winning against automatic bidder

Hammyman

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

Thanks for response. I am bidding a realistic price but not sure that youve understood the question tbh!
My problem isnt the price perse its the fact that this bidder seems to pip me at the post by using automatic bidding and wins 100% of the auctions he/she is bidding on. Unsure on strategy to use to win. Scenario may explain better: both bidding on same item; max bid put in at 120. Almost at end of auction cost is 80 so I enter 120 bid...he/she wins at 121. So do I put in a bid of 122 for end of next auction just before it finishes? If he has a max bid of 200 at that stage will it ignore my 122 and go for his 200? Does that explain it better? Alternatively not use automatic bidding and put in a 122 bid last 30 secs of auction?

Actually they have. The "sniper" is winning because they're prepared to pay a higher amount. It is as simple as that. No sniping software will win if another bidder puts in an amount higher than the maximum set in the sniping software.

And they may not be using sniping software at all. If I bid on an auction that starts at £100 and enter £1000 as my maximum bid on the first day, then Ebay will automatically bid £100 on my behalf then increase it by the relevent increments every time someone else bids until someone bids more than the £1000 I originally bid.

So in the case above, if I'd put in a bid of £1000 on that spinning wheel you wanted, then even though the auction is at £120 when you put in your bid of £122 even 2 seconds from the end, I'd still win as my max bid was £1000.


Ergo the advice that you need to bid higher is 100% correct. The simple fact is they're winning because they're prepared to pay more than you and have put that amount in earlier. I can guarantee that if you put £100,000 in that you'd win the spinning wheel.

GabbaGabbaHey

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

Pipped the other buyer by 1 second

Of course, that's not why you got the spinning wheel. You got it because you were willing to pay more for it than anybody else.

Hintza

Ah reminds me of he old days when there were certain items on EBay that I bought for resale and had folk moaning via Ebay that they could ever win.

However the other buyer needs to be sensible otherwise he will be continually pushing up prices against himself and should let you buy one at a fairly reasonable price and then you will be out the way.

If he is not doing that then OP your bids must be unrealistic. Must be profit making opportunities in this market.

It is innocent posts like this that potential sellers should look at if trying to get into a new market. It can be the wierdest things that make money.

In_Search_Of_Me

For those who said I'd bid higher guess we'll never know but I would hazard a guess that it was the auction sniper that won it as he was on the phone to the seller within seconds of the auction ending offering a ridiculous amount. Thankfully the seller was honest and I'd already paid! ..even better is that I now not only do I own a spinning wheel but I own a limited edition spinning wheel no 1/200 so assume it has some value as theyre no longer made and its in perfect condition!
For those of you considering buying then selling them I wish you good luck...you'll have to beat the other guy to it first!

shelly

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

For those who said I'd bid higher guess we'll never know but I would hazard a guess that it was the auction sniper that won it as he was on the phone to the seller within seconds of the auction ending offering a ridiculous amount. Thankfully the seller was honest and I'd already paid! ..even better is that I now not only do I own a spinning wheel but I own a limited edition spinning wheel no 1/200 so assume it has some value as theyre no longer made and its in perfect condition!
For those of you considering buying then selling them I wish you good luck...you'll have to beat the other guy to it first!

There's no 'guess we'll never know', you had to have bid higher to have won the auction. Maybe your snipe helped by not allowing the other bidder to counter bid but ultimately your winning bid was higher than any other bids placed.

Mistral001

I am glad the InSearchOfMe got the spinning wheel that he/she wanted.

Nothing at all sinister going on here it would seem, just somebody willing to pay a lot lot more than everybody else , whether they were using sniping software or not. Maybe someone with more money than sense.

Percy1983

I will say when buying I am a sniper (I no it manually) and sometimes I don't win as bids are higher than what I want to pay, thats just life.

I will agree sniping can get items cheaper as it avoids to "just another £1" counter bids which crawl the price up, but if somebody has entered a larger amount to start with you will never get it.

alien1234

I would call it shillbidding if someone keeps winning. It is purely just setting a price for other customers

soolin

alien1234 wrote: »

I would call it shillbidding if someone keeps winning. It is purely just setting a price for other customers

I suggest you look up what shill bidding actually is.

At bricks and mortar auctions I always bid on a particular item (I have buyers lined up for it) sometimes i win and sometimes I don't, but I always bid..does that make me a shill bidder even though i do not own that item and buy from completely different sellers?

Oliver14

alien1234 wrote: »

I would call it shillbidding if someone keeps winning. It is purely just setting a price for other customers

:rotfl:
This may help you.

ebay wrote:

Shill bidding is when sellers—or someone they know—place a bid on their item to drive the price up.

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/seller-shill-bidding.html