Ebay auction tactics

Rockstar

Rockstar

Hi,

Anyone out there know how to buy on ebay? I have bought a couple of things 2 or 3 years ago but am pretty inexperienced. There is an item that I am keen on that ends later tonight. Currently only one bid. Do I just wait till the last minute or 30 secs to bid if the price is still as low as it is? Do I bid just above the current price or throw on a few extra dollars in case someone else is playing the same game?

Training tactics much appreciated. :D
 
I've tried all the tricks I have heard of, but in the end the one who wants it the most will win, as they won't limit themselves to a price ceiling.

Nowadays I simply bid the maximum amount I am prepared to pay as soon as I see the item, then forget about it until I receive the email if I win.

Far less stress than hovering over a computer near the end of the auction, and no chance of bidding more than I really wanted to.

Then again, I am an infrequent bidder.
Marg
 
"Sniping" is OK with ebay. Grey's Online does the conventional auction thing and allows ten minutes to pass after the last bid before closing the auction. That sounds fairer for the sellers.

There are downloadable programs which place bids in the dying seconds for ebay and you either join the snipers and do the same or take a more pragmatic view and place a realistic high bid. At least when you do so you deprive the sniper of a real low price.
 
Thanks Marg and Sunny,

Sounds like I'm up against some real pros out there, Snipers you say? Wow. Oh well I think I will make a reasonably higher bid that I am happy with about 1 minute before end of auction. The price is still quite low compared to my perceived value. :)
 
Rockstar the less time you give them to respond to your offer the better, i usually give them 15 seconds before the end, but this depends on your connection speed........i have lost a few items by .0002 sec before:D

Cheers
 
That tactic fails miserably on dialup.

I found for clothes, I go into scrooge mode and bid low on the stuff that has starting bids under $2 (there's not exactly many clothes shops out here so we buy most of ours on ebay).

For lego, putting a bid way higher than what you'd like to pay in about a minute before the end actually gets you a win 20% of the time.

Don't really buy much else on ebay besides those, can usually get stuff locally instead.
 
Choose your max price, ebay will only go to the next highest e.g if bid is at $50 and you will go to $90, they will only go to the next increment (for argument say around $55) but if someone else enters $80, you will still be the highest bidder. Make sure your computer clock is synchronized with the ebay clock. - To the exact second. Then place your bid about a minute before auction ends but refrain from hitting confirm if you are on high speed bband until about 5/6 seconds before auction ends THEN confirm. That way if someone else is watching they won't have time to outbid you.

Hubby is successful 95% of the time with this method. Let us know if you get it!
 
Rockstar said:
Hi,

Anyone out there know how to buy on ebay? I have bought a couple of things 2 or 3 years ago but am pretty inexperienced. There is an item that I am keen on that ends later tonight. Currently only one bid. Do I just wait till the last minute or 30 secs to bid if the price is still as low as it is? Do I bid just above the current price or throw on a few extra dollars in case someone else is playing the same game?

Training tactics much appreciated. :D
Click to expand...

It does depend on how much you want something and/or how much of a bargain you are after.

The strategy of immediately putting in your highest bid is good if you can be disciplined because with last-minute bidding you can get carried away and pay more than you had bargained for, just like at a real auction. You might want to consider researching how much similar items have sold for in previous auctions. You can this using Ebays advanced search feature, just select the "Completed Listings" checkbox when you search. From memory this will show items that actually sold in one colour and those that didn't in another.

Bidding at the last minute can also be fun. Some auction prices increase rapidly in the last 2 or 3 minutes whilst others don't change at all. I've put in bids 10 minutes before an auction closes and no other bids were received. And I've been outbid in the last 5 seconds of an auction. so you win some and lose some.

Good luck.
 
I am an ebay sniper when it is something I really want, and with cable broadband, I wait until 15 seconds before the auction finish :D.

With things I want but only up to a certain cost, I sometimes put in a bid early, and then let it sit.

Sometimes I put the minimum bid on something I really want, mainly so that I get the prompt email if I am outbid. I then don't partake in any more bidding until the last 20 seconds (15 if I am feeling "fast").

I rarely lose out on what I really am going for, but you have to be careful not to be too cavalier and bid $200 for something when you really only want to spent $99 because if somebody else puts in a "silly" high bid you could end up paying way too much.

Oh.... and I always bid funny numbers like $34.07 so that I beat those that like round figures.
 
:eek: Noooooooo we missed out. Never mind. Good practice for next time. :D

I hit the confirm about 5 secs before the end but the other dude must have had a higher bid in the system. I knew they had a higher set bid as there was only one bidder with two bids. ie: the first bid set at the reserve and the second set at their maximum price which we didn't know.

I put in $20 above the original bid. Oh well at least I helped the Seller achieve a higher price. :)

Thanks for the training folks.
 
silversands said:
Careful, could become a new addiction like SS!
Click to expand...

Hey how did you know I was addicted to SS, ss!!? :eek:

We were bidding on 7 motivational cd's by this guy called Pat Mesiti. I heard him speak live a few weeks ago. Never laughed so much for quite some time. Didn't want to pay the large sum he was asking for at his presentation so I thought I would keep my eye on ebay. Keeping an eye out for some comprehensive Kiyosaki cd's as well. Mrs Rockstar has just purchased her first ipod and is searching for motivational material to put on it so she can listen in the car on the way to work as she spends over an hour in the car each day.

Thanks again, :)
 
Gotta watch ebay. I was looking for a rug a while back, found a design I liked, heaps of sellers had it for $60-100 as their minimum bid and $50 for postage across the board.

And lo, some other website had it for $39.95 with $16 postage, without the pain of bidding. Same rug, same description, same photo, probably the same container of cheap imported rugs as the source.

So now I have a really cheap crappy internet rug in my study :D
 
Sniping is the way to go.
You won't always win this way, but I win way more with sniping than I do putting in a bid earlier.

The other trick is to always round up by 10cents or so.
For example, you might be prepared to pay $20 dollars for something, but so might someone else. But if you have bid $20.10 then you will win that one.
I have won quite a lot of auctions by 10 cents.

Good luck and have fun.

:)
Lily
 
One thing not mentioned yet is the time that the auction closes.

A savvy seller will place an auction at around 7-9pm so that in 7 days time or whatever, it will be closing at 7-9pm, the peak time when most people jump on the net.

The vendor would probably get a lower price if they caused the auction to close in the middle of business hours, or say 4am.

What time does this one finish, Rockstar?
 
ianvestor said:
What time does this one finish, Rockstar?
Click to expand...

What time DID this one finish.

It was at 10.30pm Ian.

There was a question posted from someone who badly wanted to buy it before the end of auction so I would say that may be the person who won it. And I wouldn't be surprised if they had a much higher bid in place. The set of cd's normally sells for around $300 and I bid $50 about 6secs before the end. The pending bid was at $30.

Maybe that person will load it onto their ipod and resell to get their money back? Is that legal?? :)
 
see an item you like.

place your maximum high bid.

walk away.

that way, you don't get caught up in the hype of "just a few more $$, just a few more $$" because before you know it, you've paid more after postage than you would locally.

seen it happen a gazillion times with car parts especially.
 
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