Sniped again on EBAY!!!!

[mchammer187]

Originally posted by: daveymark

Originally posted by: mchammer187
don't bid early but put your proxy in within the last 20 seconds


so if an item is at $50 a sniper will bid $55 trying to but if you put in a proxy of $70 you will win for $59

the sniper will have to put in multiple bids which they don't have enough time to do since snipers tend to try to win by 1 bid

wrong, the sniper changed his mind and put a bid of $71 instead of $55, so you lose on the proxy bid. Why do proxy bidders think that sniped bids will always be lower?

then they paid more than you were willing to pay

You don't lose!

he was willing to pay more than you

imo snipers are people trying to win for less than what they are willing to pay

if you would have paid $72 and you did not than you did not put in what you were WILLING TO PAY

i'm saying put in a proxy bid of what you are willing to pay at the last 20 seconds

you will get it as cheap as you can possibly get it and if someone goes over they are willing to pay more than you

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: mchammer187

Originally posted by: daveymark

Originally posted by: mchammer187
don't bid early but put your proxy in within the last 20 seconds


so if an item is at $50 a sniper will bid $55 trying to but if you put in a proxy of $70 you will win for $59

the sniper will have to put in multiple bids which they don't have enough time to do since snipers tend to try to win by 1 bid

wrong, the sniper changed his mind and put a bid of $71 instead of $55, so you lose on the proxy bid. Why do proxy bidders think that sniped bids will always be lower?

then they paid more than you were willing to pay

You don't lose!

he was willing to pay more than you

imo snipers are people trying to win for less than what they are willing to pay

if you would have paid $72 and you did not than you did not put in what you were WILLING TO PAY

i'm saying put in a proxy bid of what you are willing to pay at the last 20 seconds

you will get it as cheap as you can possibly get it and if someone goes over they are willing to pay more than you

Exactly.
But, that's what sniping is. Waiting until the last few seconds to finally bid... and then put in a bid of the highest amount you're willing to spend.

The main advantage is this situation doesn't happen:
Joe Moron: "Hmmmmm, the current bid is $20. I'll bid $30"
You: Wow, that item is difficult to find. I'd be willing to pay $60 for it.
Joe Moron: "omg! someone outbid me at 31. I'll bid 35."
Then Joe Moron bids 40, then 45, then 50, then 55, then 60. You are still winning. Joe Moron finally decides to pay more than the item is even worth - he puts in a bid of 65 and beats you.

Now, compare that to this:
Joe Moron has a proxy bid of $30, but is winning at $25. But, Joe Moron is willing to go much higher. He just happens to be one of those idiots (and there are a LOT of them) who bids in increments rather than simply putting in his highest bid as the proxy bid.
You wait until 10 seconds are left in the auction, put in your proxy bid of the $50 you're willing to pay. You're now winning at $35 or whatever.
Joe Moron is frantically watching the auction. He ups his bid to $40. You win.

So, you get the item for less than you're willing to pay, and you don't suffer the aggravation of an idiot who bids in increments and then ultimately pays too much for the item (resulting in your search for more of the same.)

Incidentally, there is an item that I've been searching for on Ebay that appears less than 10 times a year. There aren't 40 of the same item at any time. So, losing an auction to someone willing to pay more than the item is worth, due to auction fever, is incredibly annoying. Personally, I don't want to pay retail for the item... but I've seen idiots bid the item up during the last 2 or 3 hours to beyond the retail value. Several times I was forced to put in a proxy bid due to working hours... a few of those times, looking at the bid history, I could see that some idiot spent the 20 minutes entering bids in increments of 5 or 10 dollars until he finally beat me. Had I been able to wait til the last 20 seconds, those idiots would have had the high bid, not had a bid of what they were willing to overpay in as a proxy bid, and I'd have swept it out from under them for what I was willing to pay (or, more likely, less.)

 

[HonkeyDonk]

I can't emphasize this enough to those who think you lost by $1.00. Technically yes they won by $1.00, but more realistically, the sniper probably won by a larger margin.

Let's say you are winning at $50 bid (with you having $75 max). Along comes a sniper at the last second and he wins at $76.00.

You think he knew that your high/max bid was $75 and he put $76? LOL fsck NO! He did not know your max bid but really he probably put $100 or something. So by thinking that you would have won if you had 10 more seconds to put a bid for $77 is foolish and stupid. That goes to all people who lose to snipers and think they only lost by "$1.00".

 

[suse920]

snipe it yourself

 

[HonkeyDonk]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: mchammer187

Originally posted by: daveymark

Originally posted by: mchammer187
don't bid early but put your proxy in within the last 20 seconds


so if an item is at $50 a sniper will bid $55 trying to but if you put in a proxy of $70 you will win for $59

the sniper will have to put in multiple bids which they don't have enough time to do since snipers tend to try to win by 1 bid

wrong, the sniper changed his mind and put a bid of $71 instead of $55, so you lose on the proxy bid. Why do proxy bidders think that sniped bids will always be lower?

then they paid more than you were willing to pay

You don't lose!

he was willing to pay more than you

imo snipers are people trying to win for less than what they are willing to pay

if you would have paid $72 and you did not than you did not put in what you were WILLING TO PAY

i'm saying put in a proxy bid of what you are willing to pay at the last 20 seconds

you will get it as cheap as you can possibly get it and if someone goes over they are willing to pay more than you

Exactly.
But, that's what sniping is. Waiting until the last few seconds to finally bid... and then put in a bid of the highest amount you're willing to spend.

The main advantage is this situation doesn't happen:
Joe Moron: "Hmmmmm, the current bid is $20. I'll bid $30"
You: Wow, that item is difficult to find. I'd be willing to pay $60 for it.
Joe Moron: "omg! someone outbid me at 31. I'll bid 35."
Then Joe Moron bids 40, then 45, then 50, then 55, then 60. You are still winning. Joe Moron finally decides to pay more than the item is even worth - he puts in a bid of 65 and beats you.

Now, compare that to this:
Joe Moron has a proxy bid of $30, but is winning at $25. But, Joe Moron is willing to go much higher. He just happens to be one of those idiots (and there are a LOT of them) who bids in increments rather than simply putting in his highest bid as the proxy bid.
You wait until 10 seconds are left in the auction, put in your proxy bid of the $50 you're willing to pay. You're now winning at $35 or whatever.
Joe Moron is frantically watching the auction. He ups his bid to $40. You win.

So, you get the item for less than you're willing to pay, and you don't suffer the aggravation of an idiot who bids in increments and then ultimately pays too much for the item (resulting in your search for more of the same.)

Incidentally, there is an item that I've been searching for on Ebay that appears less than 10 times a year. There aren't 40 of the same item at any time. So, losing an auction to someone willing to pay more than the item is worth, due to auction fever, is incredibly annoying. Personally, I don't want to pay retail for the item... but I've seen idiots bid the item up during the last 2 or 3 hours to beyond the retail value. Several times I was forced to put in a proxy bid due to working hours... a few of those times, looking at the bid history, I could see that some idiot spent the 20 minutes entering bids in increments of 5 or 10 dollars until he finally beat me. Had I been able to wait til the last 20 seconds, those idiots would have had the high bid, not had a bid of what they were willing to overpay in as a proxy bid, and I'd have swept it out from under them for what I was willing to pay (or, more likely, less.)

Best explanation yet!

 

[JulesMaximus]

For sniper bidding to work you have to be the only sniper though. Or am I wrong?

 

[OFFascist]

The only way to win on ebay is to bid more than everyone else.

You didnt lose because you got sniped, you lost because they bid more than you.

If you want to win bid more money, duh.

 

[mchammer187]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
For sniper bidding to work you have to be the only sniper though. Or am I wrong?

than whoever puts the highest bid in wins except for one exception

with increments of $2.50


say the item is $75 right now

i put in a proxy of $101 at 12 seconds

person B puts in a bid of $105 at 10 seconds

person C puts in a bid of $106 at 9 seconds

person B will win the auction since his bid beats B's but not by the bid increment

he must win by $2.50 to win the auction

so bids placed first get up to the bid increment minus one cent of protection (in this case $2.49)

person C technically did not put in a bid at all if the system is working correctly since the system should not accept that last bid

higher bids take precendence
otherwise time takes precedence (in cases where the difference is less than the bid increment)

 

[DBL]

It's amazing that this is such a hard concept to grasp. You need to stop worrying about yourself and examine it from the point of view of most bidders who have little idea as to what they are doing. These bidders DO NOT BID THE MAXIMUM THEY ARE WILLING TO PAY. Therefore, it is possible to win an item for less by sniping, since these unknowledgeable bidders do not have time to revise their bid b/c you sniped it with 5 seconds to go. It's a small but very real advantage. You are at a clear disadvantage by not employing some form of sniping strategy.