Confused re auction sniping

Rhymsta

As a seller I often get notification of a bid made and when I look I see that the price hasn't changed because it is a bid made by the current highest bidder: they obviously have decided to increase their highest bid. This is giving their hand away somewhat...
With sniping you can change your highest bid as many times as you like without anyone knowing you've done so.

ballisticbrian

If you are bidding on an item which is rare, and you are worried it wont be seen on eBay again for some time, I sometimes put in tenntative bid to show an interest (the seller knows there are people willing to bid) Then I come back and snipe later.

Rhymsta

ballisticbrian wrote: »

If you are bidding on an item which is rare, and you are worried it wont be seen on eBay again for some time, I sometimes put in tenntative bid to show an interest (the seller knows there are people willing to bid) Then I come back and snipe later.

That's also a good idea because until a bid has been placed the seller can amend the auction - even to a completely different item. A preemptive bid stops that happening. Unless, of course, the sniping site has a way of notifying you of changes to auctions you have set up snipes for? Never risked it so wouldn't know.

harleq1962

ballisticbrian wrote: »

If you are bidding on an item which is rare, and you are worried it wont be seen on eBay again for some time, I sometimes put in tenntative bid to show an interest (the seller knows there are people willing to bid) Then I come back and snipe later.

This is good sound advice,
ive left stuff until the last minute hoping to get it, sometimes it seems the seller has lost his/her nerve and withdrew the item fearing there would be no bidders, sometimes there is a flutter of bids towards the end of the auction but the seller has no way of knowing this,

Goldiegirl

ballisticbrian wrote: »

If you are bidding on an item which is rare, and you are worried it wont be seen on eBay again for some time, I sometimes put in tenntative bid to show an interest (the seller knows there are people willing to bid) Then I come back and snipe later.

Yes I've done that in the past as well.

I've also noticed on items that I've watched that the early sole bidder can win the item. It's almost as it no body else is willing to bid because someone's 'got' the item already.

But there's another physcology that a person sees a bid on an item, and thinks 'well, if someone has already put a bid in, it must be a good thing to bid on', and encourages lots of other bidders.

There's only one sure way to win an auction, whether you snipe or bid early, and that's to bid the highest. The real art is to decide when to bid.

soolin

I buy a number of items in a cult category, sellers tend to list at the minimum price they will accept- which tends to be near the top price I want to pay. So I watch the category, as soon as a suitable item is listed I bid- regardless of how long the auction has to run. I rarely get outbid.

Likewise, if I miss an item when it is listed and someone else beats me to it, I will rarely put in a second bid.

pinkshoes

Ectophile wrote: »

I've never understood the obsession with sniping.

I just bid the maximum I'm willing to pay, then log out and wait for the end of the auction. Either I win the auction, or the item sells for more than I was willing to pay.

It makes no odds to me whether the last person to bid was a sniper or not.

Surely you then end up paying far more than you COULD have done, so not very MSE??

(because when I see something I want to bid on, if there's a bid on it already, I test the water to see how much the other person has bid, so increase it slowly in little increments until I decide it's too expensive, then walk away.)

yoyoegg

A preemptive bid stops that happening.

Also knocks out the BIN option some seller have, so the item must be sold via auction and then you can snipe it.