Last second Ebay outbidders, I hate em

[wstein]

Last year I bought a Seadoo jetski on ebay, used it over the summer, and put it back on ebay last month. It sold for $600 more than I paid last year. Gotta love it.

You have to love that, got paid to ride that seadoo for a year.

Paul

 

[greenpirate69]

the best advice is this, and its what i do. if the opening bid on something is say $30 and you are willing to spend $120, then go ahead and enter that ammount. that way if you are outbided, then it went for more than you were willing to spend in the first place. but if the last bidder only bidded say $61 then of course that is the ammount that you would have to pay, and you still got a good deal. i just had that experience this past week. I ended up with about $1,800 worth of BCD's and knives, for $286.00

the best one was a BCD, that started at $31. i put in a bid of $120 (more than worth it) and got it in the end for $61.00

hope this helps.

 

[krick]

I sold professionally on eBay for about 3 years and I always welcomed snipe bidding. The more bids, the better. Even if they are from snipers.

Now, as a buyer, I always use the Vrane snipe tool when bidding on auctions.

Here's a link to their free public snipe tool:
http://www.vrane.com/snp.html

One bidding tip: Never bid in even dollar amounts.

I always bid in odd amounts like $76.76 instead of $75. Because of the way that the eBay auto-bidding system works, it can often mean the difference between winning and losing an auction...
http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bid-increments.html

 

[Tractor Tom]

I made a bid on a '66 Jeep CJ-5 a few weeks ago. Wanted one for around the farm to plow snow and to take me and my chainsaw back in the woods. Placed a bid that brought the Jeep to the minimum sale price (paid the reserve) four days before the auction was over. Waited, expecting someone to swoop in and outbid me in the final hour, and no one did! The bid sat there for four days and I ended up getting it for the reserve price. Went down a couple weeks ago and picked it up. Nice jeep! Will do just what I want aound the farm, I expect. Just needs a tune up and a new door latch. Went to Southfield and picked up a 6' snow plow for it for $150.00 more, on Saturday. Things are looking up....

 

[Ann Marie]

Hi. My name is Ann Marie and I'm a sniper.....




giggle...

 

[Don Burke]

I really get ticked off when I'm 5 seconds away from a killer deal on a product, then I get outbidded and I don't have enough time to put another bid in.

Anyone else with similar experiences, or have some advice on how to win an auction for once? I missed out on a great scuba accesory this morning.

Mel

I figure I am spending too much if I get more than about 40% of the items I bid on.

I bid what I am willing to spend and either get it for that or less or lose it to someone willing to pay too much.

 

[newtodive]

:11:

 

[Dan Gibson]

Sniping is using a proxy bidding service such as auction sniper. Your computer speed has nothing to do with it. The service bids for you at a specified time. Your method is just bidding at the last second and hoping it does it on time. You will loose out often when traffic on the internet is high. A proxy bidding service is the way to go.

I'm an expert at sniping, It is really simple.
Use a stop watch to time when the auction is over, you also have to know how long it takes for your computer to place the bid, I give mine 15 seconds. Bid the max you are willing to pay. Have the place bid page complete and when there is 20 seconds left,(watching your stop watch), hit place bid. Now any other sniper has only 5 seconds to out bid you which is not enough time.

 

[Ann Marie]

Sniping is using a proxy bidding service such as auction sniper.

Okay, I don't use a bidding service......that just takes the fun of it out!

 

[ScubaGoddess1]

After many unsuccessful bids on E-bay, a co-worker (who was a seasoned E-bay purchaser) told me a few things I was doing wrong and suggested these tips. They have helped me:

(1) It's okay to establish an early bid, but if someone outbids you early (i.e., 2 days before the bid ends), leave it. Otherwise you can get into a bidding war. This happened to me when my 10 year old son was desperate for a Kirby plush toy from Japan. I bid early and then someone out bid us. I bid again, and the same thing happened. Finally, we ended up in a bidding war, that (Thankfully!) I won. However, I payed dearly for this stuffed animal. Probably too much. But hey, it's my son.

(2) If you see that someone is interested in the same bid as you are, watch the item to monitor action but don't bid on it until the final minutes. In other words, sit in the bush.

(3) In the final minute, make your final bid a maximum price that you feel will win the bid. I have noticed that many people increase their maximum bids by $1. or $2. Sorry. If you want something bad enough to pay $300 for it, put a maximum bid of $350 or more on it. You may never pay that price, but you will often win the bid.

(4) I recently won a brand-new BCD on E-bay and this is exactly what I did. Someone tried to outbid me at the last minute by upping their bid by $1.00. I had put a $50 lid on the bid. I won but didn't end up paying $350; just $305.
And I love the BCD.

Hope these tips help,

ScubaGoddess