OT darn evilbay

[tony dB]

i read a few days/weeks ago how you can't loose an auction and i seriously need to read again... i was monitoring til the very last minut and overbid in the last 22 seconds on items that i was really HOT for.
That hurts mama...

Can someone point me to this post, or can anyone post again how this works? I looked around but didn't find it anymore?

I was fast enough to bid again (felt it coming and had everything setup, only had to hit enter), but my opponent used a technique that putted my out of the game. :?

There's various items like this listed and the price was VERY good, so next time around i wanna WIN :wink:

Help me my friends :sam:

Tony

 

[tmbg]

I lost an Apogee FC-8 tdif/adat converter that I need DESPERATELY, and that sort of stuff is getting really hard to find. Boy I was sad over that one!

 

[tony dB]

i'm still ready to hit that guy who beat me right in the face, HE's lucky that there's an ocean and 5000 miles in between us, or I'LL SHOW HIM!!!!

not, :grin:

he knows something what i don't, i make better albums then him (i hope)

 

[Scenaria]

your outbidder probably had a higher proxy on his bid...

which automatically bid over yours... the question is... did you put down as much as you were willing to pay or were you willing to spend more? if you put down the maximum then theres no way you could have won assuming your opponent was willing to go higher.. but if your now thinking you should have bid a little higher then this is why it did not work... you must always bid your maximum at the last minute and be willing to walk away if someone else outbids you with their proxy

 

[CJ]

It's tough from Hellgium. I live about two blocks from the servers, so I used to have about a 5 second lead time.
Sniping software, or if you are cheap like me, get a digital timer that counts down to zero, sync it with the ebay clock, get your ping time dialed in by bidding on a cheap item, then look at the bidding history which will have the exact time that your bid was recieved, subtract the difference, then use the delay time to bid on another item. Keep doing this until you get it down to where your bid gets there 1 second befor the end of the auction. Two seconds won't beat the snipers, so you have to get it down to 1 second. Once you get good at this, you can win almost every time, provivding you have a max bid that is over the next guy.

 

[mkruger]

While there is no sure way to win... you can try AuctionSniper.com You put in your maximum bid like you usually would, but you can specify the time your bid is made... ex: you could bid the last 1 second or 3 seconds before the end of auction. This way you don't have to worry about retracting your bid if your change your mind.

but i never understand why anyone waits until the last minute to bid. everyone know they are only going to bid so much... so why not just bid your max and wait to see who wins. Is there something i'm missing about the whole process?????

 

[Scenaria]

you wait until the last minute so that you dont allow others to contimplate if they would like to bid over you... if you bid early then someone else can come in and *think about it* then make a bid... this leads to a bidding war which obviously drives the value up which sucks for everyone but the seller...

the problem with trying to nail down a bid within the last second or two is that ping times change... they go up and down depending on net traffic...

I personally like esnipe... they work ok...

 

[alk509]

Gee, Hellgium... I hope it wasn't me who beat you: I just esniped my way to a Sound Technology 1700B.....

Anyway, here's Steve's wonderful post, without which I probably wouldn't have won today:

http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=3281

Thanks Steve! :grin:

Peace,
Al.

 

[Bryson]

[quote author="cjenrick"] Two seconds won't beat the snipers, so you have to get it down to 1 second. Once you get good at this, you can win almost every time, provivding you have a max bid that is over the next guy.[/quote]

So if I bid @ 2 sec, a sniper (or software) has time to see my bid and then out bid me?

 

[Scenaria]

no

but a esnipe could drop a bid in on the last second which might proxy above yours if theirs is higher

 

[tony dB]

thanks for the insights :thumb:
AND the link to Steve's post, that's the one i spoke about

No, it wasn't you Al!
I was bidding on a nice and cheapo set of ddrumtriggers, btw

We have a nice set of these in our studio, but with metaldudes with zillion tomtoms and multiple kickconfigurations coming in more often again, I need expansion soon.

Cheers,

Tony

 

[Category 5]

The bottom line with ebay is that if you bid your ABSOLUTE maximum price, the only way you'll lose is if someone's willing to pay more.

Bidding early creates demand, and demand drive prices higher, true. Wait as long as you can to bid, and then bid your MAX!' A minute before auction end is usually playing ti plenty safe (assuming you only plan to make one bid - again, know your maximum price! Bid it only once!)

Even people waiting to snipe you in the last second can't beat you unless they want to pay more. Everybody forgets this.

People bid $100 (hypothetically) and then bitxh when they lose it for $105. My Mom used to do this all the time. She would say "Well I would have gone to $115.00" That's not how auctions work. If you'll go to 115 or even $150 you need to know that before you bid. otherwise you run the risk of disappointment.

Shane

 

[rafafredd]

In the end, wins who wants to pay more. Well, this is an auction... So, I always go as high as I can, or I don´t go at all...

 

[Infernal_Death]

I have got a simple strategy which works best for me.

If there is an item i am interested in i take it into my watch list.
Then i am going to educate myself about the normal used going price and what the item sells new. So that i have a point to figure out what i am willing to pay for.
When the auction draws to the end i open two browser windows. One displays the actual auction where i can hit refresh to watch the price and time til the auction is over.
The other window already has my highest bid together with my user data (name & password) typed in.
If the time is around 10-15 secs before end i switch over to the other window with my data typed in and immideately place my bid. Either i am highest bidder and nobody has time to outbid me or somebody already entered a higher bid. In the second case there is nothing you can do about it. If there is someone out there willing to pay more you always lose. But if it's the first case there can be plenty people out there willing to pay more, they simply won't have the time to place their new bids.
That's why i don't agree with bidding one minute before auction ends. One minute is plenty of time for somebody to enter a new bid. Even if they don't outbid you they will drive your price up which isn't nice.

Well i have to say that this approach can also backfire. If you place your bid at the last seconds an unexpected serverload can ruin your chance to get the item. I always allow 10 seconds for my browser to get the data to ebay. This way it arrives around 2-5 secs before end which is the time you need to refresh. So if you are the highest bidder you have the item 100%

There is just one rule with ebay that i think many people don't get. It's not the person winning, who is willing to spend the most money. It's the person winning who has the highest bid when the auction ends. It's so often that i see pointless bidding wars 5 minutes before the item ends which always only helps the seller because all but one bidder will lose and the one winning needs to pay much more.
Also maybe it's just me but i think ebay over time got more of an sellers paradise than a buyers paradise. I remember the beginning of german ebay (around 2001) where you could make quite some deals. Today with tv and radio advertising every child knows about ebay and dumb people drive the prices up like crazy. It's nothing unusual today to see used items go for around new prices or even more.

Flo

 

[mcs]

I never worry about the closing time, because I will with 99% certainty forget to place my bid at the correct time.

So I place my bid when I find the auction - no matter if there's 6 days or 6 minutes left. I just place my maximum bid, and I don't have to remember anything...

Best regards,

Mikkel C. Simonsen

 

[alk509]

[quote author="mcs"]So I place my bid when I find the auction - no matter if there's 6 days or 6 minutes left.[/quote]

Do you ever win?

Peace,
Al.

 

[mcs]

[quote author="alk509"]Do you ever win?[/quote]
Yes, I often do. If I don't win it's mostly because somebody wants to pay an absurd amount of money for the item - and in that case I won't win no matter when I bid.

Best regards,

Mikkel C. Simonsen

 

[Scenaria]

this is what ensipe is good for...

you can place your highest bid with esnipe whenever you want...

then they will place your bid for you a few seconds before the close of auction... this way you wont forget about that auction... I would certainly opt for this method before dropping a bid days before the close of the listing.

 

[Helsing]

Great thing about using a sniper program is that you set your highest bid and the bidding is then out of your hands. If you win you got it for a price that you feel good about and you never get dragged into a bidding war. Moreover you dont waste time checking that auction 300 times over the course of a week. Ive won and lost a lot of items this way and haven't regretted a single loss. Easy come easy go.

Helsing

 

[Category 5]

I don;t use e-snipe anymore for one reason.

I had bid on a minidisc recorder in e-snipe, and then a day later found one for a great price and bought it. The original esnipe bid was due to end the next morning.

I went to e-snipe to cancel the other bid, and their server was not responding fo some reason. This kept on for a few hours, and I ended up going to sleep. When i woke up I was the winner of the auction I wanted to cancel. I bought two minidisc recorders because of this. It cost me an extra $115.

It might not happen often, but the fact that this happened really ticked me off. I had no way to cancel the esnipe bid.

Shane