auction site - please help

persis_2

Hi, i've been lurking in the shadows for a while now, being new to the site. so please go easy on me if i make a mistake.

i've been bidding on a website trying to purchase a fridge- freezer, each time i put in a winning bid, someone oudbids me within a split second. its getting confusing and frustrating and i'm sure there must be more to bidding and auction sites than i know.

Can any of you nice folks enlighten me some more. Thanks
persis

soolin

On ebay, and I believe on many other sites as well, it is posisble to use a proxy bid system. That would seem to be the case here.

I'm lousy at explaining things clearly, but I'll do my best, basically there is another bidder on the auction that has say a proxy of £101, however his top bid will not show until it is reached. Therefore each time you bid a little, below that proxy bid his bid is automatically upped by one increment to outbid you. The only way to outbid the proxy is to put in a bid higher than that of your oponent.

Soo

Hintza

I am presuming you are bidding on the Comet site? They increase the finish time by a minute if there a any bids in the last minute (or they used to anyway). I find this site a bit of a pain but I do find you can get some good bargains.

I tend to expect at least 33% off the lowest price I can find on the high street so I need to bid carefully (the prices some folk pay!!).

Now on this site lets say the bid increment is £15...you don't need to bid £15 I like using £16-£18. You then have to decide what the phsycological cut off price for buyers is. Let's assume you think its £200 (after which for you anyway and probably many others) and price is at £185 the buyer who bid £185 could have put a price of £200 in the system so if you bid the increment of £15 you will still lose so why not bid £203 and sneak the item at the top price likely to be acheived plus a smidgen.

The other thing is bank holiday weekends can be a great time to buy with many folk either away or out for the day.

I don't think I have explained this very well...but just be patient and decide on how much it is worth to you and bid late to stop the nibblers chipping away at your bid.

Am I on the right track?

persis_2

thanks, soolin and Hintza,

yes i was referring to the comet site. i'll keep trying, especially this bank holiday. with some luck i should land a nice fridge-freezer

thanks, folks

soolin

persis wrote:

thanks, soolin and Hintza,

yes i was referring to the comet site. i'll keep trying, especially this bank holiday. with some luck i should land a nice fridge-freezer

thanks, folks

Good luck!

Soo