Bidding strategy

[pendragon1998]

I sometimes think of eBay bidding strategy when I have an idle moment. If you're starting off bidding on something, would it be a good idea to try and get the bids high initially? The idea being to keep other potential bidders focused on lower priced similar items? Or is it better to just state your maximum bid immediately and let proxy bidding control things? Sniping is always an option, but it can be hit or miss. What do y'all think is a good strategy for bidding? Remember, bidding early and then retracting that bid is ratty, so a certain someone on this board should avoid suggesting that as a strategy.

 

And speaking of that, I just had someone make a nice initial bid on an item I had up, then abruptly retracted it 3 days later saying "entered wrong amount" which had to have been a complete lie. That really spoons me off.

[jgrinz]

I find that most retracted bidding is to find your reserve .. I promptly add those bidders to my blocked bidders list and email them so .. They are usually 25 or 30 feedbacks or below so no big loss on my part.

I do my fair share of retractions becuase of stupidity and I usually tell the seller so ....hheheh.... we usually laugh at my senior moments ... hold on a sec .. I am not a senior yet ... sh&% ... I am in serious trouble

 

[Wihlborg]

Over time I’ve found that the best bidding strategy for eBay is to wait until the very last seconds of the auction and than bid your max. I’ve won more coins cheaper that way then any other.

 

John

[cpm9ball]

Over time I’ve found that the best bidding strategy for eBay is to wait until the very last seconds of the auction and than bid your max. I’ve won more coins cheaper that way then any other.

 

John

 

The problem with this strategy is that someone who has already posted a bid will have priority over your last-minute entry even though their bid is less than one increment below yours. For example, let's say that Bidder #1 has placed their bid early and has a max bid of $254. Now, as Bidder #2, you have decided that $255 is to be your max bid, and you wait until the last moment to place it. Most often, Bidder #1 will win because he placed his bid earlier than you.

 

I had been using Bidnapper in the past, but I've discontinued the service. Now, I simply decide the maximum price I'm willing to pay and enter it early. If the bidding goes above that, so be it. I'll just keep looking for another opportunity.

 

Chris

[Zoins]

Over time I’ve found that the best bidding strategy for eBay is to wait until the very last seconds of the auction and than bid your max. I’ve won more coins cheaper that way then any other.

 

John

 

The problem with this strategy is that someone who has already posted a bid will have priority over your last-minute entry even though their bid is less than one increment below yours.

[...]

Now, I simply decide the maximum price I'm willing to pay and enter it early. If the bidding goes above that, so be it. I'll just keep looking for another opportunity.

 

Chris

I use John's strategy. To avoid the 1 increment issue, I choose ending digits that are 1 increment over what I think other people use. The annoying thing about this strategy is that you have to pay attention and be online. Sometimes I think I'd be better off just putting in my max bid early and save some brain cells.

[jgrinz]

NO - Not the way it works - The person in your instance would have to out bid the Previous HIGH bid by the bid increment at that monitary level. I believe the 200-300 is the $2.50 dollar level between bids. Hence for the second person to win he would have had to bid at least $256.50 and would have won ... Other wise he doesn't

Hope this helps

Mike

[cpm9ball]

NO - Not the way it works - The person in your instance would have to out bid the Previous HIGH bid by the bid increment at that monitary level. I believe the 200-300 is the $2.50 dollar level between bids. Hence for the second person to win he would have had to bid at least $256.50 and would have won ... Other wise he doesn't

Hope this helps

Mike

 

That is my point!

 

Chris

[Coin]

Michael ,

I have found what appears to be phishing and bidding wars both a pain in the neck on the Bay .

I put up an initial bid when I first encounter a coin I might be interested in and then place my final bid at the very last umpth-teenth of a second. I do this to stop the harrassing little puddle jumpers that bid twenty times at one dollar increments until they top my bid by a dollar while they are fishing out my highest bid.

I know the sellers and book writers( who are all sellers) all say to put your best HIGHEST bid in early.......but all they want is for you to bid high and then let the bidding war begin....of course they are SELLING and want the most amount of money....if they were looking to sell at a fair price and modest profit why don't they list a 'buy it now' price along with a BEST OFFER tag to begin with? To avoid the fee? nope. They want the highest they can get for something and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that , except I am a BUYER and want to pay the absolute LEAST for the item. I find nothing wrong with trying to pay the least amount of money possible for some SIGHT UNSEEN item that I can not see in person. This is not a bourse floor or dealer showroom , it is Ebay and there is buyer beware everywhere regardless of feedback ( ever heard of hi-jacked accounts with great feedback? ever tried to get your money back through ebay or paypal?Good luck there).

If they were worried about losing money , they should have put a reserve price on it to begin with ( fee? If it does not sell at the reserve , it is not gonna sell at their price anyway so the fee is a misnomer , gomer!)

 

 

If the previous bidder has bid more , so be it ...that bidder wins . If it is a must have coin , and most on slee-bay are not , then I bid this last bid accordingly for the most I would pay for the coin. I win great , I lose then so be it .

I have a preset price limit ...I will not arbitrarily bid 3K for a $500 coin just to get it regardless of the price. That would be crazy .....how bad would someone want a coin to pay 4,5,6 times more than it is worth to get it into their grubby paws?

 

My initial bid is always the first or next increment , whether it is winning or losing does not matter , it is only to hold my place on the item until the end , when I go back and place my top bid. ( you can also 'watch' the item and snipe at the last minute without placing a placement bid ) .

 

The following is a pure statement of jest and not meant to offend and hurt the tender feelings of those who , as true capitalists , are only trying to make an honest buck....If you are overly sensitive stop reading this reply here and move on..thanky.......

 

 

 

Now the SELLER in me says that snipping is a cheap shot and that you should put a high bid in early so that everyone that stumbles into the item can place a feeler bid and keep the price climbing up for me .... all the way up until it beats out your bid and then you should not take that SLAP in the face and show them by placing a higher bid than theirs and keep at them until the other guy gives up and you end up the true WINNER and show the world your bravery by not letting anyone win that item even if you have to pay 20 times the value to stay on top!! YAAAYYY !!! I'm RICH ! RICH I TELL YAs!!! What a sucker!..,,.. I mean astute Ebay bidder.

 

It is only my opinion , and as I do only a small portion of ebay bidding , you really should take my opinion with a small grain of salt and do what the sellers say you should do and bid high , bid early , and never give up...keep those bids rolling in.

 

All this assuming: you have read the feedbacks and the payment options and the shipping costs and there is a clear image and that it states that the image is what you are getting/or is a stock photo for common items ,etc. AND that you can be online near the ending time of such item....if not , then do what everyone else said and put your decent bid in early and see what happens. There will always be more listed everyday .

 

PS , that , again , is another great picture on your tag line. What a tranquil place to visit a grave , waterfall and all.

[MikeKing]

Since the first time I was snipped, I find sniping the only way to bid on ebay. Rarely will I bid otherwise.

[Wihlborg]

I do this to stop the harrassing little puddle jumpers that bid twenty times at one dollar increments until they top my bid by a dollar while they are fishing out my highest bid.

 

This is exactly my point.

 

By placing my max bid in the very last seconds of the auction I don’t have to contend with all the bidders who nickel and dime an auction higher and higher. If I’m still outbid when the dust settles, that's fine because I didn’t want to pay more then I bid anyway.

 

John

[MBA101]

The problem with waiting is that the if bidding is already up to your max number at the end, then you need to bid more than you want just to get the item, or you would end up passing on it altogether. If you had put up your max bid in the beginning, then it would be the other guy that would have to outbid you and pay the "too much" price. I prefer to have my max bid in early, and let the others pay more than I am willing to pay if they want it, and take my chances.

[Stanley]

Not aiming this at anyone in particular.

Most of the time, and once I have made my mind up that I want it I will place my top bid on it. Then I wait for the results. Otherwise it’s just to stressful for me. I don’t snipe and I think it is rude and selfish. Just my opinion.

 

In other words “ Don’t sweat the small stuff”

 

Edited to add: If it is something I really want then I have a different , more selfish strategy.

[Coin]

If the bidding is all the way up to the max point at the end , I don't bid....I still will not pay more than the limit I have determined from the outset. so , there is no need to place a final bid. My point was that I just do not pay more than my max amount that I have preset in my mind , mostly because another item, better or just like it, will appear on ebay again.

If it is sooo rare that it is would possibly be unique....do you think ebay is the place to find the real deal , and that without seeing it in hand , that with all the fraud on ebay it would be worth bidding on a high ticket item through that venue versus one on a site like Heritage or Superior or Stacks where they handle the transaction and not some unknown on ebay? Sure there are probably some rare unique coins on ebay , but not for me. So my bid limits will work for the range of coins I seek.

[WhiteTornado]

Let me preface these comments by saying they are truly from the buyer's perspective.

 

I use esnipe and would rarely ever do it any other way. I have no problem whatsoever with sniping and find it perfectly acceptable.

 

I have the sniping system put forth my max bid. If I don't win, then I go with the philosophy that the item was going for more than I was willing to pay.

 

Sniping works well because if you put in your max bid right off the bat (or any bid, for that matter), you are attracting more attention to the auction than it might otherwise gain. Auctions with little or no bidding action tend to have lower bids until the last minute. This gives you a decent chance to get the item you want for much lower than you might have otherwise.

 

Now, I realize that certain "hot" or rare items are likely to attract a bunch of bidding action all throughout the auction duration. In those cases, perhaps sniping isn't as effective.

[Coin]

Stanley , I'm not taking your comment personally , and I find it refreshing that there are folks out there that still think ebay is the friendly neighborhood auction venue .

 

I would like to point out that EBay is an auction site where the best bid wins , whether it be first or last .

 

As far as rudeness , I could see that IF there was an understanding between TWO individuals in a sales transaction whereas someone from nowhere hops along at the last minute and throws in on that deal and buys something out from under the original buyer , but the original question was about ebay bidding strategy.

 

Ebay is a non-emotional auction venue . You are not entering into a closed two-way transaction ....it is you against the entire bidding world . You either go in to win or place nonchalant bids and hope that others will see your bid and leave it alone.

That rarely happens , what normally happens is that you get out-bid by 50cents at the last minute by a snipe bid which most likely is due to a bidding program and was probably placed PRIOR to your bid with the PROGRAM making the final bid amount at the last few seconds of the auction as it is programed to do.....(which could take your anxiety away from having to wait , if you wish to try it) , but the programs have no opinions of whether they are being rude or selfish and the winner is still the purchaser of the item.

I go in to bid and win and do not worry about whether the others I'm bidding against get their feelings hurt or their feet stepped on when I make my bid . I'm not buying it for them , it is for me.( Ever NOT bought a toy a Wal-Mart because you thought it might hurt the feelings of a kid that might be coming in later to buy it , and you did not want to seem rude or selfish about it?)

 

When I lose a bidding and the item goes to another person , I move on to the next item on my list and do not waste any precious time looking over my shoulder and wonder about what could have happened or should have happened...it did not happen and that is all. They were simply willing to pay MORE than me for an item we both wanted and I can be a good sport and congrat them on their victory( that time) and move on.

 

I'm only saying this in hopes that you can maybe possibly understand that Ebay is not a friendly place.

It is a market with few controls over bidding. There have only been a few sellers that have listed with the promise that any bids in the last 5mins will not count in order to thwart the snipers , but I do not know of any that have been enforceable , so THUS my snipe method....If every gentleman is bringing an auto-loading machine gun to the knife fight.....then I am arming myself with one too and not gonna tote in only a knife .......I've lost far too many bids in these bid wars at one increment to the next...only to have both me an the other bid war gentleman get machine gunned at the end by the little snipe bidder that just places one bid and takes all.

Snipe bidding is a bidding method , not a personality flaw ....right semantics and correct socially acceptable behavior methods , but wrong venue to impose gentlemanly customs and rules to an Ebay venue ....more correct venue to apply appropriate manners would be in private transactions.

 

Go to a local live bidding auction house and see where the real bids pop up....at the end after the auctioneer/caller starts with "going once , going twice..." then POW ! There will be the next bid , usually the winner....he just waited for all the other bidders to finish tip-toeing around so he could put his bid in . It is not rude there , and if the former previous top bidder wanted to, he could go OVER his top bid (Why would he? It was his TOP bid wasn't it?) . Ebay does not extend bidding in spite of snipe bids , but if you put your top bid in to begin with as you said , then what difference does it make when the sniper wins at a higher price?

 

Are you referring to the sniper NOT winning and causing you to pay a HIGHER price at the end? You still won at less than or equal to the amount of your highest bid.

Well , then what if the sniper placed a HIGHER bid 5mins PRIOR to the auction end and you STILL WON it, you would think him rude then ?

Snipe bidding may have kept you from paying more than what you originally wanted to pay !

 

I would never interfere with a private transaction , In real estate , I place second offers in case the first offer falls through with the first buyer and seller . This is normal.

Ebay is not a private transaction . Ebay is an auction venue where the highest bid wins , no matter when or where it is placed . That is normal.

 

My feelings are not at all hurt , but I hope you aren't getting your feelings hurt or thinking less of anybody for sniping on Ebay , because it is a venue that allows for this method of bidding.

 

I, however, do think you are now at the TOP of my list of wonderful nice people who are considerate of other's feelings and praise you for that , do not change the way you are , just please read into what I'm saying as concern that you are looking at ebay with the wrong set of rules of engagement .

And , as usual , I probably need social reprogramming or something to see this from your point of view clearly , but I used to hate snipe bidders too before I figured out what Ebay is all about.

[Wihlborg]

Coin,

 

I couldn’t have said it any better.

 

When I first started using eBay years ago, I used to feel the same way as Stanley. I would see a coin that I really wanted, place my bid and begin the long wait till the auction ended. Many times I was the first person to place a bid and would remain the high bidder until the very end, only to be out bid in the last seconds of the auction. This would make me feel angry at the low down, dirty trick playing scoundrel that had out bid me.

 

Then there were the auctions where although I had won them, I had wound up paying much more than I probability would have had to because of one or two other bidders increasing their bids multiple times by a few dollars at a time trying to out bid my bid.

 

After a while I came to realize that there was no one to blame for these things happening but me. I lost the auctions that were sniped because someone else was willing to pay more than I was, plain and simple. And the auctions that were bid higher and higher would have never happened if I had let one of those other bidders place their lowball bid first and then I had just placed my max bid at the end.

 

The whole idea of an auction is for the item to sell to the person who is willing to pay the most for it, and if you think about it, does it really matter how you are outbid?

 

John

[LuvToCollect]

As for me I always have my burlap bag, whistle and stick handy.

[World Colonial]

If the item someone is buying is common or even readily available when it is not, then it does not matter whan you bid. You can submit your maximum bid multiple times on future lots until you are the winner. And if you do not win it on eBay, you can just go buy it somewhere else possibly for less money.

 

With the coins I collect, I cannot do that because many of them have only come up for sale once or at most a few times in the eight years I have been using eBay and I cannot find them elsewhere either. So when I know that I will have access to my computer, I wait until the very end and place a bid that I believe is high enough to win the item using catalog prices or prior auction records as a guideline. Sometimes I win them and sometimes I do not. A few times when I have really wanted the item, I have placed what you could call a "blowout" bid to make sure I won it.

 

Another thing you can look for is to see whether a dealer has the high bid. If they do, the chances are that you are not paying too much because they have to make money unless they are buying it for their personal collection. I have beat out dealers at the last minute and vice versa several times.

[pendragon1998]

After reading these great posts and thinking about the matter myself, it seems like a good strategy might be to initially bid around 70-80% of your max (this is early on where you're one of the first bidders), then sit back and let the auction climb while people nip back and forth at the price until it reaches around or slightly over what you bid. This ought to help keep a couple of the phishers out of the bidding, as they seem to start in when it's low and just go crazy trying to top everyone else's bid. Then, drop in your true max bid at the last moment.

 

Whadda y'all think about that?

[WhiteTornado]

I still prefer to use an automated sniping program. I just figure out what my own max bid would be, set it, and forget it. Until the auction is over, of course.