I’m not a big user of ebay but I’ve made some purchases now and then. Generally I go ahead and punch in the most I’m wiling to spend as my initial bid, and then either I get it (usually at significantly less than my maximum bid) or I don’t because someone bid higher than I wanted to spend. I don’t feel bad when I lose because by definition it would have cost me more than it was worth to me.
Other people I understand use a technique called sniping wherein they make a bid fractions of a second before the auction ends so no-one can bid later than they did. Many other people complain about this practice.
I am mystified as to why this is the case. I can’t think of any scenario where by sniping with my bid I would pay less or win more than I do using my current strategy, and I don’t see any scenario in which someone else sniping would cause me to pay more or win less. Either someone else is willing to pay more than me or they aren’t. Having that information 0.2 seconds or 2 hours before the end does me no good.
You purchase things differently than how most people I know do it, that’s why
Standard practice for snipers is not to put in the amount you’re most willing to spend up front. Remember it’s an auction, and not everyone shows their highest hand at the beginning
In your case, it would cost you less if you waited until the last second then put in an amount lower than what you want to spend, but do so close enough to the deadline so that no one else can bid after you. If done correctly, you’d have a higher chance of winning the auction and pay less
That’s exactly the purpose. Clearly it wouldn’t work for you since your initial bid is the highest you’re willing to go. Most people do not do this; they make the lowest possible bid and watch it, rebidding as necessary until they win or the price exceeds their price threshold.
eBay and many other auction sites discourage sniping; some even implement scripts in their software that will automatically extend an auction if a bid is made in the last seconds.
There is a psychological aspect to auctions that if the bidding is active, people perceive that the item’s value must be greater than they originally thought and they become willing to increase their original bid. Sniping mitigates that for the sniper. If they bid as late as possible, it won’t be possible for anyone to have second thoughts and increase their own bid.
If everyone determined what an object was truly worth to them and placed a bid for that amount, and no amount of bidding by other people caused that person to reconsider, then sniping wouldn’t work.
Sniping is for irrational people - who also tend to get angry when I point that out
If your perceived value of an item goes up after someone else has revealed to be willing to pay more for it than your original bid, then your original bid was incorrect, or, more likely, you’re letting yourself get suckered into paying more than you really want to. If you ALSO don’t want to deal with the resulting loss of self respect, you get sniping.
Maybe an exception can be made for rare items that are extremely low priced - as in, don’t give anyone else the idea it might be worth much. But that still only works if everybody else is sniping too.
Do people still do this? I know sniping used to be a huge problem, and then eBay implemented the system you describe which seems to me to have alleviated the problem quite a bit. From what I remember, you used to place a bid, and then if someone outbid you you had to go and increase it. So you can see how it was a problem that someone could come in and outbid you in the last second. Now, the problem is that for some reason people don’t put in the maximum amount they’re really willing to pay, or get competitive with other bidders and keep increasing by little bits trying to win. You’re one of the rational ones, the people who might complain are too competitive about it, and are the types who would get in a bidding war and end up overpaying.
I think people can still snipe to some degree, though, by coming in at the last second with an absurdly high maximum bid just to “guarantee” an automatic outbid of the current winner’s maximum, but obviously that’s pretty risky because what if they really wanted it and bid something outlandish (though not expected to really go that high)? I’ve had it happen before where I would be the current leader on an auction for a week, and then lose it in the last minute. But since I put in the most I was willing to pay anyway, I could never get too upset about it (though it is frustrating to lose it to someone over an extra $.25, but there’s no telling how high they put their maximum).
Just keep doing it the way you’re doing it, and being chill about it when you lose, and you’ll retain your sanity.
Imagine if you’re buying something at would be willing to pay $1,000 for it. Then somebody buys it for $1,000.01. In hindsight ,would it have really destroyed you to pay that extra penny? Even though you may have considered $1,000 to be your upper limit, most people probably wouldn’t be upset paying a penny or a quarter more. It’s nice to have more than a second or two to reconsider just how high you’re willing to set your “upper limit”.
It works the other way too. Sometimes you may bid $1,000, but with 10 seconds left the bid is still only at $500. You think you’re getting a great deal, until you see at the last second that somebody else bumped your bid up to $975. Sure it’s still within what you said you’re willing to pay, but it sucks to see a great deal disappear in front of your eyes.
If you’re going to snipe (put a bid in at the last second), there’s no reason to not put in the highest amount you’re willing to pay. eBay is only going to register your bid as “2nd highest bidder + next increment” (that “next increment” being $0.50, $1.00, or whatever it is at that point). Many people are under the incorrect assumption that if you bid $10 on an item where the only other bid is $1, you’re going to be charged $10. No - you’re going to be charged $1.10, which is one increment more than the next highest bid.
If someone then comes in and bids $20 on your $10, they’re going to be charged $10.25 or somesuch.
My understanding of how eBay bidding works (I’ve participated in several auctions as both buyer and seller, but I’m not an expert) is that you tell eBay your maximum bid, and througout the auction eBay will automatically and immediately increase your public bid amount just high enough to outbid the current highest amount bid. If someone bids an amount higher than your maximum, then you’re out of the game.
If a sniper bids at the last second, but your maximum bid is still higher, then eBay should automatically raise your bid to beat the sniper’s bid. Isn’t that the way it works in reality? This should happen even if the sniper’s bid is a fraction of second before the auction end.
Sniping prevents other bidders from “chipping away” at the sniper’s maximum bid ceiling. If the sniper times his max bid in the very last seconds, another bidder that truly outbids him will win but the other pretenders that submit a bunch of “micro” bids don’t raise his purchase price too much. Sniping saves money.
That’s true but it leaves out the particular behaviors of real bidders. Bidders are not limited to ONE bid which has to be their best offer and forever hold their peace. They can submit multiple bids. They can deliberately submit multiple bids that they know won’t be the winning bid simply as a “probe” to test other bidders maximum ceilings. By deliberately NOT bidding their maximum, they are “not showing their cards” so to speak.
The other aspect of bidding is “social proof.” If an item has zero bids, it looks undesirable to others. This can also help prevent bidding wars and keep purchase price down.
I don’t know if this is the real issue, but it has a big impact on timing.
Suppose you are outbid by someone else, and go off and buy the product somewhere else. Then the lead bidder retracts his/her bid or is disqualified. Surprise - you are now the high bidder again and are obligated to buy it, even if you already bought another one somewhere else. If you don’t enter your bid until the end, you don’t have this issue.
Conversely, suppose you are the high bidder for the duration of the auction. You are going to refrain from bidding on other auctions because you might win this one. Then at the last second a sniper swoops in and bids it up. Now you’ve lost this auction and also possibly lost an oppportunity elsewhere.
I don’t think either of the above necessarily involve real last second “sniping”. But they’re reasons that it makes sense to only bid on auctions that are about to end (unless you’re going to be busy elsewhere when the auction ends).
Sniping is a way to prevent inexperienced buyers outbidding you and winning the item or raising the price that you have to pay.
Suppose A is an experienced buyer who doesn’t use sniping. He places his maximum bid of £10 2 hours before the end of the auction.
B is an inexperienced buyer. At 1 hour before the auction he sees the price is £4 and decides to make a bid of £5. He’s immediately informed that he’s been outbid. He thinks about it for a bit and places a bid for £7. Again he’s told that he’s been outbid. Annoyed now, he decides he’ll show his ‘opponent’ (A) and places a bid for £11. He wins the auction.
Now, if A uses sniping, B makes his bid of £5 and is told he’s the highest bidder. He may keep an eye on the auction but nothing happens. At the end of the auction, when he looks, he finds he’s been outbid by A who bid (or used a sniping service) ten seconds before the end of the auction.
In the second instance A gets the item for £5+bid increment whereas in the first instance A loses (or may get the item for any amount up to £10 depending on how far B will go).
Experienced Ebay buyers will always use sniping as it really does save them a lot of money.
C’mon now… for someone like you who’s familiar with computer programming, it should be quite apparent that sniping is quite rational and can be mathematically modeled using algorithms to save money.
Correct… and sniping is the optimal strategy to reduce the financial impact of this behavior.
The only minor problem with the above is that it’s wrong.
It’s frequently possible to see seven day auctions where a group of inexperienced bidders have a little bidding war over the first couple of days and raise the price from 99p to, say, £4.50.
The experienced bidder sets a snipe at £10.00.
Then it all goes quiet for a while and at the end of the auction the experienced bidder walks away with the item for £5.00. Had he placed his bid earlier there’s a good chance that the highest bidding inexperienced buyer would have either pushed the price up to well beyond £5.00 or may even have won the auction.
Sniping works and save experienced buyers a lot of money whilst allowing them to win auctions that they may otherwise have lost.
I kind of think that’s what I do, although I’ve never considered it sniping.
I keep things on my ‘watch list’ throughout the life of an auction, but I never bid on anything days in advance. Why would I? If there are others interested in the item, that might drive the price up. Even if I’m *willing *to pay $100 for something, I’d rather pay $50. Why wouldn’t I delay my bidding until close to the end of an auction?
It has happened that I’ve had an item with a 7-day auction on my watch list and by day 4, bidders have driven the price up beyond what I’m willing to pay, so I take it off my list.
To me, it is just as incomprehensible that someone would start the bidding wars that early in the life of an auction rather than waiting until a few hours before it ends.
If an item I want has multiple auctions going on at the same time I’ll bid early on one to see if it’s out of my price range and then focus on the other. Other than that I agree with what you said.
As others point out, if you preprogram your maximum bid, then others - through inexperience or excitement - might drive the bidding up to or over your maximum. That simply puts you into the situation of having to rebid higher (or snipe higher).
there is always the fear of shill bidding altough Ebay claims to not allow that. If I put in a bid, someone else in cahoots with the seller keeps bumping up my bid to discover my max. If they just slightly exceed my maximum, I may decide “Yes, I’ll pay $42 instead of $40.” The seller may get $42 where without my bid it would have been $25.
Or it may just be an excited rookie, who keeps bidding one more dollar then one more dollar. If I have a low maximum, he may stop and go elsewhere when he thinks he’s the top bidder; later I will re-bid or snipe slightly higher.
You are right - sniping makes no sense in a rational sales environment. Auctions often are anyting BUT rational.
I see the logical solution to be extending the auction deadline when there’s a bid. I.e. An auction closes when there’s been no bid for 10 minutes up to or after the official deadline. This means nobody fails to bid based on time; this is almost the same as a regular auction, where biding keeps going until there are no more bids.
Sniping is basically a method of denying other bidders access to useful information: that you are interested in the item, and at what price. Keeping that information to yourself until the last second can indeed often result in paying a lower price, as others have noted.
