Ebay

[zoltan]

Hi,

Please, help me to understand how to bid on EBAY. After several months of looking on ebay for some cheap NEMA 34 motors, high torque, for my dream machine. There have been some Nanotek - Germany, very cheap stepper motors. The bid was around $5 and the shipping cost was $19 to Europe. So, they have been in my budget. I bid at $10 but I have outbid in last moment at $10.50. The other one I bid at $14 and I have outbid at $14.5 in last minute and the same was hapen with that of $19 at $19.5. Can somebody to help me understand what I did wrong and what I must do for the future to avoid losing the bid? I feel that I did something wrong as I was sure that there is not interest for biding more as until last minute I have been the highest bidder.

Thank you,

Zoltan

[joecnc2006]

Well you need to put in the maximun bit you want to spend on the item, then when someone bids you bid will kickin and put the next amount just above theirs, It will not bid the max. amount you bid it will bid in increments of what you assign it. another thing alot of people use is a snipper site or program that will look at the last minutes left and just before close will place a bid for you, hence snipper a bid in.

Joe

[Al_The_Man]

What you need to do is establish what the maximum you want to pay (your reserve bid) and enter it as you bid, this will not be displayed unless someone has a reserve bid that is higher, in that case his bid will immediatly leap-frog over your reserve bid.
The best thing to do, epecially against bidders who are bidding in increments and not reserve bidding, is to enter your reserve bid, nearest to the end of the auction as possible.
This is called 'sniping'.
If someone else gets it then it is above what you wanted to pay anyway.
Al.

[zoltan]

Hi,

Thank you very much. How can you bid in increments. I did not realize that there is this option. Could you give me some indications?

Thank you,

Zoltan

[Al_The_Man]

Bid in increments is bidding at the required minimum above the current bid, and only bid when you see the bidding increase.
Reserve bidding is bidding the maximum you want to pay the bid will only go up by bid increments depending what others have bid.
IOW if the bid is at $10,00 and you bid $40.00 , the bid will only increase by the minimum amount to just over $10.00, if no other bidders are in the picture.
Al.

[zoltan]

I see. Must try. Maybe I will get some 34. Thank you.

[dutchcedar]

Its best to decide your highest price and put it in during the final seconds of the auction. You'll win more auctions and pay less by doing that. Putting bids in early only gives other bidders a price to beat.

[Agro]

Don't wait until the last minute. What you have seen is called sniping - where people use external software to lodge their bid in the last few seconds of the auction. This has the effect of avoiding a bidding war, but to my mind is a dishonest practice.

The number of times I have lost an auction by 50c is annoying.

The E-Bay T&C's don't prohibit it, so sniping is here to stay.

Agro.

[dutchcedar]

^^^ Please explain how sniping is dishonest. It may be a dishonest sounding term, but only describes putting in an honest bid at the most opportune time.

Putting in a bid in at an opportune time is smart, but hardly dishonest. If you're annoyed by being beat by 50 cents at the last minute, understand that you were probably beat by a bid much higher than that. eBay only bids for you as high as it needs to.

I recently won a turntable using your method (we were out of town) and after looking at the bids, it cost an extra thirty bucks or so because of it. One bidder kept inching up the price over a two day period. It was only a $70. item.

Conversely, I won a vertical mill auction by about ten bucks (the minimum bid increment) using my method and payed a couple hundred bucks less than I was willing to.

That you expose your intentions early may seem more honest to you, but let me ask, how's it working for ya? I don't see anything dishonest about it at all.

[Agro]

I am welcome to my opionion, and in my opionion sniping is dishonest. In your opinion sniping is a fair approach to winning a bid - fair enough.

No need to take offence - none was intended.

Cheers
Agro.

[martinw]

Originally Posted by dutchcedar ^^^ Please explain how sniping is dishonest. .

Dear dutchcedar,

I'm with you all the way on this one.

The reason why people "snipe" on EBay is really simple, and not at all dishonest.

I can only talk from my own experiences which are...

1) You see something on EBay

2) You compare costs elsewhere

3) You consider the risk of buying from a complete stranger

4) You decide that there is a price that you are prepared to pay, and a risk, for that item on EBAY above which you are not prepared to go.

5) You place your bid at absolutely the last few seconds that your nerve can take in order to prevent a reactive bid at the end of the auction.

6) If someone has placed a higher bid previously, you lose, and they win.


I really do not see the point in bidding the item up in the days before the auction ends. Is this dishonest?

Maybe I've lost the plot when it comes to ethics. Please help.

Best Wishes

Martin

[unterhaus]

if you bid early, chances are the seller has shills that will explore exactly how much you want to win the auction. Nobody likes to lose, and some people will waste money to prove it.

The ebay system works in such a way that you always lose only by the bid increment. Most snipers don't use a sniping software. I just use a probablistic system where at about 30 seconds til the end, I enter my bid, take a few deep breaths, and press the bid button. I try to only bid once, if I really want something, I figure out how much I will pay and bid that. I spend some effort on that decision, and pick a number where if the bid is 50 cents higher, I'll be happy somebody else won the auction.

I've seen ebay items that have gone unsold 4 times, and if I bid early just to snag the item cheap, somebody outbids me, where they could have had it for the minimum bid price the 4 previous time it was auctions. I don't know if that's a form of shilling, but when I bid more than 8 hours early, I have never won. I think some people don't bid on things unless someone else bids on an item. On the other hand, I am very reluctant to bid on something if someone else has bid on it, unless it is very cheap.