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.
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.
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.
You wouldn't show your cards early if you were playing poker would you?
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.