EBay Sucks... i get sniped on EVERY auction....

[TheAdvocate]

Based on the thread title, I expected to read about their horrific customer service, how they hide their 800 number and wont deal with you directly, and absolutely refuse to credit anyone for anything, no matter how bad Ebay screwed up.

Plenty of good reasons to hate them.

 

[Nocturnal]

You need to utilize Buy It Now.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: aphex

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: aphex

Originally posted by: drinkmorejava
uhhh, raise your max bid, if you actually want it, put in the max number you'll pay for it. Also, you can use something like unwirebuyer.com to have them call you 5-10min before it ends and you can bid on the phone. (and yes, when you sign up, you are going to list me as your referer).

I do, but someone else always wins by $0.30 with 2 seconds left... Its not as if they put it as their max bid on ebay, they just sniped at the last second using something....

I don't think you understand how ebay works

I think i do...

If they had put their max bid at even $10 higher than me, when i bid, it would automatically go to their bid at one increment past mine. What i am saying though is that I am bidding a certain amount, and i am winning until 2-3 seconds left, then they outbid by a few cents....

uh, don't put in your max bid until the auction is close to closing. if you put your max bid in right away, that means there's time for other people to bid more than you. or start using a bid sniping thing yourself.

 

[archcommus]

This is awfully confusing.

I agree with not bidding until the end. There's simply no point since the auction may go WAY higher than you're willing to pay anyway. If you can be there, just wait, and with 10 seconds to go, decide if you're willing to pay more or not.

I think the point of sniping is to pay just slightly more than you are willing so you can still get the item, am I right? For example, you're only willing to pay $35, ABSOLUTELY NO MORE. But, you actually WOULD be okay with paying $35.03 if it came down to it. That's what sniping does for you. But mugs, you'd probably say, then you should've bid $35.03 in the first place. Well, no, that's not true, because if you'd bid $35.03, why not bid $35.50? Or $36? Hell, why not $40 even? See what I mean? It would go on forever. So sniping does have its uses, I've never tried it, though, I don't bid much.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak

Originally posted by: Sonikku
You never bid unless the auction is seconds away from closing. By bidding you only drive the price up.

I disagree. The way I look at it is if you have a bid on an item that already has zero bids, someone will be discouraged from bidding on that item esp if there are others like it. My $0.02

so then you bid a small amount and then wait until its near closing then throw down your big bid.

 

[Spike]

Man, I am the laziest kind of ebay buyer... the kind that all sellers love. I have only purchased a few things in my entire life there but everytime I use the "Buy Now" option as I am too lazy to actually wait for the item to ship. I may have overpaid on several items but as long as the buy now option is less than I can get it for elsewhere I consider it good.

-spike

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Spike
Man, I am the laziest kind of ebay buyer... the kind that all sellers love. I have only purchased a few things in my entire life there but everytime I use the "Buy Now" option as I am too lazy to actually wait for the item to ship. I may have overpaid on several items but as long as the buy now option is less than I can get it for elsewhere I consider it good.

-spike

i try to use buy it now when i can. especially if its cheaper than anywhere else and i know they price may get higher than the buy it now. some things i just want in a hurry and if its on buy it now for cheaper i just do it anyway, whether or not there's an auction. i might get it cheaper by bidding but i might have to wait days for it i might be outbid.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: DainBramaged
How are you losing money?

Oh, and bid what you are willing to pay and it's all good.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Originally posted by: archcommus
This is awfully confusing.

I agree with not bidding until the end. There's simply no point since the auction may go WAY higher than you're willing to pay anyway. If you can be there, just wait, and with 10 seconds to go, decide if you're willing to pay more or not.

I think the point of sniping is to pay just slightly more than you are willing so you can still get the item, am I right? For example, you're only willing to pay $35, ABSOLUTELY NO MORE. But, you actually WOULD be okay with paying $35.03 if it came down to it. That's what sniping does for you. But mugs, you'd probably say, then you should've bid $35.03 in the first place. Well, no, that's not true, because if you'd bid $35.03, why not bid $35.50? Or $36? Hell, why not $40 even? See what I mean? It would go on forever. So sniping does have its uses, I've never tried it, though, I don't bid much.

Basically, this is why sniping is good.

Let's say you have a newbie ebayer. He sees a brand new auction with 5 days left at a $1.00 starting price. He bids to $5.00 and he's currently the high winner.

You come along and see this auction and decide to want it, so you put your max bid in of $25 with still nearly 5 days left of the auction.

Well the newbie ebayer now sees he's been out bid so he decides to bid more, and more, and more, until it's past your $25 max bid.

Ok, so no biggie really, you didn't want to pay more than $25.....however, had you sniped it (ie, waited till the last second), the newbie ebayer would not have had a chance to keep bidding it up.

In other words, you let the newbie ebayer sit on his ass for 5 days thinking he is the high bidder....then last 5-10 seconds, BAM, your bid gets put in and he does not have time to sit and enter $6, $7, $10, $15, etc. So now you have your item for less than $25.

Of course that's just the idea behind sniping, clearly it doensn't always happen that way.

 

[DainBramaged]

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: ElFenix
i really don't understand what the point of sniping is with the advent of proxy bidding...

B/C everyone knows that you want the item with proxy bidding. Nobody know you wants an item with sniping until their ass gets pwned in the last few seconds by a sniper

Yep, I didn't bid on my Nissan Maxima until it had 60 seconds left.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: Schfifty Five

Originally posted by: archcommus
This is awfully confusing.

I agree with not bidding until the end. There's simply no point since the auction may go WAY higher than you're willing to pay anyway. If you can be there, just wait, and with 10 seconds to go, decide if you're willing to pay more or not.

I think the point of sniping is to pay just slightly more than you are willing so you can still get the item, am I right? For example, you're only willing to pay $35, ABSOLUTELY NO MORE. But, you actually WOULD be okay with paying $35.03 if it came down to it. That's what sniping does for you. But mugs, you'd probably say, then you should've bid $35.03 in the first place. Well, no, that's not true, because if you'd bid $35.03, why not bid $35.50? Or $36? Hell, why not $40 even? See what I mean? It would go on forever. So sniping does have its uses, I've never tried it, though, I don't bid much.

Basically, this is why sniping is good.

Let's say you have a newbie ebayer. He sees a brand new auction with 5 days left at a $1.00 starting price. He bids to $5.00 and he's currently the high winner.

You come along and see this auction and decide to want it, so you put your max bid in of $25 with still nearly 5 days left of the auction.

Well the newbie ebayer now sees he's been out bid so he decides to bid more, and more, and more, until it's past your $25 max bid.

Ok, so no biggie really, you didn't want to pay more than $25.....however, had you sniped it (ie, waited till the last second), the newbie ebayer would not have had a chance to keep bidding it up.

In other words, you let the newbie ebayer sit on his ass for 5 days thinking he is the high bidder....then last 5-10 seconds, BAM, your bid gets put in and he does not have time to sit and enter $6, $7, $10, $15, etc. So now you have your item for less than $25.

Of course that's just the idea behind sniping, clearly it doensn't always happen that way.

Exactly, these are the type of people sniping was designed to beat - the ones who don't take advantage of Ebay's proxy bidding system.

 

[gr1]

I've never understood why people don't wait until the last hour to bid... especially in no reserve auctions.. Are you morons?? If there is no reserve why would you bid up the price ? Do you not want to get the best price possible?

 

[kranky]

Some sellers are now using a anti-sniper software technique which has been pretty effective. They post the auction, then wait a while. Before it closes and before snipers would enter bids, they extend the time of the auction, let's say from 3 to 5 days. The snipe bids get entered anyway, but the auction is still active.

 

[cherrytwist]

All this sniping talk makes me want to go bid on something.

 

[brandonbull]

If you use the ebay proxy bidding, it is impossible to get sniped. You will get out bid, but you cannot get sniped. Only retards that wish to come here and post about how they got sniped don't use ebay's proxy bidding. So you idiots deserve the "Laugh at me because I'm too stupid to know I keep pwning myself" award.

 

[aphex]

finally won!!!

 

[djheater]

Originally posted by: aphex
WTF am i doing wrong? Does this happen to everyone?

And i'm losing my like $0.30 - $1.00 on every single one...

Edit: took me awhile, but i FINALLY won... 18 or so bidders, picked up a nice working 40gb 4th gen ipod for $116

You realize it will be broken and covered in poo when it arrives, don't you?

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: djheater

Originally posted by: aphex
WTF am i doing wrong? Does this happen to everyone?

And i'm losing my like $0.30 - $1.00 on every single one...

Edit: took me awhile, but i FINALLY won... 18 or so bidders, picked up a nice working 40gb 4th gen ipod for $116

You realize it will be broken and covered in poo when it arrives, don't you?

with 980+ feedback at 99.7%, doubt it

 

[djheater]

Originally posted by: aphex

Originally posted by: djheater

Originally posted by: aphex
WTF am i doing wrong? Does this happen to everyone?

And i'm losing my like $0.30 - $1.00 on every single one...

Edit: took me awhile, but i FINALLY won... 18 or so bidders, picked up a nice working 40gb 4th gen ipod for $116

You realize it will be broken and covered in poo when it arrives, don't you?

with 980+ feedback at 99.7%, doubt it

Yet there's a .3% chance I'm right. You are obviously a betting man.

(congrats btw)

 

[KLin]

I won an auction on my first try today on Ebay. Of course it was Buy it now .

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: Special K
People make bidding way more complicated than it is. Although I do recommend a sniping program to take care of those people who will repeatedly make small incremental bids just to drive the price up once they see that others are entering bids.

I pick the absolute max amount I am willing to pay, enter it into my sniping program, and check back once the auction is over.

If I won, great. If not, then the other guy paid too much for it. Plus chances are there will be an identical item for sale soon, if not already. As long as my price is reasonable, I'll just keep bidding it until I win.

That's exactly what I do. I used to preach about entering the max you are willing to pay, but really, sniping is so much easier. I can put in the max amount I'm willing to pay days before the auction ends and forget about it. I love sniping auctions on ebay. It rules! If you don't use a sniping tool you're a sucker.

Edit-It also takes the emotional aspect out of it.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: Special K
People make bidding way more complicated than it is. Although I do recommend a sniping program to take care of those people who will repeatedly make small incremental bids just to drive the price up once they see that others are entering bids.

I pick the absolute max amount I am willing to pay, enter it into my sniping program, and check back once the auction is over.

If I won, great. If not, then the other guy paid too much for it. Plus chances are there will be an identical item for sale soon, if not already. As long as my price is reasonable, I'll just keep bidding it until I win.

That's exactly what I do. I used to preach about entering the max you are willing to pay, but really, sniping is so much easier. I can put in the max amount I'm willing to pay days before the auction ends and forget about it. I love sniping auctions on ebay. It rules! If you don't use a sniping tool you're a sucker.

Edit-It also takes the emotional aspect out of it.

But I win everything I want without a sniping program.

 

[aphex]

Ok ok, i need a witty response... One of the losers in the auction took it upon themself to e-mail me this "JUST LIKE TO LET YOU KNOW YOU GOT TOOK ON THAT USED IPOD COULD HAVE GOT A NEW 40GB 42.00 CHEAPER WITH EVERYTHING."

Well, i've been watching ebay for a few days now, and even looked through completed listings, the only 40gb iPod's i see under $100 are dead and sold for either parts or repair. So obviously they are lying...

Now, my question, i feel the need to respond... Any ideas?

 

[djheater]

Originally posted by: aphex
Ok ok, i need a witty response... One of the losers in the auction took it upon themself to e-mail me this "JUST LIKE TO LET YOU KNOW YOU GOT TOOK ON THAT USED IPOD COULD HAVE GOT A NEW 40GB 42.00 CHEAPER WITH EVERYTHING."

Well, i've been watching ebay for a few days now, and even looked through completed listings, the only 40gb iPod's i see under $100 are dead and sold for either parts or repair. So obviously they are lying...

Now, my question, i feel the need to respond... Any ideas?

Whoa there, cowboy. They're fishing. If you're correct, and they're wrong, fvck them, don't get hooked.

 

[jadinolf]

Originally posted by: keeleysam
Ebay rules.

People always snipe my auctions and I get a few more bucks.

<- Different POV

I've been watching a few recently and the last bid is 1 second before the end of auction. Boy, they are good.