Anyone place their maximum bid a week early and win? Theory?
thebaseballcardkid
Posts: 432 ✭
This is a serious question which I still don't understand the answers. For those who place their maximum bid a week or several days prior to the end time, why? I don't see how this results in saving money once its all said and done.
Has anyone won doing this? I just see large bids getting beat or pushed to their maximum bid by small incremental bids. And this leaves you open to shilling or bid retractions and you left holding the bag. So what is the strategy?
I can't remember seeing a large bid placed early and not get any more bids for several days and win.
Its just lose lose for everyone but the seller.
Has anyone won doing this? I just see large bids getting beat or pushed to their maximum bid by small incremental bids. And this leaves you open to shilling or bid retractions and you left holding the bag. So what is the strategy?
I can't remember seeing a large bid placed early and not get any more bids for several days and win.
Its just lose lose for everyone but the seller.
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Comments
There are several threads on 'Why snipe?' where this has been brought up and none of the arguments against sniping or pro-another bid strategy have shown any benefit to placing your max bid early (though there are several valid reasons for placing a min bid early).
ETA: Strictly speaking of eBay auctions, I don't mess around with the AHs.
To be honest, no direction, but...
1966-69 Topps EX+
1975 minis NrMt Kelloggs PSA 9
All Topps Heritage-Master Sets
A high opening bid, as mentioned, can sometimes intimidate other buyers into moving on. I've bypassed plenty of auctions where I noticed one large opening bid and that was it.
One large opening bid? Isn't that impossible, or are there auction sites where the "max bid" is shown?
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
A high opening bid, as mentioned, can sometimes intimidate other buyers into moving on. I've bypassed plenty of auctions where I noticed one large opening bid and that was it.
One large opening bid? Isn't that impossible, or are there auction sites where the "max bid" is shown?
I refer only to the appearance of a bid, i.e. someone opens an item that requires a minimum bid of $500 and that single bid sits there until completion. I don't know what the "max" bid is unless it's mine.
I place a min bid to discourage the seller from ending the auction early. And then I set a snipe.
Another wise and useful tactic. Regrettably, too many sellers are ending auctions early whether they have bids or not and gobs of good items are trading hands off site. As if you didn't already know that.
I place a min bid to discourage the seller from ending the auction early. And then I set a snipe.
Another wise and useful tactic. Regrettably, too many sellers are ending auctions early whether they have bids or not and gobs of good items are trading hands off site. As if you didn't already know that.
Jeff, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I've bought from you, either on or off eBay.
A high opening bid, as mentioned, can sometimes intimidate other buyers into moving on. I've bypassed plenty of auctions where I noticed one large opening bid and that was it.
One large opening bid? Isn't that impossible, or are there auction sites where the "max bid" is shown?
I refer only to the appearance of a bid, i.e. someone opens an item that requires a minimum bid of $500 and that single bid sits there until completion.
I'm surprised that one bid on an item would scare someone away. A certain percentage of the time, the max bid is going to be only a little higher (or even the same) as the minimum bid. It just happened to me yesterday.
Some people use early bids as a placeholder or reminder of an item they don't want to forget about later in the week
I'll do that with a small bid early in the auction to keep it on my "bid placed" page. And its usually 10% of its value or some small amount when placed that early.
So far I havent heard a good argument for it. So is such a large early bid shady or a newbie? Its just frustrating when theres no good legitimate reason.
I don't really bid at all anymore.
I found if I manually bid? I tend to bid with my emotion - hate to lose an item.
So, I decide right on the spot - how much I'm willing to pay - set a snipe and walk away.
It takes my personal emotion out of it and either I get the item or I don't.
My take on eBay e.g.?
If one passes you by? Another will come along to take its place and who knows? Maybe cheaper?
the strategy is i don't want to have to keep tracking all those auctions, and i don't use snipes because i don't believe that actually saves me any money particularly on the commons.
i used to use snipe programs, and my win percentage wasn't really any different than it is now and the average "under market" of ones i did win was negligible. however, there were also plenty of times where the sniping didn't work because of some glitch or another. honestly, at the end of the day the win percentage changes most directly with the "strength" of my bids, not when they're placed.
on higher priced or star singles, i generally do wait until late in the auction to place my bid mostly because i don't want to get pecked on as people search for my max bid. on commons, i honestly really don't care that much and most of the time my competition is other set builders anyway so they're going to bid what they bid regardless of the method.
As a side note, dang I've spent a lot of money on ebay.
Amazing!
Amazing!
Hey Mike,
That's over 16 years, so roughly 200 per year or 15 per month. A LARGE majority of these are for PSA singles where I would win 10-15 at a time for my registry sets. Also won a lot of auctions back in the early 2000s trying to finish Topps Heritage sets.
That being said, I was surprised by the number. I can guarantee you the average cost per auction won is probably in the $5-$6 range, my card budget is not that much annually.
-Tom
Amazing!
Hey Mike,
That's over 16 years, so roughly 200 per year or 15 per month. A LARGE majority of these are for PSA singles where I would win 10-15 at a time for my registry sets. Also won a lot of auctions back in the early 2000s trying to finish Topps Heritage sets.
That being said, I was surprised by the number. I can guarantee you the average cost per auction won is probably in the $5-$6 range, my card budget is not that much annually.
-Tom
How Feedback Works
What if I buy multiple items from the same seller?
We raise the buyer's Feedback score by a total of 1 point, regardless of the number of positive ratings received within the week.
Tom, your actual # of items won is likely much higher than the 3K you estimated. It only counts as one feedback per Mon-Sun calendar week from a given seller, so if you won 10-15 items at once it's only one feedback (that counts) for that order.
How Feedback Works
What if I buy multiple items from the same seller?
We raise the buyer's Feedback score by a total of 1 point, regardless of the number of positive ratings received within the week.
Yikes!
The main benefit in doing it is to eliminate competition during extended bidding. By immediately bidding the card to what I think is full market value at worst I had only 1 competitor when extended bidding time came around. In a few cases, no competitor showed up and I won the card at what I felt was fair market price. In a few cases there was just 1 competitor who topped my early bid and then I won a few and lost a few.
Dave