Why do people outbid at the last second

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lilmiss wrote:

Why do people outbid at the last second. I was bidding on something, and i was gonna give it as a gift for xmas......... i look, and i was outbid in the last 4 SECONDS :eek: why?? . I hate it. It's so cruel!!!. GRRRRR
What do you guys think?.

I always bid at the last few seconds, in the past i lost items that i really wanted, to a mad bidding fight that went to high.

So now i wait until the last min.

mikey-mike_2

Am I right in remembering the old Yahoo auction site used to extend the finish time until no bids had been made for a certain time (5 mins I think)

chrisw

The e-bay timimgs are very accurate so I've got one of these radio-controlled clocks sat next to my pc. I put in the max I'm prepared to pay and hit 'confirm-bid' with about 8 seconds to go so nobody else has got time to come back with a revised bid. Of course, I still lose if their maximum bid was higher.

funkyfunkymonkey

chrisw wrote:

The e-bay timimgs are very accurate so I've got one of these radio-controlled clocks sat next to my pc. I put in the max I'm prepared to pay and hit 'confirm-bid' with about 8 seconds to go so nobody else has got time to come back with a revised bid. Of course, I still lose if their maximum bid was higher.

Same here although I cut it a bit finer (have lost a few to a minor glitch), it also stops me going higher than I am prepared to pay - just 'cos I'd like to win, I put in my absolute maximum and if I lose, well I haven't spent more than I wanted to.

FFM

lil_me

I don't use snipe tools, but have been tempted, but will bid until last second (2 seconds left when I won my car) usually if it's something I really want I have the bid in ready to submit and seem to time it pretty well without a timer.

LizEstelle

I've been fascinated by this discussion of 'sniping', which is a tool I hadn't realised existed.

Two questions:

What time frame do these sniping sites operate within? Is it milliseconds or just seconds? If I operate my own 'manual snipe' at a target within, say, 5 seconds of auction end, does that still allow the likes of auctionsniper the time to take a potshot with someone else's higher bid?

An earlier contributor mentioned a security weakness in that you have to give your ebay password. Does anyone else believe this to have potential for problems?

Elliesmum

jembie wrote:

I am too tight to go over my max. I always look at the postage and add that in as part of the price then decide what I am willing to pay altogether and that is it. If someone else is willing to go higher than me then Good luck to them

With you there jembie - I'm to tight too, my hubby says it's because I'm from Yorkshire................... :j

EM x

alba37

I use Snipestation for bidding, it's free and generally works very well.

Mado

My... a revelation to me this snip business!
I generally bid myself at the last mo, but have on occasion missed out for an item 'cos I couldn't be there at the time.

pennylane99

LizEstelle wrote:

I've been fascinated by this discussion of 'sniping', which is a tool I hadn't realised existed.

Two questions:

What time frame do these sniping sites operate within? Is it milliseconds or just seconds? If I operate my own 'manual snipe' at a target within, say, 5 seconds of auction end, does that still allow the likes of auctionsniper the time to take a potshot with someone else's higher bid?

An earlier contributor mentioned a security weakness in that you have to give your ebay password. Does anyone else believe this to have potential for problems?

I have used justsnipe on a few occasions....the free 5 snipes per week go in at 8 seconds from auction end, but if you pay a membership fee, you get unlimited and snipes in at 5 seconds or less....