What price do I pay if i bid twice on auction and I'm only bidder

jjscotman

Hi

I have started buying things on eBay - usually used videogames for personal use - and have had some success with "sniping" as I research the prices on Amazon and Play.com.

However, occasionally I come across a situation where it appears I might be the only bidder and I'm never sure of what the correct tactics are.

For instance, at the moment I'm looking at a game where the starting price is £5.99 and there are currently no bids with bidding due to end in about 5 hours.

Based on my research,I'm willing to pay a maximum of £9.99 but would obviously prefer to pay as little as possible.

If I come into the auction with the starting bid of £5.99 with only a few seconds to go I might very well lose out if another bidder enters.

What would be the situation if I place a bid of £5.99 now and then a bid of £9.99 with only a few seconds to spare and there are no other bidders.

Do I pay the £5.99 or the £9.99 if i'm the only bidder ?

Thanks very much in advance for any help from more experienced eBayers.

masterbrown

You do know about bid increments?
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/buy/bid-increments.html

jjscotman

Title of thread should be " What price do I pay if i bid twice on eBay auction and I'm only bidder "

jjscotman

Hi

Yes, I knew about bid increments but had not taken the time to study the topic carefully.

From what it says in the last paragraph it seems to imply that, if I bid twice and I'm the only bidder, then i will pay 1 increment above the starting price (and not the maximum I have bid)

Is this correct ?

masterbrown

jjscotman wrote: »

Hi

Yes, I knew about bid increments but had not taken the time to study the topic carefully.

From what it says in the last paragraph it seems to imply that, if I bid twice and I'm the only bidder, then i will pay 1 increment above the starting price (and not the maximum I have bid)

Is this correct ?

If you bid £5.99 and then later £9.99 and nobody else bids then you pay £5.99, but you could just bid £9.99 now as your maximum bid and if your the only bidder you will still win it at £5.99

jjscotman

Thanks very much.

Really appreciate your very prompt and helpful responses !!

Hintza

Bid late and bid high.

I still try to get clever on auctions sometimes and don't bid my max, its awfy hard getting another bid in when you have sniped with 10 seconds to go..........:rotfl::rotfl:

Mind you a game I sometimes play if I'm not too fussed is how high can I bid and not win the item, bit like Russian Roulette but not quite as terminal..

luckymoneysaver

if your the only bidder when it sells, then you pay the lowest price, the starting price

if your silly enough to snipe on another ebay account, then you've outbid yourself and have to pay the next increment price

cyberbob

Just pay your highest in the last few seconds. You over complicate it and it will go tits up

GabbaGabbaHey

jjscotman wrote: »

What would be the situation if I place a bid of £5.99 now and then a bid of £9.99 with only a few seconds to spare and there are no other bidders.

Only 3 tactics that you need to know:

1) Only bid once on any auction
2) Bid as late as possible (using a sniping program like JBidWatcher, if necessary)
3) Bid the maximum that you would be happy to spend (and you will be much more likely to win auctions if you are slightly over a round price than slightly under it - for example, bid £10.01 rather than £9.99)

Swiss_Toni

GabbaGabbaHey wrote: »

Only 3 tactics that you need to know:

1) Only bid once on any auction
2) Bid as late as possible (using a sniping program like JBidWatcher, if necessary)
3) Bid the maximum that you would be happy to spend (and you will be much more likely to win auctions if you are slightly over a round price than slightly under it - for example, bid £10.01 rather than £9.99)

Isn't only bidding once and bidding late a bit of a risk?

I am routinely buying items (by sniper) that sell for around £80, but often have 99p starting prices.
It's great when they end after 11pm, as i can be fairly confident the number of other bidders will be low.
However...
Can't the seller change the listing (including the postage) if there are no current bids?
If I bid 99p, at least the seller has to cancel my bid to change the postage cost?

I figure a starting price bid helps to seal the listing and stops me from paying £82.10 for the item and then £50 for the postage where the auction started at £5 postage?!

I do set up my snipes a few days in advance for some items, hence my desire to be sure what my snipe bid is going on!