For instance, I think those people who wait until t-minus 30 seconds to bid on an item, though they never bidded on it once before in the entire 7-days it was on the freaking block… well… it shouldn’t be illegal or anything… but it sure is unsportsmanlike.
(Hey You!, clearly burned on more than one occasion by above bidding style)
It is called sniping and it is an expected part of bidding. The way to answer it is decide what you will spend on the item, and bid that. Then go away and forget about the auction until it is over. If you win, great, if not, well that was more than it was worth to you anyway. If you are getting upset because someone sniped the auction at the last minute, you should have bid more in the first place.
Allright,
I am going to pass my secret on to my fellow Dopers, decide what the item is worth to you, deduct the shipping and bid what’s left, ok, here is the big secret, bid odd amounts ($10.37 instead of $10.00) I “win” a lot of auctions by pennies because the sniper folks are stuck with the “proper” bid increments but since I placed my bid earlier I can outbid them by less (I love proxy bidding!).
And do NOT check back until the auction is over, auction fever is a bad thing!
Unclviny
Sniping is the only way to go. It:
Recently I did a proxy bid instead of a snipe since the auction ended at 6am. Whoah do I regret that - the seller did one of the most obvious shills I’ve ever seen. They got an ID to bid, then retracted their bid, and 20 seconds later got another one of their IDs to bid just under my max. Never again.
It’s possible that the bidder found the auction just as it was about to end. It’s possible that they were a sniper. But in the end they were willing to pay more than you for the item, and that’s why they won.
Report them. Ebay don’t tolerate that kind of behaviour at all.
I’ve never bid on Ebay, but if I wanted something, I’d be a sniper. Why should I bid early and bid often, only to drive up the price? If I really want something, I’ll pay the price. If I’m playing the game, I’m going to play it to my advantage.
My husband did this on a silent auction. He bid, and every time someone raised, he raised again. He should have waited till the last minute - we’d have gotten the item cheaper than we did! Of course, the proceeds went to charity, so I took the philosophical outlook, but still…
What’s a shill? It sounds interesting
I have, but you know how slow eBay can be about these sorts of things. 
It’s so annoying because I desperately want this jacket and would have been willing to pay the price (obviously, since it was my highest bid) but I know if I let myself get ripped off I’ll always think about it when I’m wearing my beautiful, beautiful jacket.
And RobertP, a shill is where a seller has at least one other ID which they use to bid on their own auctions. A shiller aims not to win the auction but to make other bidders pay their highest possible bid.
I agree mostly with you on auction fever, however, there may be some exceptions. I have started dabbling with antiques on Ebay, but not being an expert, I am not always entirely sure of what everything is worth, so my own max is kind of a guess. But when I see what others are willing to bid, I get a better idea of what the actual market value of the item might be. Thus, if there is a lot of interest demonstrated, I may very well increase my max. Does this make sense to anyone but me?
[small hijack] By the way, what is the advantage of these fixed-time proxy bid auctions? It seems to me that for the seller, the live auction would be better in that they can take advantage of ‘auction fever’ and be sure of getting the highest price. There have been several cases when I lost a proxy bid auction and realized that I would have been willing to pay more… [/small hijack]
Thanks Kayeby. Any tips on what to look for to know when shilling is going on? I guess retracted bids are one indicator?
Shilling is one of those things where it’s more of a combination of factors rather than one obvious telltale sign. In my case it was suspicious because the IDs were fairly similar (1s and 0s after a lower case username), and had a history of bidding on the seller’s auctions. One of the IDs bid then retracted several hours later, then shortly after the other one bid just under my proxy. I wouldn’t have thought to check the bidding history, except that I’d thought it was odd that my winning bid (which was a weird number like $267.74) was the same as my proxy.
Retracted bids themselves aren’t really an indicator of shilling, since people retract their bids all the time. Here’s a list of things to look out for, but also a rational explanation of why it could happen:
Sometimes when an auction looks like it’s being shilled, it’s actually quite innocent. But when there’s a combination of suspicious factors it’s always worth checking out with eBay (if they ever respond, that is - grrrr)
The technology to deal w/ snipeing has been around for a while. Any last minute bids will extend the end of the auction by a certain time. Ebay has chose not to implement this system, and I have to conclude does not discourage snipeing, and also have to conclude it is not ‘against ebay ettquette’. The item is only sold at the end of the auction, that should be the only time you are required to make a decision if you wish to bid, all the rest of the time is really just advertizing.
Since my 1st ebay bid I concluded that snipeing is the only way to go, and is the only way I will bid with very limited exception.
Just my Humble
It’s tempting to do this, but it’s a bad idea. You are assuming the other bidders know more about the item than you do, which is often not true. I have seen people get caught in the “others are bidding on it so it must be a good deal” cycle and pay a lot more than what it’s worth. You shouldn’t be bidding on an item you don’t know the value of.
One of the things I think a lot of early bidders don’t think about, is that the auction may not necessarily be “theirs”, just because they bid first. In all likelihood, there’s a sniper in the wings, who is already watching the auction. Like others, I’m not interested in a bidding war, and this seems to be a common result with early bidding. If I wait until the end of an auction, I can see if the item is still in a reasonable price range, without having to worry about repeatedly checking back. As far as bidding by proxy, I no longer do that either. Depending upon the bid increments, it’s possible for a sniper to win an auction for as little as 25 cents over your max bid, arrgh!
As far as etiquette, the main thing that I find rude, is when a seller holds feedback hostage. I mailed you with my information the day of the auction’s end, I sent the payment in the required time frame, I even let you know it was on its way. What’s the problem?
Then I’m guilty of this when I sell. I can explain, though. I usually sell comic books and action figures, where the typical collectors are a bit of an anal-retentive bunch, and often not the best communicators. I go to a lot of trouble to be very descriptive in my auction listings, so if my items have any minor flaws, I make potential bidders well aware. I encourage people to e-mail me with questions before bidding, and I’m always very friendly and patient with answering them. Sometimes I even take extra pictures, just to put people’s minds at ease.
But I’m just waiting for the day when someone bids anyway, receives the item from me, throws a temper tantrum over a minor imperfection, and leaves me negative feedback. Some friends who also deal in comics and toys have gotten these unwarranted negative feedbacks without warning, and I refuse to have it happen to me. If someone gives me an unwarranted negative, you’re damn skippy I’ll retaliate! I take my 100% positive feedback record and making bidders happy very seriously. That said, once somoen confirms the item they bought arrived, they’re happy, and they leave me positive feedback, I’m more than happy to reciprocate. I have never had to leave anyone negative feedback, and I don’t ever want to have to.
Exactly.
This is the ONLY way to bid. If you can’t do this, you’re going to pay more than you want. Pick a number that makes you comfortable saying, “If someone bids more, he can have it. Good luck with it at those prices.”
By bidding early with that number, you may inspire someone else to get wild and bid more even though it’s not really “worth” it, but what are you going to do?
That’s a pretty good idea. I’m going to borrow that one.
The problem with those plans is that I only buy from eBay when I want to pay less than what the item is worth to me.
I agree you should pick a threshold price in advance, but why put in an early bid for that amount? It can drive up the price, as you just said. If you can afford the time and effort, it makes more sense not to make any bids and check back at the last minute. If the current bid is above your predefined theshold, forget it. If not, put in a bid at the last second. If someone else’s proxy bid outbids you, forget it.
scr4 , because I do not want to spend the extra time and effort keeping track of the auctions, then going back at the end so see what the bid is. It is easier to just put in my bid and move on to something else.
Lok