Take the advice of university researchers , bid late in your auctions. Know the item Know the item you are bidding on or sniping, and keep its real value in mind as you bid. Is the item described thoroughly with the condition noted. Is the picture clear with any defects highlighted. If you need to, research the value with price guides or search eBay's closed auctions to help you value the item.
Ignore the bidding frenzy that sometimes occurs in auctions. Know the seller Review the seller's feedback rating, and pay particular attention to negative feedback. Is the seller's feedback from diverse buyers, or only a few 'associates'? Is the seller's feedback trending up or down? Is the price of this auction 'out of range' from the seller's typical auction where he attained his feedback? Does the seller extend his auctions frequently? Are the shipping charges high or out of proportion?
Is the seller in a questionable location? Does the listing contain suspicious language or content? Be sure to review this data. Ask the seller questions, and be sure you get a satisfactory answer. Know his policies regarding payments, shipping and returns. For example, if he does not ship to your location, don't bother bidding on the auction.
If he is selling other items, look at those. Do this before you bid. Know eBay's rules You will need to have a clear understanding of the eBay Proxy Bidding System, Dutch auctions, reserve auctions, Buy It Now auctions, and auctions for higher-priced items. The only way to snipe effectively is to do it manually. That is the only way I do them.
Generally, eBay sellers hate sniping, and some like to go so far as to call it unethical, a patently ridiculous notion since eBay's system is designed to encourage sniping. It is a savvy bidding process for bargain buyers, but sellers hate it because they might have gotten more money for their item if other bidders had had time to respond.
In this way, the eBay system favors the buyer over the seller. The system also protects buyers from unscrupulous sellers who use shill bidding fake bids to drive up their prices. A sniper's goal is to win the auction at the lowest possible price. A seller's goal is to sell the item at the highest possible price.
Naturally, these two goals are mutually exclusive, but this does not make my goal to pay less unfair or unethical. However, the current eBay bidding system is no disadvantage to a serious early bidder who has entered a maximum bid that's more than any other bidders'. If his maximum beats mine, even if I swoop in at the last minute, he will still win the auction.
The moment you see "50 seconds," place your bid. I have also successfully placed bids during the last 30 to 20 seconds of the auction, but that makes me sweat. A nice article! I read it because although I used to be a frequent eBay user and serial sniper I haven't used it for years and wanted a refresher on technique! One observation I would make on the ethics of sniping is that it would be entirely within eBay's power to put a stop to sniping in the same way that online procurement tools work in the corporate world.
If I am engaged in a 'reverse auction' one in which multiple suppliers bid against each other, in the hope that the buyer will end up with the cheapest price it is pretty much standard practice for the bidding window to be automatically extended if a bid is made in say the last five minutes.
I have engaged in many reverse auctions where the window is extended multiple times, thus driving the price even lower. If eBay wanted to do that, they very easily could - and since they essentially invented online auctions, it's clear that they KNOW they could. So I have no qualms at all about sniping - it's a part of the process that was deliberately 'designed in' from the beginning.
I am so mad, I bid at like the 2 min mark and stayed and watched the timer tick down till I won the bid. Except someone placed a bid with 1 second remaining. I had enough time to click place bid and type the amount but the page refreshed before I could hit enter. I have to agree with Telecaster's comment above. I'm a smart buyer, and unfortunately have to resort to sniping to prevent "bidding fever".
However, 4 times out of 5, there's always someone who places their proxy maximum bid clearly much higher than me, and probably 10x the actual value of the item. My point is that I feel the system is inherently unfair. I'm not one to complain, but items I've often really wanted have been snapped in the dying seconds by someone who's proxy's are in the thousands.
I usually snipe without software in the last 3 seconds, but usually fail cos of these "risk-takers". Although it's a risky strategy for these "forced-bidders", they seldom run across each other it seems. And why am I complaining and not doing the same? Cos I believe that fair and sane shopping trumps the low-lives who live to make petty bargains at the expense of honest customers.
However, your idea of outrageously high may be someone else's market value. Your outrageously high amount suddenly isn't so outrageous after all. It's rather subjective. Sniping makes for some heart-pounding action. It's pretty nerve wracking on the seller's part too. I thought he would have a heart attack. Great advice, but sometimes it takes nerves of steel.
I use the Auctionsniper site, you can import all of your watched items and set a maximum price, and how many seconds before the end you want to place your bid. Works a treat and you never end up over bidding in a panic at the end. If you are buying a commodity item, you can bid on a group of similar lots, and the system will keep bidding until you win one of them! There is another dimension to all this, often overlooked by writers when they champion their favourite on-line auction strategy.
To put it as simply as possible, the tactics to use Proxy or Snipe are relative to the Providence and Market Value of the item.
For example, a pair of socks for a fiver is best Sniped-for in the hope of picking up a bargain at the last minute and the adrenaline flow does get the blood racing! The sniper will argue against me on this but my counter is that at the end of the day both the sniper and the proxy bidder will have done their research and are simply bidding against each other and the higher bid, no matter WHEN it was placed, wins.
And yes, ok I hear the argument about bidding early just allows tinkers to nudge an early bid up and up, but I do believe that is going to happen anyway, whether you are involved or not. If if it doesn't then how many times have we seen items suddenly declared 'no longer available' because an irritated seller pulls it when there is no early activity.
Bidding a serious max early is also fun as there is an element of 'here I am, catch me if you can' as you watch the auction unfold. In closing, I would also like to add that proxy bidding is fairer to sellers and lets face it, without them there would be no eBay! Why not put the bid in when you see the auction and decide you want it!!
The item you want to sell you have an idea of what its worth but putting a reserve is too expensive and allowing it to go too low is not an option. Then as no-one steps in early the item goes for peanuts. So people would rather do a buy it now and be done with it. I just cant be arsed with auctions any more.
If I see an item I want and its on an auction I will always look for the same thing on a fixed price listing and invariably you will find it. If its not there I simply dont bother. If its on an auction I do without it and I think a lot of folks these days are the same. They go on ebay to buy, not faff about with auctions.
A seller should have the balls to pick a price with an option to accept offers and let buyers choose if the want it or not. Anyone know a free auction sniping tool?
Would save time if we could set that up with our Max bid. I occassionally do an auction, not often but now and again. It seems that if you start an item off ata realistic price, no one bothers to bid, but start at 99p and all hell breaks lose. I mean who expects a iphone X to go for anything close to 99p? I am a last minute bidder, like it or not, it is the only way to get stuff. All this early bidding just pushes up the price… and as at this point im a buyer, i do not want to do that!
I do like Chris says, i decided at the start my max bid and then i get ready in the last minute. Take it as far as the final conformation click and wait. Of course it sometimes goes wrong….
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