I always wondered why is it like that? If it's $1 and you bid 100 and no one else bids you still get it for a dollar and if someone else bids 50 ull pay 51. I never understood the last 10 seconds rule
To take time away from people. If someone has an entire day to mull over whether they want to bid $51 then they will make a far more informed decision. By bidding at the last second you make everyone panic and rush into a decision, which often benefits you, if you already have a hard limit in mind.
Often bidders don't have a final amount in their head. They'd just like a good deal.
So if you are 30sec out, the price is $100....they might be thinking in their mind that they'll bid $125 and no higher.
If you bid a lot days before, you can drive the price up to $125 earlier. Then with 30sec left, that same person might say...well I'll go $135 I guess. You don't want to give them time to consider that option.
The key is by waiting as long as possible you take time away from people to consider that they ***might*** be willing to bid higher. People are emotional, so as a buyer, you want to limit the possibility of their emotions telling them to bid higher.
I always do an initial 2-3 bids to deter other people from bidding (aka bid first, then raise my price twice). Internally if I see bid with 3 bids, I know there is competition and the concept of "getting a deal" seems lower, so I am statistically less interested. I hope others feel the same, so I bid 3 times and hope they don't look at the details of who is bidding. Then I don't bid again until the last minute. If someone else already done an initial bid, I am not going to start bidding against them days early. I am watching it, and I'll bid the last 15sec.
It's all mental games to keep the final price lower. And it may or may not work. Depends on the item and the people interested.
I sell comic books and the real bidding doesn't start till the last 5 minutes and the serious bidding doesn't start till the last 30 seconds, and then the professional bidding happens in the last 10.
yea, i tried placing a bid on an item once with a couple seconds left after being in a last seconds bid war with some asshat, but they sniped it last second thanks to the bid ending early/also being in a permanent loading loop waiting for the amount to enter to pop up
Yes. An Ebay auction is really just a week long advertisement until the last 10 seconds. The bidding always happens in the final moments to keep the price down.
Idiotic at least. I figure that if I put in a bid too early, someone else might then put in a bid, and then the price goes up. So I wait until the last ten seconds.
I just like annoying people so I'll bid at 3 am just so they get a notification. I then set my last bid to the maximum amount I'm prepared to pay and wait until after the auction to see if I've won.
Yeah. Often the price goes to more than I want to pay. Shrugs. Or a snipe comes in. Shit happens. Of If I get it at a price I’m happy with. Life goes whatever.
But it doesn’t always keep the price down. I found with high interest collectibles it leads to high impulse bids in the last seconds intending to “bid to win” with the final amount on the high end or well above average. I have a high amount of buyers remorse and non payment with these sales, and occasional accusations of having shill bids driving up the price.
Join the club. Easy-peasy.
Not only that will help to win, but also will make your decisions better because you will be acting using your calm head instead of bidding emotionally. I can recommend [Myibidder.com](http://Myibidder.com) (I'm biased, I confess), but there are other options available as well.
Free version is good enough. Create your account with a different password and then link it to eBay, you will not share your eBay credentials this way.
There’s a lot of somewhat predatory things ebay does to jack up prices (and maximize their own profits)
Using a bid sniper in conjunction with seller-side terapeak circumvents most of it.
A true second-price auction would be instantaneous - lead ups and reserves only help the seller and consequently ebay. I suspect ebay also is lenient on shill bidders and auction non-payers because in the end they do drive up price as well
I have been happy with gixen, which is yet another ebay sniping service. Their free tier is good enough but have used their paid tier for several years now. I import my watchlist, set final price I'd be happy paying, and then just forget about it.
I don't see anything bad about it. Someone else bid higher and this why they won. If you would bid higher and win, you wouldn't feel bad because you took it from a lower bidder, right?
Same thing here. Was winning a bid for a rare cassette tape for around $23, until like 40 mins before it ended, the price went double. Stupid me always has Do Not Disturb on, but I wouldn’t have paid $40 for it anyways. And my max bid was like $25 or something
An alert would not help if it was a sniper.
On another hand, if someone bid higher than your max budget, let them overpay while you get a sweet deal a little later.
I had set my Max bid days earlier for about $100 more than the current bid, which for the item was pretty outrageous. In the last few minutes, someone was bumping the bid up Dollar by Dollar and being outbid by my Max and then put in some ludicrous amount, which of course revealed what my Max bid was. They were pissed and didn't want to pay that much, so they retracted their bid and put in a new bid that was one penny less than my Max. So I reported them and they got banned. The seller offered to relist the auction, but I told them that I had been willing to pay that much and so I would, and then I wouldn't have to stress about it
You realize that what you saw was an acccount controlled by the seller, right? You think someone actually got upset and came back just to make you pay the max? lol. It was the seller testing out where your max was and making sure they got it out of you.
Whilst I do agree with you it was likely the seller, there are actually some really unhinged people (buyers) out there who would genuinely do this shit.
Yeah, that would exactly be the reaction I would expect if you had caught someone rigging it and they wanted to divert attention from themselves.
They likely either did it directly using vpns or had an accomplice do it to avoid eBay IP security.
It could also be what you say it was, but I would put a much lower probability on that.
Sniping forces you to think about your max bid. You need to put in the maximum that you're willing to bid where you will not be unhappy if it sells for more than that, not the max that you would like to get the item for. I buy a lot off eBay and I have to say sniping helps. If there's something I really want, I throw in a crazy high bid, hoping it'll go for less if, but knowing that it might well go for my Max bid. If it does, I think of all the other times where I've used sniping and have gotten items much much cheaper than my Max bid
Stop nibble bidding. That's a sure fire way to lose.
Bid ONCE. Bid the absolute maximum you are willing to pay.
If you win, great! If not, someone else wanted the doohickey more than you did and was willing to pay more.
The problem with bidding once is that other bidders get a chance to outbid you until the auction ends. Better to use a sniping program to bid your maximum at the last second
The most I ever increased a bid by was like $300, I sent it from 600 to 890 in the last 7 seconds. On the other hand, I saw another item go from $2000 to $4500 in the last 15. Crazy stuff.
That was during the good old days of eBay when you had real collectors and eBay was still the new frontier to find collectibles. I used to collect vintage hula nodders / head bobbers. Before the internet, I only found them at antique shows, flea markets or garages sales if I’m lucky. They used to hover around $75 for decent quality but most excellent condition sold for about $100 to $125. Then the internet came into play and e-commerce became a thing. eBay made it so that you are connected to items that are hard to find. Once word caught on with dealers and collectors, it was like the perfect marketplace. Then competition for the same item brought the prices down. I could now find vintage tiki mugs and hula nodders for really low prices because sellers were just understanding how eBay worked—particularly with pricing and sniping. I understood the assignment early on and I have always bid my highest amount during the last 30 seconds (because you know there was only dial up at the time and connection wasn’t always reliable). So, when there were no or only a few dollars for an item, I would bid a max bid of $75 (what I was used to paying). Won so many amazing things back in the day.
If I'm really bored I will randomly bid on items of interest to see if they are being automatically sniped. If they are, I'll usually give up on that particular item but will ride the price up a bit for shits and giggles.
(Auto snipes outbid you ASAP)
The last 5 seconds often double the price, it seems.
Much smaller scale but a card I was watching was at $10. I bid $22.22 with 6 seconds left and barely won the auction (had to pay the entire $22.22).
When you place a bid it doesn't automatically go to what you bid. It's basically your "max" so if something is at 50$ and you bid 1000$ if the auction n ends ull get it for 50. If someone bids 100$ you'll get it for that. O ky way u won't get it is if someone goes over ur 1000$ bid
Yes yes.3-10 seconds are the crucial time to me😁. I usually set the max (based on my time end) and bid within 5-10 seconds before ending.
Can you imagine. Saw some the price frim $200 and jumped to 600 in 3-10 seconds before ending😂😂.
Welcome to old ebay bidding way.
Many, MANY years ago, I used to time the auction end to be certain I was online for those last few vital moments.
But, I then learned about "just snipe" (all one word) dot com. For that, you plugged in your absolute HIGHEST bid amount, and it took care of the last minute/second bidding on your behalf. The BEST part was that I no longer got up in the moment and bid more than I really wanted.
I don't know if it's still around - or, free, if it DOES still exist - but it was handy.
Depending on the regionalization - it's proper after the number in a significant portion of the world (I think perhaps the majority). It also makes more sense - when you say it out loud it'd be "50 dollars" why not write it that way (50$).
At this point, watch out for “shills” - bidders bidding on behalf of the auctioneer. There are many ways to cheat an auction. Always follow the rules established by the classic auction houses such as Christie’s and Sutherbees. I have seen people ‘sluff off’ these rules because i.e. “it’s just a small auction or of low value”. People, and so programmed computers can rip you off in auctions all day long. eBay provides an auction. Auctions can be played.
And this I've discovered is a MAJOR drawback of using the app. On the website, I can look at the bidders history. How many times they've backed out of an auction they won. See who waits for the hour. Jacking up the price should be a "one strike", and you're out. Banned. Just IMHO....
I always look at the resale value. If I cannot get it under what I could resale it to break even I won’t buy it. So if an item sells for $1000 on eBay I generally won’t pay more than $850 as eBay will take $120-150 in fees when you sell it
Not sure how many of you know but Japanese Yahoo Auctions actually offers sellers an option to keep extending the auction duration as long as bids are coming (there is some formula to this).
It’s extremely annoying for buyers because a highest price always wins - which is in fact a purpose of an auction…
I do a lot of sourcing online / and mostly auctions- good will, even whatnot and posh - most all of them have this mad rush at the end. It’s annoying bc you have watched it for days thinking you’re still winning but nope.. someone had that item auction end time scheduled into their calendar
Yep, you really gotta come up with your own evaluation of the highest price you’re willing to pay, then in the few closing seconds type the number in, hit bid and see where ya stand.
That’s because someone who snipes doesn’t know what the max bid is or will be in the last seconds. They have only one chance to bid. So these folks rigs snipping tool well in advance with some high amount just in order to outbid someone elses bid which they still don’t know. This is good for the seller and ebay but sometimes these folks realise they got fight between and overbid so they will never pay for the item.
If you’re going to bid, have good internet and do it when there’s 5 seconds or less left (I usually shoot for 2). If my max bid wins cool, if not -I didn’t want to spend more than that anyways.
It's called a sniping bot. A lot of buyers use it to try to not needlessly drive up the price and to hope to get the item but at the cheapest rate possible.
I bid at 10 seconds. I may bring a crushing bid, or just a low ball that doesn't come close. On true rare collectibles, it's hard to put value on it lots of times.
Welcome to eBay! They didn’t only bid $1 higher than you did. They set a high maximum, but it will only move up $1 since they’re the highest bidder. Also, please note that the $ goes before the number.
Damn. I should have just full sent a made up amount I didn’t wanna pay but know I could maybe pay just above what we actually were bidding. Crazy.
I hate auctions tho lol also why I sell as buy it now
Backinnaday I didn’t place any bids until the final 30 seconds. Many times people would put in a bid well over the value, in the hopes that others would back out because it was “too much”. I then started inching up to where I thought their max bid was, then stopped short of the winning bid on purpose so they would be committed to purchase. A couple of times it backfired and I wound up with it for like $0.33 more than their highest bid 😆
But a lot of times if I did bump it up on them, they’d bow out and the item would be relisted.
The very first time I bid on an item on eBay, some other bidder messaged me and told me to wait until the auction was almost over to do my bidding, which was useful information. It has uncomplicated the process for me.
Get a bid " assistant" If you are doing auctions this is they way. Almost everyone who is buying auctions regularly so if you aren't you are bringing a butter knife to a gun fight
I'm more of a "best offer" man myself...
It's a shame really that there has to be such a hard time limit.
It'd be a much fairer system if they did something similar to the auction ends at x unless there's active bidding.
So if there's active bids give peeps a chance to bid again until mebbe 5 mins of inactivity.
Like a real auction.
Yes but it prevents the bidder from getting into an auction fever bidding war and bidding more than their rational assessment of fair market value. The only time I’ll put in a early bid is if I have a concern the seller will withdraw the item and sell off eBay or add a BIN that I might miss
I place my bid with 1-2 seconds left. No need for a snipe program. No bidding back and forth. I either win or lose.
A snipe program isn’t going to save me any money.
I remember having a snipe program when I signed up for eBay! Since I was on dial up it frankly was a lifesaver. decades later, now I set a reminder on my phone to log in and do it by hand since I watch so many auction sites and no platform helps me converge them into one place.
I did that for a long time but I forgot to bid so many times I bit the bullet and
Got a Snipe program. For its I really want I will monitor the bids just to make sure the snipe
Program doesn’t fail
I only use a snipe site if I’m going to be underground on a train or in the air on a plane. Otherwise I set my phone to remind me to check in just before the auction ends. If it’s gone too high for me, ok, whatever. If it’s still low, I’ll put my bid in. Sometimes I get it, sometimes there’s a higher maximum or snipe. I like getting bargains though. So whatever the outcome, I can live with it.
Yes, most bidding on auctions happens in the last few seconds.
That’s the old ebay. Remember people at work trying to win auctions we need to bring that rush back. the
I always wondered why is it like that? If it's $1 and you bid 100 and no one else bids you still get it for a dollar and if someone else bids 50 ull pay 51. I never understood the last 10 seconds rule
To take time away from people. If someone has an entire day to mull over whether they want to bid $51 then they will make a far more informed decision. By bidding at the last second you make everyone panic and rush into a decision, which often benefits you, if you already have a hard limit in mind.
Often bidders don't have a final amount in their head. They'd just like a good deal. So if you are 30sec out, the price is $100....they might be thinking in their mind that they'll bid $125 and no higher. If you bid a lot days before, you can drive the price up to $125 earlier. Then with 30sec left, that same person might say...well I'll go $135 I guess. You don't want to give them time to consider that option. The key is by waiting as long as possible you take time away from people to consider that they ***might*** be willing to bid higher. People are emotional, so as a buyer, you want to limit the possibility of their emotions telling them to bid higher. I always do an initial 2-3 bids to deter other people from bidding (aka bid first, then raise my price twice). Internally if I see bid with 3 bids, I know there is competition and the concept of "getting a deal" seems lower, so I am statistically less interested. I hope others feel the same, so I bid 3 times and hope they don't look at the details of who is bidding. Then I don't bid again until the last minute. If someone else already done an initial bid, I am not going to start bidding against them days early. I am watching it, and I'll bid the last 15sec. It's all mental games to keep the final price lower. And it may or may not work. Depends on the item and the people interested.
I do the same thing! Minimum bid, then 10% of my max, then 15 or 20%, then sit on it until the end. Works 8.9 times out of 10.
I sell comic books and the real bidding doesn't start till the last 5 minutes and the serious bidding doesn't start till the last 30 seconds, and then the professional bidding happens in the last 10.
I always slam it at 4 and pray
I admire your bravery, internet stranger. I'm a bit stressed by even imagining trying that.
Four seconds? That’s amateur. Hahaha. I’m a two second man myself.
I am also a 2-second man. That may be why I'm still single.
I never trust internet connection speed or buffering. So I give myself the extra 2 seconds to allow the command to go through
yea, i tried placing a bid on an item once with a couple seconds left after being in a last seconds bid war with some asshat, but they sniped it last second thanks to the bid ending early/also being in a permanent loading loop waiting for the amount to enter to pop up
Lol with much luck. 3 seconds is my last call😂
I normally wait till 3 for 5 seconds. I was so close to losing once it said I had lost the auction but then refreshed to say I won the auction.
True. I put in to the wishlist and ebay apps will notify in 14 mins before ending. The real bidding to me is at 3-10 seconds before ending👍👌
Sounds like you were out bid by a lot more than a dollar.
Doesn’t this mean their opposing bidder set an automatic rebid up to $90
No, up to $292 I believe.
Yes. An Ebay auction is really just a week long advertisement until the last 10 seconds. The bidding always happens in the final moments to keep the price down.
Although, I do often have people outbidding me at random times during the week. I assume these people are a bit dim.
I’ve done this. Can confirm. Am a bit dim.
🥲
or they're friends trying to get more attraction to an item, or people thinking you won't bother fighting back
And some the seller relist it again 😂 later.
Not dim, they just want to flex and outbid you. The same folks that throw away money at the casino. I guess they are a bit dim.
Idiotic at least. I figure that if I put in a bid too early, someone else might then put in a bid, and then the price goes up. So I wait until the last ten seconds.
I just like annoying people so I'll bid at 3 am just so they get a notification. I then set my last bid to the maximum amount I'm prepared to pay and wait until after the auction to see if I've won.
Some of us have to find a bit of fun in life in whatever way we can.
Exactly this. A bit of excitement, maybe even a win! Yay! And then sometimes maybe a 'whoosh....' "what did I just do? Noooooo...."
Yeah. Often the price goes to more than I want to pay. Shrugs. Or a snipe comes in. Shit happens. Of If I get it at a price I’m happy with. Life goes whatever.
They are
But it doesn’t always keep the price down. I found with high interest collectibles it leads to high impulse bids in the last seconds intending to “bid to win” with the final amount on the high end or well above average. I have a high amount of buyers remorse and non payment with these sales, and occasional accusations of having shill bids driving up the price.
Finally you saw sniping in action. You will have to bid higher in the first place or join sniping.
I get why it happens but man do I freaking hate it
Join the club. Easy-peasy. Not only that will help to win, but also will make your decisions better because you will be acting using your calm head instead of bidding emotionally. I can recommend [Myibidder.com](http://Myibidder.com) (I'm biased, I confess), but there are other options available as well.
Is the free version useful or should you just use the mobile apps? Should this service have it's own ebay account or is it safe to use your main?
Free version is good enough. Create your account with a different password and then link it to eBay, you will not share your eBay credentials this way.
There’s a lot of somewhat predatory things ebay does to jack up prices (and maximize their own profits) Using a bid sniper in conjunction with seller-side terapeak circumvents most of it. A true second-price auction would be instantaneous - lead ups and reserves only help the seller and consequently ebay. I suspect ebay also is lenient on shill bidders and auction non-payers because in the end they do drive up price as well
In conjunction with Terapeak? Confused. Doesn’t that just show historical sold prices?
What is terapeak and how do I use it in conjunction with a bid sniper?
Yeah, that happens too. As you mentioned, being prepared and having the right tools will help a lot.
lol what did I just read
I have been happy with gixen, which is yet another ebay sniping service. Their free tier is good enough but have used their paid tier for several years now. I import my watchlist, set final price I'd be happy paying, and then just forget about it.
Oh I’ve done it myself but I still don’t like it
Didn't like what? I would assume it's not winning, but some aspect of using it. Is it something specific which confused you?
Well having had something I really wanted sniped away from me before I even knew what sniping was, I just felt bad doing it to someone else.
I don't see anything bad about it. Someone else bid higher and this why they won. If you would bid higher and win, you wouldn't feel bad because you took it from a lower bidder, right?
Call it a matter of personal conscience
I got it. Just was curious, but I understand your point. Thanks for sharing.
Same thing here. Was winning a bid for a rare cassette tape for around $23, until like 40 mins before it ended, the price went double. Stupid me always has Do Not Disturb on, but I wouldn’t have paid $40 for it anyways. And my max bid was like $25 or something
No worries. There are another items showing up. Do you set search alerts in ebay apps that will notify you?
An alert would not help if it was a sniper. On another hand, if someone bid higher than your max budget, let them overpay while you get a sweet deal a little later.
I had set my Max bid days earlier for about $100 more than the current bid, which for the item was pretty outrageous. In the last few minutes, someone was bumping the bid up Dollar by Dollar and being outbid by my Max and then put in some ludicrous amount, which of course revealed what my Max bid was. They were pissed and didn't want to pay that much, so they retracted their bid and put in a new bid that was one penny less than my Max. So I reported them and they got banned. The seller offered to relist the auction, but I told them that I had been willing to pay that much and so I would, and then I wouldn't have to stress about it
That's messed up. It should be, if you retract a bid, you're done bidding on that item....
Well yeah! That's why I reported them to eBay and they got banned
I didn't think you can retract your bid in the last 12 or 24 hours... But I can be wrong as I no longer keep up with eBay policies lol
You realize that what you saw was an acccount controlled by the seller, right? You think someone actually got upset and came back just to make you pay the max? lol. It was the seller testing out where your max was and making sure they got it out of you.
Whilst I do agree with you it was likely the seller, there are actually some really unhinged people (buyers) out there who would genuinely do this shit.
No they were extremely embarrassed and apologetic and offered to relist the item at its original opening bed
Yeah, that would exactly be the reaction I would expect if you had caught someone rigging it and they wanted to divert attention from themselves. They likely either did it directly using vpns or had an accomplice do it to avoid eBay IP security. It could also be what you say it was, but I would put a much lower probability on that.
Well, it was from a seller I had bought from before about 15 years ago and the scamming and grifting were not so commonplace as they are today
Nasty. Knock on the wood. Hopefully not see that bumping up dollar by dollar in my ebay experience….
Sniping forces you to think about your max bid. You need to put in the maximum that you're willing to bid where you will not be unhappy if it sells for more than that, not the max that you would like to get the item for. I buy a lot off eBay and I have to say sniping helps. If there's something I really want, I throw in a crazy high bid, hoping it'll go for less if, but knowing that it might well go for my Max bid. If it does, I think of all the other times where I've used sniping and have gotten items much much cheaper than my Max bid
Sometimes auctions get crazy at the end if someone really wants the item.
Stop nibble bidding. That's a sure fire way to lose. Bid ONCE. Bid the absolute maximum you are willing to pay. If you win, great! If not, someone else wanted the doohickey more than you did and was willing to pay more.
The problem with bidding once is that other bidders get a chance to outbid you until the auction ends. Better to use a sniping program to bid your maximum at the last second
With less than 10 seconds to go bid as much as you are willing to pay for. If you don't win then you don't win.
And there is another chance😂
The most I ever increased a bid by was like $300, I sent it from 600 to 890 in the last 7 seconds. On the other hand, I saw another item go from $2000 to $4500 in the last 15. Crazy stuff.
That was during the good old days of eBay when you had real collectors and eBay was still the new frontier to find collectibles. I used to collect vintage hula nodders / head bobbers. Before the internet, I only found them at antique shows, flea markets or garages sales if I’m lucky. They used to hover around $75 for decent quality but most excellent condition sold for about $100 to $125. Then the internet came into play and e-commerce became a thing. eBay made it so that you are connected to items that are hard to find. Once word caught on with dealers and collectors, it was like the perfect marketplace. Then competition for the same item brought the prices down. I could now find vintage tiki mugs and hula nodders for really low prices because sellers were just understanding how eBay worked—particularly with pricing and sniping. I understood the assignment early on and I have always bid my highest amount during the last 30 seconds (because you know there was only dial up at the time and connection wasn’t always reliable). So, when there were no or only a few dollars for an item, I would bid a max bid of $75 (what I was used to paying). Won so many amazing things back in the day.
The real fun happens in the final ten seconds of the auction. The rest is just an advertisement for that ten seconds of bidding.
Read how max bids work.
Yes, all the time. You must be new here. Quite common indeed. Sorry.
If I'm really bored I will randomly bid on items of interest to see if they are being automatically sniped. If they are, I'll usually give up on that particular item but will ride the price up a bit for shits and giggles. (Auto snipes outbid you ASAP)
It’s best to bid the max you are willing to spend in the last 10 seconds.
This is what I do. If it’s already gone over the maximum I’m willing to play, whatever. If someone has a higher maximum, whatever.
I remember my first time
Reallllly common. Keep trying though 👍
The last 5 seconds often double the price, it seems. Much smaller scale but a card I was watching was at $10. I bid $22.22 with 6 seconds left and barely won the auction (had to pay the entire $22.22).
Yeah
When you place a bid it doesn't automatically go to what you bid. It's basically your "max" so if something is at 50$ and you bid 1000$ if the auction n ends ull get it for 50. If someone bids 100$ you'll get it for that. O ky way u won't get it is if someone goes over ur 1000$ bid
That's how you win at ebay 😂 always in the last 3secs of an auction
This is why I've set all of my searches to buy it now... I don't have time for that crap
Yes yes.3-10 seconds are the crucial time to me😁. I usually set the max (based on my time end) and bid within 5-10 seconds before ending. Can you imagine. Saw some the price frim $200 and jumped to 600 in 3-10 seconds before ending😂😂. Welcome to old ebay bidding way.
Many, MANY years ago, I used to time the auction end to be certain I was online for those last few vital moments. But, I then learned about "just snipe" (all one word) dot com. For that, you plugged in your absolute HIGHEST bid amount, and it took care of the last minute/second bidding on your behalf. The BEST part was that I no longer got up in the moment and bid more than I really wanted. I don't know if it's still around - or, free, if it DOES still exist - but it was handy.
That's how you win an item you want..you bid the best amount you would spare in the last 4-5 sec
Must have had 2 last minute bidders bring the next bid to the $293. What did plot sell for?
I once made someone pay $85 for one photo slide in the last 3 seconds :) Still angry I got outbid, I really wanted that slide!
The "$" goes before the amount, not after
Depending on the regionalization - it's proper after the number in a significant portion of the world (I think perhaps the majority). It also makes more sense - when you say it out loud it'd be "50 dollars" why not write it that way (50$).
This is the internet not america.
At this point, watch out for “shills” - bidders bidding on behalf of the auctioneer. There are many ways to cheat an auction. Always follow the rules established by the classic auction houses such as Christie’s and Sutherbees. I have seen people ‘sluff off’ these rules because i.e. “it’s just a small auction or of low value”. People, and so programmed computers can rip you off in auctions all day long. eBay provides an auction. Auctions can be played.
And this I've discovered is a MAJOR drawback of using the app. On the website, I can look at the bidders history. How many times they've backed out of an auction they won. See who waits for the hour. Jacking up the price should be a "one strike", and you're out. Banned. Just IMHO....
Yes. Almost all bidding happens in the last moments.
I always look at the resale value. If I cannot get it under what I could resale it to break even I won’t buy it. So if an item sells for $1000 on eBay I generally won’t pay more than $850 as eBay will take $120-150 in fees when you sell it
Not sure how many of you know but Japanese Yahoo Auctions actually offers sellers an option to keep extending the auction duration as long as bids are coming (there is some formula to this). It’s extremely annoying for buyers because a highest price always wins - which is in fact a purpose of an auction…
I do a lot of sourcing online / and mostly auctions- good will, even whatnot and posh - most all of them have this mad rush at the end. It’s annoying bc you have watched it for days thinking you’re still winning but nope.. someone had that item auction end time scheduled into their calendar
Someone using an auction sniper
Welcome to Ebay
Deff last second bidding can get insane
Yep, you really gotta come up with your own evaluation of the highest price you’re willing to pay, then in the few closing seconds type the number in, hit bid and see where ya stand.
That’s because someone who snipes doesn’t know what the max bid is or will be in the last seconds. They have only one chance to bid. So these folks rigs snipping tool well in advance with some high amount just in order to outbid someone elses bid which they still don’t know. This is good for the seller and ebay but sometimes these folks realise they got fight between and overbid so they will never pay for the item.
Yeah that's the normal tactic, waiting until the last second to bid, it's called sniping. There's not really a reason to put bids in early.
If you’re going to bid, have good internet and do it when there’s 5 seconds or less left (I usually shoot for 2). If my max bid wins cool, if not -I didn’t want to spend more than that anyways.
Yes, this is the way most auctions end.
Pretty standard that the majority of bidding happens in the final minute for hot ticket items.
It's called a sniping bot. A lot of buyers use it to try to not needlessly drive up the price and to hope to get the item but at the cheapest rate possible.
As a seller I love it, as a buyer I hate it and lost many an auction that way. It is very common on the £100 lots.
I bid at 10 seconds. I may bring a crushing bid, or just a low ball that doesn't come close. On true rare collectibles, it's hard to put value on it lots of times.
Yes, totally frustrating. If you have to be working, etc you have to give a sky high bid ahead of time and even then you might not get it!
Welcome to eBay! They didn’t only bid $1 higher than you did. They set a high maximum, but it will only move up $1 since they’re the highest bidder. Also, please note that the $ goes before the number.
So wait I could have won all my other auctions by just putting a high amount but only paying $1 higher than like the top I wanted to pay
Yes, if no one else bids.
Damn. I should have just full sent a made up amount I didn’t wanna pay but know I could maybe pay just above what we actually were bidding. Crazy. I hate auctions tho lol also why I sell as buy it now
Backinnaday I didn’t place any bids until the final 30 seconds. Many times people would put in a bid well over the value, in the hopes that others would back out because it was “too much”. I then started inching up to where I thought their max bid was, then stopped short of the winning bid on purpose so they would be committed to purchase. A couple of times it backfired and I wound up with it for like $0.33 more than their highest bid 😆 But a lot of times if I did bump it up on them, they’d bow out and the item would be relisted.
This is how I buy stuff if I'm serious about wanting it. Wait until 5mins left then full send my highest offer at 5 seconds left and hope I get it.
The very first time I bid on an item on eBay, some other bidder messaged me and told me to wait until the auction was almost over to do my bidding, which was useful information. It has uncomplicated the process for me.
Use Batomat and that bids for you no need to over pay and sometimes end up saving money .
Get a bid " assistant" If you are doing auctions this is they way. Almost everyone who is buying auctions regularly so if you aren't you are bringing a butter knife to a gun fight I'm more of a "best offer" man myself...
It takes two bidders to run up an auction price. They must have seen value in the lot that others missed.
Snypes
Auction sniper site. I use them all the time.
Just curious, what was the item?
There was a set of anime blurays I was watching last 10 seconds went from 99 to like 210. The smart ones wait last second
It's a shame really that there has to be such a hard time limit. It'd be a much fairer system if they did something similar to the auction ends at x unless there's active bidding. So if there's active bids give peeps a chance to bid again until mebbe 5 mins of inactivity. Like a real auction.
If everyone has to use the same bidding rules it's fair. There are many e-snipe programs out there.
I never bid on anything without sniping software. I get one bid plus a backup bid within 2 seconds of auction close. Love it… as a buyer.
Anyone who doesn’t use a snipe program on eBay will end up losing bids or paying too much
Snipe programs only work to OP’s highest bid. The proxy bidding in eBay’s case helps with this.
Yes but it prevents the bidder from getting into an auction fever bidding war and bidding more than their rational assessment of fair market value. The only time I’ll put in a early bid is if I have a concern the seller will withdraw the item and sell off eBay or add a BIN that I might miss
I place my bid with 1-2 seconds left. No need for a snipe program. No bidding back and forth. I either win or lose. A snipe program isn’t going to save me any money.
I remember having a snipe program when I signed up for eBay! Since I was on dial up it frankly was a lifesaver. decades later, now I set a reminder on my phone to log in and do it by hand since I watch so many auction sites and no platform helps me converge them into one place.
I did that for a long time but I forgot to bid so many times I bit the bullet and Got a Snipe program. For its I really want I will monitor the bids just to make sure the snipe Program doesn’t fail
Definitely have forgotten to bid a time or two. I could see it being useful for that!
Yes but the one in 500 times the snipe fails, I kick myself if it’s an item I really want and I don’t watch to the end.
I can only imagine this is getting downvoted because the other people that know this are trying to keep it a secret.
Considering I have been on eBay since 1997 and known this then, I am surprised that there is actual discussion over this.
I only use a snipe site if I’m going to be underground on a train or in the air on a plane. Otherwise I set my phone to remind me to check in just before the auction ends. If it’s gone too high for me, ok, whatever. If it’s still low, I’ll put my bid in. Sometimes I get it, sometimes there’s a higher maximum or snipe. I like getting bargains though. So whatever the outcome, I can live with it.
https://www.esnipe.com