Been bamboozled er..sniped on eBay

Discussion in 'Third Party Sales & Auctions' started by Chris R, Nov 28, 2008.

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  1. Chris R

    Chris R Forum Fones Thread Starter

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  2. ManFromCouv

    ManFromCouv Employee #3541

    You are the victim of sniper software, sorry to say.
     
  3. Chris R

    Chris R Forum Fones Thread Starter

    :thumbsdn: :(
     
  4. Downsampled

    Downsampled Senior Member

    IMO, nothing beats carefully considering your maximum amount, placing the bid, and forgetting about it until it's over. Of course I don't always follow this axiom myself, and have been sniped, which leaves me wondering to myself, "Why didn't I just enter more to begin with?"

    But I'm getting better at figuring out in advance how much to enter. Much better to get sniped and look at that closing price and say to yourself, "That's more than I wanted to pay."
     
  5. Jay F

    Jay F New Member

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    I have used sniper software that bid at 10 seconds, and another that bid at 17 seconds. I won two auctions and lost one. It was matter of someone's being willing to pay more than the sniping itself.
     
  6. seventeen

    seventeen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Paris, France
    I often have the feeling that when you are sniped, it's to a fake account that won't buy the record, but was trying to see what's your maximum bid was and raise it to there. I don't bother anymore buying because of this (ie when your max is 40, curiously someone get it a 41, when it's 80, 81, when it's 102, 103 etc...)

    I have the red one, by the way, I bought it in a real shop :)
     
  7. dbz

    dbz Bolinhead.

    Location:
    Live At Leeds (UK)
    Sniper or not, if you really want it, Bid "your Max + 30% to 40%"

    If you don't then you're not serious and will always lose out..unfortunately, but that's how Ebay works!
     
  8. Chris R

    Chris R Forum Fones Thread Starter

    Ah...I would have paid maybe $5. more.

    Still, why can't we see other users anymore?
    That's what concerns me. I'm kind of not sure what the DMM red vinyl 62-66, blue 67-70 and white vinyl, White Album are worth today. There were a lot of copies, apparently imported into Canada and the U.S. at time of release in 1995. Unfortunately the big stores in Calgary such as a&b sound never brought any in.

    Guess I'm fortunate, in that I think, this is the first time I've been sniped on eBay.
     
  9. Santo10

    Santo10 The Hot Corner

    Location:
    Oregon
    You have the same access to sniping services as the winning bidder did. What it comes down to is that he was willing to pay more for it than you were. Tough pill to swallow, but that's how things work now.
     
  10. Jay F

    Jay F New Member

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    That's just the way it works. If I've entered, say, a $104 bid for something, my bid is going to go up a dollar (or whatever $) more than yours as long as you're bidding under $104. Once yours goes to $105, you've beat me. Also, I promise that when I snipe, it's not with a fake account. That's a rather skewed idea of how this works.
     
  11. Metralla

    Metralla Joined Jan 13, 2002

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    eBay changed that some time ago. The change annoyed me at the time, because I sometimes liked to see what others were bidding on. I've adjusted ... but don't use eBay much these days.
     
  12. Jay F

    Jay F New Member

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    So that sellers of similar merchandise can't contact the losers in an auction. They would be doing themselves a favor if they'd make this possible through legitimate Buy It Now channels. They could call it "Bought It Even Though I 'Lost.'" I used to sell to losers legitimately, using Buy It Now. If you get to people right after the auction ends, they're still in the mood to buy, and everybody's happy. I'll bet half of what I sold on eBay I sold in this way. Targeted marketing. What's the problem with it, as long as it's legitimate and eBay gets their cut?

    I've stopped selling on eBay almost completely. I despise the auction function, and for selling CDs, I don't want to be lumped in with Derby City and Media Marz. So I sell on A.M. now. Buy there mainly, too. Occasionally, there's something on eBay, but it's rare for me to buy there as well as sell.
     
  13. eelkiller

    eelkiller One of the great unwashed

    Location:
    Northern Ontario
    The thing is you don't know what the winners maximum bid was so you will never know if an extra $5 would have done anything other than cost the winner more $$

    Some of the services have free versions (you can't snipe real late though). They are handy if you travel a lot and can't watch the auctions closely.

    Pick you amount you are willing to pay and hope!!!

    As far as the hidden identities go I am not against it as some sellers were emailing to offer deals off EBay to the second high bidder. Now they have to do some detective work if they want to do that.
     
  14. Popmartijn

    Popmartijn Senior Member

    Location:
    The Netherlands
    Doesn't have to be sniper software. It could also be that someone was even later than you in bidding on it. You said you made your bid about 30 seconds before the end. That's still plenty of time for others to also place a bid (whether or not they've seen your bid).
    It happens.
     
  15. Cassius

    Cassius On The Beach

    Location:
    Lafayette, Co
    1. I have always had good luck with Hammersnipe.com
    2. I would reccomend the UK pressing of this LP, perhaps you can use the tool above to buy one on ebay.co.uk

    Good Luck

    Clay
     
  16. Chris R

    Chris R Forum Fones Thread Starter

    Not sure I'm following the first part of the story. Why would a loser be contacted after losing an auction, unless the buyer got cold feet and received permssion to back out from the seller?

    Also what is A.M.?
     
  17. Dugan

    Dugan Senior Member

    Location:
    Midway,Pa
    Also bid an off number. People tend to bid in round numbers. For example, instead of bidding $40, bid $41. It doesn't work all the time but a lot of times I have won an auction by that extra dollar. I also try and bid within the last 30 seconds.
     
  18. KeithH

    KeithH Success With Honor...then and now

    Location:
    Beaver Stadium
    eBay stopped showing IDs of other bidders several months ago. When they first started protecting IDs, you could not see the IDs of other bidders, but everyone could see the ID of the winning bidder. Just recently, eBay stopped showing the ID of the winning bidder as well. They do all of this to protect the bidder's identity. Now, no one can hound the winning bidder to see if they will sell the item they just won or to give them a hard time for sniping (e.g., a losing bidder venting frustration on the winning sniper). This may not have happened often, but it happened.

    In the "old days" of eBay when IDs were visible to everyone, I had strangers write me a few times asking if I would sell a disc I had just won or to vent frustration of losing an item. Additionally, I occasionally was contacted by other sellers who had watched my bidding activity and in turn offered me their related items for purchase. I didn't appreciate strangers abusing the system and spamming or venting at me (Who would?), so I am glad that IDs are protected now.

    As for the sniper outbidding you, I can understand your frustration, but remember that what they did is perfectly allowed on eBay. As others have said, you can avail yourself of the similar sniping services or you can snipe manually even closer to the end of the auction than you did today. Even so, someone could outbid you.
     
  19. J.A.W.

    J.A.W. Music Addict

    I'm guessing Amazon Marketplace.
     
  20. Jay F

    Jay F New Member

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Under the old system, which showed the eBay IDs of all bidders, other sellers with identical copies of an item could contact losing bidders to sell them an identical copy at each loser's high bid price. It's like eBay's "second chance" feature, only the buyer (no longer a "loser," incidentally) deals with a different seller than the one in the auction.

    Say you're the person who loses in an auction for a rare mono copy of Sgt. Pepper. Say I'm a different seller, but I've got an identical rare mono copy, in equally good condition. I contact you after the auction is over and say "Hey, I've got that Sgt. Pepper you're looking for. You can buy it from me for your high bid. I'll list it as a Buy It Now sometime when we can both agree to be online." So, we'd do that. It worked more than 50% of the time. The buyer would buy the album, and in most instances, pay for it right away. These were my best sales.

    It was so easy to do, though, I guess eBay was losing money because many, maybe most, of these transactions happened outside of the eBay fold. I almost always used Buy It Now, maybe 98% of the time. The only times I didn't were when buyers insisted upon not using it.

    Now that you can't contact anyone but the winner of an auction, you can't get to those people anymore. I get why eBay had to make this choice, but I think they're missing out on a very good income stream. And there are buyers and sellers who are missing out on a very good way of connecting with each other. There must be a way for Amazon to make this possible in a legitimate fashion. (I've e-mailed them about it a couple of times, but all I get is a canned response from Bangalore repeating the rules.)

    I hope this makes it more clear.

    Oh, and A.M. is Amazon Marketplace.
     
  21. Jay F

    Jay F New Member

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    I once won an auction because I'd stuck an extra .63 on the bid.
     
  22. Jay F

    Jay F New Member

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Keith, what is that red thing in your avatar? A hat you wear to football games?
     
  23. Mark W.

    Mark W. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Silverton, OR
    I virtually never bid on anything on eBay unless I use a Sniping service to do anything else is foolish and can only cost you money or the item. I decide what I am willing to pay I tell my sniping seervice to place the bid with a few seconds left to go in the auction. And I go on with my life. If the item goes above my max amount before the end of the auction the sniping service notifies me once and a great while I might adjust my bid up otherwise I just move on.

    Near as I can tell using this method I am successful in being the high bidder for about 75-80% of the items I am interested in. And since at least 75% of the time it is for less then my max amount I have saved money by never allowing anyone to see my bid and raise me.

    You can play the game how every you want I prefer to read all the rules and use all advantages.

    I mean it's an auction if it was a live action with 4 people bidding on an item you want if you place a bid prior to the second GOING your nuts it can only cost you money.

    But then I'm 51 and bid in my first open auction at age 12 so I guess I done this a bit. By the way I won the lot of small antique bottles I was after as a 12 year old.
     
  24. erniebert

    erniebert Shoe-string audiophile

    Location:
    Toronto area
  25. KeithH

    KeithH Success With Honor...then and now

    Location:
    Beaver Stadium
    I was contacted by supposed sellers like this a few times when eBay revealed everyone's ID. Of course, eBay does not want this since a deal can be struck outside of eBay, meaning eBay does not get their cut. At the same time, people could obviously scam the losing bidder who is desperate to own an item. I'm sure many people were scammed over the years.
     
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