Sneaky last second bidders

SaverSarah_2

I kinda get around this by having two windows open at the same time, for the same item, one with my max bid in, ready to click to send the bid at the very last second, and the other window is the one I keep refreshing to keep an eye on the price and the number of seconds left.

It works for me!

jobbingmusician

Do I get the feeling we are about to witness the birth of the sniper tart - the MSE'r who collects all the snipe names from here and cashes in the free snipes from them???

BWZN93

*Louise* wrote:

*Holds hands up*

Yes...I am guilty of this as well. Got some stuff the other day by 'sniping', I confirmed the bd at 3 seconds before the end of the auction (with fingers crossed that the screen didnt freeze!) and won. :j

Hate it when other people do it though.....

I do that too, I have two screens up, one ready to confirm bid (always an odd amount just over my max, like 69p) and one watching the time. At 10 seconds to go, im confirming my bid and usually win. I always try and guess what others have done too, I approximate what they may have bid as their max, look at postage costs, add them together and round up to the nearest whole £5 (e.g 125 inc postage). If I really want it, I make sure I bid enough to get it right at the end if im honest! Like I did with my coffee table, there were some on auction and some buy it now, I reduced what the buy it now price was (140) by the cost of postage (16) and assumed thats what others would be going for (124). I bid at 128.40, won it at 124.79, and then had a paypal code too, and got it at £112 inc postage. Bargain, and cheaper than the final bids by others for the item! :rotfl:

Jo xx

*Louise*

jw1096 wrote:

and then had a paypal code too, and got it at £112 inc postage.

Paypal code? What does that do/where do you get them?

nightswimmer

*Louise* wrote:

Paypal code? What does that do/where do you get them?

Occasionally PayPal release discount codes. Before christmas there were several different ones. They tend to be X% off if you spend over Y amount, or so much off the postage, etc.

Keep an eye on the "Discount Codes 'n Vouchers (online & offline)" forum for the codes themselves.

Tojo_Ralph

superscotsman wrote:

If there is an item THAT YOU MUST HAVE, do as above, only this time put in a ridiculous maximum bid, something far above what you think it will fetch. If you do it that way you will probably get an excellent price, and - best of all - you will get the item.

I would love to hear the logic behind that statement?

superscotsman wrote:

What you think is a ridiculous sum is more than what I would think is a ridiculous sum.

That's as clear as mud then.

superscotsman

Tojo_Ralph wrote:

That's as clear as mud then.

Well, let me make it clear then. There is a fundamental difference between you and me.

I always make the assumption that the good people out there are intelligent, have loads of common sense, and are well able to make decisions and make judgments as to how they handle their own money.

You obviously think otherwise.

We will just have to agree to differ.

MickKnipfler

Superscotsman....

What happens if more than one bidder applies your technique?

Tojo_Ralph

superscotsman wrote:

I always make the assumption that the good people out there are intelligent, have loads of common sense, and are well able to make decisions and make judgments as to how they handle their own money.

You obviously think otherwise.

We will just have to agree to differ.

This is not a case of agreeing to differ, more one of me trying to understand why you are recommending bidding in excess of that which one is willing to pay?

Lets assume you are correct, and that the good people do indeed have a lot of common sense, are intelligent, are able to make good choices on their own, are able to decide what goods are worth, what is good value and are able to decide on a maximum figure they are willing and happy to pay for a given item......

superscotsman wrote:

If there is an item THAT YOU MUST HAVE, do as above, only this time put in a ridiculous maximum bid, something far above what you think it will fetch. If you do it that way you will probably get an excellent price, and - best of all - you will get the item.

..... If the good people are as you imagine, PLEASE, explain why your advice to them is to then throw common sense out of the window, forget what they are willing to pay and instead go with putting in a ridiculous maximum bid far above that which their common sense and intellect tells them an item is worth or will most likely sell for?..... Furthermore, please explain why someone bidding a ridiculous amount rather than ones maximum is likely to result in winning the auction at an "excellent" price?

superscotsman

MickKnipfler wrote:

Superscotsman....

What happens if more than one bidder applies your technique?

You ought to know the answer to that: the bidder with the highest maximum bid wins the item.
You are implying that you have a monopoly on common sense.
So someone says: "I've just read this posting by Superscotsman, and he says to bid a ridiculous amount for an article you really want. I really want that ice-axe to climb Ben McDhui next week, so I'll bid two and a half million dollars."
Meanwhile on the Continent: "I vant zat eis-axe to climb Pitz-Palu. Zoopaschotter zays to bid verruktgeld. I bid dreimillionen euro."
Leave it out, MickKnipfler!