last minute bidding on ebay

[MikeKing]

It's happened to me a couple of times where, at the LAST SECOND, I'm outbid on ebay. I don't even have enough time to get in there to see if I could place a higher bid. How do people do this?

[Leothelion]

It's happened to me a couple of times where, at the LAST SECOND, I'm outbid on ebay. I don't even have enough time to get in there to see if I could place a higher bid. How do people do this?

 

It sucks, wouldn't you say? I snipe as well! It's a way to keep the coin market at respectable prices! Place a max bid that your comfortable paying. It doesn't get any easier then that.

 

Leo

[gmarguli]

It's called sniping and it happens the same way you bid. Someone just camps out the auction and hits the bid button with only a few seconds left. If you're good enough you can snipe the auction in the last 1-2 seconds. I once sniped it with 0 seconds left. Of course, I've failed to get the bid off in time a few times.

 

Many people use sniping services like auctionstealer.com or esnipe.com - both work well. I prefer esnipe due to the cost.

 

There is an easy way to prevent losing to sniping - BID YOU MAX. I like to snipe because it prevents people from running up my bid and it doesn't allow people to know what you are interested in until after you own it.

[TomB]

Sniping is my prefered method of bidding on ebay simply to keep other people from bumping my bid higher in small increments. We have all seen this, where someone bids multiple times in order to pass someone else by the slimmest of margins. If you snipe, you do not give others that opportunity. Anyway, the auction does not go to he who bids last, rather, it goes to he who bids most.

 

My apologies to the HepKitty for the last remark.

[MikeKing]

how do you feel about giving your ebay password to use this?

[gmarguli]

Both of these services have been around a while and I haven't heard of any problems. I'm not too worried about my eBay ID. I login there every day either to search for coins or watch my stuff I'm selling. I'd notice anything out of the ordinary pretty quick.

 

I really wouldn't worry about it with these two services.

[davefperry]

Never give out your password for anything.

[JamminJ]

how do you feel about giving your ebay password to use this?

 

I use auctionstealer (on Greg's recommendation) and have never had a problem.

 

-JamminJ

[davefperry]

I don't know much about these services, but it might be OK to give them info without harm. There is always recourse if using a credt card.

[thebeav]

Hi Mike,

If you would like to snipe yourself, here's how to do it.....You need to open two windows at the same time. The actual 'auction' window and the 'submit bid' window.

I generally have the item I'm going to bid on in my watch list, so......I right click on the item link and get a menu which reads "open link in new window". I click on that and get a fresh item auction window on top of 'my eBay' page. Here I enter what is to be my last second bid and hit the 'enter bid' link.....Now I have the 'submit bid' page with the 'submit bid' link which is live and ready to go.....I 'grab' this window on the right side and shrink it to the left. You can also shrink a little from left to right, if need be.....So now you have a live 'submit bid' button in a skinny little window to the far left of the screen and just barely on top of your eBay page. Right click again on the item link and open a fresh auction page....Now you have a live bid button on the left and the auction page on the right, taking up most of the screen. When there are 5 minutes left in the auction you do this.....Using the the little 'refresh' or 'reload' button at the top of your browser, refresh the screen ....You now get a new auction screen and by checking the auction clock you can see how much time it took for the system (your internet connection) to do this. Refresh again, check the clock......You're getting a feel for the 'response time'.....When the end is near, bingo, hit that submit bid button (keeping in mind the response time you were learning). With very little practice you can routinely get within 10 seconds every time.

Of course, with a sniping service, you don't have to 'be there'....But, being there will save you 1 % of the total (generally the snipe fee). Besides, it's just plain fun to snipe yourself.....

Gets the old pulse going.

Paul

[chinook]

I lost an auction on Saturday by a sniper. My bid was in with 6 seconds to go. The auction showed I was high bidder about $400 less than my bid. Needless to say I was excited. I hit refresh only to see that I was no longer high bidder. Someone placed a bid with 4 seconds to go.

 

At least I feel better about making that bidder pay up.

[sanmary]

From the above comments, I think you understand what sniping is now. If you do not use one of the mentioned services a lot depends on your connection speed. I have a high-speed cable internet connection and can literally refresh every 2 seconds. This allows me to bid with a second or 2 left in the auction. I've won many coins this way with a lower price than I would have otherwise paid, and I too have lost a few at the end.

[jom]

There is an easy way to prevent losing to sniping - BID YOU MAX. I like to snipe because it prevents people from running up my bid and it doesn't allow people to know what you are interested in until after you own it.

 

This is my primary reason. I don't want my bid to move up in small increments over the "life" of the auction. I just wait until the last minute or so to bid myself (or use esnipe) and just bid the MAX I want.

 

If I don't win that means my MAX wasn't high enough. If you complain afterward that you were sniped it is only because you didn't bid your MAX, otherwise there wouldn't be a reason to complain, right?

 

jom

[Here]

I've gotten to where I use my credit card exclusively just because you have some recourse. Anyway, have you noticed a significant difference in ending bids for the exact coins where one seller takes credit cards, and another one doesn't? I saw three identical morgans (all graded MS66 by the same service) end the other night Two ended within 30 dollars of each other and the one where the seller didn't take credit cards didn't even get a bid! And he had been on E-bay the longest and had better feedback (100%) too. Plus, there was nothing wrong with his minimum bid either. Jerry

[CarlWohlforth]

I don't like giving out my passwords either. So if I use a snipe service where they need my password I make sure my eBay password is different from all the other 10,000 other passwords I have.

 

There exists snipe software you can download. It runs from your own computer. So you don't have to give out a password but you do need to leave your computer on and you must have reliable and fast internet service.

 

These days I just bid near the end of the auction and I bid the max I am willing to pay. I bid much more for a Philippine coin from gmarguli recently than I actually won it for