My First eBay Hatemail

BAJJERFAN · November 11, 2003 11:50AM

Sniped an auction on eBay tonite. Wasn't too long afterwards I got my first name calling email from the second place sore loser. Never had one of these before. Anyone here get these often?

Geoman · November 11, 2003 11:53AM

Never had that happen before.

Just email the loser back, stating he should have bid higher if he wanted the lot. I have had my high bid cancelled before, as the seller said he won't accept sniping bids. Can't understand that either, as he would have gottem a lot more money for his auction. Some people just don't understand how things work.

XpipedreamR · November 11, 2003 11:54AM

What did the email say? I'm dying to know!

Russ · November 11, 2003 11:55AM

Not often, but I've received my share. It's like icing on the cake.

Russ, NCNE

RGL · November 11, 2003 11:56AM

Just ignore 'em, not worth the effort of typing back. I take the opposite tack and congratulate snipers who out-snipe me ... you can't help but admire someone who beats you at your own game!

DCAMFranklin · November 11, 2003 12:02PM

I've sniped plenty of auctions, but I've never had an e-mail like that. I have had a number of underbidders e-mail me offering to pay me some cash to give my winning position back to them.

BAJJERFAN · November 11, 2003 12:03PM

well he wasn't sniping. maybe he should learn tho. looks like he just completed a deal 2 days ago with a board member here.

Guess I need to find a pic of THAT bird with the long bill.

foodude · November 11, 2003 12:06PM

you can't help but admire someone who beats you at your own game!

I've sniped and been sniped as well ... standing back it is a bit amusing being on either end of the snipe game ... if you are bummed about losing to a sniper, you should have bid more...

The guy that sent you the e-mail either doesn't understand the game, is a sore loser, or perhaps both

sinin1 · November 11, 2003 12:57PM

I think I should send one

was high bidder recently on an item, stayed at $10 for 5 days then, jumped passed my max bid with 10 minutes left of $55 - then I bumped it up another $20 in last minute - then with 15 seconds left - this other guy comes out of the blue and tops us both - if I knew this guy was gonna bid, I would of bid $500 - just to make him pay more - cuz I would guess his bid would still win

clw54 · November 11, 2003 1:00PM

Heck, an auction takes place between two specified times. Any bid within that timeframe is legitimate.

GaCoinGuy · November 11, 2003 1:04PM

I say post it on here and expose the fool!

Mikey · November 11, 2003 1:05PM

Sore loser.

clw54 · November 11, 2003 1:06PM

Bid on every auction he bids on himself, cost him some money.

atarian · November 11, 2003 1:06PM

the key thing to remember is when sniping, make sure your good . and except when you cant win. i tend to be better than most sniping software thats out hthere. alot of the timeyou forget who you snipe. i have a few on my old ebay name that i bougth from later to learn they were victims of my sniping. they didnt send me my stuff they claimed i didnt pay. it is bad casue i had to start a new name cause it has 2 strikes againist it. then it gets bad.

you are helpless in this field with people. if they snipe you they are happy you snipe them and they will not sell you stuff in the future and give you a bad rating.
i dont know what to do anymore . i think my rating is 58 and the name is BRAVES4515@aol.com . last 2 are very bad ratings that i notice were loosers. and you know the rule on ebay 3 strikes and your banned forever.

puff · November 11, 2003 1:12PM

I was congratulated once by a second place bidder...... True story!

Loki · November 11, 2003 1:17PM

I just made my closest snipe ever tonight...1 second remaining. [austin powers]Yeah baby, yeah![/austin powers]

Dollars · November 11, 2003 1:20PM

Hey if I see a under bidded coin that I want all is fair regardless of the time I place my bid. Maybe I just signed on and it was my first chance. Thats why it is soo much fun. Been sniped and have sniped. To me its a blast and keeps me coming back to ebay all the time.

Dave
In Laurel
MD

Bear · November 11, 2003 1:21PM

Nasty Pm's, thats why we have the Forum.

dollardude · November 11, 2003 1:25PM

Sniping is allowed, according to eBay's rules and regulations. I've sniped some, and been sniped some. I have noticed that if I bid ahead of time on a nice silver dollar, which I collect, often times I get sniped. So, I've changed my tactics to bid in the last few minutes, and I have generally seen fewer bidders and had better success!

<>

I actually congratulated a sniper once on a very nice 1885-CC PCGS Morgan! PQDollars (Steve) sold it, and he said he took a bath on that deal!

Check out this sniping thread at Sniping is fun....

bennybravo · November 11, 2003 1:41PM

I've never had an email like that before.I have at times thought of congratulating people who beat me, but haven't done so.I think I would take the icing on the cake attitude as well.Nothing is sweeter than beating someone in the last second.I've smoked and got smoked plenty of times.All snipers have!It's part of the fun of the auction process to me.I always get irritated with the people who start bidding with 2 minutes or so left!The "slooooow snipers" who show their hands too early and inch the final price up.(btw:I actually like these people when selling something)

BAJJERFAN · November 11, 2003 1:47PM

Don't know why he was pi$$ed. He had 7 seconds left to top me.
Then again it isn't often that you get a nice toned Morgan in PCGS ms66 for under $300.

Deadhorse · November 11, 2003 4:20PM

So is there some way to find out what someone is bidding on? Is there a way you can do that on eBay?

A long time ago I got sniped by the same guy 3 times in 10 minutes, thirty minutes later I sniped him with 2 seconds left. He got me a few more times that evening and I got him twice more.

Funny thing about it though is that I was bidding on each of the items and he hadn't placed any bids previous. His only bids were his snipes.

It sure seemed like he knew where I was going and just followed me there in the last minute of each auction.

Is this possible, or was it just one of those nights??

jbsteven · November 11, 2003 9:38PM

I sniped a guy out of a coin and he sent me a email and I flipped the $2000 coin to him for $250 over my winning bid. He offered the $250 to me. done deal

1957joe · November 11, 2003 9:49PM

All is fair in love and war. and of coarse getting that winning bid

Barry · November 11, 2003 9:53PM

<< I was congratulated once by a second place bidder...... True story!

>>

Maybe it was me. I've, on occasion, sent an email saying "nice snipe!" when I've been beat.

Conder101 · November 11, 2003 10:22PM

<< So is there some way to find out what someone is bidding on? Is there a way you can do that on eBay? >>

Yes, go to ebay, select search, then select search by bidder.

IrishMike · November 11, 2003 10:53PM

clw54 has the right idea. I haven't purchased much from ebay in the last 18 mos, but when I was buying regularly there was one guy who was sniping every item I had bid on. I don't know if he was looking at the items I had bid on or not. I turned the tables on him and for the next month bid up every auction to his max that he was bidding on. I fully expected to get a hatemail from him but never did. He soon quit bidding and resorted to only sniping and yes he quit sniping my bids.

Probably wasn't an adult thing to do, but sure was a lot of fun getting even.

RiffRaff1967 · November 11, 2003 11:15PM

Never had that happen - one time I bid too high for a proof, then found another much cheaper after I bid. I prayed for someone to outbid me, but feared that nobody would given my high bid. Anyway, someone did outbid me, and I really wanted to send them a thank you note, but I decided it may only make them mad.........Hey - thanks for beating me on that coin - I bought another for 1/3 the price you paid....

joeyuk · November 11, 2003 11:16PM

I sometimes use search by bidder or search by seller. I feel as long as a person places a max bid at the most they are willing to spend then this does them no harm.

I also use favorite searches often.

Catch22 · November 11, 2003 11:34PM

I never bid on anything that I really want badly. I put the item on my "watch" page and wait til the very end to bid. This seems to help with the less learned on ebay. It doesn't help much with those of us who know how to play the ebay game, but there are still a lot of folks who haven't quite figured the sniping thing out.

For those of you who haven't noticed, you can often tell if an item is going to be getting some serious sniping activity by keeping an eye on the hit counters at the bottom of most auctions during the last 10 minutes or so. If it's getting numerous hits during the end with no bids being placed, it's probably going to be seeing some sniping. Of course by refreshing your page, you contribute to the hit counting yourself. I turn off page counting on my computer...not really sure if this contributes to the hit counting or not.

Some who start to figure out the sniping thing will try to enter a bid at the last minute, but fail to realize that by bidding just slightly over the high bid, they will often lose out to some other sniper. Since your bid will only increase by whatever amount it takes to become high bidder (even if you bid way higher) there is little logic to this tactic. The guy who gets beat out eventually figures this out and places his maximum bid even when sniping.

I don't use a computer program for sniping and have never explored what advantages they offer. Sniping within 6 or 7 seconds of the end of an auction is pretty easy without one and is usually sufficient if you've bid your maximum bid anyway.

Just thought I would toss this out for anyone who hasn't considered these points. I realize most of you have and could probably offer up additional insights.

paigowjohnny · November 12, 2003 12:29AM

<< was congratulated once by a second place bidder...... True story! >>

Might have been me....I did a snipe with like 3 or 4 seconds left...by the time I refreshed the screen, a guy got in one bid increment higher with 1 sec left. I sent him a "great snipe" e-mail...I was out done by a master.

poptopsRus · November 12, 2003 12:32AM

Congrats, and welcome to the club. Some people don't even realize there are sniping programs out there they can use.

WorkingMan · November 12, 2003 5:18PM

I regularly (and successfully) use an online sniping tool. I pay them a monthly fee and I get unlimited snipes. The snipe can go in as close as 3 seconds from the end of the auction, and I don't even have to be online. This helps alot for auctions that end when I'm out of town. It also allows me to put in my max bid (to the snipe tool) when I first see the auction -- I don't have to wait until close to the end -- and I can just forget about it. I know it will put the bid in for me, so I just check my email to see what I've won.

And they have a neat pop-up tool for entering the snipe. When viewing the auction listing, I just click on a button on my Links bar, and a pre-filled screen comes up where I just have to put in my bid. Can't get any easier

HammerSnipe

They also allow 10 free snipes per month for those "light" snipers.

Enjoy!

cosmicdebris · November 12, 2003 7:20PM

I mainly snipe because there are many people out there that do the opposite. They have to bid everytime someone else bids just trying to out do you by the current bid increment. If I snipe they never know I am lying in wait. And yes I have congratulated other snipers that have beat me.

TayTay · November 12, 2003 8:47PM

<< So is there some way to find out what someone is bidding on? Is there a way you can do that on eBay? >>

<< Yes, go to ebay, select search, then select search by bidder >>

This is the reason my only bid is made in the last three seconds. I have sniped several hundred items, but never received hate mail. I don't think I could avoid responding in some smarta$$ way. I have gotten peeved when outsniped, but only when I didn't bid the max amount I was willing to spend to get it, so I only got peeved at myself. When I snipe now, it's always the max I would spend, so there's no reason for me to be bothered by getting outbid, because the other bidder was willing to spend more than me.

BAJJERFAN · November 12, 2003 9:30PM

I thought I would get my licks in by sniping him again sometime!!

Do the better sniping programs allow you to get closer to the last second or doesn't it matter. I use the free snipe from www.vrane.com and it still left 7 seconds.

mintluster · November 12, 2003 9:30PM

<< Never had that happen before.

Just email the loser back, stating he should have bid higher if he wanted the lot. I have had my high bid cancelled before, as the seller said he won't accept sniping bids. Can't understand that either, as he would have gottem a lot more money for his auction. Some people just don't understand how things work. >>

Agreed. Although it sucks when I lose a bid due to a sniper, it is perfectly fine to do it. If someone wanted the item bad enough they would bid high/realistic and not try and pick it up at garage sale prices.

mintluster · November 12, 2003 9:35PM

I am like a shark swimming around waiting for the right time to strike my prey. If you bid early, someone else will usually just start a bidding war with you and keep upping it until they win. Sometimes I swear I think it has turned into more of a game of "who will win" versus how much someone was really willing to pay for the item. When you snipe right at the end with your highest amount you want to spend, it is perfectly fine if you win it. If you lose, then someone else just wanted the item more. It's really that simple.

UncleJoe · November 12, 2003 9:53PM

I received one nasty email for sniping. I learned about sniping from this message board. On one of my earliest successful snipes I received an email within about 10 seconds of the close of the auction. The email was NOT congratulations.

Frankly, I was shocked and didn't know whether to report the email or respond or what. I decided it wasn't worth the effort. I figured the type of person that would send such an email would not respond well to a reply no matter how well intentioned.

Joe.

Goldog63 · November 12, 2003 10:12PM

<< Then again it isn't often that you get a nice toned Morgan in PCGS ms66 for under $300. >>

Nice! The e-mail was totally unwarranted at any price. He should have bid more. I guess he thinks you "stole" his bargain

mercurynut · November 12, 2003 10:58PM

I have recieved a couple. I look at it like a throphy!!!

Deadhorse · November 12, 2003 11:48PM

<< 

<< So is there some way to find out what someone is bidding on? Is there a way you can do that on eBay? >>

Yes, go to ebay, select search, then select search by bidder. >>

Aha! OK, thanks Conder. I guess there are alot of tricks to eBay that I've never really researched.

flaminio · November 13, 2003 12:56AM

<< I was congratulated once by a second place bidder...... True story!

>>

Might've been me -- I've sent more than one email to bidders who've out-sniped me. Doesn't happen often, but when it does, congratulations are in order.

flaminio · November 13, 2003 1:00AM

<< Do the better sniping programs allow you to get closer to the last second or doesn't it matter. I use the free snipe from www.vrane.com and it still left 7 seconds. >>

My robo-sniper will take it down to 3 seconds, reliably.

However, there is a school of thought that sniping so close to the end is actually worse than sniping with 7-10 seconds to go. The theory goes like this: once you get under 10 seconds, no one is going to have a chance to rebid manually -- just not enough time. Therefore, it's all up to the snipers. If your snipe is the highest or the lowest, it won't matter if it was 7 or 3 seconds to the end: you will win or lose accordingly. However, if there is a tie, the earlier bid will win. So, if you snipe $100 at 7 seconds, and I snipe $100 at 3 seconds, you will win.

cosmicdebris · November 13, 2003 1:35AM

But you can have mutliple windows open with more then one bid ready to hit the submit button. I have gotten in more than one bid this way with less than 10 seconds to go manually.

MacCoin · November 13, 2003 1:59AM

when I send ebay hate mail I alway sign it congrads

JimC · November 13, 2003 10:45AM

I have done and had this done to me, as a bidder and seller, but what is really bad is when your the seller and the one that out bids the other does not pay and before you can contact the 2nd bidder for the second chance he/she has bid and won another of the same item (paying less or more for it).

XpipedreamR · November 13, 2003 11:07AM

<< you can have mutliple windows open with more then one bid ready to hit the submit button >>

...aaaaaaaaah...very interesting...

My First eBay Hatemail

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