Question about bid timing

MrNearMint

So out of the last 7 items I've bid on, I've only won 2. The other 5 I was outbid by either fifty cents or one dollar and I'm starting to get irritated. I try to bid with about 6 seconds left on the auction and still seem to be outbid at the last second.
What is everyone's strategy, how can I start winning these damn items?

DetroitSquirreL

My strategy is, I bid what I wanna pay if I get out bud so what! They wanted to pay more than me. No matter how small it is they probably have a MUCH higher top bid. If I really wanted it I would of paid more for it

JoeBanzai

It's not when you bid it's how high. Depending on the final price of the item, if you are the underbidder, you will always be 50 cents or a dollar short.

If you REALLY want the item, bid significantly higher than it's worth, but if someone else does the same, you will overpay, or lose out by a small amount.

My advice is to bid as high as you are comfortable paying. That way you shouldn't have a problem.

Good luck.

Joe

ThoseBackPages

gixen.com

i set my snipe at 5 seconds with my max bid.

bigdcards

I think anything 6 seconds or less is fine. If you are bidding with 6 seconds left and losing, then it's the bid and not the timing.

slum22

<< <i>My strategy is, I bid what I wanna pay if I get out bud so what! They wanted to pay more than me. No matter how small it is they probably have a MUCH higher top bid. If I really wanted it I would of paid more for it >>



+1

It's true. It's not timing, it's how much your max bid is. As someone already said, the person who won may have won by $0.50 but that's because his bidding ended with your max bid. Chances are the winning bidder had a higher max bid placed. Think about the auctions you won. Chances are you rarely win with exactly your maximum bid. It is more likely that your maximum bid was for more than what the auction ended for. Luckily, in the examples where you win, whoever you bid against in the auction you won stopped at a point below what you were willing to pay so you only had to pay $0.50 or $1.00 more than what their maximum bid was. This saves you money as the winning buyer. So try not to get frustrated by being outbid by $0.50 at the last second. Chances are whoever won put in their bid around the same time you did except for a significantly higher dollar amount. Save your money and move to the next auction. As another poster said, it is best to put your truly highest bid in at the last second. Then if it gets beat, you know you wouldn't have gotten a good deal anyway, so just move onto the next auction that will provide better value. It will save you money in the long run. The only reason to get frustrated is if you put in less than your true maximum value bid on the item and you lose. In this case, just start putting in your real maximum bid and not just what you think it will take to win the auction. Then there will be less hard feelings should you lose out on the auction.

CollectorAtWork

My snipe is set at 3 seconds to try to prevent any additional bids if the previous bid or snipe wasn't quite enough to beat my snipe.

LarkinCollector

I actually like 6 seconds over 3. I've hit too many 'Your snipe is too low due to eBay's bid increment system' trying for last second, where my max bid was higher than the winning bid, but not by enough.

CubsKiller99

Bid higher.

You have to factor in your time involvment in this and what that's worth.

Foo3112

Its very simple. Someone is willing to pay more than what you entered your price for.

The proper way to use ebay is to bid 1 time - The HIGHEST amount that you are willing to spend to get that item.

I have done both. Sometimes bidding at the last minute wins it for me and other times it has blown up in my face because when I bid in the last few seconds, if my bid may still does not end up being the highest bid, then it doesnt give me time to place another bid so what I do is look at the price in the last 30 seconds of the auction and think, "what is this item worth to me" and with that in mind, I put the price as high as im willing to go in the last 8 seconds, hoping that someone tries to bid the minimum amount in the last few seconds and now they dont get more time to enter another amount realizing that my bid is still higher and the auction ends. If I dont win it, then thats my fault. Theres no science involved here.