EBay Basic Question. Putting in a bid

Hi

I've never used Ebay and I am watching an item.

There are no bids on it, but above the box where you would insert a bid, there is €400. There is no option to "Buy It Now".

Is this the sellers starting minimum bid or reserve price?

Thanks

TomOnBoard

Current bid. If bidcount is 0, then this is the starting bid put on by tbe seller.

Thanks TomonBoard

I'm watching another item, and there are bids on it, but there is no starting bid. Its way undervalued with a day to go, but I'd be sure that bids will start to come in soon.

However, is that seller taking the chance that it will reach its market value and now obliged to take the top bid offered?

Thanks

TomOnBoard

Estrella Black Youth wrote: »

Thanks TomonBoard

I'm watching another item, and there are bids on it, but there is no starting bid. Its way undervalued with a day to go, but I'd be sure that bids will start to come in soon.

However, is that seller taking the chance that it will reach its market value and now obliged to take the top bid offered?

Thanks

Yep. Seller must accept the highest bid at auction close. I've been buying on eBay for years, and have seen stuff thats in high demand end up waaaay higher than its showing even an hour or two before. They said, I've also seen stuff put up with a start of 0.99 that ended at 0.99 where there was only one bid.

homer911

Try using AuctionSniper

rubadub

I would also recommend sniping in some way.

There is only 1 reason I can think of to bid before the last few seconds, and that is to prevent the seller being able to pull the auction early due to no bids.

That was the case years ago anyway. I would put a token very low bid on, which was always outbid. I would bid days in advance if possible, so the guy who outbid me thought I was totally off the scene. The low bid also usually meant the person outbidding you put on a very low bid too, and was likely confident you had no more interest if you did not bother to outbid them again with a slightly higher but still stupidly low bid.

Then you swoop with 5 seconds to go and steal it from under them. Only themselves to blame for not following the ebay advice.

Thanks for the tips. And I think I've just been sniped : ) . I was bidding and thought the auction ended 10 mins later than it did. I had friends around and I took my eye off the ball. I got an email to say on my phone "You've Been Outbid". By the time I'd logged on I got another email to say the auction had ended. There was 2 bids after mine. The winning bid coming in about 10 seconds after the second last bidder, and then the auction closed. My fault for snoozing. But interesting to see. I think I would have put in a bid higher than the winning bid. But maybe I would have been out bid again. But for sure. Sniping is the way to go. Thanks

Ewan Hoosarmi

Estrella Black Youth wrote: »

Thanks for the tips. And I think I've just been sniped : ) . I was bidding and thought the auction ended 10 mins later than it did. I had friends around and I took my eye off the ball. I got an email to say on my phone "You've Been Outbid". By the time I'd logged on I got another email to say the auction had ended. There was 2 bids after mine. The winning bid coming in about 10 seconds after the second last bidder, and then the auction closed. My fault for snoozing. But interesting to see. I think I would have put in a bid higher than the winning bid. But maybe I would have been out bid again. But for sure. Sniping is the way to go. Thanks

You can put in a figure you're happy to go to and let the system outbid under bidders, until you reach the maximum figure you were happy to go to.

A Dub in Glasgo

Always snipe. If you do not and you bid the maximum early, chances are the nibblers will be out. Sniping kills the nibblers

rubadub

Estrella Black Youth wrote: »

My fault for snoozing.

more like your fault for not putting in your true max bid.

You do realise how it works? if you bid 100euro you do not have to necessarily pay that, it is automated proxy bidding.

if I snipe in the last few seconds and am outbid I might not be happy, but there is never a case where I go "Ahhh FFS, I would have gone a little higher"

I put in my genuine max bid, which is often an unusual figure like 104 euro, since I know others are likely to put in round numbers like 100euro and might stretch to 105euro if pushed.

Yes that's true on both counts rubadub. I didn't put in my max bid and I didn't really know how it worked. I'm getting the hang of it now. Cheers.