so, I’m about to bid on a bike on Ebay. My strategy so far is to wait until one minute to go, and then put in my bid. I have a maxiumum I am willing to pay.
any sage words of advice?
A minute is too long. It still gives time for somebody to outbid you. Sit there with your stop watch and hit the bid button with 13 seconds to go. Works for me every single time unless somebody has a higher bid.
thanks! out of curiosity, why 13 sec?
Use an automated bidding service like www.auctionsniper.com. I never bid manually any more.
"thanks! out of curiosity, why 13 sec? "
I’ve made over 200 ebay transactions and found thru experimentation that 13 seconds clinches the deal with only a few seconds left and no time for anybody to respond. I’m on high speed so if you’re on dial-up your response time will be longer. Also on those nights when the computer traffic seems slow I’ll drop back to 17-20 seconds. Hit it at about 17-20 tonight and you should do OK unless somebody else is doing the same with a higher maximum bid.
I’ve made over 200 ebay transactions and found thru experimentation that 13 seconds clinches the deal with only a few seconds left and no time for anybody to respond.
Damn! 200! Do you do this for a living? I bow to your wisdom 
13 seconds is to soon.
I personally have 2 windows open one with my max bid in it and already submitted, so its on the confirm bid window which is the last thing you have to do before submitting.
Know in the other window have the auction page up, and keep refreshing, dont wait for everything to load just the part that says time remaining then refresh (pics can take some time to reload). On a good day it takes about 2 seconds for the page to reload, slow day 4 sec. So with about 10 to 6 seconds left. I switch to the other window and hit the confirm button. Never been out bid, by a later bid (most auction snipe software launches at about 10 seconds).
Just my 2 cents.
ok, good point. Important question: With less than a minute to go, I assume it indicates how many seconds are left, or do I need a timer? Thanks! I’d really like to get this ride, hopefully I won’t be outbid early on.
I have had people snipe at 3 seconds before. I’ve done it manually before I switched to using an automated service.
I recently bought a Softride on ebay. There were 3 bids in the last 7 seconds.
I placed my bid with 2 seconds left and probably pissed off two other people. With bids placed less than 10 seconds before the end noone sees anyone else’s bid till it’s too late. It comes down to the highest bid placed wins.
One thing I find helps is to bid weird amounts. For example, instead of $100 place a bid of $106.27. I won one auction by 2 cents once which must have really pissed off whoever placed a bid only 2 cents lower than mine.
it’s kind of an off item (only 5 bids from 3 bidders so far w/ 2 hrs to go), so I expect it to be pretty mellow. Either that, or they’re doing what I’m doing Either way, as Calvin said to Hobbes, “Be prepared. That’s my motto.”
There’s a few things you need to know.
I know it sounds too elementary to mention…but in order to win the auction, you need to have the highest bid at the time the auction closes. Ebay had proxy bidding in which it will only bid the next increment and then continue to re-bid up to your highest amount after others have placed bids.
Technically, a standard DSL/Cable connection is not fast enough to bid under 12 seconds. Plus, ebay’s auction process does require some manual authentication to confirm your bid. So…the process can take up 45 seconds if you’re a novice.
The Sniping services are typically running D3s direct into Ebay’s servers and has handle bids within 3-6 seconds. The Sniping services are “cool” because you can retract your bid…usually up to 5 minutes of auction close.
With ebay’s proxy bidding, your bid can’t be retracted. Well…it can, but will go on your record.
Some people think Sniping lowers the price you pay…but it actually increases it. Shill bidding is rampant and you really need to monitor your buying before you stick in some crazy Snipe bid.
Net result…know your market prices, understand buying/auction patterns. But, if you REALLY want something and don’t really care about the price, Sniping is a nice way to go.
The reserve can also be true. If I wanted a DA 7800 crankset and one was recently listed at $1. I’d just go ahead and bid $300. When the rascals start bidding, 5, 10, 25, 85, 145, etc…my name keeps popping up as the winning bidder and folks understand they I’ve already put in the proper market price and stop the nonsense.
Opps…too much ramble. Ebay was pretty cool, but prices have settled so much and there are basically too many buyers to compete against now…
I disagree on the proxy bidding. I found the price is higher if you proxy bid early since you get others placing bids bumping up the proxy. Sniping / automated bids get you a better price since it doesn’t give anyone time to decide to outbid you. The key is to not snipe with a bid higher than you actually want to pay because you’ll overpay if there are two snipers bidding high.
I frequently bid with 2 seconds left using a cable connection. The inital bid can be placed and the CONFIRM button hit with 2 seconds left.
JoB,
A lot of people have been telling you how late to make a bid. The reality of it is that anything under about 20 seconds is sufficient. The main reason you snipe it to make sure that “emotion” bidding doesn’t take place. That is when someone has made their proxy bid with what should be the maximum they are willing to pay and they suddenly see the amount go over their max, or their “winning” bid be outbid. In a fit of emotion they forget the reasoned approach and bid again. This is primarily what the last 20 seconds protects you against.
Sure you can have a window open, but let’s investigate this,
DavHamm says, “13 seconds is to soon. I personally have 2 windows open one with my max bid in it and already submitted, so its on the confirm bid window which is the last thing you have to do before submitting.”
How is that too soon? He already has the amount filled in. I have lost using the same tactic because 13 seconds is not always enough time to change the amount and go to the confirmation window then submit it. This all has to take place after you have realized your bid is “too low” then decide on a new bid.
You thought that 200 wins was a lot, I have won 367 auctions. Over 300 were using sniping software. The advantage I have found is that the software forces forethought and discipline. You choose your max amount and when it is submitted it hits and becomes a proxy bid. If you lose then it was a “good thing”, because the item sold for more than you were willing to pay. I can even set up logic ladders and have multiple items ready to be bid on, each successive one dependent upon the loss of the previous auction. As soon as one wins the rest of the bids will not be made because the conditions are not met.
For instance, let’s say I want a new Dura-Ace bar end shifter, but I don’t want to pay the average $65 plus ebay price. I want one for $50. I may set up bids for 10 auctions each maxing out at about $50. The first one comes up and it is already over $50, the bid is never even accepted by ebay, the second is accepted but the original bidder had a limit of $60. He wins and pays $51. Should I have bid more? No, because I would have had to have bid $61. The next is also already over $50, and on it goes. Finally on the 7th auction I make a bid at 20 seconds, the winning amount had been $45. Suddenly it shows I have the highest bid. At about 17 seconds the other guy has refreshed and sees he is losing, It sinks in, then he scrambles to make another bid and… it makes it in… 2 seconds too late. So I have won.
But the really funny thing is that I have won at the price of $51.01. His max bid was $50, and I beat him by 1 cent!!! He made the common error of bidding in a nice round even number. How did I win by one cent? Well the beginning amount was $45 so we had an ebay proxy bidding battle until we hit $50 then my last penny was tossed on top. I won because we started using at least one full bidding increment, in this case, it was $1. What if I had also bid $50, then he would have won because the first one takes precedence.
For a while I made a sport of this and tried to see how many auctions I could win by 1 cent. I even got some nasty hate mail when ebay used to post your email address. I used to buy things like Titleist Pro golf balls for practice; (I got tired of using shag balls.) They sell excellent used recovered balls in almost perfect condition in lots of 12, so there was a “common” price. The same people bid on them and you learn their “secret odd price,” so I would bid a penny more. It usually worked. But the main thing is that you lose the ones you should.
It is good to lose, I repeat, it is good to lose. It means the item went for too much money. I can guarantee you unless you are buying collectables there are others that will be offered for auction, just be patient.
So why snipe if you can just use the standard proxy bid and have a maximum amount? Well it goes back to an early auction, I found a set of custom shafted clubs and I bid about 20 minutes before the end. The person who I beat came back 3 times and caused me to pay $75 more than I would have if I had waited until 20 seconds. I still paid less than I was willing to, but the point is that it cost me $75 because he was an emotion bidder and didn’t want to lose. He finally realized he was bidding more than he was willing to pay and quit. Shortly after that I began manually sniping and then I learned about automated sniping and bought my first package. That was “Bidsniper”, they went out of business and no longer updated the software, and then I tried “Cricket.” I found it to be cumbersome and only allowed me to set up one auction to bid. I have been using “Merlin” now for about 3 years and they keep it updated and it works very well. I have even won 2 bicycles with it and I use it to manage my sales as well.
In summary, I believe the chief advantage of sniping is to avoid impulse bidders and paying more than you are willing to pay. It allows reasoned and planned bids for common items and allows you to “shop” for larger items until the auction ends. You don’t have any bids out, so there’s no problem “retracting it,” because there is nothing to retract yet. If you are beat in the last 20 seconds it’s not because someone has seen your bid and responded, it is because they had a pre-determined snipe price that exceeded your maximum bid. And regardless of either case, you lost because the item went for more than you thought it was worth.
What they haven’t told you is that sometimes your server or ISP is slow or ebay’s servers are slow and even 20 seconds isn’t enough. But that is the exception. I will tell you I used to bid at 10 seconds but had too many failures to bid in time. I use cable and normally have a very fast connection.
Oh, and one last advantage. I told you that if the auction had already passed your max the bid “bounces” off of ebay. The system won’t accept it. So you remain a bit more “cloaked” and 20 failed bids at $50 for the aforementioned shifters doesn’t show up. There are many shrewd bidders that vet the competition and see where there are habitual bidders at certain price points (wanna guess who?). See the advantage to using stealth? I rarely lose an auction that has accepted my bid.
Make sense?
Please send me a link to an auction won with 2 seconds left (PM if you would like). I subscribe to several ebay-tools which confirm compatibility with different connections. The resources can then check the path you bid took (as this information is kept in ebay records in accordance with the Federales…)
I’ll find it tomorrow…but a recent study was conducted on proxy vs. Snipe. I totally agree with your logic, but the survey revealed that proxy bidders “give up” whereas Snipes generally jack up their price too much. I guess no need to debate it…but rather just use that your logic to make sure it works out best for your own bidding patterns…
.
I just sent you won I did with 6 seconds. I know I have a 3second personal record.
Yes deffinintly bid off dollar amounts. and for best deals look for misspelled words.
Just got a slide rule (under sliderule) for $10 that recently sold for $45.
Sometimes I’ll go and bump proxy bids for fun or to find out was a max bid is. Say they put in $13.00 and showing for $5. Most bids are round $ so Ill bid $5.58, they then have it for 6.08 we will keep doing this untill I bid 12.58 and they have it for $13 then I know since its not the full incriment above mine this is there max. bid.
Oh with 13 seconds left if the other person is refresshing this leaves them about 10 seconds to ente r a bid and hit confirm, process usually takes about 6-8 seconds so If there lurking they will get 1 more chance to bid. and lots of people dont trust proxy so they bid, untill they win and stop, if they get overbid they come back and bid again.
Ya if your going to buy 100’s of items buy snipping software, but if your only buying a few items, are you saving enough to justify the software?
The advantage of putting in a bid at say 30second or 20 seconds is it will get in, you wont pay more than you want, but someone might get a chance to bid again and max you pay more than you had to or they might overbid you.
The risk of waiting untill 10 or 6 or 2 seconds, your bid might be late and you dont even get a shot at the item.
Basically the earlyier you put in your proxy the more time you risk get bumped higher or out bid, but the lower the risk of forgtening or bidding to late. (of course bidding software or services eliminate that risk but have a fee attached to them).
But remember its a game so have fun and enjoy.
Just make sure the BIKE FITS.
Wow, thanks to you all for your great advice! To make a long story short, I WON! I (and Mrs. JoB) are now the proud owners of a preeetty shweeet Cannondale tandem. We borrowed one a few years ago for an overnight camping trip, loved it, and have wanted one ever since.
so check it out (extendend fitting session will be held on ST upon receipt). I know, seats are too low: 
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7169080639&category=98084&ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1
In any case, for those who care: I did as I was told, waited until the very end, submitted my bid, and boom! Owned a tandem. Best of all, I stayed $150 below my cutoff which will pay for the new pedals. It was my first Ebay purchase, and holy hell, it was pretty nerve wracking!
Thanks all, ST is best! If you’re around Beantown, look out for us and give us a wave.
Josef
Hey I just thought of something Smitty8. I think the disconnect is that on that 6 second bit I hit confirm with about 10 seconds left.
Inother words, you have to allow for some delay (If i dont want to risk losing it I go at 13 seconds, 10 is normal, and 8 if Im feeling like living on the edge).
Thats why you do the refresh game, that gives you an idea of how long it takes to send to there server and get a response. as I said usually a 2-3 second turn around.
Ya if you put a bid in when the timer reads 2 seconds too late, time you switch windows move the mouse hit the mouse button and the message gets to the server is going to cost you about 3 seconds 1 more than you had.
So I hope I did not mislead anyone, I do not wait till the ebay clock is at 6 or 3. However I do have the delay built into my head so when I hit submitt at 9 seconds I know thats going to be about 6 seconds. (again assuming the refreshes are running there typical 2 seconds).
Who would have thought bidding could be so compicated.
oh ya, another neat thing some of the software allows is to track other ebayers. you can set it up to send you a message when a certain member puts a bid on an item.
Great if you want to bid up someone who proxy bids all the time.
or if you find a member who bids on similiar items as you this saves you from having to search items out, the other person does it for you.