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I've been sniped

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JamesWilson said:
Steve_S said:
Exactly. eBay isn't a live auction so there is no reason to treat it as such by continuously bidding. You just end up paying more for your item.
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/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/iagree.gif

I used to use e-bay's proxy but found that placing a bid early left lots of time for other people to come in and "nibble"- put in several bids increasing by $5 or $10 until they gave up.

I'd still win, but that ended up costing me.

A snipe puts my bid in and avoids this nonsense. If I've judged the price well I win, if not I don't then get into a bidding war.
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If you are serious about winning the item, it's going to cost you the same amount regardless of when your bid was placed. Just bid your max and forget it. If you win for less, great. If you don't, you didn't bid high enough in the first place - regardless of when you placed your bid.

uBid.com avoids this "I have to bid at the last minute" nonsense by keeping the auction open if someone bids in the last 5 minutes (they extend the auction). Or at least they used to, been a while since I bought anything.
 
Brooklands said:
And because of them, sniping software has won me several auctions that would have gone beyond what I wanted to spend. It is especially caused by eBay newbies...
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eBay newbies think they've been "outbid" by the bid increment, usually a nominal amount like a buck. They have no clue how much headroom exists between their maximum bid and the high bidders ceiling. The only thing eBay shows is the 2nd place high bid plus the bid increment. Might be a nickel, might be a million dollars; it's only known to the winner.

eBay loves this last minute nonsense because it feeds their fee structure. Although it probably drives ther IT folks nuts.
 
I just set my final bid as a snipe, and then normally do not get the item as it has gone way past my mark, but this keeps the I'll go up $5 more to see if I can win folks from coming back at me over and over. If I placed the same bid with eBay early that I set as my snipe, some of those folks would probably have raised the price before the final countdown moments.

I remember when I first got back into slot cars, and did not realize that "Model Motoring" was a new company, not the old Aurora line by the same name, I kept bidding on a piece that I later found for much less elsewhere brand new in the pack.
 
"No such thing as sniping"-- /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/yesnod.gif /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/yesnod.gif /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/yesnod.gif /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/yesnod.gif--Never mind that proxy bit Keoke--------------------- /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif
 
'Scott_Hower ' said:
If you are serious about winning the item, it's going to cost you the same amount regardless of when your bid was placed.
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That isn't entirely true. The problem is that newbies will get into a bidding frenzy because of your early bid, when they may have only bid once and been satisfied at being the high bidder. What they don't know is that being the high bidder is completely irrelevant in any auction whether in real life or on eBay. The only thing that matters is how high the highest bid is when the auction closes.

'brooklands' said:
...this keeps the I'll go up $5 more to see if I can win folks from coming back at me over and over.
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Exactly. They don't realize someone can bid as high as they want at any time, and higher than the next increment.
 
Agreed , Consequebtly the secret is to remain the high bidder until the auction closes .Your wining price is the price when you first became the wining bidder.---Keoke
 
Scott_Hower said:
If you are serious about winning the item, it's going to cost you the same amount regardless of when your bid was placed.
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My experience shows this to be wrong. In a snipe I put my bid in with, say, 10 seconds left. That's leaves minimal or no time for manual bidders to try and out-bid me. It simply does not matter how long my bid is highest. It only matters at the auction's end.

Sniping puts the nibblers at a disadvantage. They don't get the time to keep trying to beat me: I give it my best shot at the last minute. If they haven't given it their's; and one that's better than mine too, I win.

Suppose I'm willing to pay ÂŁ70 for an item.

If they're willing to pay ÂŁ50 but only bid ÂŁ10, my snipe will beat them and it'll only cost me ÂŁ11 (or whaterever increment over their bid is required).

If I'd put in a proxy. They'd bid ÂŁ10, ÂŁ20, ÂŁ30, ÂŁ40 and then ÂŁ50- often just seconds apart. I'd still win but it'd cost me $40 for giving them a target to shoot at until they gave up.

That's why I can win for less using a snipe.

Not all the time, but a surprizing number of times when others don't use a proxy to bid what they might really be willing to pay. And if they do I'm no worse off- my sniped proxy may or may not beat them, but it doesn't give the others numerous chances to try and beat me.

Understand too that I'll set up a snipe days before the auction's end. Its no different from a proxy bid directly with ebay; except it avoids the long exposure to the nibblers that can cost me money.
 
Well, I'm looking at an olf MG on ebay rigfht now...I put in a bid so the owner would know I was serious - & it helped as he provided me lots more info over the telephone & I helped him find the VIN which isn't on the car anywhere but on its paperwork...I know what my max price is & am trying to decide whether to wait until the last hour or so or use the new "Bid Assistant" which is sorta like sniping.

However, its close to my max bid & over a day to go so I'll probably not get to bid again...I know the shape of the body so am not enticed to raise above my max bid...the owner has answered the rust question several times in answers to questions but nobody sems to be reading his answers!
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Added: Yep, for the heck of it, I just made a bid with my max & was quickly told I'd been outbid...somebody else can have it!
 
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