E-bay bidding advice please

laurentyvan

RMTD58 is a skillful E-Bay bidder. I checked his bidding patterns on his last dozen or so auctions and he seems to be able to beat the high bid by 50 cents here, a dollar there, all without doing any hunting for the top. He beat me (so far) by .51 on a medal I want badly and with just one bid-how does he do it? Most of the time I'll see three or four consecutive bids from the same bidder, hunting for the magic number. This guy, (and it doesn't matter whether the item is $7.02 or $91.43 with 14 other bidders) seems to know just how high to go with just one bid. I give up-how is it done?

cosmicdebris

Got a link?

Askari

I think you're giving him too much credit. He's probably just an überbidder. No matter how much higher he bid, eBay is only going to list his highest bid as one increment higher than the next highest bid. These überbidders figure that the other bidders know what it's worth and just bidding extremely high means they'll get it for an increment over "market" without having to learn the market themselves. This inevitably works ... until another überbidder goes after the same item.

theboz11

I think Askari has this one nailed. If he put a ,let's say a $1000 bid out there on a $15 item ,he will win that item by $.50. If you really want that item you nreed to go real high and hope.

laurentyvan

So it's that simple, eh... I guess I was making matters more complicated then I needed to.
It's tough being a relative newbie on e-bay-lots to learn, much to absorb. medal

Lloyd

Laurent
If I were you I wouldn't worry about the other bidders. If you fancy something work out what you're prepared to pay.. Ask yourself "would I pay $50?" - yes... would I pay $60? yes - what about $70? As soon as you start to baulk that's your level. Bid this once, and only once, as close to the end of the auction. Never use 59 or 4.99. Always go past something and use 61.08 or 5.04.

and for completeness

Manual Sniping.

Get a wrist watch with a second hand. About 4 mins from auction end look at the second hand on a fixed point and hit F5 or "Refresh" from within the item description. Look at the time left. If you hit F5 on say quarter-to the hour and it says 2 mins :30 secs remaining then
that is the exact amount of time remaining from when you hit refresh.. Therefore the auction will end when the second hand hits a quarter-past on your wrist watch. Test this theory by hitting F5 again and try to predict the exact time left on the ebay screen. Place your bid and go to the submit screen (you should be signed in).

Wait until as close as you dare to the correct ending on your second hand to hit submit.

If you don't know the value of the item you are bidding on ask yourself should you be bidding or ask someone on this forum what they think. If I like something that's foreign to me, and fancy buying it I always ask someone who's into that type of thing.

There's probably an easier way of doing it but I don't know it.

Lloyd

cosmicdebris

Lloyd has some great advice and it's almost exactly what I do. One thing I would add. I used to put in an early bid just to track the auction but now I only put it on my watch list and then wait until the end to snipe.

You may ask why? Well this way no one knows I have any interest in the coin until it is too late. Anything I am interested in I always check the bidding history of the other people bidding. This way I'll know if they are a sniper or not.

I can also see if they are one of those that only bid an increment at a time or if they are willing to place a very high early bid. The only time this approach has failed is when someone using the same tactics as me and he places a higher snipe at the end than I do.

MacCrimmon

One thing to add to Lloyd's excellent technique is to have a second browser window already open with your username/password, etc. already invoked, and awaiting only your final max bid. Use that 2nd window to execute your last second snipe. The reason is that sometimes that last second refresh may "hang-up' and not refresh as fast as you would like.

BigAlan

I checked his bidding patterns on his last dozen or so auctions and he seems to be able to beat the high bid by 50 cents here, a dollar there, all without doing any hunting for the top.

That is just the way eBay works. I won an auction by 1¢ once. No magic, I bid $25.01. At the last second someone sniped with a bid of $25.00.

1jester

I use Lloyd's (and Cosmic's) exact technique. I've never thought of Mac's additional open browser, though, and it seems like a reasonable method to avoid that dreaded last second hang-up that loses auctions.

BigAlan

Some people get upset, not because they lose an auction, but, because of the way eBay bidding works, they lose by so little.

Askari

Here is an example of what happens when someone (indianwillbur) chases an überbidder (siriushope) up the bidding stream. Siriushope doesn't snipe, so Indianwillbur actually had the time to chase her up and beat her initial bid ... not that it did any good. As Lloyd said, bid the most you're willing to spend ... at least that way you'll have the satisfaction of knowing they didn't get it cheap.

mongoose

Two windows and a computer perfectly synched with official time yields 1 second snipes. I'm with cosmic on not bidding on most things until the very last.

SYRACUSIAN

This is certainly a thread to print.

However, never forget the traffic; back in the dial-up days, I'd click on "submit" around 15 secs before the end. Sometimes it worked,sometimes it didn't. When all the snipers would click "submit" at around the same time, it was mostly a question of luck who was gonna win. Now with DSL things are much easier.

As for a (low) early bid,sometimes it can be useful. In some particular coins,the bidders end up knowing each other and (at least in my case),we've finally reached some sort of silent agreement ,not to kill each other. If someone's placed a bid already,I'll either pass on the coin ,or if I want it badly,I'll contact him and discuss the matter.Like marking territories; I'll obviously expect him to do the same vice versa next time.

0john0

Wow, this is some great advice coming out on this thread. MacCrimmon mentioned a great secret of using the second browser window, something that made my sniping much more accurate when I figured that out a year or so ago.

That "bid early, bid often" cr@p is just hype the seller wants you to believe. The rest of us snipe.

-john

cosmicdebris

I've got my eye on one item that ends tomorrow with no bids yet.

laurentyvan

What I still don't like about last second snipes is not having the time to go higher if you don't find the top first try. Isn't there any validity to finding the top and then sniping if necessary?

SYRACUSIAN

Now that would be TOO easy Laurent,wouldn't it?

Askari

<< <i>What I still don't like about last second snipes is not having the time to go higher if you don't find the top first try. Isn't there any validity to finding the top and then sniping if necessary? >>

Sometimes. For instance, in the medals market there aren't any price guides and some of the other experienced bidders have more knowledge than I do. Usually I come close, but rather than lose it for a few dollars, I might leave myself time to get one more bid in.

Also, since I manually snipe -- and have learned that you can't always trust Microsoft O/S software, so I find myself getting cagey sometimes and smoking out another sniper. There are guys who will bid in the last minute and rebid until they beat the highest bid, knowing there will be other late bidders. They may even set up multiple bidding windows because, manually, it often takes 12-14 secs. to place a new bid on the same screen. I have found that if I hit around the 30 sec. mark, these guys will jump on it, sure of success ... and then I place my "real" final bid in the last few seconds when they lack the time to discover it and respond.

Lloyd

<< <i>What I still don't like about last second snipes is not having the time to go higher if you don't find the top first try. Isn't there any validity to finding the top and then sniping if necessary? >>



I really strongly disagree with this - but as a seller I love it. I said earlier that with some sort of discipline you should attempt to find your comfortable maximum and bid it very late. If you don't know what the real value is watch the bidding. Do you feel comfortable? Let's face it you have until a minute of the auction end to see if you want to play. As soon as you start thinking "I didn't realize it would go that high" well that's the time to do anything but bid.

If you bid $300 and someone's ahead of you AND you start thinking "why didn't I bid $350?" etc... then why didn't you bid $350? where do you stop? What if you find the level at $400 and you get outbid?

I've bid on a lot of Ebay items for $500+ and won them for $250+. Because $500+ was what I was prepared to pay!! There's no second guessing or worrying about other people. Sometimes I get outbid. But hey, if I wanted it that much why didn't I bid $5,000?

Also the marker bid is a giveaway. It seems to have the same potential as a dog marking it's territory - a warning for cowards but an invite for the ruthless invader. What is sniping software for? What are watch lists for? When anyone realizes you're dealing or have some sort of advanced knowledge you're a target.

The worst thing that can happen to a coin you're watching is when there's a second bid. Bids create bids - especially second bids. If someone puts a bid on your item and there's a second bid, 9 times out of 10 there will be a third bid. A lot of buyers see an unbid item and assume it's overpriced. Let's face it, if the problem is that difficult it's the minority who get it right.

Speaking as a seller you should all ignore the above text

Lloyd

laurentyvan

Again, more good advice. On the item I won today I realized it was going to be ending just when I would be with a customer. I could do no more than put a very strong number up half an hour before it ended and hope someone wasn't going to bump me trying to find the top. It didn't happen and I payed a very reasonable price. Between the advice garnered from the forum and a lot more practical experience I should be OK soon.
My problem is, I don't like to lose! Good news for most sellers...

Askari

Well, congratulations, Laurent!! You got the Massoulle -- and for a great price! Although I had every intention of sniping it, my schedule turned out not to permit it and I missed out. Good news for you -- and at least I know it went to a good home. I missed out for a good reason though -- I was putting something together for my son's 5th birthday and couldn't get started until the over-excited little guy finally fell asleep. With the sinus infection I've managed to come down with, I needed to have gone straight to bed anyway.

1jester

"...I needed to have gone straight to bed anyway." --Wizard

But you decided to come here instead!

Happy B-day to your son.

SYRACUSIAN

Are you calling me a dog Lloyd?

Lloyd

DOG?

No - just too sporting!!!

Wait till you get a following - people tracing you're bidding activities. Then see what the old bank balance says.

L