why do people bid early on an ebay auction when the principle of sniping reduces the final price?

1907Quarter

is it the kind of thing that bidders are staking their territory and basically saying"this is mine, you have no chance at this one"?

laceupboots

I often bid early because I don't want to have to watch it till the end. Put my bid in then go about my business. It also helps learn how to bid effectively.
I've won some cool coins and lost some that I really wanted. If I start getting too pi$$ed then I go to Yahoo auctions. Less traffic but the bids usually
start higher.

mercurydimeguy

Sniping is good if you're buying widgets, but mastering the art of eBay bidding (and there is one) is more rewarding.

I've used both -- and that has been my experience.

BTW -- Since I've gotten better at eBay bidding, I haven't used my snipe software in 4 months.

BillJones

There is nothing wrong with bidding early because of the way eBay handles the bids. EBay automatically raises the bids by the next increment. Therefore unless someone pushes you to your maximum bid, you will not pay that much. It's a very fair way to do it, and it is done pretty much in the open so that the bidders can see what is going on. I've been critial of eBay, mostly because of unethical sellers, but the way they handle bids is one of the best feaures of their service.

The only problem that I can see is that a shill can raise the bid on the high bidder once his or her maximum is recorded. That's a concern, but shilling can occur with snipe bids as well.

Last night I won an 1864 Lincoln ferrotype. I put up my maximum bid, and got the lot for quite a bit less than that. I was very pleased, especially since most political items auction houses don't don't handle bids fairly IMO. That's why I prefer eBay for political items when I can locate something there that is of interest.

291fifth

On better items sniping often doesn't pay off. It is probably more successful when bidding on common material.

Wolf359

On better items sniping often doesn't pay off. It is probably more successful when bidding on common material.

Not with vams. Bidding early is a red flag, giving away cherry picks. Stealth is best.

Julien

I never bid until the last 30 seconds (and hit the final button at about 5 seconds)of any ebay or Teletrade auction. I almost always win what I'm bidding on. I don't understand how other strategies could work better. I also don't understand how bidding ahead of time helps (other than to drive up the price).

CarlWohlforth

When browsing I will often put in a "bargain price" bid. These are much more than a token bid but less than a serious "gotta have it" bid. I do enjoy bidding on them and ocassionaly win.

BillJones

<< <i>I never bid until the last 30 seconds (and hit the final button at about 5 seconds)of any ebay or Teletrade auction. I almost always win what I'm bidding on. I don't understand how other strategies could work better. I also don't understand how bidding ahead of time helps (other than to drive up the price). >>



The way I look at it, I set a price that I am willing to pay. If the bids go above that I'm out PERIOD. I NEVER get caught up in auction frezies. That really cost you money. So to me does not matter if I bid early or late. I'm going to place the same bid.

And on a couple of occasions I've actually won an item because my bid was first in a tie situation. In those cases the FIRST bid gets the item. I know that's rare, be it's happened to me.

markglicker

I often see a coin that I am only moderatly interested in. If I know it is worth $1000, I may drop in an $800 bid, and hope to get lucky. If I am seriously interested in a coin, I will put in a snipe.

BillJones

I have done the "cover bid" thing (bid a fair but decidedly frugal amount) from time to time and have gotten a few pleasant surprises. It's always worth a try.

xbob

I had an interesting one last night. $49.95 opening bid on an item had one bidder only all week. I won on a 4 second before close snipe for $60.05. The original bidder also placed a snipe to cover himself, but it was a 1 second snipe for $60.00. Had he been 4 seconds earlier, he would have won due to my bid not meeting the minimum increment.

Even on snipes, timing can be everything. I lose more than I win only because a lot of my snipes are bargain fishing. I put in what I am willing to spend (I use esnipe.com) and leave it. If I hadn't sniped, I'm pretty sure that I would have lost the auction last night for sure.

UncleJoe

I won on a 4 second before close snipe for $60.05. The original bidder also placed a snipe to cover himself, but it was a 1 second snipe for $60.00. Had he been 4 seconds earlier, he would have won due to my bid not meeting the minimum increment.

xbob, actually you would have still won even if his bid went in before yours. Since the high bid was $49.95 your bid has to be an increment above the CURRENT high bid, NOT an increment above the max bid of the high bidder.

Joe.

notlogical

UncleJoe

Don't understand?

Joe.

CoinHusker

<< <i>The way I look at it, I set a price that I am willing to pay. If the bids go above that I'm out PERIOD. I NEVER get caught up in auction frezies. That really cost you money. So to me does not matter if I bid early or late. I'm going to place the same bid.
>>







Actually, the only person my early bid costs money is the last second sniper whose trying to outbid me.

Walkernut

Many sellers have a low initial starting bid with a much higher "Buy It Now" price. About the only time I don't snipe is to put a bid on that coin to eliminate the possibility of someone buying it early on. The "Buy It Now" price goes away once the first bid is made. Sometimes I'll put a fairly high bid on an expensive, sought after coin to get the price up quickly so the pesky nibblers don't draw attention to it with their incessant bidding. Gary

ziggy29

One common use for it is to eliminate a BIN when there's a low starting bid and no reserve. Others put in a low-ball bid so they can keep track of the auction without placing the item on a watch list.

PhillyJoe

I try to bid near the end if I'm near the computer; sometimes that's not possible. In those cases, I bid my max and check back later. Frustrating to lose by one increment, but I'm not going to get into a bidder war.
It took me a long time to realize, but another coin will come along.

Joe

partagas

I am in total agreement with Bill Jones and Coinhusker. Bid early and that is it. However, I don't buy widgets, I buy rare Seated stuff that I and about 5 others are always bidding on . So it is like staking a claim. If they want to pay more, then I will be out bid. So it all comes down to timing. Did they just blow their budget on the last coin I lost. So maybe I will this one etc. I lost both S mint Quarters I was after this weekend. But that is life. There will be more, I hope.

IrishMike

As a seller on Ebay I love the snipers, without fail they bring higher prices for me. Conversely when I find a coin I really want I bookmark it for at least a day to do some price research and to confirm that I really want to own it. I then place a bid at a price I am willing to pay for it. The best coins I have purchased from Ebay have been acquired this way. I think it discourages buyers like me not to compete and overpay for the coin. If someone over bids, I just say to myself they wanted it more.

Early on I got into sniping battles and ended up owning some overpriced coins as well as some disappointing ones. To those of you who buy the same coin in quantities hoping to make a catch I don't think it matters. Depends on what your goal is.

Longacre

If I am interested, I bid. The problem that I have is putting something on my watchlist and then forgetting about it.

Cladiator

Kinda OT but I had a cool experience. I've never used the make best offer feature before. I saw an acution with a BIN of $225 when the coin was worth no more than $150 max. I make a best offer of $115 and it got accepted. Very cool

Russ

There's one guy on eBay who chases the same stuff I do and always bids early. If he's in the auction I know I'm either going to have to pony up or move on. Since I'm poor, it's usually the latter. About the only time he loses is if Doops comes along.

Russ, NCNE

flaminio

If you see me bidding early, it's for one of three reasons: 1) I wanted to BIN-stomp it; 2) I'm putting in a lowball bid and really don't expect to win; or 3) I want to get a bid registered just so the seller can't change the listing.

If I really want something, you won't see any evidence of it until seconds before close.

ttown

On cheaper items sniping works fine on items over $500 where your bid increments are $10 a pop you can tell where you need to bid to get a decent deal and the one that bids that amount early has the best chance of a decent buy.

gemtone65

I can think of several reasons for bidding early and thereby improving your chances of winning an item at an acceptable price. First, as the poster said, it alerts other specialists to your interest in the item. This can cut both ways, of course, but generally if you're on friendly terms with these specialists, they may occasionally extend some courtesies.

Second, in the case of a secret reserve, an early bid could be designed to identify that reserve level. I know that contacting the seller about the size of the reserve usually works, but many times I simply don't want to do this and have to wait for his reply.

Third, should your early bid remain the high bid near the end of the auction, you now have valuable information that you otherwise would not have absent that early bid. Even for you snipers, this information can assist in deciding what the snipe bid should be, which can be especially helpful on items whose market value is not well defined, e.g., attractively toned coins.

HistoryStudent

Ebay bids are usually won is the last (few) minute(s). I prefer to "BUY IT NOW," if I want it. Back 5 years ago all gold coins were a deal. All.

Now everything is staraing to smell greedy. Jim Rogers, the millionaire commodities investor and past partner of George Soros, mentioned Buffet's words. "Sell when everyone is buying, and buy when everyone is selling."

My words are: "When everyone is GREEDY sell to them; BUY when everyone is scared to death.

And always be looking for THAT UNDERVALUED (scared to death) sector.
(THEN, You don't have to CHERRY-PICK because YOU'RE in a cherry field. Like gold coins in 2000 on Ebay!)
DYODD - but take a hard look at silver.

Remember supply and demand and REALLY understand that current "price is not actual VALUE."
(Gold coins are 80 to 90% investors and (usually) they buy "the lower priced ones" for they don't understand nuismatics.)

This is called a contrary investor-collector and it takes YEARS to learn.

One LEARNS after one gets BURNED. The trend is your friend.

Last time common date MS65 saints hit around $4,000 was JUNE 1989 - with only "4 TRILLION" in money supply - now we have "10 TRILLION." So now we have two-hundred-fifty percent more money - or $10,000 now buys what $4,000 did back then.

When you understand that FACT you realize that the money is losing about 10% per year. That's a biggie!

MajorDuty

Bidding early almost always pushes the final sale price higher than if one waited 'till the closing seconds to place their bid.

More often than not there is always some guy who'll bid $30, then $40, then $50 (or what ever price) and then happily sit there for days until the next guy outbids him. Then guy #1 returns and bids $60 then $70 etc. That kind of action isn't always someone just feeling around for the price. It's human nature to want to pay the least amount possible, so many people enter low bids early and hope to pay only that amount. Most ebayers are not as savvy as most of you here.

I realize there are those who enter their maximum amount early and that's it, but if you do that, guy #1 will almost always come in pushing that final price up. You may win the auction with your maximum bid, but if you sat back and waited, and let guy#1 sit there smug with his $40 bid (or what ever reletive price), you could come in late and snake it out from underneath him, and save a considerable amount of money a lot of the time than if you bid early and let guy #1 keep throwing dollars at the auction pushing it up and up.

I experienced it first hand this weekend; I was watching two identical items. Item #1 closed a couple hours before item #2. I wanted item #2, but I placed an early, fair bid on item #1 just because I can. Guy #1 came in and inched the price up past my bid, only to get beat out at the end by a snipe. I felt that item #2 was actually a little nicer, and since I was serious about winning item #2, I did absolutely nothing until the closing seconds. The price climbed slowly in the last minute, including a weak snipe attempt with about 8 seconds to go. I sniped item #2 with 2 seconds left in the auction, and the final value of item #2 was 35% lower than item #1. I paid less by not bidding early. It was an early high bid, my bid, on item #1 that caused that auction to close so high.

To answer the question in the topic: I bid early just to piss off guy #1 and push the price on an auction just because I can and for no other reason. If I win it, great, but I bid just shy of what something should sell for.

If I'm serious about winning an auction, and I really want the item, I bid in the last three seconds and I bid very strongly. If I'm outbid then the item will be selling for a lot more than it should in most cases.

Coinhusker1

I fail to see how placing you bid early increases your chances of winning (except a token bid to stomp a BIN or to keep a seller from ending the listing).

If you are going to bid the same amount anyway, it appears to me that a snipe has a better chance of winning, and it minimizes winning bid amounts by avoiding the "inchworms".

fishcooker

I bid early to tie up an advantageous price. Snipe me and you paid too much.

Secondly I bid early so that the people ticked off at me for sniping them will have a fake opportunity to beat me. Meanwhile, I'm winning what I want somewhere else.

Coinhusker1

<< <i>I bid early to tie up an advantageous price. Snipe me and you paid too much.

Secondly I bid early so that the people ticked off at me for sniping them will have a fake opportunity to beat me. Meanwhile, I'm winning what I want somewhere else. >>



Sounds like you have "stalkers"!!

Lakesammman

The seller is less likely to pull or change the item if there are bids. Plus it bookmarks the item for me. I like having only one list to check.

Walkernut

MajorDuty, my sentiments exactly !

airplanenut

If I'm going to bid $X, then I'm going to do it at the last second. That way, no one has the chance to bump up my bid... and I'm still bidding the same as I would have if I bid right at the auction's start. Sniping is a great tool. That said, one of my listings went up a few hundred in the last 6 seconds yesterday... I like snipers

Dabigkahuna

Bidding is like an art form.


An early bid gives you preference over a sniper or other bidder if the final price happens to be the same.

I take each auction as it comes but if there are no bids or just a couple I will almost always bid early.


Larry
Dabigkahuna

mozin

I think the highest selling prices would be had if all bids were snipe bids.

ttown

I bid on the stuff I really want in the last 20-30 seconds but I can't even count the times since 1997 that Ebay missed my bid when putting it in the last 30 seconds. You bid at the last minute and you take your chances you have to measure how much you want the coin if I bid early it's a little under fair price and much better than most brick and motor shops. You bid above me on what I collect and you paid a bit too much and I can wait until the next one comes to bid. I remember a fraklin I need in an MS 64 FBL I must have bid on 20 of them before I got my price on 2 the same night. Once those willing to bid over fair market are taken care of you'll get your coin you just have to wait.

clackamas

I will often bid early if I know I don't really want the coin but don't want to see it go cheap. I know this would be considered shilling but I do it to sellers I don't know.

rmoss

I will bid early and only what I am willing to pay. If someone wants it more than I do then so be it.

Touchdown

I bid early only when I own a similar coin same year same grade same grading company. If I get it for the price I bid let it be. But, I don not want to let it sell for less than what I paid for mine. That's my reason.

BowTieCoins2

There is another reason to bid fairly high early on in winning an item. If an item starts at $1 and slowly
gains in price with many different bidders. All these buyer are now watching and wondering if their later snipe may win this item. but if your second or third bid take this item to $50 on a $75 dollar coin many
buyers will pass thinking it will end high in a few days never to see the listing again.

Chris

UncleJoe

Wow!!! All that analysis of what others are or are not doing!!!

IMO it is a lot simpler than that. I know when the auctions end that I am interested in (bookmarked or not and I never bookmark with a bid). I also know my highest bid. When the sniping time comes, either my high bid will be accepted or not, it is as simple as that. I win a lot of auctions and for less than I expected to pay following this procedure.

Joe.

fishcooker

Joe, it depends on how big of a pond you swim in. In a little pond it wouldn't take long to figure out how to shill me and my last second snipe.

roadrunner

I rarely have time to come back and play games with auctions. So once I locate something, I leave a bid that I'm comfortable with and forget about it. Won a coin Sunday night by using the "manual" sniping technique and got my bid in with 2 seconds left. My best eye baller yet.

roadrunner

flaminio

<< <i>I rarely have time to come back and play games with auctions. So once I locate something, I leave a bid that I'm comfortable with and forget about it. >>

I do the same with my robo-sniper. I have it set so that I can right-click on an auction and enter a snipe. It's actually easier than bidding. I enter a snipe that I'm comfortable with, and forget about it. And the best thing is, if I later change my mind, I just need to go back and delete the snipe. None of that naughty bid retraction business.

SDCollector

Unless I read these postings too quickly, no one answered the question posted:

why do people bid early on an ebay auction when the principle of sniping reduces the final price?

Sniping does not reduce the final price. If anything, it increases the final price. If I put in a strong bid, and someone snipes it, then they have overpaid for the coin. If I were a seller, I would want as many snipers as possible.

IrishMike

Yes you read them a little too quickly, as I said as a seller I love snipers, greatly increases my take.