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Using ebay, I've bid on a couple of items and noticed that eg an item may have 3 bids, the top bid being £10. I submit a bid of £12 and am told immediately I have been outbid. I then do a couple of other bids, same reply and now I see there have been 6 bids and the price has risen. Is there a trick going on to raise the price by getting me to bid against myself?
If someone has left a maximum bid of, say, 20 pounds then every time you bid ebay will automatcally up the other bidder's bids and inform you. At a certain moment you will place a higher bid, if indeed you keep bidding.
How about when an item has no bids, you place an opening bid and within seconds are told that you have been outbid?
Its happened to me a number or times.
So, if purely by coincidence someone else is placing their bid seconds after you then fair enough - however its happened too me too often to be coincidence. On each occasion the seller has been a dealer.
I am wondering whether there is some kind of programme that allows the seller to monitor an item and then beat any bids placed up to a pre-set amount.
There is never[*] any point in placing a bid on an eBay item before the final seconds of that auction - otherwise you give other people (whether the seller themself - where it's called shill bidding, and is illegal - or another user) an opportunity to decide to outbid you.
The three basic rules for placing a bid on eBay are:
- Bid once, and once only, on any auction
- Bid the maximum you would be happy to pay
- Bid as late as possible
[*] If you understand the concept of BIN Stomping, then you know enough to devise your own bidding strategy.
This. Plus the forth rule is always use a Sniping App to bid for you right at the last minute - I use "Mybidder Auction Sniper for Ebay" on Andriod. It'll do all the work for you and can bid 3 seconds before the end so no-one else will have time to react before the auction finishes.Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilipK
Well apart from anyone else using the app, which is probably about 100000000 people ?Quote:
Originally Posted by watchcollector1
I don't know what BIN Stomping is, but otherwise, totally agree. I assume sniping apps are in use, so assume I will only get the chance to bid once, doing it within the last 10 secs. I also often bid MORE than I would be happy to pay, taking a wild guess at a limit that the competition would NOT be happy to pay. More often (a lot more) than not, I end up paying what I am happy to pay, or less.Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilipK
Yes of course another sniper may have bid higher anyway but the point is no-one else will see my bid before it's too late to react. If you try to bid manually at the end you risk being too early so that your bid is visible in time for others react and bid higher than they would have otherwise done in order to beat you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Franky Four Fingers
You wouldn't show your cards early if you were playing poker would you?
The other advantage of using sniping software is that you can cancel the snipe if you change your mind without ever actually bidding.
I don't play poker so the analogy is wasted on me but I was commenting on the bit about no one else having time to react, no one else having time to react apart from anyone else who has the app which kind of makes it pointless surely?Quote:
Originally Posted by watchcollector1
The other people using the app wont know what I've bid either until it's too late so they wont be able to react if their snipe bid is lower than mine. The psychology of auctions is that people get caught up in the bidding process and have to make quick decisions on whether to increase their maximum bid above what they were originally comfortable with or miss out on the item. If you don't reveal your bid you don't give other bidders that chance to change their bid after yours (whether they are using a sniping app or not).Quote:
Originally Posted by Franky Four Fingers
Using a sniper app isn't pointless because it puts you at an advantage over anyone who doesn't use a sniper (and there are plenty who don't) and you are also therefore not at a disadvantage to other snipers.
Bidding earlier (manually) than you need to on an ebay auction is completely pointless - all you are doing is pushing the price up and unless you've bid quite a way over the odds you are going to get outbid on most occasions.
Using a sniper app isn't pointless because it puts you at an advantage over anyone who doesn't use a sniper (and there are plenty who don't) and you are also therefore not at a disadvantage to other snipers.
If you were all to have snipers then it simply boils down to who had placed the highest bid, the same as a normal auction if everyone didn't have a sniper. Which reverts me back to my original statement of saying that they're pointless. If someone has a higher bid than you and doesn't use a sniper it's pointless. if someone has a higher bid than you and has a sniper it's pointless. I assume that if someone has the same bid as you and you both have snipers it boils down to whos sniper is the quickest which is again pointless. The only time it's worthwhile is that if you have a highest bid and use the sniper, in which case you might of just aswell done a stupid high bid if you really wanted the item. It seems it's got nothing to do with reaction times but moreover the value you place on the item?
Thanks for the info - I guessed it was a sniping tactic. I just have a max bid and stop.
I'm assuming you haven't followed many ebay auctions? It's very rare that an early bid ever wins unless it's over the odds or the only bid. To have a good chance of winning you need to bid at the end - most users know that. Auctions that finish at the wrong time (like the middle of the night) usually achieve a lower price.Quote:
Originally Posted by Franky Four Fingers
If everyone uses a sniper it effectively becomes a sealed bid process and in those circumstances you'd be pretty silly to reveal your bid before you need to as you're telling everyone else what they need to bid to beat you.
You're assuming that no one will increase their maximum bid if they realised that someone else has bid higher. Like I said it's the psychology of auctions - in the heat of the moment some bidders will go above their original limit to win the item. After you reveal your bid someone may outdid you by a very small increment just to beat you and it may be too late for you to react.
If everyone used a sniper final auction prices may be lower in the long run. And it's much more convenient to use a sniper anyway as it does all the work for you.
Apologies for some duplication of the reply above, which was posted while I was writing virtually the same thing....
I agree that bid snipers are a very valuable tool, as it completely removes the emotional aspect of an open auction.
It is well known that if an existing bidder is outbid and has time to rethink their position, they will very often increase their maximum bid higher than before to avoid being 'outdone'. It is just human psychology.
Even if every bidder used a bid sniper, it essentially changes the open auction into a 'sealed bids' auction, but instead of paying your maximum bid (as would be the case in a sealed bid auction), you just pay the next bid increment above the next lowest bidder.
You also have the facility to group items that you want to purchase, so that it just keeps bidding on similar items for you until it wins one of them and then stops. Set it and forget it.