Ebay bidding

[LeeB]

I 've been scooped at the last few seconds on several items I was trying to win on ebay. How dey do dat?

[Trax]

Figure out what you want to spend and bid within the last few seconds then if your beat out it will be for more than you planned on spending. I useually open 2 windows and put my bid in one so it is ready to go and the other I refresh to watch the end time, if you don't have a high speed connection use a watch.

[beenthere]

They may just use the bid procedure available through eBay, and some call it sniping. I will often wait until the last few seconds and place my highest bid I will go on an item, and often get it at a lower bid. Otherwise, if someone else is higher, they will get the item.

Do you use that feature?

There are also paid companies that do the same thing, but don't know how they can do better than eBays own system....which seems to me would occupy that last split second that bids are open, before closing.

(and like Trax says    )

[TexasTimbers]

Like bt says, they are using a service like hammersnipe or the like. I used hammersnipe once on an item I simply did not want to lose out on. It worked like a charm. I got the item and for alot less than I was willing to go up to. Cheating? No not really, it is simply using the tools at your disposal.

The auction ended at like 3 in the a.m. so I knew I would not be up to watch it. Check out hammersnipe.com

Frustrating when you are on the other end though I am sure.

[mike_van]

When I'm the seller - It puts this HUGE smile on my face  to see the price go up in the last 10 seconds - A few times I've about fallen off the chair, just can't believe sometimes what people will spend! 

[SwampDonkey]

What I usually do is place a bid or two during the week long bidding to get a feel for who might be interested besides me and I come up with the max I will be willing to pay and click that bid button within a few seconds of closing. If I get it great, if not, than it was too expensive anyway. You have to use good judgement on some stuff and keep in mind the shipping rate. Some people will way over bid on stuff that I can go pick up at the local store way cheaper. I have not even bid on ebay for about a year now. Mostly I pick up some old used nostalgic antique computer stuff. Once in awhile (rarely) a made for TV movie I was fond of way back whenever it was on. 

[Corley5]

Bid what's it worth to you    If it's worth more to someone else they'll own it    Works for me

[Patty]

There are several "snipe" programs out there. I use them when there is an item that I MUST own.     Just google bid programs or snipe programs and you will find several. Most will do your first few snipe bids for free before they start charging you for the service.

[Tom]

All those last minute end games are what keep me out of auctions.  

[TexasTimbers]

Remember the rule of thumb on auctions in general. If you are winning most of your bids you are probably paying too much.

Auctions are good for finding good deals on occassion. The more time you spend on them the more occassional those deals become though.

I understand your position too Tom. But those end games are really what an auction is all about. I have never been much of an actual gambler per se with casions or cards etc., but I really like to go to auctions and buy equipment where there are alot of bidders. I usually leave without a winning bid because I am pretty good at not getting caught up in the need to "win". But I like to play the poker with those other bidders who I can see,m talk to between items, and play those "end games". That's half the fun for me.

[Tom]

I think I could learn to enjoy the head to head bidding in real life, it's the Internet type stuff where programs are used that turn me off.

The last time I bid at an auction I was about 6 or 7 years old.  Granddaddy took us to an estate auction being held in the people's house.  I was having a blast. 

I loved to read and had quite a library so I was buying books.  They were selling for  a nickel to fifty cents and the adults were enjoying watching me bid.   I'm sure they bid just to give me a little competition and I was having a great time.  Then there was this one book that came up that I really wanted.  I knew I would dig deep into my pockets for it. (granddaddy had given me a couple of dollars)

I bid a penny and somebody bid two   I bid three and they bid four.  I bid a nickel and and they bid 6 cents.  It was really getting hot and heavy.  I was uptight as a angry bee.  We worked up to a dime and I said "a quarter".  Immediately the 26 bid came back.  I was getting ticked.  I said fifty cents and he said fifty-one.

It was Charlie.  That scamp.  He didn't know what he was doing, just that he wanted the book and somebody was prodding him.  When everybody saw that I realized what had happened the whole house shook with laughter.  I felt pretty little for a minute, but laughter is catching and I had to laugh too.  I'll never forget that auction.

[TexasTimbers]

This needs to go on your Allegory page.

[beenthere]

So Tom, you finally bid $2, and Charlie ended up with for $2.01  
   If so, you got even...

[Tom]

   Charlie wasn't but about 4 or 5 and had no idea what was going on.  I'll have to admit, I was on a pretty steep learning curve myself.   The funny thing is that we could have had the book for a nickel, like the rest, if he hadn't bid against me.   I don't think we spent more than maybe 50 cents for it anyway.  The books were keeping us out of trouble and keeping the auction going too.   Back then a nickel was a lot of money, so 50 cents was a fortune, especially to a 6 year-old.  Can't help but love that little rascal though.  Just sitting here thinking about it makes me want to hug him. 

[Frickman]

I've bid on a few things on eBay. I don't like it much though, as there is too much room for chicanery. The only thing I might bid on is an old equipment book or something like that.

[SwampDonkey]

I never liked auctions in my area too much and have never bid on any of them. The reason for this was, is that the real decent auctions happen in the older cities like Saint John. What doesn't sell there goes out to small outfits around the province and it's just junk. It's like the good stuff was at the main auction and they are throwing the leavings and scraps for the hungry dogs. Even some locals who passed on over the years had their stuff shipped off to the cities for the main auction and it was the same deal, scraps left behind. Heck I know of guy whose uncle passed on and he went to see what was left after the main auction. He went along with my uncle and enters the house and sees an old picture that would mean something only to this family and no one else. It was a framed portrait of the old fellow. He wanted that picture and offered a few bucks. As soon as he expressed interest in that old picture the auctioneer figured it was worth a fortune. So as time went on they eyed an old graph-o-phone in a corner. They looked it over and noticed a drawer built into it. The auctioneer said she would take $50 for it. They paid her and loaded it on the pickup. Well when no one was looking the fellow and my uncle put two $100 bills in the drawer. When they got it loaded the auctioneer came out to say something and the guys opened up the drawer and said. "Hey look, $200 bucks." Man was the auctioneer mad. The nephew was happy as a lark that he got away with the little caper and made his day. Heck, it wasn't that the guy didn't have money for anything that auctioneer would ever be selling. This guy is a multimillionaire and the 2 nd generation in the family that have never had to work in their lives. I got a kick out of it to when my uncle told me. She wasn't a very friendly auctioneer, quite a stuck up snob. That was the main reason to get ahead of the old girl, or make it look so. 

[LeeB]

Ah see say de blind man. I do limit my bids to what i feel it's worth to me. I just takes the wind out of your sail to think you've gotten something and see it vanish just as you're reaching for it.

[metalspinner]

I usually bid at the last second.  If a bid is entered to soon, then I always lose out or the price gets to be too much.  If I really need it, the stop watch comes out.  My computer needs about 2-3 seconds to send the info.  Usually, though, I forget about the auction closing time until it's to late.  Then I miss out on all the fun.

[Daren]

Bid what's it worth to you    If it's worth more to someone else they'll own it    Works for me

Ditto. If I see something I figure what it is worth to me, including shipping, and place my max bid right then. I have stuff sell out from underneath me all the time. No way to "sneak up" on something that has been listed for a week and 1000 people have looked at. If it goes for $1,$10 (whatever) more than I was willing to pay, good for them. There will be a dozen more just like it next week 

[rebocardo]

Well, I keep a few windows open and bid once and then at the end I have windows opened at various steps such as $50,$60, $70 etc. I let the people think they bet my $50, and then post something such as $56.76 in the last seconds.

Sometimes you just have to bid.

I never bid more then what it is worth to me at the very beginning of most auctions and if I get beat, I get beat.

Sometimes I do not bid at all until the last ten seconds if I ses no bids, but, it seems to me it should have sold already.

I mostly sell and sometimes people complain because I ended my auction early and they didn't bid. Sometimes when it hits the price I want, I simply sell to the highest or only bidder so they do not get sniped to unreasonable levels. Especially if they are a good customer or collecter or live outside the USA because the postage costs are so high anyways.