How to work out a rival's maximum bid?

raz_uk

Hey everyone,

Im going head to head with a rival bidder at the moment on an item, he's done something very fishy though.
He's bidded the same amount twice (£4.00) within a span of 2 minutes today. I feel he's trying to cover his tracks by making a big maximum bid - to throw me off the bidding war.
How do i work out what his maximum bid is? I don't want to end up bidding a ridiculous amount just to out-bid him

frivolous_fay

There is no legitimate way. Short of emailling him and asking

custardy

same old chesnut,bid the max your happy to pay is all you can do.
i lost something by about a quid the other day but it was a quid more than i would pay

scbk

Custardy is spot on, you're not on ebay to outbid you're there to buy items.

Bid the MOST you are willing to pay (taking postage into account)

zzzLazyDaisy

I know this might sound like a silly question....

But have you done a search to see what other similar items are listed, and also what similar items have been listed in the completed items listings?

Sometimes it can be easy to get carried away by the bidding and find that you could have bought the item cheaper brand new from an ordinary on-line retailer, such as Argos.

As an example, I have been watching a book recently - the bidding went above what Amazon are selling a new one for, and there were several used ones on Amazon for half the price it finally went for.

raz_uk

thanks for the input - no this item isnt available commercially anymore, it's 10 years old and ive searched online elsewhere but no luck at the price it is right now (£4 is pretty cheap for it)
surely there must be a fairly accurate way of predicting what his maxiumum bid is??

soolin

There is no way, accurate or otherwise to know a rival's maximum bid.

The only thing you might be able to suss is whetehr he has deep pockets or not by checking his bidding history..does he often win items where there are multiple bidders ? If so he may have money and put in very high bids. If he loses a lot of items then maybe he stops very quickly from his opening bid.

zzzLazyDaisy

It is whatever he is prepared to pay for it. How can you calculate that?

However, if you really want it, but don't want to get into a bidding war that will only push the price up, then you can either use one of the on line snipers such as auction stealer, or sit at the computer and place your best offer within the last few seconds of the auction. Either way, you must decide how much the item is worth to you and just go for it.

StaffsSW

Can you search the other bidders previous purchases to see if they have bought any before?

I've worked a few peoples' strategies by checking their bidding history, then I simply snipe the auction £1 or £2 more than I know they tend to bid.