So I’m basically hot to buy something on ebay, but the bidding ends tonight long after I’m in bed (midnight-ish Eastern Time). Any trustworthy dopers out there willing to help me out (I’ll forward my user id, password, item # and how high I’m willing to go)? Email me— camlyndc@yahoo.com .
No offense, booklover, but this is really a bad idea. If the item means that much to you, but in a high proxy bid, or get yourself up 10 minutes before the auction ends, check on it and go back to sleep once it’s over.
Zev Steinhardt
Guess you’re right, zev…if I had thought twice about this, I would’ve realized that someone logging in as me can see my personal info. Ergh…never mind, just close this sucker!
If you have an idea of how you want to go, just put in a proxy bid. Anyone you’d get to do this for you wouldn’t go any higher, so there’s no reason to do it this way.
How do you put in a proxy bid??
When you place a bid, simply put in the maximum amount that you want to pay for the item. The bid shown will be the current high bid + the bid increment. Ebay will keep upping your bid as others bid until your maximum is reached.
Example:
Suppose the current high bid is $5 and the increment is $1.
You put in a proxy bid of $10 (the max you’re willing to pay). When you submit the bid, your current bid will be $6. Suppose another bidder comes along and bids $7, eBay will automatically up your bid to $8 (to top the $7 bid). It will keep doing this until $10 is reached.
Zev Steinhardt
If the item in question is fairly common, just wait for the next one to be listed. I just lost out on an item last night but today I found almost the exact same item with a buy-it-now option and got that. I saved myself at least $8 in the process.
Gotcha–the thing is, this is a very unusual item. Also some ebayers out there (myself included) know that bidders tend to place a bid at a certain increment and will bid, say, $1.07 over that to win the item at the last minute.
At any rate, I’ve got a coworker helping me out 
Hey, booklover, rather than getting someone else to put in a bid for you, try this:
www.merlinsoftware.com/downloads
They have a program called ‘snipe’ that will automatically dial up your ISP at whatever time, and bid on whatever auction you give it, up to whatever amount, even a series of bids in a row. It’s free to download and try out, you only have to pay to get the ‘full version’.
It’s part of the auction magic suite. Look under trials and freeware
Sniping works, but only if they don’t close the auction early…
So, booklover didja get whatcha wanted?
Zev Steinhardt
Sadly, nope. I told my coworker to go up to $75 and it went to $98.95. If I’d been there, I’d probably have gone up that high…but now I’ve hooked someone on ebay!
handy: I’ve never seen anyone close the auction early. Why would they?
booklover:
That’s why you put in a proxy bid of $75.08 when your max is $75 - in order to foil the snipers. Also, and this is not meant to be offensive, if you’re not going to learn your options for an online auction, I wouldn’t ever bid. $75 is a big chunk of change to casually throw around on the internet.
“I’ve never seen anyone close the auction early. Why would they?”
Sometimes they get enough money or they don’t have the item anymore or don’t want to
sell it or as is sometimes a case they sold it to someone off ebay, which isn’t legal by ebay rules, etc.
I find it hilarious that you think somebody would close an aution because they don’t have enough money.
“Well, gee, I’d like to sell this item for $20 bucks, but I just can’t pay the 35-cent listing fee and the buck-twenty in closing fees.” 