E bay strategy - Sniping?

[nigelb]

Oops, off by 1

 

[Crankarm]

One week and 75 minutes - it ends next Monday.

What's the item?

 

[Over The Hill]

This is all looking a bit over complicated.

Just bid your maximum a minute before it ends. That is it!

All these other sites do is automate the same process. Not worth it for odd bids unless the end time is when you cannot get access to ebay.

I think an early high bid can be used to put off some punters from following the item. If you see something priced low you follow it and may be tempted to bid. If you see it priced quite high a week before the end you will not bother watching it and go elsewhere.

 

[swee'pea99]

This is all looking a bit over complicated.

Just bid your maximum a minute before it ends. That is it!

No it isn't. Because it gives the competition time to counter-bid, and that's what pushes up the final price.

 

[nigelb]

If you do wait until the last 10 seconds to bid, make sure that your bidding window is still logged in!

I had one all set, ready to go, clicked on "Place Bid" at the allotted time, only to get a log in prompt ffs! Had timed out, sigh.

Only did that once!

Nige

 

[Crankarm]

If you do wait until the last 10 seconds to bid, make sure that your bidding window is still logged in!

I had one all set, ready to go, clicked on "Place Bid" at the allotted time, only to get a log in prompt ffs! Had timed out, sigh.

Only did that once!

Nige

That happened to me in the days of dial up . Suffice to say I didn't win many items .

 

[SavageHoutkop]

I've never done the sniping software thing, but I've discovered that most people think in round numbers. So a max bid will likely be £50, say. It's probably not £50.01...

 

[xpc316e]

Have I missed something? I thought you lost auctions because somebody else was prepared to pay more for the item than you were. It doesn't make any difference whether their bid is automated or manual - their bid is simply higher. I have often lost out in the last seconds of an auction by sniping a bid and having a 'you are the highest bidder' screen appear, only for another bidder to enter a higher bid nanoseconds before the auction ends. When I check my status I find that I have lost out -big deal! Why all the sour grapes?

 

[g00se]

Have I missed something? I thought you lost auctions because somebody else was prepared to pay more for the item than you were. It doesn't make any difference whether their bid is automated or manual - their bid is simply higher.

Ah, but say you bid on something early - with a max of £50 a few days before. Over the next couple of days it creeps up and with an hour to go, yours max is topped at £51. So you think, well, I know £50 was my max but it won't hurt to try £53. So you do - and you're leading the auction. Then 10 minutes later it's £55 - so you say bu**er it, £60. etc. etc. etc.


Bidding your max at the latest possible moment helps stops this rash of rebidding and folks going higher than they had previously agreed to. True, if you bid at the last moment and the previous bidder has a higher max big, you won't have time to rebid - but that's the point, you've failed with your agreed max so live with it - and the price hasn't been hiked up by folks getting over excited and bumping the price up.

 

[bobg]

I havent read all of this bit I subscribe to Auction Stealer. The trouble with taking advantage of the 3 free snipes at no cost is that it puts the bid in within 10 seconds. Many of the sniping progs ( including Auctionstealer) place bids within the last 3 seconds if you choose to pay a small monthly amount. It therefore follows that the many bidders with snipe programme membership will beat you every time because the "within 3 second of auction end" becomes available. I can only speak from me experience that since paying the Auction Stealer subscription I rarely lose an aution, providing I bid enough of course. Anyway, good luck with it.

 

[Bandini]

I have used an automated program I got free for taking out a contract on a mobile years ago - it means you can set up to bid when you are not there. Completely legal.

 

[addictfreak]

There are auto snipers you can use, but you have to put in your ebay credentials so I havent used them, although plenty have.

If you can be at your PC at the time the auction ends you best bet is a manual snipe.

For this you need 2 things...

1-You need to know how good your internet connection is. If you have broadband you should be OK for putting in a bid with just 10 seconds to go.

2-You need you know your "Absolute top maximum" bid value.

The way I do it is within 5 mins of the auction ending have 2 internet windows open, one showing the item with the countdown clock, and another where I have put in my bid ammount and it is at the page wit the "confirm bid" button.

When the countdown gets to 10 seconds I confirm my bid. As I have put in my absolute max bid I will either win it or not. For example, I put in my max bid as £50 and the highest bid by someone else is £30, I will win and pay £31. If someone else has bid higher I will loose because it has gone over my max bid.

Its all about setting the max you are willing to pay and not getting into a bidding war 4 days from the finish.

Hope that helps,

Paul.

Thats the way I do it, and have been very successful. Its crazy to show your hand too early.

I currently have some things for sale on ebay (non cycling). They are on for 10 days, with 7 still to go people are bidding already. Im not complaining, the price has already passed what I originally paid.

 

[bikepete]

I havent read all of this bit I subscribe to Auction Stealer. The trouble with taking advantage of the 3 free snipes at no cost is that it puts the bid in within 10 seconds. Many of the sniping progs ( including Auctionstealer) place bids within the last 3 seconds if you choose to pay a small monthly amount. It therefore follows that the many bidders with snipe programme membership will beat you every time because the "within 3 second of auction end" becomes available.

Nooooooo! Not again...!

It makes NO DIFFERENCE when the bid goes in - be it 10 seconds, 2 seconds or 5 blinkin' femtoseconds. The highest bid wins!

If I bid higher with my free auctionstealer bid at 10 seconds than you do with your subscription auctionstealer at 2 seconds I will still win. If someone bids at 0.0001 seconds at a lower level than I did at 10 seconds I STILL WIN.

All a late bid does is stop the bidding wars and 10 seconds is as good as anything for that. A silly late bid (like under one second) just means more chance that a software or network glitch will mean you miss placing your bid entirely.

I just tend to think of the price at which I would be a bit gutted if someone else got it, add a few quid then put that in as my price using (free) auctionstealer. If it doesn't win then I know the winner paid more than I'd have wanted to pay anyway.

 

[bobg]

Strange how theres more arguments about this point than any other. Its obvious that the largest bid wins but there is clearly an edge to be gained if bidding late reduces the opportunity of subsequent bidders to overtake you. If that were not so then sniping would not be successful... and it is ,as my experience of increased wins has shown me

 

[nigelb]

One week and 75 minutes - it ends next Monday.

Off by 1 again (in my defence I've been on holiday) but did you win?

Nige