Ebay -- I don't understand!!!

[joelippard]

I need to rant! I was bidding this evening on a vintage fan on ebay, as I have done before. I had the high bid and it was counting down the seconds. I suspected that others were watching as well. I kept refreshing the screen, it counted down to the last second with no notification that someone else had bid. After the last second I refreshed the screen to find out that I had lost by $1. I was so damn mad! What gives with these guys? I was prepared to bid more if I needed to.

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Joe -

It is a common practice for people to bid at the last moment. The thinking behind this is to prevent bidding up the price during the bulk of the auction.

I have had the same reaction as you on things, so I have learned to either join others in last minute bidding on larger ticket items (I have bought a couple Mustangs on ebay) but on other items I just decide what it's really worth to me, put that as my max bid, and let it go.

My advice is that if you were prepared to pay more, you need to enter whatever that amount is up front as your max bid. Ebay won't bid you up that high unless it has to.

Good luck next time!

Gordon

 

[whirlcool]

The winner was probably using a automatic bidding software package. You enter your bid and how many seconds you want to submit the bid at and just let it do it's thing when the auction ends. Usually these bid a 5-1 seconds before the auction ends.

Another thing, they could have bid a lot more than you did, but the increment was $1.00 and they beat you.

I have lost an item based on cents! I had this happen to me once. I bid $10.51 on an item and the winner bid $10.36 cents. The explanation I received was "your bid was not large enough to make it to the next bid increment".

 

[launderess]

I Feel Your Pain

Last week went to bid, ok snipe on an item but after setting things up became distracted. Anyway with just 20 seconds left to bid pulled the trigger, however got a message from eBay saying the auction had ended. Did not want the item badly so went about my day and give it no further thought.

Later when checking my email got a message saying I won the above item! Sure enough logged back onto eBay and checked my account and the bid sent with less than 30 seconds snuck in under the wire.

While automatic bidding software is handy, IMHO since most everyone has DSL or other sort of high speed connection (we have DSL), one can bid with less than one minute left and still get the item. Have seen and done bids with less than 45 seconds left, and won the item.

Find the only time one bids on something up front is if one does not really care one way or the other, and am willing to bet many others do as well. There are some who do truly want an item and place their bids upfront, but you can see how that often works out.

With the right high speed connection, bids can be placed with only five seconds remaining. High speed Internet connections have become much more reliable these days as well. Little down time and less hanging than in the past.

L.

 

[petek]

Unfortunate but it is an auction after all and sniping programs have nothing to do with it.. if you wanted the fan bad enough then you have to be prepared to put in your maximum bid. People blame sniping programs but you have to be realistic, most people using them aren't going to have them set to bid continuously up.. even they set a maximum bid on their program so if your maxi bid is higher you will win the item.

 

[joelippard]

Well,

I did set it at the point I was willing to pay for it. My connection is fast enough to sneak in with 3 seconds left (I know this because I have done it). My issue was that the site showed that I was winning up until one second and did not notify me that I had been outbid. I was counting down in realtime by the second. I wasn't willing to bid $20 more, because I didn't have to have it, but with one dollar and no notification it just pissed me off.

 

[launderess]

It isn't that the winning bid was only one dollar, just that one dollar was the next increment up from your highest bid. The person could have put in a bid of over 5K, and all you would see is the one dollar higher winning bid.

As to the notice, or lack thereof, check your Internet browser to make sure refreshing always gives a new page, not one stored in your cache. Also as I mentioned upthread, eBay's system can be a bit wacky at times. I won an auction the system told me was ended, go figure.

 

[perc-o-prince]

" I was prepared to bid more if I needed to."

Then you SHOULD have!!! Sorry to sound insensitive but I have been in your shoes and I had nobody to blame but ME! I should have, would have, could have....but DIDN'T. Shame on me.

To possibly make you feel better (This is what I rationalize it with) you may not have won it for even $20 more. The person who outbid you and won may have bid $100+ than what it went off for. This is the name of the game. You takes your chances. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. It's just material

Good luck next time!!!

Rich

 

[supremewhirlpol]

I think the sniping can be annoying, especially if you don't use them. I don't use them and on items the are very popular or very sought after, I do loose those auctions and it does suck. I don't know that much about sniping programs to actually use them, but I would think that if it is an online service, you would have to pay a fee to use it as well. I try to avoid paying extra fees when buying things. That's my 2 cents worth.

 

[travis]

Joe, What good would outbid notice done you if you were winning so close to auction time. You can only enter a new bid so fast. Bidding at the end of the auction can be risky, you sometimes run out of time.

You have to bid the maximumum that you're willing to pay. You can always update that amount before the auction ends if you decide you have to have it.

I sometimes put a bid on an item as a reminder to myself to go back and watch. If I want the item, I will manually snipe at the end of the auction. If I don't really care if I win, I might just bid and see if I win.

Most collectable items have a sniper waiting in the wings. You might as well enter your maximum bid and wait and see. My problem is that I rarely can decide what I am willing to pay. As much as we want whatever it is, someone's going to have to clean out or houses and wonder why we all collected all this stuff.

 

[joelippard]

Yeah

I more or less wanted to rant about it, it really ticked me off because I am usually the one who does the sniping at the end. Like I said, I felt mislead by the site, whoever it was must have got me on the last second. I have two more of these fans and one for parts, they don't show up real often so I thought another might be nice should one of mine become beyond repair. Anyhow, there's always other things that pop up from time to time and I wasn't will to pay what I did for my first two. This one pictured here went for $400.00 and I was the winner.

 

[qsd-dan]

Well, at least you don't have buyers remorse after being caught up in the moment and bidding far too much. Been there, done that a couple of times.

A little tip about bidding on Ebay auctions. Open 2 windows, and use one window for the biding and the other for monitoring/refreshing. I learned this trick over 11 years ago.

 

[estesguy]

Sorry, but sniping works....

I agree with Dan. I open 2 windows, place my bid in one, and refresh the other. Then 10 seconds before the end of the auction, I pull the trigger. I put in the maximum amount I am willing to pay for the item, and if I lose it, I lose it. I figure this is a win/win for me. It keeps the item from being bid up during the auction, and keeps someone else from getting " bidder fever" and running up the price. If I lose the bid, you have to look at it from the point it was more than I was willing to pay, and so be it. I have never won an auction where I have NOT bid at the last moment. Someone always overbids me. So I bid at the very end everytime.

 

[ronhic]

I confess....I'm a sniper

I have played the bidding game and I have sat back and watched only to have items I dearly wanted 'go' from under me so now I snipe.

The cost is minimal, but the knowledge that it works most of the time is good comfort when losing something you sorely want is a possible outcome if you do not.

Now some of you may say that 'it isn't fair' or 'I'm not going to pay for something like that', which is your call, but just be aware that others ARE using it and winning auctions that you may be losing. The only way to level the playing field again is to use a programme/methodology such as this.

http://www.auctionsniper.com/payment.aspx

 

[charbee]

Always wait until the very last three seconds and think to yourself: "What would a SANE person pay for this?" and then add five bucks to it and GO FOR IT!

 

[supersuds]

Auctionstealer.com allows 3 free snipe bids a week.

I've bid on things early when not sniping and had nasty surprises when I won!

 

[mixfinder]

Pete's the one I agree with

In the earliest ebay days, I would bid until an item closed, sometimes winning and sometimes losing. On several occasions I have let my testicles get in the way and bid out of anger against someone I didn't like. Decodan and I bid up to 137.00 once on a 4C before I backed out. I emailed the seller and told him he could thank me for how high it went. In the end, the answer for me is to decide before I ever enter a bid what the maximum is I will pay. I enter that amount and then never look back. Snipers make my butt suck lemons, just like people who don't enter the merge and then speed forward to force their way in a line traffic. If I was still bidding and it happened, rest assured my testicles would be pounding on the bid key.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Supersuds... Nasty surprises? Please, do tell. I'm new at this sniping thing and I may give it a try next time I decide to bid on something like a Roland D50 or Korg T3.

 

[supersuds]

Lol, I just meant that I've bid on things I was lukewarm about, so I wouldn't just forget, and then nobody else bid. People talk about the one that got away, but what about all the junk that didn't? Anyway...

The advantage of sniping, in my view, is that it eliminates any possibility of getting in a ego war with another bidder. We've all done that. I am not going to ever do that last minute manual bidding again because I either overpay, or am just a fraction too slow and miss out, or I forget about it entirely until the auction is over. Snipe it and forget it. The snipe programs let you know if your maximum bid has been exceeded, by the way, so you can change it if you want.

Also, people naturally pay more attention to items that have bids than items with zero bids. We all want what other people want, much more than something that is going begging. I think it has benefited me NOT to draw attention to an item I have an eye on -- no way of proving it for sure, but sometimes it can be an edge. It just takes ONE competitor to drive prices up.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

I see, thanks for the info

 

[mattl]

I ONLY bid with a sniper. I know what I"m willing to pay and that's it. I'm not about to get caught up in the last minute bidding war, I did that once or twice and will never again do that. I buy a fair amount on ebay, and am able to find what I consider bargains.

One question I've never bothered to check on is, does the status of first or earliest bidder have any effect on the outcome? I seem to recall reading or hearing that if two bid at the end were for the same amount the person who was the earliest bidder get the item. I have a number of searches set up on ebay and when i see something I think I might want I try to put the first bid in, always very low just to get on the list. Can anyone clarify the effect of the earliest bid has on an auction?

 

[whirlcool]

Anyone remember Ebay's early slogan "Bid Early and Bid Often!"
What a way to drive up the price! Lots of time early bidders are the newbees.

 

[supersuds]

"I seem to recall reading or hearing that if two bid at the end were for the same amount the person who was the earliest bidder get the item."

I think that is true, so I always bid an odd amount, such as $30.07 or $30.03, rather than $30.00, for example.

 

[perc-o-prince]

Bid Early and Bid Often

Otherwise known as sucker bidding!

There are good reasons NOT to bid early. Here are two:

1) You instigate others to bid higher, earlier. If you wait until the end, they don't have time to outbid you when they see your higher bid.

2) If you're known in the X collecting community to bid on X, they can track what you're bidding on. What if you found an X because the main word was spelled incorrectly (i.e. typewritter instead of typewriter)? Maybe the other collectors wouldn't have found it, but because you did, and bid early, now they see it too!

MattL: Regarding your early bid question, if two bidders enter the exact same amount, the earlier bidder will prevail whether they bid on the first day of the auction or the last. However, if you are not the earlier bidder and you bid the same amount, you will immediately see that you were "outbid," so to speak, and can bid again. When you see the high bid is the same as yours, you'll know you only need to go one increment higher to beat them.

Remember, if you place a bid that does not exceed the existing bid plus the designated bid increment, you'll be told the bid does not meet the increment requirements, as in Allen's example above. Say the increment is $0.25. You see the bid is at $10.00. You want to bid $11.25. During the few seconds between you seeing the "last" bid and bidding, someone else places a bid of $11.01. Your bid will be rejected, because the minimum acceptable bid after $11.01 would be $11.26. At this level it sounds a little ridiculous, but I've seen this happen on eBay in the four-figures range!

Now, Say someone bid $13.26 on an item with a $9.99 opening bid, and the bid increments were $0.25. It would show a $9.99 bid. If you bid $12.99, they would be high at $13.24. If you bid between $13.01 and $13.26, they would be high at $13.26. Since the increment they were high at was less than $0.25, you'd know their highest bid was reached, and could bid one more increment. However, if the high bid was still $9.99 when you bid, and you bid $13.27 or more, you'd be high. Your bid beat the $0.25 requirement for the current high bid of $9.99. You don't need to beat their highest entered bid ($13.26) by a full bid increment if you've beat the high bid shown ($9.99) by the increment.

So, a secret I use is to always bid a few cents above an increment. For example, instead of placing a high bid of, say, $22.99, I'll bid above that bid to $23.01 or $23.03. Lots of people bid $XX.99 or $XX.00. Just a couple of pennies can make a big difference, as other members have seen!

Good luck,
Chuck