someone bidding from this site. It will put a bid in for registered users at the last second.
_________________________________________________
Take care, Jim

2001 B7500 HST 302 Fel R4 Tires.
Semper Fidelis

 

[Gatorboy]

Harv,

If you like to pay more than you have to on an item, place your largest bid early and drive the price UP through the proxy bidding. However, if you want to save money, take up sniping.

Example:

Scenario #1
Imagine a typical 7-day auction: It's Jane and Clyde all the way to the end! Jane opens the bidding on Day 1 for $50 while her Proxy (MAX) is $110. Clyde finds the same auction the next day and decides that $100 is all he wants to pay for the item. Clyde keeps bidding up the price by $10 until he gets to $100 and through the proxy bidding, Jane is still high bidder now with $102.50 (Bid increment of $2.50). No one else bids for the rest of the auction and Jane wins the item for $102.50.

Scenario #2 - Sniper (or what happened to DaveNH)
Clyde found the auction just like in the first example and so did Sniper Jane. Because Jane is now a Sniper, she does not open the bidding. Now Clyde opens the bidding with $50, and he sits on the auction as high bidder all week, Sniper Jane went on with her life. Sniper Jane is no fool and, she waits for the end of the auction. With 10 seconds remaining, Sniper Jane enters her maximum bid of $110. She wins the auction for the $52.50 (the minimum bid increment imposed by Ebay's system) over the $50 because by waiting until the end of the auction to bid, she offered Clyde no opportunity to come back and bid again. Sniper Janes gets the same product but SAVES $50!


I hope that explaination helps.


Dave "Gatorboy" Hoffmann

 

[BobT]

Dave,

Gatorboy has laid it all out correctly, masterfully even. That's the way to conduct successful E-bay purchases for the LOWEST price to the buyer.

Also, the Esnipe web site referenced above is fading, since E-bay will automatically CANCEL any bids that come from a link to Esnipe.

Good Luck!

BobT.
A Indiana Boy

 

[Von]

I wish Ebay was a true auction, in that the auction doesn't end untill the bidding stops. I'm sure that they could come up with a system that would allow the auction to continue for say 2 minutes after the last bid once the set time of the auction end time. Ebay would make more money as would the sellers, and there would be no snipping.

 

[DocHeb]

I've seen aution sites where there is a time limit, but the endpoint keeps re-setting if there is another bid in the last 10 minutes (it is clear in my mind, but hard to describe). For example: The auction is set to end at 11:34 am. A bid comes in at 11:33 from a sniper. The new endpoint is set to 11:43 - if no other bids it is over. This works like a regular auction where the auctioneer gives fair warning.

By the way, I always snipe on eBay. If you don't want to be outbid, just put in a proxy bid at a higher $ than what I'll snipe at.

 

[Von]

Doc,
I don't buy much on ebay, but I do sell quite a bit (over 100K last year). I think having the auction stop once the bidding stops would be more money in my pocket! I have mentioned this to ebay a few times, but they don't seem to care for the idea.