The auction I lost tonight...

solid · August 8, 2004 12:08PM

Earlier in the week, there was a thread about whether or not it is ethical
to snipe in the last few seconds an auction for which there are no current
bids. I replied that it is absolutely ok, as the seller places a minimum bid
reflecting what they will accept to part with the coin.

A few days ago I spotted this 1940 Rev '38 5c NGC PF67 on ebay and,
after doing my research, decided it was a coin I'd like to own at the minimum
bid of $700.

I thought about waiting to see if it ended without bids and making an offer,
but ultimately decided that I didn't want to risk someone else's snipe. So,
I prepared my bid of $777.78 and placed it with about 20 seconds to go (I'm
not an extreme sniper), figuring the extra padding might help.

When my bid was confirmed, it showed me as high bidder at $735, beating
out another stealthy sniper. I was feeling pretty good at that point, but then
refreshed my screen and saw I had been outbid at the end by less than $10
by a third sniper.

I just had to laugh to myself at the wild ending...

Ken

P.S. If the winning bidder is a board member here and wants to make a quick
$13 profit, I'd offer $800 for the coin!

haletj · August 8, 2004 12:15PM

I once really wanted a coin. I was thinking about bidding $750 or something, but the price was only down around $350 and so for some reason all I entered was $661. Another sniper got their bid in just before me, $666.66. I was so mad! But I later bought the coin from him for $675. Then it turned brown in the holder so it didn't work out too well. I spent $1955 to replace it. I'm hoping pcgs can give me that amount for the bad one.

keets · August 8, 2004 12:32PM

hey Ken

i had wanted to bid on that coin but figured it would possibly put me in a tight spot if something appears at the ANA that i gotta have. you may have noticed the thread i have up which is about the 1940 and another Jeff, a 1938 PCI PR68.

my funniest sniping encounter was for a raw 1958 Jefferson that looked DCAM in the auction pictures and was being sold as a DCAM by a reputable seller. it had many, many members viewing it according to the counter and several bids at a low level, probably to keep it tracked. i waited for the end with baited breath!!!

i planned my snipe carefully with the current bid starting to rise in the last few minutes. at around 10-15 seconds i placed a bid of $335 which was plenty of cushion. in that last 10 seconds i guess about six bidders all sniped and it jumped to about $630 by the time my screen refreshed. if i remember right, the buyer was pepperdoodles!!! whoever it was, i e-mailed him asking what the coin graded upon submission but i never got a reply. probably just CAM'd.

al h.

khayse · August 8, 2004 12:38PM

> P.S. If the winning bidder is a board member here and wants to make a quick $13 profit, I'd offer $800 for the coin!

Don't you hate when you don't bid what you're really willing to pay for the coin? I hate that.

-KHayse

solid · August 8, 2004 12:46PM

Don't you hate when you don't bid what you're really willing to pay for the coin? I hate that.

Well, I did. $777.78 was the highest I was willing to pay. I would have preferred to buy it
at $600 or $650.

But now, I'm having fun with the wild ending and figured the coin would be worth another $25 to
me just for the fond memories of how I obtained it

Ken

kryptonitecomics · August 8, 2004 12:50PM

I've snipped and been snipped and most of the time I was willing to pay more for the item. That's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes and maybe it was fate and there is another coin just waiting for you around the corner

I hope the bidder will come on here and take you up on you generous offer of $25 bucks more

K6AZ · August 8, 2004 12:51PM

<< P.S. If the winning bidder is a board member here and wants to make a quick $13 profit, I'd offer $800 for the coin! >>

Not to sound totally dense here, but if you were willing to pay $800, why didn't you bid that amount? You could have taken it!

solid · August 8, 2004 12:59PM

Not to sound totally dense here, but if you were willing to pay $800, why didn't you bid that amount? You could have taken it!

See three posts above - An hour ago, I wasn't willing to pay $800. Now I am - simple as that. I
would think of this as the coin that I had, then got away, then came back to it's rightful home.
That's worth something!

Ken

K6AZ · August 8, 2004 1:11PM

Well, OK. But when I see a coin I really want, I usually get it. I remember missing out on a few coins by a few dollars, and one I lost by 9¢. That one hurt since it was a $300 coin I lost by that amount.

catfish172 · August 8, 2004 1:20PM

I guess I am old fashioned. I bid at the beginning what I am willing to pay and watch the snipers run it up at the last minute. If I win I'm happy. If I don't I wait until the next one comes along. I find this works well both for my budget and for the seller. Most of the time if I bid $200 on an item I do so in the first 2 days the auction is up. So, if you guys see my name on an auction as high bidder you know I've already bid what I'm willing to pay. I don't just put a minimum bid on something to have it sit in my "My eBay" and waste my time. I have placed minimum bids on stuff if that was all I was willing to pay which means to me the seller is honest in starting the auction at what he feels the value of the item is.

Catch22 · August 8, 2004 1:25PM

Catfish, I have a few coins in the Bullet sale...would you mind?

catfish172 · August 8, 2004 1:58PM

<< Catfish, I have a few coins in the Bullet sale...would you mind?

>>

email me a catfish172@elvis.com with your eBay id I'll take a look.

mrearlygold · August 8, 2004 2:04PM

<< Not to sound totally dense here, but if you were willing to pay $800, why didn't you bid that amount? You could have taken it!

See three posts above - An hour ago, I wasn't willing to pay $800. Now I am

Isn't this like reverse buyers remorse?

Tom

Catch22 · August 8, 2004 2:08PM

Catfish, I was joking. I love bidders who place strong bids early on. In fact, I will often end my auctions early (I state this in my auction from the beginning) and sell to the current high bidder. It helps to motivate people to step up to the plate and bid if you want to own.

zzzz · August 8, 2004 2:09PM

This snip wasn't a coin but curruncy:

I bid with 16 seconds left and I came up as high bidder at $1,350
My max was $2,500 ... No problem .. I got it ..

I thought OK let the 16 secomds tick away .. send the seller his funds

When I refreshed the auction the final price was $11,250

There were 6 others after me and the winner got it with 2 seconds left

I'm still shaking my head on that one ..

northcoin · August 8, 2004 7:50PM

I have learned to be philosophical about being the underbidder by a few dollars. The reality is that even though someone else got it for only a few more dollars they probably had entered a snipe maximum way over that so the item would have cost me a lot more than I really wanted to pay anyway. What is really fun is to see two high bidding snipers turn what was a bargain a minute before the auction closed into an overpriced purchase when it is evident that they really did not expect their high snipes to max out.

Cameonut · August 8, 2004 9:07PM

I snipe auctions all the time - once I see something I would like, I load up the sniping software and wait for the end. To me, the major advantage of sniping software is that I do not have to sit at my computer at all hours to buy the items I want.

Some of you have touched on this concept, but the secret to successful sniping on items you really want is simple. Place your snipe bid for the maximum you would be willing to pay for the item. This takes all the emotion out of it for me. I win some, I lose some, but I never get caught up in "auction frenzy". You will lose some auctions by one bid increment, but you will never know what the winning bidder was actually willing to pay.

The thing that really irritates me is people to end auctions early due to no bidding. I have solved this by placing a low bid with a followup snipe bid.

JustMakesCents · August 8, 2004 11:04PM

Well, my favorite snipe story was on a cent that I had set my top price at $350. Current price with less than a minute was around $225, so I loaded in my price of $351.01 and waited to snipe with 3 seconds left. Problem was another person sniped with 5 seconds left. Their bid? You guessed it ... $351.01. We tied, they won with the earlier (2 seconds) bid ... lol. At least I made them pay their max!

Jeff

keets · August 8, 2004 11:33PM

as per Northcoins reply, i think it's a misunderstanding for eBay bidders to believe they may have won an item if they get outbid by a snipe and lose by a few dollars.as i've stated many times here, the final price at eBay is a bit different than that at a true auction. it only tells us what the underbidder was willing to pay, not what the winner was willing to pay. please see zzzz's post for a kind of eye-opener about that!!!WOWZER, 10 grand in 16 seconds. i'll bet the seller was dancing in the street!!!

al h.

satootoko · August 9, 2004 12:11AM

<< the final price at eBay is a bit different than that at a true auction. it only tells us what the underbidder was willing to pay, not what the winner was willing to pay. >>

The final price at a live auction is also set by the underbidder. When he/she drops out the winner may or may not have already bid their own max. I recall one auction where my winning bid was less than half of my maximum - I had spotted a signature on a porcelain that the auctioneer didn't realize affected its value.

That's the magic of a "jump bid", when you go two to five times the auctioneer's suggested increment - sometimes the other folks realize you're fixated on the item, and get out of your way.

keets · August 9, 2004 12:35AM

the point i was trying to make in my awkward way was that at a true auction the bid might be $100 and the next bidder says $300 so that we know where he's at. in an eBay auction, when he says $300 we see $105 and never know where he's at. also, when a live auction ends we know the underbidder is done. we don't necessarily know that's true at eBay either the time is counted down.

my point was just that it's a bit deceptive to use eBay prices realized to guage true selling prices, though it's sometimes the best we have.

al h.

solid · August 9, 2004 1:46AM

In this particular auction, I would have won the lot with an $800 bid (or a bid of
$787.01). Since the winning bid was $787.00, compared to my max of $777.78,
we know that was the winning bidders max as it is less than the minimum $10
increment over mine.

All this means is that the two of us valued the coin within $10 of each other, and
that their padding over the opening of $700 was just enough stronger than mine
to take the coin!

I almost placed my bid at $777.77 and then upped it by a penny thinking that
number was too obvious and I could lose out simply by not getting my bid in
first, as related in the post by JustMakesCents.

Bikingnut · August 9, 2004 2:00AM

I bid at the beginning what I am willing to pay and watch the snipers run it up at the last minute.

I used to be that way, but all too often I've seen other bidders place 5 to 10 bids in a couple minutes, and either just make the high bid or stop just under my high bid. Why couldn't they just place what they were willing to pay in one shot? It can be frustrating.

Dennis

catfish172 · August 9, 2004 10:39AM

<< I bid at the beginning what I am willing to pay and watch the snipers run it up at the last minute.

I used to be that way, but all too often I've seen other bidders place 5 to 10 bids in a couple minutes, and either just make the high bid or stop just under my high bid. Why couldn't they just place what they were willing to pay in one shot? It can be frustrating.

Dennis >>

Because. They get caught up in the "auction frenzy" another poster mentioned. Since I only bid what I'm willing to pay from the beginning such conduct doesn't chap me at all. If I win I still get it at a level at or below what I had budgeted for anyway. If the other guy gets it well, that means either he has a better budget than me or he's not as ....... Oh forget it, and just leave it with the budget part. Let's just say the seller gets the better deal if I lose what I'm bidding on.

Thanks Guys.

The auction I lost tonight...

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