ebay stratagy ?update

[bubbleprincessmom]

I have not bid on ebay in a loooong time and right now am bidding on some clothes for DD (who just went through her closet and discovered that almost nothing fits anymore ...she wears uniforms all school year). I have just been out bid with the auction ending in a couple of hours. Question...do I wait until just before it ends to place a higher bid hoping to win that way? Any suggestions?
Thanks for the advice I did wait till the last ten minutes of the auction to put in my final bids (only because the satilite guy was here), and put in my max bid and forgot about it. I won two of the three auctions!! Paid $16 bucks for 7 pair of jeans for DD and $15 for several summer dresses/shorts. She will be thrilled to get out of her school uniforms!!

 

[cynsaun]

The best way to bid on ebay is this:

Wait until the bidding cycle is almost complete. Then, put in the MAXIMUM bid (not just by dollar increments.) you are willing to pay for the item. Ebay will automatically bid up dollar by dollar on your behalf!

Good luck!

 

[remyandhollandsmommy]

I have been known to wait until the last minute, hoping to get a higher bid in to win something. Sometimes this backfires though because they might have a higher maximum amount already. The best bet is to just figure out how much you really want to spend and put that as your highest bid amount. This way you do not get caught up in a bidding war (I have done this) or miss out because you didn't type fast enough. Good Luck!!!

 

[Robinrs]

If I want something bad enough on eBay I snipe it. I don't have the time or inclination to continually watch it. My son wanted something this weekend that he HAD to have for school so I set it to snipe (I put in the MOST I would pay), went to dinner and by the time I got back it was ours.

I know some people don't like sniping but I lost so many bids to snipers that I had to start doing it myself. I am now a seller on eBay, it's most of my income now, and most of my bids are won in the last 10 seconds. If I see lots of bids up early it tells me that the person is either a novice or just willing to pay more. Wait it out and see if it works for you.

 

[S. C.]

Originally posted by remyandhollandsmommy
I have been known to wait until the last minute, hoping to get a higher bid in to win something. Sometimes this backfires though because they might have a higher maximum amount already. The best bet is to just figure out how much you really want to spend and put that as your highest bid amount. This way you do not get caught up in a bidding war (I have done this) or miss out because you didn't type fast enough. Good Luck!!!

And if you are out bidded at least you know that you didn't get in a bidding war and pay to much, i've seen items go for much more than if you bought them new in the store from bidding wars.
A few times i didn't give myself enough time at the end and ran out of time before my slow computer got the bid in, now i give myself a little more time and try to get the bid in with a minute or less to go.

 

[missypie]

My DH always waits till the last minute and snipes...he has even left a kid's soccer game to go snipe. I always look at the item, decide the most I will bid, put it in, then if I get it I get it, if I don't I don't.

 

[bubbleprincessmom]

Another ??? what is sniping? Is that where you put in the most you will pay and ebay auto ups it for you? Or is it when you go in at the last few moments and outbid someone by hitting refresh and uping your bid? I'm confused.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

Sniping, as I understand it, is where you sit down and have everything set up to out bid in the very last seconds of the countdown. Usually you have not been bidding, so the others don't know there is someone lying in wait.. I have done it, it is quite invigorating. But, there is always the chance that either you still didn't put a high enough bid, or someone else is sniping the item too.

I don't see what is wrong with it, as anyone who wants to can do it. There are even services out there that will do it for you for a fee.

I have sniped something before and won. Then I wondered if it was really worth all the aggravation...such as staying up 2 hours past my bedtime..

When you give ebay your maximum bid, and they up it for you one bid at a time, it is called proxy bidding..

 

[robinb]

I also snipe when I buy on eBay. Sniping is waiting to bid at the very last second. You can do it "manually", buy hanging out at the auction and bidding in the last few seconds or you can use a program to snipe.

I've used HammerSnipe (http://www.hammertap.com/HammerSnipe.html) and AuctionStealer (http://www.auctionstealer.com/home.cfm) with good success. Both are free and will bid for you about 10 seconds before the end of bidding. You can set both up to bid closer to the end of the auction, but you'll have to pay for it.

 

[remyandhollandsmommy]

I did not realize there were PROFESSIONAL snipers out there!

 

[Az Pirates]

Snipers are last minute bidders.

If it's something I really want and I'm going to be around I do bid at the last minute. I have yet to have anything I wanted badly enough to schedule myself to be home - that's one serious e-bayer Dh Missypie.

The theory is - and I have seen it happen - if you put in the max. you are willing to pay and let e-bay bid it up for you (proxy bidding) you might get someone trying to find what your max. is and they bid up the item little by little so you might end up paying more than if you came in at the last minute and sniped. No way to know for sure though.

 

[wvrevy]

I've used eSnipe quite a bit, and never had problems (also free)

E-Snipe

They're also really good about keeping you updated on the auction that you're bidding on.

Good luck