36 replies to this topic

[Mark Onofri]

Funny thing about eBay, if you let them bid to the highest amount you want to spend, after your initial bid, not only does it count as a separate bid, it also shows your name twice. I've tried to bid at the last minute, ain't happening. The part that really gets me, you're winning until the last 3 seconds , and that's when eBay's Bazilion dollar computer kicks in and cuts your throat! Ain't that a.......

[Bill from NH]

Jessie, there's a lot of automatic bidding going on,  on eBay. Much of it happens during the last 10 sec0nds. or less of a auction.. You won't ever beat these "bid stealing" programs with a manual bid, unless you too use a "bid steaker." When eBay was pretty much an ordinary auction site &  didn't list the majority of it's items [Buy it Now], bid stealing programs were pretty much kept for use on elite, high cost, top quality items. All that has changed. With fewer opportunities to use them & with more  people having the programs to use,. people today will use the bid stealing programs any & everything. Six or eight years ago, I soon grew tired of having "nickel & dime" items constantly being taken by bid stealers. I haven't made an eBay bid since then. I refuse to join them, but I do find it humorous when 2 or 3 bid stealers steal from one another in the closing seconds of an auction.

[MattD]

Bottom line is it's an auction site and highest bid will always win.  Bid what it is worth to you or use a snipe program to bid for you.   Your bid will go in and you will win or lose.     You win and the price is what it is worth to you or you lose and somebody pays more than you think it's it worth.

[Martin]

My sentiments exactly Matt. There is no stealing, just high bid wins.

[Bill from NH]

Just trying to help a friend from keep wasting his time.

[MattD]

I've learned over the years that you might put a low bid on something just to make it easy to track. No sense at all in putting your max bid in until 2-4 seconds left in the auction.It's not a big deal, but you don't give the other bidders a couple hours or days to  bid against you.   

 

 You just need to know what it's worth to you and let that be your guide. Don't get caught up in trying to beat everybody else or in bidding because something is talked about on the internet.

 

A few of us guys here that sometimes get interested in the same item. We usually try to check with each other, as there is no reason for me to bid up Martin or Jeff or anybody else that is willing to pay more than me. If it's worth more to one of the other guys, we just lay off and not make them bid against us.

 

There are no guarantees, but at least we don't work against each other.  There is plenty of stuff that keeps turning up and the next few years should see  even more for sale and fewer bidders.

[Jay Guard]

I've learned over the years that you might put a low bid on something just to make it easy to track. No sense at all in putting your max bid in until 2-4 seconds left in the auction. It's not a big deal, but you don't give the other bidders a couple hours or days to bid against you.   

 

 You just need to know what it's worth to you and let that be your guide. Don't get caught up in trying to beat everybody else...

 

Exactly! 

[Phil Smith]

You proxy bid on ebay, so a lot of the last minute action can be due to people placing bids that don't beat a high bid that might have been made days ago. Like everyone has said, bid the highest you willing to pay from the get-go and don't even watch it. You either win or you don't. You'll get an email if you did.

 

But if you want to snip Gixen is free. https://www.gixen.com/index.php

[Isaac S.]

That defiantly works, but I (with my low funds) find I do better when I place a high bid during the last few minutes or seconds so that someone else doesn't have a bidding war with you're high bid. It ends up doing more harm than good. I still have a max. I am willing to spend but I still want to try to spend as little as possible. 

[Phil Smith]

I do the same thing for the same reasons, but I use Gixen.

[Mark Onofri]

Unless they've only made one of them, the items are like the weather in Syracuse,( or Seattle for that matter) wait a minute it will change. Wait a day, a week someone will see that there's a market for something they have and , and what people are willing to pay for it , and they will post it.

[Mark Onofri]

I hope I didn't derail this(although I did contribute to it drifting towards eBay) too badly. Can We get back to the Ferrari's?