eBay - Sniping

I buy & sell now and again on eBay and over the past six months have noticed a trend towards more & more very late bidding, I'm sure by folks using sniping software. I have a few items that have been up for sale for about a week and will close tomorrow – I suspect in a great crescendo of last minute bids. There are a couple Jaguar electrical parts – two with one bid each – but one item has 8 “watchers” and the other 7 watchers. Another part has 4 bids and 14 watchers. An aircraft clock has 11 bids and 20 watching. I'm guessing that most of the watchers are planning to snipe within the last few minutes.

I wonder how many bids eBay can process on one item in the last 10 seconds. Does anyone NOT snipe these days?

Ebay bidding is like a basketball game. It's the last few seconds that count. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

I second. I don't have any "snipe-ware" programs, but why on earth would I bid on something till the last moment when all It's going to do is drive the price up.
I think you're just seeing a trend of people wising up to how an auction really works.
I usually wait till the auction is under 2 min, then throw in my proxy bid. that way I'm either gonna get it, or I'm not gonna have time to get excited and spend more than I wanted by raising my limit.

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I second. I don't have any "snipe-ware" programs, but why on earth would I bid on something till the last moment when all It's going to do is drive the price up.
I think you're just seeing a trend of people wising up to how an auction really works.
I usually wait till the auction is under 2 min, then throw in my proxy bid. that way I'm either gonna get it, or I'm not gonna have time to get excited and spend more than I wanted by raising my limit.

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/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/iagree.gif Best way to go....I've sold a few things myself and whether it's a $2.00 part or a $20,000 vette there is always snipers.....

Yep, https://www.esnipe.com

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I don't have any "snipe-ware" programs, but why on earth would I bid on something till the last moment when all It's going to do is drive the price up. I think you're just seeing a trend of people wising up to how an auction really works.

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esnipe.....Hmmmm! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

I don't know if this is true for alot of people, but I watch alot of items that I don't intend to buy...at least not now. I just want to see how they wind up for later reference or just curiosity, or I may be watching several auctions for the same item. When I do buy, I wait to see how things are going, and maybe sometime within the last day, I bid what I'm willing to pay. If I get it OK if not, another one will show up sooner or later. If the "buy it now" price is something I can live with, I don't mess around. I just grab it.

It's funny how e-bay works. A couple of weeks ago I was watching a TR4 valve cover, because I want to put a PCV system on the TR3. The starting bid was $9.99. I put it on watch. About three days later, another one shows up with a starting bid of $10.00. I put the watch on that one also. Both covers looked to be in very good shape. No one was bidding on either cover. The last day I put in a bid on the first cover for $18.00. No one else bid, so I got the cover for $9.99. Meanwhile, I kept watching the other cover. It started to get some bids. Went to about $15.00, then, during the last hour, it shot up to $35.00. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazyeyes.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazyeyes.gif Since then, I've watched several other valve covers. Some of them didn't sell at starting bids of $10-$12, and another sold for $24. Go figure.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

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esnipe.....Hmmmm! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

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SO that's how it's done.
Revenge is mine. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif

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I don't know if this is true for alot of people, but I watch alot of items that I don't intend to buy

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Same here. I like to have an idea what certain types or parts go for.

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SO that's how it's done. Revenge is mine.

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Honestly I've never seen the need to pay a service to bid for you. All you have to do is wait until there are 5 seconds left and place your bid. No one can possibly react to your bid in so short a time. If someone paying a sniping service ends up beating you in the auction and you would have paid more, then you didn't bid high enough to begin with.

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I don't have any "snipe-ware" programs, but why on earth would I bid on something till the last moment when all It's going to do is drive the price up.

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That's not how it works. You look at something you want and you deterimine how much you want to pay. If noone has bid that high yet then it will automatically bid until you're the one on top. If someone put in a bid higher than you then they win. But since it is at the last minute if you bid up to the price you are WILLING to pay then nobody has a chance to come back and outbid you. The software doesn't bid until you win willy nilly... it bids up to the price you have decided to go to. Simple as that.

I don't throw in a bid for the most that I'll pay, I put my top end in the proxy. but I still do it at the last minute. Usually it works, cause they don't have a chance to test the top end of my proxy bid, like they would if I entered it early.
I can't tell you how many times I've watched 2 or 3 people trying to out-bid each other with several days to go. All theyve done is pushed the price through the roof, and usually they wind up loseing to a sniper anyway.

I'm always watching lots of things but rarely bid...somewhere near the end of the auction I might bid or do the esnipe thing depending on how the auction's going.

I usually wait until the last minute (literally) to bid so as not to let anyone else know how much I might want an item. Then I put a maximum proxy bid + 3 cents. I have beaten several bids by 1 to 2 cents several times. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I've never figured out why people keep their reserve secret....tell me up front what it it - if I'm willing to pay it, I'll bid...if I'm not, I won't waste your time.....& I don't agree that keeping a reserve secret protects bidders - from what? themselves?

I've been to live auctions where the auctioneer starts out by telling everybody what the reserve is & goes from there...saves a lot of time & rules out the "lookers"!

Reserves are pretty stupid. And you have to pay a lot of extra fees to have one. I suppose it allows you to start the bidding low so you don't scare people away with a high starting bid, without risk of being forced to sell for less than you want. It probably does work on new bidders, unfortunately.

I disagree. People tend to get caught up in "bid fever" and will bid more than they intended. If you start out high, they usually won't bid. If you don't make your reserve you don't have to give you iten away. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Yeah, but the idiot sellers return answers about reserve with "Sorry, I can't reveal my reserve to protect other bidders." Give me a break! How does me knowing the reserve protect other bidders...if I know & want it, I'll automatically bid the reserve; if I know & think its too high, I won't bid anymore.
But, when they won't reveal the reserve, I definitely won't bid - even if I want it until the last minute & then, if thevreserve isn't met, I'll esnipe the next minimum increment just for the heck of it. After the auction, I'll offer to buy at my last bid.

But if everyone knew the reserve few people would bid. If I'm trying to sell a car part with a $100 reserve and tell everyone this, few will bid. If I set my bid price at $25 and let the bidding go up, someone will get caught up in the bidding. Rational thought leaves and the "IGOTTAHAVEIT" kicks in. I had a set of sockets I sold awhile back. Had a buy it now price of $75. They sold for over $100. Someone got greedy and tried to get a bargin and let "bid fever" in. But I understand what you mean Tony. If I need something at the store, I see what the price is and buy it. This cat and mouse game aint for me. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

If you want $100 for it & you tell me that & I want it, I'll bid $100....if somebody else wants to pay more - regardless of what you want - they'll bid more.

Buy it now was basically the same thing & you still got more than you wanted!