[PeterR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skev13 I'm tired of getting killed in the last 5 seconds of auctions!

eBay auctions are second-bid auctions. Highest bid wins, item goes for the amount of the second-highest bid (+increment), no matter when the bid was placed.
The only reason sniping works is that people don't understand that or get carried away. If you get sniped that means either
a) the sniper was willing to pay more than you
b) your bid was less than the amount you were really willing to pay

 

[Kees]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stewtheking NO. The first bid entered in the computer system for you would be $4, but then the computer automatically looks at the highest bid of the previous high bidder and works up until it is over the maximum that that person bid. You would have to pay 1 bid more than the previous high bidder, which would be $501... or possibly more, I think in higher value auctions the bid increment gets larger? Also, when putting your maximum in, always add a penny. Thay way if you and another guy both decide you want to pay about $50, you win with a bid of $50.01

Thanks. I'm shure glad I never bid anything more than I want to pay for it (+$1).

 

[daycart1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 003 What are some bid snipers that will do it at the last 3 or less seconds? The only one I could find does it at the last 8 seconds...

I learned about esnipe.com on this forum and have used it a lot with good results.

 

[DanT]

Snipping prevent 2 thing. First it prevent other bidder from overreacting to your bid. Either by a large amount of incremental bidding that goes over what the bidder would normally paid if not for the "excitement" of the bidding process.

Reduce shill bidding. Also some dishonest seller bid on his own auction at insanely high amount then retract due to "error"

and put a bid just below your max to make you paid the maximum.

It also prevent you from overreacting to bids and start bidding wars.

In snipping, the time buffer time (before the end of the auction) has to be short enough so that nobody can react to your bid. Mean he has to load eBay page with your bid. See it react to it and bid in turn. So as long as it short enough that nobody can reasonably react it fine. Usually sniper has already decide what he want to pay otherwise he is a fool that will end up paying more that what he want to pay.

The way I behave in eBay is treat it as if it was a silent secret auction. You know the auction where everyone put a bid in a box for an object then at the end of the day the highest bidder win and pay exactly the price he put on his paper. So all the activity below don't matter you pay what you bid on the paper with this approach you don't worry too much about other and worry about your amount. So it less frustrating that following the auction and angst against other people bid. That why I like online snipping service bid it and forget it. Let the computer do it for you. Not setting the price over the "emotion" of bidding but on good evaluation of what this product is worth for you. Also with those service if you find a better product elsewhere you can always cancel your bid if the auction has not ended. I would hate tying up money in a bid if I find a better deal elsewhere or the something make me not want the to bid anymore.

So that the key of automatic snipping service. You bid what you want to pay if you get beaten then remember you don't want to pay that much for this product so you should let the other fools pay more that what the product is worth for you.

It can sometime seem frustrating if your the second highest because eBay will put the final price just a bit over yours. But remember even if the winner bid $1000 over your price he will win at final price just above your bid.

For example if you put $1000 for a cheap flash light at the beginning of the auction but your the only bidder so a minimum price of $2 (set by the seller) appear until someone bid a higher amount. No matter what the snipper does he will not win unless he put a higher price than $1000

So it's not snipping that win auction is highest price that win.

Snipping reduce the over increase of price above what people would normal bidding because they are cough in a bid war excitement

Also a trick is not to put a round amount. If two bidder snipe at $10 the one that snipe first win. but it you put 10.01 you win at 10.01 but then the other can think ahead and put 10.03

 

[MuZI]

Does anyone know of a free trustable sniper?

I'm tired of losing bids

 

[peter braun]

Quote:

Does anyone know of a free trustable sniper?

Sort of an ebay hitman, maybe the mob should get into that.

 

[Jahn]

muahahha. my evil plan works again.

i've been eyeing some tubes on ebay for a week, and i noticed that no one was taking a flyer on it. plus, no counter on the auction so no one knew what the interest level was. i did my homework, looked at comparable tubes selling before and after that auction, determined my best bet bid, and then put the minimum bid as a bait and switch. that one bid on a tiny beginning amount lasted all week until the last 10 seconds, when someone tried to snipe me. well, it was easy to snipe me, since i only put the minimum bid. so he musta been sitting there all happy at taking me down, thinking i must have put a bid down and forgot about it for a week...when at 5 seconds to go i countersniped using a max bid, right at my price limit. well he scrabbled and made the mistake of trying to incremental bid snipe me again (panic will do that) and got in a snipe with 1 second to go, but it wasn't anywhere near what my max proxy bid was, so i won the auction at half what i was willing to pay for the tubes.

a nice surprise was that this was an international auction, and another reason why folks were shy to bid was because the seller didn't put up shipping info. well 2 secs after the auction i got the form and he just wanted 12 bucks, which is about right for int'l shipping. score!

and that's how it's done folks. planning will beat avarice every time.

 

[vcoheda]

I use ebay quite a lot. And I always try to bid for an item during the final 10 seconds. Of course, the winner of the auction will always be the person who bid the higher amount, but it is generally understood that bidding in the final moments of an auction definitely increases your chances to win. Why? Because many bidders do not bid their maximum. They only bid enough to make them the highest bidder. That's where sniping comes into play and works as a strategy. No time for the other person to react. If you are going to bid on an auction early, which if possible, one should never do, make sure to bid your absolute maximum.

 

[werdwerdus]

5 seconds before the end of the auction me and another sniper bid at the same time. But mine was 3 cents higher! And in fact that was the actual amount I bid. I had been the high bidder at $9.99 for basically the whole week until the last 10 minutes someone else bid.

btw it was for an Entech Number Cruncher 203.2, $7 for shipping

edit: the teqnique I use invloves multiple browser windows. One is on the bids page or the main page to refresh and check the price. THe other window is on the place/confirm bid page with a number already typed in. About 10 seconds before the end of auction I bid in the main window, keeping the other window with a higher bid placed but not confirmed, then I refresh the main window at about 5 seconds to see if I need to click "confirm" on the higher bid in the other window.

Kinda confusing to explain I guess, let me know if you actually understood any of that

 

[pezzy]

so many pros

I consider myself a pro now also after reading this thread

 

[PeterR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by werdwerdus Kinda confusing to explain I guess, let me know if you actually understood any of that

I understand what you're doing, but not why.

Quote:

I had been the high bidder at $9.99 for basically the whole week

Serves no purpose except driving the price up.

Quote:

About 10 seconds before the end of auction I bid in the main window,

Skip that.

Quote:

(...)at about 5 seconds to see if I need to click "confirm" on the higher bid in the other window

That one bid right before the end is all that would be necessary.

 

[GASTAN]

that's right, bidding earlier than couple of seconds before end just drives the price up

--G

 

[Enverxis]

Here's a 1 second snipe that I did Skill

I had already placed a bid of 10 EUR a few days beforehand because I was not sure if I could be online at the time of the end of auction, turns out I could be

 

[PeterR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enverxis Here's a 1 second snipe that I did Skill I had already placed a bid of 10 EUR a few days beforehand because I was not sure if I could be online at the time of the end of auction, turns out I could be

Nice timing. Looking at the bid history, that yann977 perfectly illustrates why you should keep your feet still until the very last seconds of an auction. Without your earlier bid, the final price could have been quite a bit lower.

 

[adhoc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeterR Nice timing. Looking at the bid history, that yann977 perfectly illustrates why you should keep your feet still until the very last seconds of an auction. Without your earlier bid, the final price could have been quite a bit lower.

100% correct.

I used to think that 'marking' an item with an initial low bid was a good idea - till I found that all that did was increase the final bid amount, and increase it sometimes by a significant amount.

The golden rule is: keep your bids as late as possible. It will be difficult to resist, but just remember - it's all for a lower end price...

The only exception would be when you estimate that an item will end somewhere around the $49-51 or $99-101 mark - the minimum bid increment changes at these points. (the next change is at $250, way above my usual max bids.)

At $50 and $100 respectively:

1. the maximum bid goes past $50 from 50c to $1 and
2. from $1 to $2.50.

What does that mean? It means that you could put in a maximum bid of $50.03 and someone else could put in a maximum bid of $51 and still not win because he did not top your max bid by $1 (i.e. $51.03). Or bid $100.03 and still win even though someone else bids $102.50 ($102.53 would be needed to win).

...that is the only time when you DO NOT put in a bid at the last second. 6-8 seconds maybe.