How do you 'last minute bid' on e-bay?!
Discussion
Hi all
A few times over the past few weeks I have fallen foul to someone bidding on e-bay with literally 1 second left. Now, surely they can't have just entered a high price and hoped to have gone over mine - if two people do that, you end up paying £4000 for an A-Team lunchbox. But, if I try and do it 'properly', then with the whole 'confirm bid' bit and making sure you're logged in, I just always seem to lose!
Are people doing something I don't know about, or is it really that they're just doing it 'right' and I am not?!
Thanks!
Tony
A few times over the past few weeks I have fallen foul to someone bidding on e-bay with literally 1 second left. Now, surely they can't have just entered a high price and hoped to have gone over mine - if two people do that, you end up paying £4000 for an A-Team lunchbox. But, if I try and do it 'properly', then with the whole 'confirm bid' bit and making sure you're logged in, I just always seem to lose!
Are people doing something I don't know about, or is it really that they're just doing it 'right' and I am not?!
Thanks!
Tony
Raify said:
Enters the bid on the last second automatically...
Most of the sniping programs allow you to configure when you want it to make your bid.
I used Auction Sentry a bit, and from memory I think it suggested 20 seconds before the end time, just in case it has problems connecting immediately.
www.auctionsniper.com set to 7 seconds as per default seems to work fine. It's just a matter of knowing how much you are prepared to pay for something. If you win you win, if you don't there'll be another one along soon.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
I agree, if you know what the maximum you are prepared to bid is (and should you be taking part in an auction if you don't?), then just put that amount in as your max bid.
If you don't get it is is only because someone else was prepared to bid higher, nothing to do with last minute/second bids.
To me it only seems worthwhile if you can get a bargain: this rarely happens, though it does sometimes... in such cases if you put in a max bid too early, the seller can get his mate to bump up the bidding to find out what your max is.
Leave it till last thing and it's like Russian Roulette - far more exciting
Leave it till last thing and it's like Russian Roulette - far more exciting
adetuono said:
Precisely; you can put in your max bid anytime, and if you want it more than anyone else, you'll get it. There's no sense in waiting until the last minute; you won't get it any cheaper.
Yes, but you don't get the whole bidding war thing with another bidder upping their 'maximum' by a few quid to see if that beats you. You can seriously save some cash sniping. It stops shill bidding as well which is rife on ebay.
>> Edited by maxf on Monday 19th December 14:22
The other I've noticed is that loads of people don't use the proxy bid facility (no idea why).
So you place a proxy bid that is the maximum you're prepared to spend with say half an hour left. This beats one of the non proxy bidders and they come back and place a flurry of new bids until they're reached their actual maximum, or beaten yours. Either way the price gets driven up.
If placed the same bid in the last few seconds, there is no time for the other person to reply and so you actually win an item you might have lost, and win it much cheaper too.
Like I said, I've got no idea why people don't use the proxy system, but the fact is they don't and you do often win things cheaper by bidding at the last moment (and you avoid people bidding on their own auctions to drive the price up too).
So you place a proxy bid that is the maximum you're prepared to spend with say half an hour left. This beats one of the non proxy bidders and they come back and place a flurry of new bids until they're reached their actual maximum, or beaten yours. Either way the price gets driven up.
If placed the same bid in the last few seconds, there is no time for the other person to reply and so you actually win an item you might have lost, and win it much cheaper too.
Like I said, I've got no idea why people don't use the proxy system, but the fact is they don't and you do often win things cheaper by bidding at the last moment (and you avoid people bidding on their own auctions to drive the price up too).
anonymous said:
[redacted]
This is spot on.
You must still decide what the max bid is that you wish to make. The advantage leaving it late is not revealing your hand too early.
Having broadband helps, you can be a bit braver as to just how late you leave your bid.
I was bidding on a second hand clarinet for my daughter and watched as two bidders both entered high last second bids. One ended up paying more than the cost of a brand new instrument!! LOL.
maxf said:
Yes, but you don't get the whole bidding war thing with another bidder upping their 'maximum' by a few quid to see if that beats you. You can seriously save some cash sniping. It stops shill bidding as well which is rife on ebay.
>> Edited by maxf on Monday 19th December 14:22
I know where you're coming from, but if it's an item that you really want, and you know exactly how much you're prepared to pay, then you'll get what you want for a price you're willing to pay. If you don't mind missing out on what could possibly be a bargain, then leave it until the last minute and take a chance on being 'sniped'.
I've had a couple of instances in the last year or so where I've had a bid in on a guitar, and been the only bidder. Miraculously, the auction has been pulled in the last hour. I can only assume that it's because the seller hasn't set a reserve and didn't want to sell too cheap. That's another downside of leaving bids too late.
adetuono said:
Miraculously, the auction has been pulled in the last hour. I can only assume that it's because the seller hasn't set a reserve and didn't want to sell too cheap. That's another downside of leaving bids too late.
Yes, that's a major downside. I've been nervous of a few of my auctions and almost pulled the plug - I suppose the key is to use a reserve but ebay charges seem to increase then!
maxf said:
Yes, but you don't get the whole bidding war thing with another bidder upping their 'maximum' by a few quid to see if that beats you. You can seriously save some cash sniping. It stops shill bidding as well which is rife on ebay.
I was watching a car which had obviously been shill bidded. 10 bids from two users both with zero feedback who both registered on 2nd dec 2005
Must have put folk off because I went in at the last gasp and won the car for £88
I'd been to see the car the previous day. Nice bloke, but not wise to the ways of Ebay.
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