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 Replies: 15 / Views: 1,902 |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
5953 Posts |
I am currently off the coast of Brazil.
I work the night shift so most auctions I am interested in Close well before I get up.
For the last 10 days I have been posting my max bids anywhere from 10 to three hours before the auctions close. I did not win one Item on 53 bids.
Yesterday I downloaded a snipe program and set 5 bids for the last 3 seconds of the auctions. I won 3 of the five items at well below my max bid. For me the snipe program gives me a better chance of a win. For the seller I think he looses out over the way I used to bid. I suspect that my bids without the snipe programe generated more interest in the items. All my bids were CDN Bid prices on what I considered to be the grade of the coin.
I am thinking that if a buyer sees a high price on an item hours before it finishes he will pay more attention to it and maybe even decide its worth a little more than the current bid. However if an Item has a low price before the end of the auction he may only give it a cursory look as people are not bidding and its obviously not worth much.
Do I have the wrong impression here what say you.
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Moderator
United States
6563 Posts |
You are absolutely right. The biggest problem with the bidding system on ebay is NO ONE sets a Max Bid and sticks to it if they really truly want something. They will go just a bit further in a bidding war to get something that is way overpriced anyways. I love snipping and it works extremely well. I set my max bid and if I win...great. If not....oh well. If I beat someone at the last 3 seconds then too bad cause they should have had their "true" max bid anyways. As far as the seller. I think they would get more bids if there were no snippers. Personally I enjoy snippers. They pretty much max out everyones max bids at the final seconds of the auction and I tend to get more then I expected anyways. Bring me back something shiny!  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
I agree, I set my max I am willing to pay in my sniping program and forget about it, if I win it then great if I lose it then someone paid to much for it anyway and glad I set my snipe because if I had happened to be up watching it end that person just may be me. As far as the seller goes, I don't care what he gets, if he wanted more he should have set a reserve but I am betting most of the time the seller is just as happy as the sniper
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Moderator
 Australia
16846 Posts |
quote:
graceoutcast observed:
The biggest problem with the bidding system on ebay is NO ONE sets a Max Bid and sticks to it if they really truly want something.
I do, always. I bid once, and ignore the auction afterwards. Of course, after being on ebay since mid-2002, my feedback score is an almighty "33". So I can't say it's a particularly successful bidding strategy.  Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1283 Posts |
I don't have a sniper program so I pretty much do my own sniping. I'm one of those last 10 second bidders. I've pretty well with it. The last two Lincolns I won were below Gray Sheet bid. When I sell coins I always use Buy it Now. I find 99% of the BIN coins on ebay are either slightly overpriced or outrageously so. I set my coins for fair market value, and boom! They sell within a couple of days. I think most of the BIN coins are from stores, and they have the luxury of keeping them up for a month. So by laws of numbers (someone) will be willing to pay too much within that time. I set mine for a week or ten days, and they usually sell in a day or two. |
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Sniping is a buyer's game. In perfect honesty, it prevents the seller from reaping the profit which he might if you bid earlier and/or higher. However, the seller sets the rules via Opening Bid and Reserve (or the lack thereof), and it goes the way it goes from there. I've sniped well over 100 coins from ebay. In fact, I don't think I've bid prior to 5 seconds from the end in any more than 4 or 5 auctions since 1999. Furthermore, I tell you plainly that I underpaid for many of these coins. Am I morally worried? Not at all. My Maximum Bid wouldn't have changed on any occasion - if I lose it, there will be another - and if nobody else wants to bid higher, it isn't my fault. |
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Valued Member
United States
251 Posts |
So, what programs do you folks find to be the best "sniping" programs?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2764 Posts |
There are many program out there. I think all of them charge some fee. The one I used gave me 3 free winning auction before they charge. I'll put up link latter tonight.
Get back to Richards' question, I think the snipper program give the buyer more control over his/her spending, which is a good thing. The seller loose because the "bidding-war" become less severe/active.
Edited by SA4H
01/02/2008 5:57 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1840 Posts |
Sniping is great. I started using a sniping program after I lost several auctions to people that bid in $1.00 increments until they topped my max bid. Does it keep auction prices lower? Absolutely, but it is no secret that these programs are out there. Let the sellers worry about it (sorry Bobby & Susan). jbakic - https://www.cnet.com has several sniping programs for download. I use this program: http://www.download.com/Buyertools-...ml?tag=lst-1It can tie up a lot of RAM so it probably wouldn't be ideal with an older computer. It also can't snipe multiple auctions that close in close proximity. Having said that, it hasn't failed to place a bid for me in the last 2+ years. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
5953 Posts |
I use a Firefox add on. It places a snipe button on the ebay page. Set up is a little complicated but once its working it does the job. I saved a bunch on the three auctions I won so I downloded the stand alone version 'myibay' works fine to and a little easier to set up but it does cost a flat fee to register the software if you want to use it more than 30 days. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2764 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2602 Posts |
I've never tried a sniping program. 99% of the time, I place one or two bids and then walk away. Most of the time I don't win, but when I do, I usually have gotten a great bargain. Only if I happen to be on-line when an auction is about to close will I try to snipe on my own.
What kind of fees do they charge for the sniping program and for each winning auction. I mean do you wind up really saving that much if you wind up having to pay sort of a "buyer's premium" to the company that sells the sniping program?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2602 Posts |
Another thing that could be of debate: Maybe ebay should have no sniping allowed at all, like the Overstock.com strategy. I believe in Overstock, you can bid in the final seconds, but then the auction stays open another 10 minutes to allow other bidding to take place, sort of like a true live auction- if there is interest in bidding, the auction stays open. This way, the seller will get a better price, while potential buyers still have a chance to rethink whether they wish to participate or not. This would probably be a good issue to discuss. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2764 Posts |
I believed AuctionSniper charg 1% or 10% fee (I forgot) on the final value of the winning auction. I bought 9 coins that totaled up about $120, they charged me like $5-$6 (I got my first 3 winning auction for free) - I saved about $30-$50 on the coins and also the time - it also helped eliminate my "auction fever".
When you sign up, you get the first 3 winning auction for free; so, may be you should choose very wisely on which auction to use the program because you can potentially save quite a bit on the fees.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
2830 Posts |
G'day, I have been to plenty of auctions. Bruce mentions "auction fever": it's a very real factor, and one must be careful. [digression: funniest auction I went to, my employer was in diffuclt circumstances, and was selling some breeding stock to cover his bills - really needed the money; really didn't want to sell the cattle. Anyway, the auctioneer added something to the event: it was called "free beer"; when the boss got treble what he hoped for, he was very happy.] E-bay is not really an auction, in the familiar sense. In a real auction, bidding continues until only one bidder remains standing. It would be difficult to replicate that on E-bay. In real auctions, I always snipe, because I fear that if I show my interest too early, I contribute to the "overheating" which leads to "auction fever", with the result that I pay more than I might otherwise, or I miss out. The best tool in a buyer's armoury is knowledge of market value: easier said than done. Hours of research is the only method that I know. E-bay is more like an open-tender. People who bid more than once have not, I think, had a good think about what they're doing. ebay is great, in that it opens up the market to many, many sellers and buyers. [digression: why do so many USA sellers refuse to sell to us outside the USA ? In the last month, I have seen two gold coins sell for less than melt value - and one of them was a very difficult to obtain 1814 Napoleon - I would vave cheerfully paid $100 more than the final price]. What I've learned from E-bay is that there are very few "unique" coins, and I can't afford any of them. But the coins that I can realistically aspire to own will eventually come along, and I have to be ready, and willing to pay a realistic price. And if I miss out, I just have to be patient. It's very character-building. And it's the only activity I can think of where the loser keeps his money. I used to have a slow internet connection, and had to "snipe" about 45 seconds before the end time [in sniping terms, this was my "offset for windage"]. I used those intervals to think about what I was doing. Maybe it's not a perfect system, but at the end of it all, the highest bidder wins - and that's hard to argue against. Peter in Oz still looking for an 1820 threepence |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1283 Posts |
I don't think there's anything wrong with bidding in the very last seconds. It's no different than entering your highest, final bid and then walking away.
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Replies: 15 / Views: 1,902 |
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Posted 12/30/2007 10:45 pm
