Ebay item ending tonight - when should I place my first bid?

runswithascript

An auction I want to win tonight, once it stays competitively priced, is ending tonight and the last of the 7 bids so far was 5 days ago.

Should I wait until 30 minutes, or 5 minutes before the item ends to place my first bid, or should I bid now but risk alerting the current high bidder?

Mr. Presentable

1 minute before the end put in the most you are willing to pay.

Or use a bidding software like bidnapper, or auctionsniper

runswithascript

Mr. Presentable wrote: »

1 minute before the end put in the most you are willing to pay.

Because if I remember correctly it will not place your maximum bid, just a fraction above the current but will keep doing so until reaching maximum.

Mr. Presentable wrote: »

Or use a bidding software like bidnapper, or auctionsniper

Is there one in particular you would recommend?

runswithascript

Also, should I make sure I am the high bidder first before using bidnapper or auction sniper?

I ask this because I am wondering what will happen if the current bid is the lower limit of the current high bidders range.

It is only a small item with a current high bid of €10.50, and for it to remain a bargain I am prepared to go up to €16.

What happens if the current high bidder has set a maximum of around €16 also and once bidnapper starts bidding at one minute before end eBay automatically counters my bid for the current high bidder etc?

I am worried that evenal though bidnapper could counter eBay could automatically counter and this is why I ask should I make sure I am the current high bidder some time before 1 minute before end.

Judgement Day

If you're bidding yourself, leave it until about 6/8 seconds before the end and bid the maximum you're prepared to pay - obviously depends on your broadband speed.

runswithascript

Judgement Day wrote: »

If you're bidding yourself, leave it until about 6/8 seconds before the end and bid the maximum you're prepared to pay - obviously depends on your broadband speed.

Can you explain about maximum bidding thing? I had thought that after entering my maximum bid eBay would only reach it if another bid was in close competition.

That is to say I had thought if and item was currently at €10.50 and I set my maximum bid to €20 it would actually bid for me €11 or so, only approaching my maximum bid by countering a series of bids higher than €11 from other bidders.

Am I correct so far?

Looking the history:

EUR 13.00 	
20-Jan-12 16:48:33 GMT
	
EUR 12.60 	
26-Jan-12 09:27:43 GMT
	
EUR 10.50 	
20-Jan-12 16:48:33 GMT
	
EUR 10.00 	
19-Jan-12 22:40:58 GMT
	
EUR 10.00 	
20-Jan-12 16:48:15 GMT
	
EUR 5.75 	
19-Jan-12 22:40:58 GMT
	
EUR 5.50 	
17-Jan-12 08:01:49 GMT
	
EUR 4.25 	
17-Jan-12 08:01:49 GMT
	
EUR 4.00 	
18-Jan-12 18:30:41 GMT
	
EUR 3.25 	
17-Jan-12 08:01:49 GMT
	
EUR 3.00 	
18-Jan-12 18:30:35 GMT
	
EUR 2.25 	
17-Jan-12 08:01:49 GMT
	
EUR 2.00 	
18-Jan-12 18:28:42 GMT
	
EUR 1.49 	
17-Jan-12 08:01:49 GMT
	
EUR 1.49 	
16-Jan-12 22:37:25 GMT

Why are the gaps so irregular? The jump between €5.75 and 10, or €10.50 and €12.60.

I would understand if these bids were reached as a result of all current maximum bids being exhausted, but if that's the case where are the incremental bids between these figures?

I seem to have an option for maximum bid only, instead of maximum bid and bid right now jumping right to this figure more than a fraction above current.

jor el

Only successful bids are recorded in the bid history, that's why you see jumps.

Bidder 1 puts a max of €5, but the record shows the minimum required at that time, like maybe 10c.
Bidder 2 bids a max of €2.
Bidder 1's max automatically outbids Bidder 2, up to €2.10. Bidder 2's bids don't show in the record as he has been unsuccessful.
Bidder 2 might then set a new max of €3.
Bidder 1 again outbids automatically to €3.10, and again Bidder 2's bids don't even show.

If another bidder's maximum is higher than the maximum you set, then you will be outbid the moment you enter your bid. The only way around this is if you wait until the very last couple of seconds on the auction, so that the auto-bid system hasn't the time to update and outbid you.

This is hit and miss, there is no way to guarantee you win. If you bid to early then you'll be automatically outbid. If you leave it too late, your bid won't count.

runswithascript

Thanks!

o1s1n

Best way of bidding on ebay (if you have broadband) is putting your maximum amount in the last 10 seconds. Have everything set up so you just need to press 'submit bid' and it's in.

If someone wants to outbid you, they won't have time.

I've won hundreds of auctions at bargain prices over the last ten years doing this.

Bidding any time before the last minute just drives up the price needlessly.

If it's a desirable item, you can pretty much guarantee that the winning bid will probably be made in the last few seconds.

runswithascript

But what about if someone or a few others are doing that?

Would not bidding earlier not help get them out of the way?

How far can you push it, would you go to 2s remaining?

Judgement Day

dusf wrote: »

But what about if someone or a few others are doing that?

Would not bidding earlier not help get them out of the way?

How far can you push it, would you go to 2s remaining?

If you bid in far in advance you're revealing your interest and tipping off others to hold back until the last minute. I very much doubt that your broadband connection speed would enable you to successfully bid with 2 seconds left.

allthedoyles

Judgement Day wrote: »

If you bid in far in advance you're revealing your interest and tipping off others to hold back until the last minute. I very much doubt that your broadband connection speed would enable you to successfully bid with 2 seconds left.

I don't think that this is correct .- eBay have designed their auctions in such a way that your maximum bid is always anonymous to everyone else .

So a buyer can place a bid at any time to the maximum amount he/she is willing to pay .

This is not revealed to other bidders .

As you are placing the maximum amount you are willing to pay , means that the only way you can lose is if the seller has a higher reserve , or else another buyer places a higher bid than you .

The Lovely Muffin

What I do is, I enter my bid in the bidding box and then click on "place bid" then a white box comes up with a blue button saying "confirm bid" I leave this open until the last five seconds before the auction ends.

I normally have another tab open, with the auction, but don't have a bidding box on it, as I just use it to refresh the page to keep a check on the highest bid.

When I enter my bid, I enter the highest amount I am willing to pay, bid at the last five seconds and have won numerous auctions this way.

I never bid days/hours/minutes before auctions end because you are almost guaranteed to be outbid and lose the auction, of course it depends on the item for sale really.

Bidding at the last minute also depends on your broadband speed. I am on Perlico's most basic package, but say if you are on dial-up, it would be harder (if at all possible) to bid at the last few seconds.

Also, if you are on dial-up, if you have a mobile phone, you can use that to bid on auctions on eBay, I did it a few times on my old Nokia 6300, just go to the internet and type in "www.ebay.ie" and it automatically redirects you to eBay's mobile site and you can sign in and bid from there, it takes money from your credit though, I'm not sure how much credit it would use, it depends on your phone company. O2 charge 99cents per minute I think.

Or if you have a smart phone, there is an eBay app you can get, I have it on my Xperia X8, it's a great little app. No trouble at all with it.

johnners2981

allthedoyles wrote: »

I don't think that this is correct .- eBay have designed their auctions in such a way that your maximum bid is always anonymous to everyone else .

So a buyer can place a bid at any time to the maximum amount he/she is willing to pay .

This is not revealed to other bidders .

As you are placing the maximum amount you are willing to pay , means that the only way you can lose is if the seller has a higher reserve , or else another buyer places a higher bid than you .

No one knows your maximum bid but if you bid early they'll know that you outbid them, so they'll bid again.

Bidding early pushes the price up, it's a fact

o1s1n

dusf wrote: »

But what about if someone or a few others are doing that?

Would not bidding earlier not help get them out of the way?

How far can you push it, would you go to 2s remaining?

You're kind of missing the point of it though.

There is no 100% way of winning every auction every time cheap. Why? Because other people know how to auction snipe.

What sniping does is take advantage of the fact that a large percentage of ebay users do NOT know how to use ebay properly.

I'll give you two scenarios .

1 -

Say the item has a starting bid of €0.99.

The maximum you want to pay is €10.00 - so you put that down as your proxy bid with 10 minutes to go.

Auction is currently on €0.99 with you as winning bidder.

Bidder A comes along (he doesn't know how proxy bidding works - like most ebay users) and begins bidding in increment.

Bidder A bids €1.50 -
Your proxy automatically outbids him
Auction is now at €2.00
Bidder A bids €2.50 -
Your proxy automatically outbids him
Auction is now at €2.50
Bidder A bids €3.00 -
Your proxy automatically outbids him
Auction is now at €3.50
Bidder A bids €4.00 -
Your proxy automatically outbids him
Auction is now at €4.50
Bidder A bids €5.00 -
Your proxy automatically outbids him
Auction is now at €5.50

Bidder A stops bidding.

Auction ends at €5.50

Scenario 2.

Auction is at 10 minutes to go - you do not bid.

Bidder A bids €0.99 (he does NOT know how proxy bidding works, this is his maximum bid.)
Auction is now at €0.99

Last 10 seconds arrives, you proxy bid €10.00.

Auction is now at €1.50.

Bidder A does not have time to put another bid in.

Auction ends at €1.50.

Before you say that is an extreme example, it's not! I've seen eejits put in 30+ tiny increment like bidder A above.

And yes, I've gone as low as 2 seconds (accidentally!). I've cut my 10 seconds down between 5-7 seconds after getting faster broadband.

rubadub

Mr. Presentable wrote: »

1 minute before the end put in the most you are willing to pay.

I got about 13 seconds before the end, and use sniping software so I am not depending on my own connection.

This is a post I made ages ago, which might explain it further to people unaware of the benefits. Some stuff is probably a duplicate of the post above.

rubadub wrote: »

I simply avoid bidding wars, I bid in the closing moments so nobody has time to enter a counter bid when they are outbid. There is no real way to know how much I have truely saved on an individual auction, but if you know how to read auction histories you can see what typically happens. People get caught up in bidding wars.

How I figure I have saved is by checking out completed listings- another little known ebay tool.

If you do a search you can go to advanced and select "completed listings" this shows all the auctions for the item you want that were sold in the last month. Now you can see "the going rate", especially for high volume items, such as memory cards. You might see that the going average is €50, while many may go for €40, some €60. So if you win your auction for €40 you know you got a better than average deal.

Many people will not use ebay properly at all, they do not realise it is proxy bidding, they think the bid they put in will appear right away and must pay it. Some do realise it is proxy but STILL do not use it right, they do not put in their TRUE maximum.

Say you start a auction for a new bike, starting bid must be €50, the bikes shop value is €500. The ONLY reason I would bid at this stage is to stop you cancelling the auction. If there are no bids you can cancel at any time.

So I do not bid my max, but I do it with good reason. I bid €100 and you now cannot (easily) cancel the auction. My true max is say approx €400. Instead of bidding €50 I might go €100, for a good reason too.

I bid €100, but the current price is €50. Now another bidder comes along and typically will bid €55, not his true max, you can see this in many histories, though harder these days. Now he is instantly outbid as I am €100. He goes up in increments, loves the buzz of not knowing. Then he hits €100, I still outbid him. Now he might go €105 and be the highest bidder, and is delighted.

If I left it at an opening bid of €50, and he scored at €55, I figure he is now more likely to put his TRUE max in, as the bid is very low and he has not gotten any fun out of the auction, and sees he is likely to be outbid. But going to €105 he thinks he is really in a good bidding war, and is winning.

If I go €110, he will likely go €115, or higher. So I leave it. Most will go check on the auction to see what is happening. It may be days from finishing.

Now I go in and bid in the last few seconds, I bid €405 (not €400) in the last few seconds. Now he has NO TIME to react with a counter bid.

Many people put round figures in too, that is why I would pick €405, not €400. It is more likely somebodys max is €400, and if they had time they would say, "ah, 400 was my max, but I will go the extra tenner", but they have no time.

This bidding is called sniping, and ebay are against it since they lose out on profits, because the buyer ends up getting it cheaper.

Some do not think it is fair, but only those people who have used ebay incorrectly! it is stated in ebays rules/guidelines, enter your max, YOUR TRUE MAX.

If you get pissed off because you got sniped on an item at 405, when your bid was 400, then you cannot complain about anything, if you really were willing to "go the extra tenner", then why not do it from the start.

I have seen powersellers selling 10 identical items, most starting at €40, they also had 5 of the exact same items as buyitnow for €50. Yet I have seen people get caught up in bidding wars and ended up paying €60!

I get sniped all the time myself too, you will be outbid by a small increment, say €5, but that does not mean if you went €10 more that you would have got it for that, you do not know the other guys true maximum, it could be €100 more. If I did have time I might throw the extra tenner on and lose, this forces the other sniper to pay more. Ebay & the seller win, the bidder loses out.

Sniping also cuts down shilling (people bidding on their own auctions to bump up the price)

Kat1170

Always go the max amount I'm willing to pay with about 8-10 sec's left, but what if you use one of these sniping sites and so does someone else, and you both enter the same max bid for the same item

homer911

I would always go a few cent OVER my maximum price - for example if something is going up in 50c increments, and I'm prepared to pay €10, I'll bid €10.03 It means I'll win over someone bidding €10, and anyone who also thinks they will win with a 10.01 or 10.02 bid

runswithascript

I used Gixen - Free eBay Auction Sniper and manually bid in the last 10 seconds and nabbed an unused flatbed scanner retailing at €60

Thanks for all the advice!