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Ebay Rant

This is not directed at sellers on ebay, as much as bidders. I have only done a little ebay-ing, so maybe I am missing something here. You have an auction for a given item, and you know exactly when bidding will end on that item. This is where it is a little diferent than a live auction, I get that part of it. But if you know item x will be ending at exactly 15:30:59 on Friday August 7th, why would anyone bid more than a minute before the auction ends? Yes, I am a sniper, but are there really that many people out there that have not figured this out after like 13 years of ebay?

I'm just saying...

If I am missing something, educate me...
 
Reasons people bid early and often

to inflate the price
to outbid someone else
to be "winning"
to prevent a BIN
to be first and hope no one else bids
to fill in the blank

For many bidders winning the item at the lowest price possible
is not their primary goal. Set the highest snipe price you are
willing to pay and then move on.

DC
 
This is not directed at sellers on ebay, as much as bidders. I have only done a little ebay-ing, so maybe I am missing something here. You have an auction for a given item, and you know exactly when bidding will end on that item. This is where it is a little diferent than a live auction, I get that part of it. But if you know item x will be ending at exactly 15:30:59 on Friday August 7th, why would anyone bid more than a minute before the auction ends? Yes, I am a sniper, but are there really that many people out there that have not figured this out after like 13 years of ebay?

I'm just saying...

If I am missing something, educate me...

Because 99% of the time I'm looking to buy something at or below a given price(usually just under retail), and I won't pay more, so I set my max bid at that, and if I don't win I don't win, it auto bids up to that point for you, even if someone tries to snipe it at the last 5 seconds.
 
some people are just plain crazy. they may not know much about the item they are bidding on (i.e. spouses buying stuff for their other half), but saw it for a certain price at auction and so they keep bidding thinking they are getting a good deal. the comparative auction might have been inflated for any number of reasons - a common one is an emotional buy (i.e. a birth year razor in a type that is very uncommon).

and so starts the downward (or upwardly inflating) spiral.
 
i agree with opliko. sniping doesn't exactly get you the best price. for example, a auction i won a bit ago. we were bidding up to $600. i set that way before. this lady tried sniping for a bit under $600, but still beat her out bc she wasn't willing to pay that much. i guess it just depends on who wants to pay more. sure sniping leaves anyone little time to change there mind and increase their bid, but i would imagine that is the only way it helps.
 
I get very irritated when people bid early. All the auctions I've won have been by sniping. I set a price in my mind that I'm willing to pay. I bid at the last minute and if I get outbid, then so be it. I have to do it this way otherwise I will let myself get caught up in the moment and spend more than what I should.
 
Its good to set a max amount for yourself and put that in as your bid, I can't always get to a computer when an item is ending to put in a last minute bid.
 
It's all about discipline. When I find something I want to buy on eBay, I look for other recent auctions for that product, or a similar product, so I can get a sense for how much "the market" values it. If what I am willing to pay is close to that number, I put in a bid at that price.

Then I wait until the auction ends. If I win, great. If not, well, someone else got stuck with a raw deal.

I've lost about 10x more auctions to snipers than I have won. But on those auctions I did win, I got what I wanted at the price I wanted.

I think a lot of people get competitive while bidding- this is the wrong attitude to have as a buyer.
 
Because 99% of the time I'm looking to buy something at or below a given price(usually just under retail), and I won't pay more, so I set my max bid at that, and if I don't win I don't win, it auto bids up to that point for you, even if someone tries to snipe it at the last 5 seconds.

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner.


People seem to forget this basic idea. The way you get ripped off on e-bay is by bidding low at first and then gradually raising your bid. The way to make sure you never pay more than you WANT to pay is to put in your max bid on the very first day of the auction, then "set it and forget it." If nobody wants to pay more than you do, you win, and if they do, you lose.

But you NEVER pay more than you wanted to pay.
 
Reasons people bid early and often

to inflate the price
to outbid someone else
to be "winning"
to prevent a BIN
to be first and hope no one else bids
to fill in the blank

For many bidders winning the item at the lowest price possible
is not their primary goal. Set the highest snipe price you are
willing to pay and then move on.

DC

That's it! Only on the rare occasions when I "gotta have it" do I wait until the end or of course if I've only discovered the auction very late. :wink2:
 
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McDonald's closes at 10, do I wait until 9:59 to go grab some dinner?? Heck no, I go get my food earlier because I'm hungry! Bidding satisfies some kind of hunger in all of us, right?
Yeah, no, that's not really a good example, but if I'm willing to pay $40 for an item, what does it matter if I enter that bid now or 10 hours from now? It doesn't change what I am willing to pay for it. If I get outbid the day before a bid ends, or 2 seconds before, it doesn't really matter. I'd rather you "snipers" outbid me sooner so I can go about my merry way looking for another item to bid on...
 
Ah, but sometimes if you bid the $40 (example above) you will be out bid at some point in the auction, whereas if you wait to "snipe", there is a good possibility the guy who would have (out of emotion) outbid you at $40, will not have his max bid set that high.

I've won more by sniping than not, but really it depends on the item, how popular I expect it to be and how badly I want it, whether or not I'll snipe (also whether or not I'll have access to a computer at bid's end, though there are programs/services lke Auction Sniper for that). I've bought items ranging from guitar picks to cars, and lots in between (score is around 260/270 if I recall).

Most recent? Shaving soaps, colognes and CD's....
 
McDonald's closes at 10, do I wait until 9:59 to go grab some dinner?? Heck no, I go get my food earlier because I'm hungry! Bidding satisfies some kind of hunger in all of us, right?
Yeah, no, that's not really a good example, but if I'm willing to pay $40 for an item, what does it matter if I enter that bid now or 10 hours from now? It doesn't change what I am willing to pay for it. If I get outbid the day before a bid ends, or 2 seconds before, it doesn't really matter. I'd rather you "snipers" outbid me sooner so I can go about my merry way looking for another item to bid on...

Strategy can save you money and win you something you may have otherwise lost.

You don't have to try to guess when McDonald's is on their last serving of nuggets, you can walk in any time and get them, always for the same price. e-Bay doesn't have consistent prices or quantities, so you do have to plan out your purchase if you want to get the best deal.

Besides, if they actually don't have Nuggets at McDonald's, you just call 9-1-1 like that lady in the news did.
 
I think the people who are saying there's no point to sniping just don't understand it. If the item being desired comes down to you and another person wanting it, and you bid early, it gives the other person (who may not be a sniper) tons of time to keep bidding up until they get over your limit. If you don't bid until the end, they might put in a single, low bid (I find this happens all the time instead of the person putting in their max bid--and some just throw out a small bid and think, well if I somehow win this then great) and then with the snipe at the end there's no time for the price to climb.

If everyone sniped at the end, then the person willing to pay the most would always get it based upon the value they had assigned to the item themselves since the highest snipe would take it, instead of seeing the price climb well in advance and possibly adjusting to outbid.

That's my logic anyway, but then, perhaps I'm the one missing something...
 
Now think about the other side of this. If most everybody only sniped, most sellers would change the way they list. I think you would see a lot more reserve auctions and higher starting bids. You can call these people names, but they're helping to keep the starting bids down low... buyers list things at a low starting price to get interest in the item. If _nobody_ bid till the last minute, obviously even with auto bidding at the end, you won't get as many bids. If I had something expensive for sale with no reserve and nobody bid on it, I would probably cancel the auction right before I thought the snipping might kick in at the end. So I would bid the way you like, but perhaps not yell and scream at people making the prices a little higher (for you), since I think you're still getting a better deal than if everybody only snipped.
 
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