A classic case of why Sniping works

Are you referring to the last 3 entries?

 

yes

 

That's correct, I don't undwerstand why bekayne didn't get it.
j***2 bid $9.98 on January 31.
d***v bid $75 on February 3.
What I don't understand is why d***v bid 76.34 on February 5 at 13:47GMT. Anyway, he decided to increase a little
j***2 decided to overbid on February 5 at 17:47GMT but he didn't want to pay too much. So he bid and bid but he was automatically overtaken every tme. Finally at 17:52 he got tired and bid $100.
But d***v bid 137.50 fifteen minutes later and for unknown reason increased to 137.50 on February 6.
j***2 decided to overbid on February 7 but he didn't want to pay much...
And so on.

Actually something IS wrong here!!!
It looks like there was a third bidder that is not shown.
A THIRD MAN!
Maybe he was banned and his bids were deleted.
Why else d***v increased his bid to 76.34 and 137.50.
These bids are probably were made to overtake the third person's 75 and 135.

 

Nope, no third bidder behind the grassy knoll. Just 2 crazy bidders driving the price up.

 

I always keep my cards close to my chest and use myibay to bid now. Does it in the last few seconds - plus living in Australia I don't have to get up at 4am any more. That sucks big one! I still set my maximum so if I lose its tough luck - but I don't drive the price up in between!

 

I really don't get it. Either snipe, or put in the highest that you are willing to pay and forget about it. I always place a max bid that 10-20% higher than I am willing to pay; then I never feel bad about losing. Of course, my recent Ebay record is something like 3-17.

 

I put in one bid, what I'm willing to pay, and never rebid.

 

My thoughts:
Sometimes I like to put a relatively small bid on something I'm interested in.
As a buyer an item with no bids looks a lot more appealing than one with bids. In essence the presence of bids scares other potential buyers away.

Also If you get their first, lets say its not an exspensive or really rare item, but the oppening bid is 9 bucks or so, and you set a max up to say 20-25-30 whatever. You will get the item a lot of the time as it isn't appealing when a potential opposing bidder when they know you are there. I see this all the time, and in this case the auction often ends around 15-20.

Now if someone is engaging you, of course that is the time you set your snipe. It would be stupid to engage in a bidding war, but I like the idea of getting there first, unless you KNOW the item will be rare/desireable enough to recieve a bunch of action.

C

 

So do snipers.

 

I was responding to back-and-forth bidding wars, but you make a good point.

I should probably snipe.

 

I don't snipe, and I win 70% of auctions...I find a good strategy is to bid early, if I get outbid, AND I truly want the item, I bid higher, then, say, the next day I raise it a little...that puts me in with 3 bids, lets other bidders know I'm serious, and by this point the top bid, mine, is already significant...that seems to scare off snipers, who may feel they have to bid REALLY high to win...that final bid of mine is usually the last in the auction

 

Sniping is the single most effective way to win. I sniped two auctions yesterday and got em both for well less than my max bid.

 

It would not scare me off because I enter my bids early in to the sniping service and check at the auction end. If I bid enough I win.

 

Finally started using sniping - and don't know why I delayed for so long.
My record thus far is - 11 auctions engaged using eSnipe - 11 wins.
That simply would not have happened if I wasn't using it, since many have ended in the early hours and I would have been forced to place my highest bid hours before closing.
Which, clearly, would have left me wide open.

I don't think of using any other alternative now, since I am 100% certain that it's saved me a good deal of money

 

Someone got sniped manually in the last 11 seconds by yours truly last night

 

When sniping doesn't work: when you place your bid - seconds to go - and you are blocked reason: country not accepted for placing the bid! For instance, I did not notice NZ was not included in acceptable bidding locations.
Now, a manual bid would have had a chance to correct this prior to end of auction, but it's my oversight at the end of the day.
(sigh)

 

This "blocking" has been happening more & more lately. Also, if there is already a bid on the item foreign bidders can't be unblocked. Ebay sellers take note.

 

The logic behind sniping is that there are people who do NOT bid the maximum they are willing to pay (and rebid when they are topped), and others who get emotionally caught up in the auction process and just don't want to lose (and therefore keep rebidding). Essentially, it's a logic that assumes that there are somewhat irrational bidders out there -- which make some sense.

 

What's everyone's favorite sniping software/site?

 

"Bidnapper" is very good.

 

Auction Sniper. They've not let me down so far.

 

So, I decided to try sniping. I already had the highest bid on an item I've been looking for, but my max was barely above the bid price, and in thinking about it, I was willing to pay more for the disc. So, I sat there in front of my computer, waited until there were 15 seconds left in the auction, and entered a higher maximum bid. . . . . . . . . and nothing happened, as no one tried to snipe. Anticlimactic to say the least.

 

I either BIN or SNIPE. I never BID on anything anymore. If I do SNIPE, I figure out how much I'm willing to pay, set the BID amt in Esnipe and then forget about it. Win some, lose some. Big deal. They'll always be more around the corner. I can't fathom getting into a bidding war. Waste of time.

 

This is precisely what I do now. I don't "bid" anymore, just input amounts into eSnipe and leave it at that. Perfect.

 

The Ebay system is good because it actually prevents a buyer from getting caught up in auction fever. In Japan, yahoo auctions automatically extends an auction for a few minutes anytime there is a new bid at the last minute. It's quite maddening to be sitting at your computer and get a meesage that says that your bid has been topped. It's hard to resist going back and entering a higher bid. Thus, while yahoo auctions can have better pricing because of fact that the market is basically limited to Japanese buyers, if two people really want an item, the price can go through the roof. The Ebay system requires you to live with your initial bid, because once those snipe bids come in, the auction is over -- which is a very nice disciplining mechanism.