Best time to bid on ebay

BargainJunky

Its my first time bidding on ebay - the item we want is currently at £185 and ends at 10pm ish this evening. We are prepared to go up to £250 but when would be the best time to put our bid in - at present we are waiting until around 9pm to see what the current bid is and then plan to place ours! Is this the best way or should we bid now?

Thanks for your help.

Have looked at what they are going for in the past and they vary greatly - some as low as £162 and some as high as £276 - I think the areas they are in make a difference as they are very large and difficult to transport.

Have just had a look and it is still at £185 with just under two hours to go! The same bidder has bid £185 twice (first at 1am this morning and then again at 5pm) assume the second bid has a higher maximum! Starting to get excited now but dont plan to go mad - will go with the tip of the odd pounds and pennies.

Must be beginners luck! I won it at £205.00 - the other bidder had increased every time by £20.00 so I went in with two minutes to spare at £218.68 (birthday is the 18th and was born in 1968 if anyone is curious) - no further bidders - just got to work out how to get payment to seller now!

Road_Hog

BargainJunky wrote:

Its my first time bidding on ebay - the item we want is currently at £185 and ends at 10pm ish this evening. We are prepared to go up to £250 but when would be the best time to put our bid in - at present we are waiting until around 9pm to see what the current bid is and then plan to place ours! Is this the best way or should we bid now?

Thanks for your help.

Always bid near the end, you'll only push the price up needlessly by bidding now. That is not to say you won't get outbid by someone else doing the same.

Marvo434

I use sniping software, and bid with 6 seconds to go.

Hintza

At £250 it strikes me that this is psychological price barrier. I would suggest bidding something like £252.xx or even go to £26X.xx. Always add a couple of quid plus a few pence on to an item in this range. If you think its worth £250 you might find a few others are of the same opinion.

skintchick

Bid in the final few seconds with your highest bid of an odd number as suggested above.

rose_sparky

Is there a free sniping tool and if so can anyone recommend it?

I'm desperate to win an item too but daren't wait until the last few seconds to bid because sometimes my p.c. can be sooooo slow at the crucial minute.

piggeh

I normally just refresh and try and track the seconds left manually, then just submit with 5-10 seconds left.

http://auctioninsights.com/ is a free service but submits with 10-20 seconds remaining, whereas other paid services (or if you upgrade) can submit with a couple of secodns to go.

Little_John

Its up to you, if it is a comon item find out what the item usually sells for with the advanced search for compleated items, if it sells for over £250 then your unlikley to win even if you bid at the death as there will proberbly be a higher bid already placed.

if your £250 is about the same then bidding at the end gives you a better chance of not gettng out bid by someone comming in with a higher bid.

A tip while you keep refreshing the page is to keep your eye on the page counter if it is changing towards the end then you can be sure that a few other people are looking in and also planning on a last 10 second bid, if this is the case then your going to be very late with your bid and hope your bid is enough.

Snipping is only good if your sure your best bid is enough to win the item, I had a 1 month trial with bidnapper a bit back maye you could try that.

skintchick

rose_sparky wrote:

Is there a free sniping tool and if so can anyone recommend it?

I'm desperate to win an item too but daren't wait until the last few seconds to bid because sometimes my p.c. can be sooooo slow at the crucial minute.

I use auctionstealer - you get three free snipes a week.

Mezcita

I would recommend https://www.auctionsniper.com

I've used it plenty of times and its worked each time for me. Bidding at the end is definitley the way to go as it prevents you from gettting involved in a bidding war. Also, as previously suggested choose your highest bid to be an unusual number e.g £256.20. I've previously won auctions by on a couple of pence!

Good luck!

Contains_Mild_Peril

I use Auctionstealer too. I was initially doubtful as to whether it would actually save me money, but it does. I first used it because I would be out when an auction finished, and didn't want to put the price up by bidding too early. I bid on the 3rd of 4 identical lots of photographic film, and I got mine for £16.50 whereas the other lots all went for over £20.
As others have mentioned, it's best not to choose a "round" number for your maximum bid. If you do, it's more likely someone else will have bid the same amount before you.