[RedLeader]

I've been an ebayer b/s for 4 years, and I quite often place bids days beforehand. Am I an idiot? Apparently so! I will quite often look through auctions with 2-3 days left, and place bids on 50-60 items. The vast majority I will not win, but I get great deals quite often. I then resell these items later when the market is better. But since I'm making money doing it, I MUST be an idiot.

 

[markl]

I disagree. I've tried ebay all different ways in terms of bidding. I've found for me, I win more auctions on an item I really want when I bid on it 1.5-3 days before it closes. I *want* to bid it up, so that other ebayers will look to other sellers with the same thing that are still at a low level. I find that if I bid 1-3 days early, it gets the price up to a *moderate* level that most are unwilling to bid against, they are still going for the stuff that looks "cheap". Because people stay away, they don't watch it, and don't bid on it, and I get it for 20% (or so) less than everyone else.

That's my experience anyway...

 

[mbriant]

It depends on the auction for me. On items with multiple auctions, I'll bid ahead of time for the reason Markl gives ... sort of staking my claim so others will hopefully move on to another auction. On unique/collectible items I'll try to snipe at the last minute so as to lull competitive bidders into a false sense of security. Too often when bidding early, I've seen other bidders creep the price up in small increments, seemingly trying to discover what my reserve bid was. When you snipe, they only get one or two kicks at the cat (if any) before the auction ends ... but then again, so do you.

 

[MadDog5145]

Quote:

Originally Posted by markl I disagree. I've tried ebay all different ways in terms of bidding. I've found for me, I win more auctions on an item I really want when I bid on it 1.5-3 days before it closes. I *want* to bid it up, so that other ebayers will look to other sellers with the same thing that are still at a low level. I find that if I bid 1-3 days early, it gets the price up to a *moderate* level that most are unwilling to bid against, they are still going for the stuff that looks "cheap". Because people stay away, they don't watch it, and don't bid on it, and I get it for 20% (or so) less than everyone else.

I do that too. And I hate when someone outbids me when I am trying to pull that off even though there is another auction with lower price....

 

[episiarch]

I tend to bid early, or at least not late. I don't want to play games with timing, psyching out other bidders, etcetera. I bid the price at which I would be indifferent about whether I get the product* or lose out to someone else**, and leave it at that.

Waiting until the last minute to bid seems to me to be playing a game of, "if I withhold my valuation, maybe nobody but me will realize the true value of this item." I think it's a false game. If there are other bidders, they have access to the same information I have. They will put their own value on the item, and either value it higher than I do or not.

If someone feels compelled to outbid me in order to "beat" me and not because that's the value s/he would have put on the item in the first place, then fine, they can have the auction. If the urge to beat me takes some money from the bidder's pocket and puts it in the seller's pocket, that's all right with me; I have nothing against sellers.

If someone gets less fun out of sniping because I've already placed a bid higher than their hoped-for bargain price, that's okay with me; I think sniping is rude and am not motivated to maximize the fun for those who practice it.

If my early bid means that I myself might conjecturally wind up paying a higher price than I would have if I'd been cagier with my bidding, that's okay with me too; I bid a price that I could live with, and as I said before, I have nothing against sellers.

[size=xx-small]* "Hooray."
** "At that price I don't mind waiting for the next one."
[/size]

 

[episiarch]

bonus head-fi multi-post.

 

[episiarch]

bonus head-fi multi-post.

 

[episiarch]

bonus head-fi multi-post.

 

[episiarch]

bonus head-fi multi-post.

 

[braillediver]

Raise your hands slowly and back away from the keyboard.


Mitch

 

[episiarch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braillediver Raise your hands slowly and back away from the keyboard. Mitch

No kidding. Sorry about that.

 

[wakeride74]

The early high bid scare tactic at least makes sense but the early bidding wars still baffles.

I can understand those who don't care that much and are neutral about winning the item or not but I would imagine that those are not the same people at war with 3 days left. The bidders like RedLeader also could not bid at the end with so many irons in the fire it would be more trouble than it's worth.

Going in at the last minute is a way for those who really want the item to have a better chance at winning without a back and fourth bidding war that goes for days and keeping the final cost down. I guess I just make the poor assumption that everyone who bids on something really does want it vs. the more casual bidders.

 

[gloco]

Crazy stuff going on with the multi-posts today.

Anyway, you have a good point wakeride. In the past i would bid early and i'm sure i didn't get the best deal because of it. The last expensive thing i purchased on ebay were my Baby O's and i used esnipe for that to get in my highest bid offer at the last second because i lost out on some auctions due to sniping.

 

[Mize]

I have noticed the same thing and finally gave up temporarily on my Grado quest. I have been wondering if it has something to do with Grado's costing a lot more in foreign countries. US full retail price(or more) + shipping may be a really good deal for some people.

I never bothered to check if it was non-US bidders running some of this stuff up in price.