Sniping - has anyone lost out?

Sofa_Sogood

A sniper got me again :rolleyes:

But at the other auction they left me alone :j

I'm not sure whether I won or lost

nbt

Tojo_Ralph wrote:

Of course..... A link to one bid history example where the second bidder has a higher bid than the winner, would prove me wrong.

Which is exactly what I was asking. I think my question has been answered. If I bid my max, I won't lose: I will either win the item, or it will sell for more than I want to pay

I can see the attraction - an item I bid on a couple of days ago is going up bit by bit. I' still winning, but i'd be winning for a lot less if other people weren't trying out smaller bids

djohn2002uk

nbt wrote:

Which is exactly what I was asking. I think my question has been answered. If I bid my max, I won't lose: I will either win the item, or it will sell for more than I want to pay

Exactly. But by putting your max. bid in early you are just encouraging the nibblers to keep nibbling away at your "Max".
By holding it back untill very late you either see another bid appear above your max and you don't bother bidding. OR You get the item with your max because the nibblers don't have time to play out their silly game.

Sofa_Sogood

djohn2002uk wrote:

Exactly. But by putting your max. bid in early you are just encouraging the nibblers to keep nibbling away at your "Max".
By holding it back untill very late you either see another bid appear above your max and you don't bother bidding. OR You get the item with your max because the nibblers don't have time to play out their silly game.

So when's the best time to bid? Once at the beginning, and then at the end? Or just at the end and hope no-one put in the same even earlier?

Have I got that wrong?

I put my highest bid on something last night and won it for about £20 less than I expected and what it usually goes for. Did I just get lucky do you think?

Tojo_Ralph

Sofa_Sogood wrote:

So when's the best time to bid? Once at the beginning, and then at the end? Or just at the end and hope no-one put in the same even earlier?

Have I got that wrong?

I put my highest bid on something last night and won it for about £20 less than I expected and what it usually goes for. Did I just get lucky do you think?

You got lucky , and don't bid once at the beginning, that simply lets folk know others are interested.

Bid once.... Bid what you are happy to pay.... And bid late.

Sofa_Sogood

Tojo_Ralph wrote:

You got lucky , and don't bid once at the beginning, that simply lets folk know others are interested.

Bid once.... Bid what you are happy to pay.... And bid late.

Thanks Tojo. I usually bid late now, but put an early bid in to remind me that something's up for auction lol

I'll remember that, and thinking about it, and what I bid on or look at, you're probably right

Thanks.

djohn2002uk

Sofa_Sogood wrote:

So when's the best time to bid?

With about 5 secs to go.......:D

Sofa_sogood wrote:

Thanks Tojo. I usually bid late now, but put an early bid in to remind me that something's up for auction lol

No need for that, put the item in your "Watch List" and tick for ebay to send you email but still check your watch list daily.

Sofa_Sogood

djohn2002uk wrote:

With about 5 secs to go.......:D


No need for that, put the item in your "Watch List" and tick for ebay to send you email but still check your watch list daily.

I can't get into the sniping thing. But thanks for the second suggestion.

eBay let me down earlier though. It 'forgot' to tell me I'd been outbid. Good job I was watching it myself :cool:

Dingdangdoforme

Interesting discussion and very enlightening.

For my 2p's worth, not too bothered about being beaten by a sniper, but usually refuse to put my max bid in early for it being upped by schill bidders, hence often try and manually snipe, great fun and made much easier since switching to broadband.

Thanks for the idea re. having more then one ebay account, have noticed certain id's (collecters?) tend to follow you around, a real pain when you find a bargain which may often wrongly described, only to alert others (or even the seller) that the item may not be all it seems. Another reason for not bidding too early on an item.

VeryTrying_2

Dingdangdoforme wrote:

Interesting discussion and very enlightening.

have noticed certain id's (collecters?) tend to follow you around, a real pain when you find a bargain which may often wrongly described, only to alert others (or even the seller) that the item may not be all it seems. Another reason for not bidding too early on an item.

I use manual sniping for the same reason as Dingdangdoforme - it stops people searching for my live bids, it gives the other bidders a false sense of security and, most importantly, it's fun. The last minute of an auction satisfies my gambling instincts without having to put money on a horse.

I open two screens at once - one to continually refresh the timing and the other to go through the first stages of a bid. I leave the second screen on the "confirm" button, while I refresh the first screen down to below 20 seconds. Then I hit "confirm". If I lose it's only because the other bidder put in a higher proxy bid than I did, and that's quite fair. If I win, it's because I was willing to pay more than anybody else, and that's quite fair too.