Also, eBay are really cracking down on people making cash offers to end early.

I had a BIN listing for a bike and had some stupid guy hassling me about ending early for cash.  I just ignored him (if he really wanted it, all he had to do was click the BIN) but ended up removing the listing as someone local bought it on Gumtree for less money.   (The ebay buy it now was slightly more to cover their fees/PayPal commission)

eBay just assumed I had sold it to said to$$er and gave me a warning for circumventing their fees.

My best ebay purchase was a Rohloff hub. Aided by a bit of dyslexia I spelt it incorrectly when searching. Evidently the seller was equally stupid and had done the same. My (late snipe obvs) bid was the only one and I walked away with a nearly new ‘Rolhoff’ hub for less the £100.

There was was story early in the days if eBay of someone selling a bottle of Alsop’s Ale that had been brewed for Scott’s Antarctic expedition. Sold for thousands but the buyer just immedially re-listed it with the extra ‘P’ in Alsopp and sold it for 10x the price.

My best bargains have come where people have listed things so vaguely that nobody looking would find it.

For ages I was looking for a sliding bed table saw. Searching is tricky as people give them all sorts of names ‘Panel Saw’ ‘Dimension Saw’ and so on. I spent ages looking for every permutation I could think of. Out of frustration and boredom I just searched for ‘Saw’ in the hope that I’d stumble across another descriptor+saw that I hadn’t thought of. Clicking on ‘ending soonest’ up popped …. ‘Saw’ there was enough info in the description that I could confirm it was what I was looking for but nothing that would have served as a key word in anyones search. Caught it in the closing minutes and was the only bidder so got it for the opening bid of £300 – could have sold it again for £3k and just got my buyer to collect it from his house 🙂

one thing worth mentioning as well is unpopular finishing times, middle of the working week often means people miss the end of an auction due to work etc.

I watched a set of XT pedals sell for £25 on sunday evening, just bought a different set of XT’s for £10 because they finished at 3.30pm on a Monday afternoon.

^^^^ This was definitely the case in the days before mobile internet/smartphones.  I’ve tried to nick a few things, recently, with less than optimal end times and was surprised at the level of interest shown.

Never ever do this: Place a bid, be the only bidder, then place a second bid. The seller can see that there’s 2 bids from one person, it’s basically an invitation to shill bid.

Bidding early can be worth it when you really want the item- I bid early on my new car frinstance. And also, you can use it to tactically break a Buy It Now as they go away as soon as there’s a bid over reserve.

And also, you can use it to tactically break a Buy It Now

early interest also helps encourage the seller to let the auction run if they get requests to end the auction early.

bidding just over your initial bid is a great way to root out shill bidders, it works both ways.

I am struggling to see the advantage of this snipe tool . Over the years I have bought lots of stuff by putting my maximum bid into E-bay and leaving it to do it’s thing , some I lost some I won but I have never lost out on an item that has been won with a bid lower than my maximum , which would indicate a last second bid going in before E-bay could react . How would using snipe have made any difference ?

Ramsey Neil you encourage people to ‘nibble’ at your bid. Make a low bid, go away, think about it and come back and bid again. And so on  This just inflates the bid early on.

Also as the auction closes people will be tempted to bid higher than they would if your bid wasn’t there due to bidding fever.

I messed up at the weekend.

Set of Pirelli winter tyres on genuine mercedes wheels with almost 7mm tread left and only an hour a way. Would have bid up to £400 but was holding off. Went to put my bid on in the last minute but the ebay app on my phone hung up due to the bidding – kept showing the refreshing spinner. They ended up selling for £320!

It costs me more than that for 2 new tyres fitted on the summer 18″ wheels.

Couple of weeks ago I spotted on Ebay a BNWT 100% cashmere coat. I put in a silly low offer (only bidder) plus a snipe of c.50% more. Result: got it for the low bid, 13% of tag price. Moral of the story: do this and if you can buy things out of season.

I only ever snipe.
If you bid, all you are doing is pushing the price p for yourself.
Decide your maximum price, and snipe in the last 5 secs.

@ Ramsey Neil

When you put your maximum bid in early, anyone can put in an unusually high bid, then instantly retract it, to find out the strength of your bid.  This in an invitation for someone to shill the item or for a genuinely interested party to reconsider how much they are willing to pay, and go over your max at the last minute. The other bidder uses the “entered wrong amount ” excuse to explain their actions.

When/if you check the bidding activity data, look out for retractions at the bottom of the page.  You’d be surprised at how common this is.

The toruble is that you assessment of what something is worth changes if you get outbid, so you get tempted to increase your maximum bid. Works for all the others watching the auction as well. –> Auction fever…

So by holding off to snipe on the auction you remain true to your original assessment of what it was worth and you don’t give you or anyone else time to reassess the items value and put in an increased bid.

The other bidder uses the “entered wrong amount ” excuse to explain their actions.

There used to be a limit on how often you could do this.  Don’t ask me how I know.

essment of what something is worth changes if you get outbid, so you get tempted to increase your maximum bid. Works for all the others watching the aucti

My bid is what I’m prepared to pay for an item and has no relation to what others bid , sometime I get an item for less than my maximum bid sometimes I get outbid but once entered I don’t change my bid so still can’t see any real advantage in sniping .

My bid is what I’m prepared to pay for an item and has no relation to what others bid , sometime I get an item for less than my maximum bid sometimes I get outbid but once entered I don’t change my bid so still can’t see any real advantage in sniping

The difference is that you are probably paying more than you ”needed” to, even though it is below your maximum. If you are happy with that then that’s fine.

The difference is that you are probably paying more than you ”needed” to, even though it is below your maximum. If you are happy with that then that’s fine.

What would the difference in price paid in these two scenarios?

1 – Ramsey puts in an early bid and you place a bid via a sniping site on the same auction

2- Both you and Ramsey place sniped bids on the same auction

What would the difference in price paid in these two scenarios?

1 – Ramsey puts in an early bid and you place a bid via a sniping site on the same auction

2- Both you and Ramsey place sniped bids on the same auction

I have literally no idea, it depends who bid the most. and whether people are putting on a maximum one time bid or multiple smaller bids to just get the winning bid and no more.

The scenario I am suggesting is less financial efficient is this,

Let’s assume, you put a high bid on early that is probably much higher than the starting bid. every time someone puts a bid on it jumps up closer to your maximum. so the difference between the current bid and your maximum is closing earlier than it needs to. And crucially, the competition has plenty of time to reflect on the new price and bid if necessary.

Alternatively, you hold off bidding on the assumption that people are bidding the least they want to pay, rather than the maximum they are willing to pay.

You snipe in late, real late, like 10 seconds to go with your maximum bid. again, assuming the competition are just bidding incrementally. They either don’t have enough time for a counter bid, or their bid ceiling isn’t high enough to counter you.  in this situation there is less bidding going on which should mean that the item isn’t pushed up as much as the other scenario.

I have no way to validate this, it’s just my feeling based on my ebay experiences.  But to take the pedals I mentioned earlier. I watched another pair slowly increase to the maximum of £25 and then sit there until sold.

I got outbid on another pair, they went to £8 and I left a counter bid until the last possible second then bid £20. and got them for £10.  I’m fairly sure that if I had counter bid the £8 with two days to go the finishing price would have been higher than £10.

But you’re telling Ramsey he should bid in the same way you do – so you both bid late, both with your maximum – the item will sell for just slightly more that the lower of the two maximums

If Ramsey bids the way he currently does and you bid late, with your maximum… the item will sell for slightly more than the lower of those two maximums

But to take the pedals I mentioned earlier. I watched another pair slowly increase to the maximum of £25 and then sit there until sold.

I got outbid on another pair, they went to £8 and I left a counter bid until the last possible second then bid £20. and got them for £10.  I’m fairly sure that if I had counter bid the £8 with two days to go the finishing price would have been higher than £10.

the only other person that wanted the same pedals as much as you did had already bought some 🙂

Really.. thats the only reason to bid late, ‘manually’,rather than by a third party snipe, by the time the auction is closing something better might have come along – knowing the availability (or lack of availability) of other options makes a big difference of what you might want to pay and how contested an auction is likely to be.

If Ramsey bids the way he currently does and you bid late, with your maximum… the item will sell for slightly more than the lower of those two maximums

Ramsey’s argument assumes there’s a 3rd person also bidding early.

Person 1 (Ramsey’s hypothetical idiot) bids £100

Person 2 £20, £30, £40, £50, £60, £70, £80, £90,

etc

If person 1 had just put £100 in as a snipe he would probably win it for £30 rather than giving person 2 something to get carried away with.

But………..

If you’re person 2, you can bid knowing that it can’t go higher than your bid. So if it’s a common item, and your prepared to pay £100 but it might go for £30, it’s sometimes better to go with lots of low bids on lot of auctions, rather than risk someone sniping your bid and ending up paying the full £100.

But again………..

It’s like a cassino, some people will tell you there’s a system to win at Roulette, whereas everyone else knows the reality is your winnings will go up and down but always tend towards zero. If you can ‘win’ you’ve just cashed out on the lucky half of the cycle (remember you can’t cash out at the bottom of a cycle, you’ve run out of chips, at some point you will be unlucky and hit that point).

There are no winners and loser on ebay either, the seller no longer owns their item, the buyer no longer has their cash.  The dealer, sorry eBay, takes their 15%.

But you’re telling Ramsey he should bid in the same way you do – so you both bid late, both with your maximum – the item will sell for just slightly more that the lower of the two maximums

In that scenario I probably wouldn’t have bid. because under Ramsey’s scenario the price would already be inflated towards my theoretical maximum.  I’m more likely to risk not winning to grab a bargain.

These things only work if people behave in a way you hope they will when you are gaming the situation, as I said. so far it appears to be working for me.

Based on my 504 purchases on ebay with some high value items of hifi, I’ll stick with late sniping and let everybody else learn by experience…

I snipe stuff regularly, the wife bids early with her highest bid, which is fine by me as she rarely wins stuff.

I couldn’t give a toss if some one else bids or snipes on the items I snipe, either I win it for my max bid (or usually alot less), or I don’t and I move on. But If it’s something I really want I’ll put the market value in or very slightly more. This is how I fund my bikes – more often than not the upgrades I put on the bike cost less than the parts I sell or only slightly more.

When I sell at auction higher value items I’ll start the item at the rock bottom of what I want. If it’s low value I’ll put a 99p start. I only will start auctions on a weekend (evening) or Friday evening.

Early bidding always has amused me.

I never realised eBay bidding was such a competitive pastime. Is there a league table?

Based on my 504 purchases on ebay with some high value items of hifi, I’ll stick with late sniping and let everybody else learn by experience…

What experience is that, you don’t know if late sniping saved you a single penny.  And you will never know as you can’t replay the same auction at the same time with the same bidders.

What are you expecting these lesser being to learn exactly?

What experience is that

life experience, that’s what…

Those are auctions I’ve won, combine that with many other auctions that I didn’t win and an assessment of my bidding strategy and what effect it had on trying to tempt me into participating in auction fever.

And you will never know as you can’t replay the same auction at the same time with the same bidders.

I can watch many auctions for similar items and see how they work out.

What are you expecting these lesser being to learn exactly?

what makes a successful biding strategy…

I do sometimes wonder why ebay don’t implement an “auction closes 5 minutes after the last bidder” option, more like a real world auction, they’d make (even more of) a fortune.

Wouldn’t everyone just snipe at 5 mins and 6 seconds then?

But if more than 1 bidder is using snipe and they both bid 5 seconds before the end will 1 of the bids not have a chance to react to the other so in that scenario you could lose out on an item that you might have won with a regular bid placed 30 minutes before the end.

But If it’s something I really want I’ll put the market value in or very slightly more.

If it’s something I really want I bid what I think it’s worth.

If I don’t really want it, I don’t bid at all. Seems pretty straightforward

If it’s something I really want I bid what I think it’s worth

that’s great, although the salient point in this conversation is that some of us quite like getting things for a lot less than they are worth.

Probably about 7 times out of 10 it goes for less than I’ve bid though – I usually only bid on mid week items so they go for less than there weekend value.

that’s great, although the salient point in this conversation is that some of us quite like getting things for a lot less than they are worth.

And then you’ll probably be wondering why you see far less auctions these days.

I only use ebay as a last resort when I’m selling crap I can’t move on otherwise. I accept an auction may not earn as much, I accept some people are idiots and bid way too high but this get it at rock bottom way of thinking is (partly) why I can’t be bothered. Add in fees and potentially being forced to offer free postage and it’s no longer worthwhile.

And then you’ll probably be wondering why you see far less auctions these days.

Nope. I’m still managing to find pretty much everything I need. Yes it takes a bit of effort but there is an opportunity cost there, I could buy elsewhere quicker and pay more if I wanted to.

The same goes for selling, I’ve got a healthy pay pal balance and I put that down to research and doing a decent job of building & scheduling each advert

I do sometimes wonder why ebay don’t implement an “auction closes 5 minutes after the last bidder” option, more like a real world auction, they’d make (even more of) a fortune.

My local industrial auctioneer does all its bidding online, even though you view the lots physically the day before. A bid in the last 5 minutes extends the auction by 10 minutes. Its quite entertaining watching the last 5 minutes as people with a last 10 seconds ebay mindset go nuts. Now theres a platform where putting an early high bid in bears fruit 🙂

life experience, that’s what…

Yeah, funny.

The same goes for selling, I’ve got a healthy pay pal balance and I put that down to research and doing a decent job of building & scheduling each advert

Yep, sold over 1,000 items on eBay and always get what I want (or more).  Very good photos, accurate descriptions and schedule to end at 19:00 on a Thursday or Sunday.

Although I actually mostly do Buy It Now and just start at a bit more than I want.  Does me well as Buy It Now has its own effect in people not wanting to miss it, mulling over and then buying it as once it is gone that’s it.

Also makes the sniping thing a moot point.

Maybe sniping works, maybe it doesn’t, but under what circumstances could you be worse off from sniping?

Maybe sniping works, maybe it doesn’t, but under what circumstances could you be worse off from sniping?

A number of identical items finishing at similar times.

You know some will get sniped.

So if you try and snipe the odds are someone else will too, and you’ll end up paying near your max budget.

Or you put a lowball bid in on item1, it gets sniped, winning bidder out sniped someone and ended up paying top dollar.

Lowball item 2, ditto. But only one sniper this time.

Lowball item 3, kerching.

I suppose you could just stick lowball snipe’s in too. But sticking a bid in early makes it harder for sellers to cancel listings and makes it look like less of a bargain compared to similar listings with no bids or lower current bids.