On the other hand, I’ll bet the seller was thrilled to sell at $86 rather than $60. I aim to be a “stealth sniper”, I don’t let anyone know I’m interested until the last second. So many bidders (mostly newbies) will get into a bidding war because they don’t take the time to figure out that is not the most economical way to win on eBay.
Exactly. It’s far better from a buying perspective not to bid at all, period, except in the last 5 seconds of an auction. A lot of people use http://www.esnipe.com but it’s not necessary during waking hours.
All you need is a second browser window and a good stopwatch. About 10 minutes before the auction ends, enter your maximum bid – the maximum amount you are willing to pay – into the first browser, but don’t hit enter just yet. Open a second window of the same item and go to the ‘bidding history’ page (it loads and reloads far quicker) and hit refresh every 30 seconds or so. At around 4 minutes start your watch. With about 5 seconds to go, hit “enter” on your bid, and Good Luck.
You can also try vrane - another online sniping service.
And here’s an excellent site on sniping:
http://members.cox.net/cruenti/ebay/snipe.html
Sniping is an inherent part of the system, and I see nothing wrong with it, provided the sniper is a legitmate buyer. A sniper is not necessarily a bad payer- that is a different problem.
The whole point of eBay, from a buyer’s point of view, is to get a bargain. Why would I want to outbid your $5 with 4 days to go, giving you a chance to increase your maximum bid past mine and thus forcing me to go higher, when I can do it in the last few seconds and not give you a chance to beat me?
If you want to take a gamble by putting in a low maximum bid, you can’t complain if someone outbids you in the last seconds, and you can’t complain that you have been “cheated” out of the item you are bidding for. The fact that you have held the highest bid for a few days does not entitle you to win the auction. The person entitled to win the auction is the one who holds the highest bid at the auction’s close.
(NB I am not suggesting that anyone here is complaining of this!)
It is difficult to avoid being sniped, but a legitimate maximum bid will at least ensure the person who does win is willing to pay more than you for the item - the whole idea of an auction!
I could see ending the auction early to avoid sniping being to the seller’s advantage, as long as he advertised that he was going to do so. This would keep people from waiting until the last minute to enter their real bids, and would encourage competition to drive the price up. It would be interesting to post an auction that says “I’m closing this auction sometime between 15 and 30 minutes before the posted closing time” to see how that affects bidding practices.
I still don’t understand. The idea of a maximum bid is that it’s the most you’re willing to go. By this definition, if someone outbids you, you’re happier to let him have it.
So why would the other person increase his $5 maximum if that was him maximum? And why wouldn’t you put your maximum in in the first place?
I just seems like many are getting upset because of a practice that, although stupid and inefficient from their point of view, doesn’t hurt you any.
Auctions are kind of crazy things. I bid on 2 used animal clippers. If they are in working order,all parts included and useable without having to buy parts they may be worth $300.00.
The seller bought them at a farm sale. So they don’t know anything about them.
The snipers were opportunity seekers. They only bid $1.00 or $2.00 at a time.
This is the approach I use and it works for me just fine. 90% of what I buy on eBay is first edition books. The price range for the ones I collect generally runs between $50 - $150, although there are some titles that exceed $500.
The first thing I do is see what I could get the same title (in similar condition) for buying from a antiquarian bookdealer. There are several web sites that have many dealers and books listed. I base my bid on that price.
For example, if a book would sell retail for $125, I might decide that $88 is a good bargain, if I can get it. I might go a little higher if it is a title especially attractive to me. But I’m certainly not going to bid near the retail price (or I would just buy the book outright from that source!). The mistake many bidders make is thinking that THIS ONE AUCTION represents the only chance to get an item, and then they go crazy with the bids, especially when getting caught up with snipe competition at the end of an auction.
I place my max bid whenever I see the auction. Forget this waiting until the last second business. If someone wants the book for more than $88, well they can have it. I know what my max is based on the value of the book and my desire to have it.
I’m comfortable with this approach and I have a really nice and valuable collection to show for it. 
What sniping does is allow you to enter a bid where the other person cannot bid above you if you get the high bid. Example:
5$ on an auction with three days gets bid up to 9$ with a new high bidder. The previous high bidder decides he really wants it, so he gets the new high bid at 16$.
-VS-
5$ on an auction with ten seconds to go. The new high bidder puts it at 9$, and the previous bidder cannot go back and up his amount.
Yes, proxy bidding can defeat sniping, but with a high proxy bid, you get screwed like friedo. So if you edge your way up, a sniper might take your item from you. Hence, you must engage in a sniper duel.
Good luck grasshopper.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but if people would actually bid their high bid instead of holding out, then snipers could get “screwed” easily too.
Personally, I still don’t understand how anyone complains that they have to pay a price that they bidded for. If you think you can get it cheaper than that somewhere else, don’t place a bid that high. Right?
I pretty much agree with Cisco and CurtC. If the explanation of how Ebay works is to be believed, there is actually no such thing as sniping. People think they are getting “sniped” because they do not know their own minds, or they think that their maximum bid is what they will bid no matter what the next highest bid is.
It is a psychological game that the player is destined to lose. friedo believes (unless that post was intended ironically) that buying an item worth $110 for $86 was somehow a bad deal. This was a great surprise to me, but other people posting seem to agree! Was the item worth $110 or not? Somebody else was willing to pay only $85 for it so it is logical that it went to friedo, is it not? I just can’t figure out what has gone wrong here.
I don’t use Ebay because I can’t believe I have full command of the subject. Too many people believe sniping works for me to trust my knowledge. If I were to bid for a product, I would enter the amount the product was worth to me without any regard to timing. If I understand the system, this is a perfectly sensible strategy, but most Ebay users I have talked to recommend against it. They say you should only bid in the closing seconds of the auction, and if they are correct, either I don’t understand the rules or they don’t understand the concept of the maximum bid.
Assuming I do understand the rules (not necessarily a safe assumption!), if you are honest with your maximum bid you cannot be sniped. How much an item is worth to each person in an auction has nothing to with how much it is worth to her or his fellow bidders. If someone’s maximum bid changes during an auction it is because (a) their needs or aesthetics changed during that auction, (b) they learned more about the product during the auction, or © they were dishonest, not in an unethical/interpersonal way, but with themselves.
Your position makes sense, IF you assume that the bidder has either an infinite supply of money or is only participating in one auction. In the real world, people usually have finite resources and participate in multiple auctions.
The reason why people do not immediately bid the maximum is that they may not be able to afford paying the maximum for ALL of the auctions they are a part of. They are counting on paying less than their maximum for some of them.
For example, say you have $50 and there are two items, both of which you would pay $30 for. You can’t bid $30 for each, because you would not be able to pay. Therefore you wait until the last second and, judging by the current high bids, you know how much to bid for each item to have the best chance of winning without going over your $50 limit. You may in fact end up bidding your maximum for one of the items, and you would be willing to bid the maximum for both if you had the money, but due to your limited resources it is beneficial to wait until you have the most information you can get before deciding how much to bid for each item.
Because not everyone puts in their true maximum bid to begin with! As Nightime says, not everyone can afford to put true maximums in for all the items they are bidding on. Also, someone might change their mind about how much they are willing to pay for an item, or have just lost another auction thus freeing up more funds to put towards the auction you are bidding on.
Say I am prepared to pay $50 for an item, I wouldn’t necessarily put in a maximum bid of $50. Why? Because someone willing to pay $60 may come along and outbid me. If I put in $10, then the person who is willing to pay $60 may be content to enter a maximum bid of $20, as that still makes them the highest bidder, and allows them some leeway if a third bidder gets involved (in the same way that I have not put in my maximum bid). If I immediately go up to $30, that gives the other person the chance to go up to $40. If I wait until the last second to go up to $30 however, I will win the item, even though the other bidder would have been willing to pay twice that. If the other bidder puts in a maximum bid of $60 straight away, then fair enough and good luck to him/her.
I rarely bid on items that have a long time to go - I use the “Watch This Item” feature instead, and decide whether or not to bid nearer the close of the auction.
As you recognise, this ploy would not work if everyone put in their true maximum bid and left it at that, but not everyone does that!! In fact, I would be surprised if most people did. The only “benefit” of putting in a true maximum bid is that at least you will be assured that, if you do not win, the winner has been prepared to pay more than you.
It’s all a bit zen really… 
You guys must have a lot of money.
I bid on ebay to get a good deal.If I wanted to pay the most that I could for an item I’d buy it locally. Really thats all you are saying when you say bid the maximum you will pay.
Most of the stuff on ebay is to be found locally. there are exceptions of course.
To start or even engage in a bidding war is an auctioneers best dream. To get someone to bid the most he will pay for an item must be his second favorite dream.
Thats why I started this thread. I am sure sniping is here to stay so I need to know how to be an effective sniper.
Unfortunately my ISP will not allow me to stay on line without any activity. I get disconnected.I even get disconnected with activity more times than I care to mention.
Quote boris
People think they are getting “sniped” because they do not know their own minds,
Maybe.
You have to remember we cannot hold the item in our hands an do an inspection. I don’t want to pay 1 cent more than I have to for an item. I’m kinda funny that way.
There is a certain psychology involved. I’ve sold quite a few things on eBay, worth several hundred dollars. My experience is you have to be willing to gamble a bit if you want to sell your items. You can start the auction with your “minimum” bid of say, $150 or use a reserve price, but I’ve found this is not nearly as effective as starting the auction at $9.99 and just hang on. It takes guts but I’ve almost always done well with this method.
Because the reason you’re participating in an auction is that you don’t just want to pay “the most you’re willing to go” for an item.
Imagine there’s an item up for bids, and both you and I have decided that we’d be willing to pay $100 for it, but the bidding is at $50. If we both put in our maximum bids right now, it’ll just go right up to $100 and one of us will get a deal we think is ok. However, if we both try to wait until the last minute and bid $55 so nobody will have a chance to jump in, it’ll be a really good deal.
Okay. I’ve got to say first that I’m a bidder on WEIRD Auctions.
Also, it’s rare that there’s more than 2 others interested in what I buy (Old marketing and Self Improvement books).
Okay…
So, what do I mean by sniping my own auctions?
This.
Yesterday, I was bidding on a book for $8.99.
I would have paid $300.
But. I didn’t BID $300.
I bid $8.99 to start.
This way, if someone outbids me, he may think he’s got it.
Since I’m the only one who bid, and I bid the minimum, I’ll be told instantly if someone outbids me.
Well, remember, I’m happy to pay $300 in this case.
So, 30 seconds before the auction is over, I bid $300.
Now, anyone who snipes will get counter sniped.
My $8.99 bid isn’t raised by my snipe, unless someone else bids.
Now, sniping won’t let you buy something cheap if everyone wants it, so it makes sense to end your auctions at a time when more snipers can hang around.
Oh: The fellow above who uses ABE.COM to price his books and bids is an excellent idea.
(But many of these books are not readily available)
Ebay is a great place to find weird stuff you were always looking for… Videos, books, you name it.
I love it!
IIRC, Yahoo’s auctions (at least used to) have a built-in anti-sniping mechanism–if someone bids in the last two minutes of an auction, the time is reset to 2:00. So, basically, the winning bid has to hold its ground for two minutes. Sort of a “going once, going twice” of online auctions.
Dr. J
PhilAlex
Are you sure you can raise your own bid?
I’ve tried to put a top on my bid before but they wouldn’t let me.
Is there a procedure I don’t know about?
Sorry, what I meant to say was Raising my MAX Bid.
EG: I’m the only bidder.
I bid $8.99.
Starting bid is $8.99.
So, the “Bid” is $8.99
Now, I bid $300. Same account.
“The Bid” is still 8.99, but I’ve got $290 of slack there now.
See, all I wanted from the first bid was notification if I was ever outbid… So I don’t forget.
And, why not wait and just bid $300? The seller is less likely to cancel the auction due to lack of interest that way… Or, if it’s really rare and only a few people want it, I don’t want the seller to get an Email saying " Cancel the Auction and I’ll give you $50 for it".
I want the seller’s greed as a safety.
I want him to think, “Hmm… Maybe Phil Alex will pay $60 for it!”
Phil