Bidding against board members...

BunchOBull · October 22, 2007 12:34PM

I wish I knew everyone's eBay IDs because I do my best not to bid against fellow board members who have found an auction first. I don't want to artificially inflate an auction on the people who help me in this hobby so much. Sometimes I'll see eBay IDs and they're just similar enough to make me wonder if it is a fellow board member. I don't know what the point of this post is, just a thought...like one of those Jack Handey public service announcements.

Bosox1976 · October 22, 2007 12:35PM

Good thought, but most snipe anyway. Early bids are often just placeholders.

Free market rules.

BunchOBull · October 22, 2007 12:42PM

This is true, I do some place holding myself. Never used a snipe program though.

Bosox1976 · October 22, 2007 12:46PM

Give www.justsnipe.com a try - 5 freebies per week, never a hitch for me. Saves you $$$ by avoiding bidding wars and shillers.

Bottom9th · October 22, 2007 12:46PM

I have never used a snipe program either. Can anyone make some suggestions?

Thanks!

Bob....

BunchOBull · October 22, 2007 1:33PM

I think I need to give it a shot. I was in the middle of a dinner party tonight and got a text message from eBay about an outbid. Had to pull my phone out in the middle of the dinner to bid again. I shouldn't have, I just pretended it was work related.

mrmagoo · October 22, 2007 1:40PM

Ive used bidnapper.com for over a year and have saved thousands of dollars.
I never thought i would use a snipe service but ive become a snipe aholic its much easier and i dont miss out on anything plus it keeps the wife happy that im not rushing home anymore to get that last minute bid in.

rexvos · October 22, 2007 1:52PM

<< <i>Good thought, but most snipe anyway. Early bids are often just placeholders.

Free market rules. >>

I wish more people would just snipe stuff, that is what I tend to do. On several cards I want I will watch two idiots kill themselves going back and forth driving up the price time and time again.

vintagetoppsguy · October 22, 2007 1:57PM

I tried a sniping service when they first came out and didn't like it. The whole point in using a snipe service is that you enter your snipe and don't have to sit there and watch the auction and/or worry if you've been outbid. However, let's say I enter a snipe for an item that is going to end on Saturday night because I have plans that night and won't be home. I get home late that night and check eBay only to realize that my snipe was never even placed because the bidding passed my snipe bid amount while the auction was still running rendering my snipe void. Or better yet, someone has a higher snipe than mine and I still don't win the item. I personally watch all my auctions and bid within the last few seconds and RARELY do I ever get sniped.

That brings me to another point. When I did use a snipe service I still found myself watching the auction (if I was home) - which kind of defeats the whole purpose anyway.

Just curious, I would like to know how may other peolpe who use a snipe service and still find themselves watching the auction down to the last few seconds even if they're home and have a snipe already set???

jim70mustang · October 22, 2007 2:20PM

<< <i>I wish I knew everyone's eBay IDs because I do my best not to bid against fellow board members who have found an auction first. I don't want to artificially inflate an auction on the people who help me in this hobby so much. Sometimes I'll see eBay IDs and they're just similar enough to make me wonder if it is a fellow board member. I don't know what the point of this post is, just a thought...like one of those Jack Handey public service announcements. >>

BunchObull,
I used to think the same as you but after seeing other board members being outbid by other bidders and neither board member winning the auction I quit. I now treat board members the same as any other bidder. IMHO

elsnorto · October 22, 2007 2:21PM

Gixen.com works well for me. You can only have 10 active snipes set at a time, which usually meets my needs as I update my snipe list daily and keep it fairly clean. Plus I do not snipe on everything, just things where I think there will be competition on a tougher to find item. Gixen.com is free, or you have the option of paying for it to remove the 10 snipes at a time limit. To the best of my knowledge, it has never failed to place a bid for me yet.

Snorto~

Carew29 · October 22, 2007 2:33PM

When i was working on my #1 Carew Master set( now retired), i had one guy that whined on the boards here on this topic. I always had a set price i was willing to pay for a certian card. A few were just stupidly outrageous bids. I was in bid wars all the time with Carew4me and Lawyer05 (and he is a lawyer). I have outbid these two guys as well the same back on me. It's all about being #1. But mind you, if i was outbid, that was my limit.

If i sent cards into PSA and they came back in high grades and it would help their sets, they got first crack at the upgrades before hitting Ebay. I believe both guys would vouch for me on this.

yankeeno7 · October 22, 2007 3:06PM

I only snipe. I save a ton of cash. Enough said.

mrmagoo · October 22, 2007 3:57PM

theres no limit on bidnapper i currently have 86 snipes set and active. I like snipe services especially for the big sellers who have like 20 or more auctions all ending at the same time or within seconds of each other for these guys sniping is the only way to buy. Thats why i finally started sniping was no way in hell to bid on 20 items i wanted when they all ended at the same time

GDM67 · October 22, 2007 4:08PM

I generally try to steer clear of auctions with bids by board members I recognize.

Does anybody else put up more or less token bids (like a couple of dollars over the starting bid) for something they suspect will go without being bid on? Essentially to say "Well, if nobody else wants it..."

Griffins · October 22, 2007 4:55PM

What happens if the seller is a board member, do you lay off then if you see another board member bidding?Kind of picking one over another in that case.

I used to use esnipe, but it got too expensive. I used justsnipe but it failed a few times. Now I use bidnapper, flawless over 16 months and hundreds of snipes.

GDM67 · October 22, 2007 8:06PM

<< <i>What happens if the seller is a board member, do you lay off then if you see another board member bidding?Kind of picking one over another in that case. >>

That's a good question. It hasn't occurred to me, yet.

I've done a lot more buying from board members, usually on eBay, than I have avoiding them as bidders. That's actually only happened to me a couple of times.

jimq112 · October 22, 2007 9:52PM

I also use justsnipe, no problems with them. I try not to bid against board members but with sniping you don't know till it's too late. Sniping saves me $ and keeps me from that emotional "I have to win" mentality.

Just don't set an unbelievably high snipe amount to guarantee you win. Somebody else might have the same idea and set an unbelievably high snipe one dollar lower than yours.

MCMLVTopps · October 22, 2007 11:17PM

Don't bid against board members? I think we all maintain a mutual respect for one another on the boards, but when it comes to a card I need I'm gonna bid on it regardless of who else has already bid. I have advised close friends that I know who will also be interested in a card I plan to bid on, they either say they're bidding, or not. Why let a card go that you need? I've been waiting for one card for over a year to complete a set...when it comes up I'm gonna place a snipe on it that will almost surely take the card down.

I use esnipe.com and am very pleased with it. I used to sit there with my watch timing the ending down to the last 10 seconds with my bid entered, just waiting to hit the enter key. Sometimes I was successful, other times I was not. With esnipe you can load up one or as many bids as you want and do other things. Some guys on the west coast end their bids late at night PST, making it early AM here on the East coast. Esnipe eliminates all the waiting and having to sit by the computer at a certain time. No, I do not sit and watch the snipes I have in end. Without a snipe program, how on earth are you gonna try and win multiple cards that end close to each other?

Those who place bids prior to the ending of a listing are really wasting time. As mentioned elsewhere, these guys are merely placeholders. Do your homework, finalize a price you can live with, use a snipe program, no other way to go. To not bid because you recognize another members handle just makes no sense.

How many of us have seen bidders place lots of bids, one on top of another, but upping the price by a quarter or half dollar, only to finally top the high bidder. What have they accomplished? Nada! The final sale price is almost always higher than a manual bidder.

GL, use a snipe program, only way to survive this game!

GO RED SOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Al

nam812 · October 22, 2007 11:52PM

This is on topic, but a little twist to the OP's original thoughts. A few years back when I was selling on eBay at a larger rate than I do now, I had a very steady customer/bidder building Topps baseball card sets with me. One evening while trolling eBay auctions looking for deals I happened upon an auction I though was a good deal with very little time left. As I was about to bid I noticed that my customer/bidder was the high bidder on the auction. It only took me only 2 seconds to realize what the right thing to do for my future auctions was, and I just moved on down the eBay road. To this day he is still a customer of mine, and I am largely responsible for him being nearly done with a Topps baseball card run from 1952 through 1975.

1989FleerBillRipkencollector · October 22, 2007 11:57PM

There was a 1929 Zee Nuts with coupon and sleeve on Goodwill recently. While that is not my forte' I thought it was interesting. I was thinking about CU members as I bid. I was hoping no one on here was bidding. I was only bidding as I thought it was cheap and I would trade it away. Ended up losing it., Ended around $50. I couldnt "steal" the pic.

For me, if you see me (my name is always pretty much the same everywhere) 1989 FF ---- MartinFFcollector etc and if Im bidding LMK If I want it bad, I'll bid more as I know you CU people have fistfulls of cash and If Im bidding to sell/trade, I'll back off. But doubt I'll see any of you around no the floor. Not too much competition for 1990 Score Ben McDonald lots these days.

stevek · October 23, 2007 12:37AM

With all due respect, I would never bid against a board member here, unless of course I wanted the card.

BunchOBull · October 23, 2007 12:39AM

In the case of sniping, it's an open field, and completely agree. I have, however, seen early bids from board members that turned out to be well over the minimum bid. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I don't want to get into a bidding war with you folks. If I recognize one of you on the bay, I just move on because I don't want to artificially inflate the closing price. At a minimum I contact whomever the bidder may be and see how serious they are about the auction.

And to answer the question of whom falls under this criterion, all of you do. I know I haven't shared comments with many of you, and I know my personal beliefs are asinine to many of you; however, I still try to keep a certain level of decorum with those who I believe to be my greatest resource in the hobby.

GOODLIEU · October 23, 2007 12:40AM

Bidding on EBAY for the most part is tough enough without trying to figure out who's bidder ID corresponds to a PSA board member. I would say that for most of us we usually bid against other collectors who are collecting similar sets with the ocassional "Newbie" in the mix. I try to obtain cards to improve my registry sets but bid within my budget and never take it personally when outbid by another collector. If there is one thing I have found out with this hobby is that if your patient enough sooner or later most cards will be available again. I think the best thing about the boards is the networking and information that we exchange and in more than one instance I have traded or bought from other board members in order to fill spaces in my collection.

Carew29 · October 23, 2007 12:55AM

Side note--there are those on this board that have more than 1 I.D. for just this reason. I know this, because a few of them have won cards from me recently with different ones. And i don't mean that they changed it either!!

BunchOBull · October 23, 2007 12:57AM

<< <i>Side note--there are those on this board that have more than 1 I.D. for just this reason. I know this, because a few of them have won cards from me recently with different ones. And i don't mean that they changed it either!! >>

It definitely works inversely. I'm sure there are those who will purposefully outbid other members if they have the opportunity. Sounds kind of sadistic, but I bet it has happened.

colebear · October 23, 2007 1:47AM

I snipe EVERYTHING and do not even care who the other bidders are. If I want a card bad enough, I will bid high enough.

Every once in a while the bidding will pass my snipe and that is ok, because I set my snipe at the maximum I am willing to pay. I do not tend to watch the auctions after I placed my snipe either.

diamondman · October 23, 2007 4:24AM

I don't use snipe bid, sometimes I place a low bid ( place holder ) then as the auction nears it's end last 1 or 2 hrs I put the most I am willing to pay and cross my fingers. On other items I just put the highest I am willing to pay from the get go and let it ride. I don't worry to much about shill bidding .

When it comes to bidding against board members and a tough card that might come up 1 to 2 times in a year or less, the gloves are off. jmho

Bidding against board members...

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