winning against automatic bidder

In_Search_Of_Me · 23 April 2011 at 9:28PM

hi there!
Just popping in to see if you knowledgeable lot can assist! Im trying to get a spinning wheel on ebay but looking at recent listings there seems to be one buyer who is buying, and winning, pretty much all of them - seemingly with automatic bidding as two bidders.
Any sure fire way of beating them? I wondered whether bidding in last minute would do it as assume that by automatic bidding it would be the luck of the draw who won? Can anyone advise please? I rarely buy in ebay (usually sell!) and want to win before he/she buys the lot lol!

harveybobbles · 23 April 2011 at 9:32PM

If you keep missing out then you are clearly not wanting to pay a realistic price.

You should bid as high as you're willing to bid.

In_Search_Of_Me · 23 April 2011 at 10:10PM

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?

Kite2010 · 23 April 2011 at 10:14PM

As long as your putting in the max you are willing to pay there is nothing to stop someone using a snipe tool on an auction, nor there is any way to beat the snipes unless your max bid is higher than the snipe bid.

cyberbob · 23 April 2011 at 11:12PM

Just bid your highest bid as late as possible and if your bid id higher you will win,

soolin · 23 April 2011 at 11:44PM

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?

In this scenario you have no way at all of knowing how much the winners bid was, it could be £500 but they would win by just the next increment.

It doesn't really matter when you bid, you just need to bid more than the next person, you are losing because they are coming in with a higher bid. If you put in a bid of £122 you would still have lost if the other buyer was willing to pay more.

forgotmyname · 24 April 2011 at 12:54AM

The 1st bidder may put £1000... No matter how late you bid if you dont bid higher than that your not going to win.

Current bid maybe £1 and you bid £500 with 0.1 second to go, The 1st bidder will win at £501/£510 or whatever the next price
rise is.

Highest bidder wins...

soolin · 24 April 2011 at 9:37AM

One thing i had htought of, assuming this is a proper spinning wheel you want try a bricks and mortar auction house. For some strange reason i have seen spinning wheels now at two different auction houses and they rarely sell, the last one I can definitely recall went unsold at £30.

Soolin - off to check prices of spinning wheels on ebay and see what a courier would cost to send one!

In_Search_Of_Me · 24 April 2011 at 2:23PM

Ive tried to beat him/her at their own game by doing a sniping bid at what I think is a reasonable price so we shall see!!
At the end of the day Im not going up to (what I consider) ridiculous prices as defeats the object of buying it second hand (ie get it cheaper) and may as well buy new then! Soolin will try and find out if there is an auction house near me but dont think there is but good thinking bat man! I may also be able to borrow one from a local spinning group which is a good idea to see if I love it or not!
Thanks for taking time to comment...will let you know if I win or not!

soolin · 24 April 2011 at 2:51PM

In Search of Me, if you are happy to PM me your rough locale I will let you know if I see any come up at auction near you. I keep alerts on various houses all over the Uk, and whlst the spinning wheels i have seen 'in the flesh' so to speak, have been near me I can't believe that I would see so many if they didn't come up elsewhere as well.

If i did see anything I could then PM you the details and you could enquire at the auction house direct.

In_Search_Of_Me · 24 April 2011 at 7:44PM

Thanks for those who assisted! Thanks to one post I joined auction sniper and hurrah! I am now the proud owner of a spinning wheel! Pipped the other buyer by 1 second so dancing around my sitting room!! Now all I need to do is learn how to spin!

winning against automatic bidder

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