ebay won't limit bidding, nor should they. The only way to snipe effectively is to do it manually. I normally enter a snipe bid 50 seconds before the auction ends. "Surely if you bid your maximum at any random time, there would be no need for a last minute bid as you've bidded your maximum." 4 times out 5, they'll probably never have to pay that, but the sane victim is trumped by only a $1 increment. A sniper's goal is to win the auction at the lowest possible price. Unfollow last minute bids to stop getting updates on your eBay Feed. I also loose all the time because i was to cheap to bring my maximum bid 10 bucks extra like you said and then at then end i would realize the person beat me by a .50 cent to a dollar. Sniping is the fine art of outbidding your competition in the very last seconds of the eBay auction — without leaving them enough time to place a defensive bid. The system also protects buyers from unscrupulous sellers who use shill bidding (fake bids) to drive up their prices. Simply due to human psychology, showing interest in an item can spark interest in other bidders who might otherwise have remained neutral over the particular item's desirability and therefore passed it by. The sniping technique keeps you from unnecessarily driving up the price of an item by only placing your bid at the last minute. Use tools to bag overlooked items. Will definitely try it out next time I'm around on ebay. If you know you’re facing a lot of competition, figure out your highest bid to the penny. Great advice A**********. Most bids happen in the final seconds of an auction for many different reasons. Driving the price up. Marsha also hosts her own weekly technology radio show broadcast online and over the air. Raise your bid only to the level where you’re sure you’re getting a good return on your investment; don’t go overboard. The sniper will argue against me on this but my counter is that at the end of the day both the sniper and the proxy bidder will have done their research and are simply bidding against each other and the higher bid, no matter WHEN it was placed, wins. The sniping technique keeps you from unnecessarily driving up the price of an item by only placing your bid at the last minute. Emma (author) from Boston on December 13, 2010: Franks, that's always the problem with Ebay. Interesting and useful for me. Bid During the Last Minute. Don’t lose heart if you lose the auction. Emma has been placing winning bids on eBay for years. If you can make the highest bid with just 20 seconds left, most likely you’ll win. Most seller would send me messages saying i was wrong for doing so but honestly who wants to pay extra. Adjust the amount of the bid as high as you feel comfortable so that you can beat out the competition. And then in the last minute the highest bid of the other bidder is revealed, because my bid will automatically be 50 cents more. Half minute won't do that,a quarter minute is pretty good, and … Linda Tadlock from Atlanta on March 08, 2011: I've never tried selling or buying on Ebay before but it's good to know more on bidding. Sometimes someone will place a bid just to have one in there because they liked the item when they saw it, but they won't follow up on it. … 10 second left on the clock, I will just submit. See More Some bidders, however, are upset when they lose to a sniper, but the fact is, the high bidder wins in any auction, whether you’re sniping or using the automatic bid system. If there is any such thing as a golden rule on ebay its "Only Bid What You Can Afford and Want to Pay for an Item". I'm not one to complain, but items I've often really wanted have been snapped in the dying seconds by someone who's proxy's are in the thousands. However, the current eBay bidding system is no disadvantage to a serious early bidder who has entered a maximum bid that's more than any other bidders'. You should have already researched the item and figured out its value. And sometimes that is higher than I expected... Great sensible advice! You win it, you own it! If you want the item I feel you should put in a genuine, what its worth maximum bid, if you don't get it tough, you wouldn't have paid more anyway, if you do great, you wanted it and the seller gets a decent price for his/her item. Bid Groups let you group similar auctions together, and win only one eBay snipe per group. I have just tried bidding late myself on another item. Here we study the second-price auctions run by eBay and Am- kartbahnfan from Dusiburg, Germany on May 24, 2010: hm, that's probably nothing for me, good introduction for newbiews though! However, this structure has been shown to display reactive bids, such as last-minute bids [53] [54][55]. One observation I would make on the ethics of sniping is that it would be entirely within eBay's power to put a stop to sniping in the same way that online procurement tools work in the corporate world. I love the buy it now option! Cancel bids with no penalty up to 5 minutes before the end of the auction ; Make last-moment bids while you're asleep or at work ; Avoid gut-churning bidding wars Check out 'Newsday.com' answers for TODAY! This will give you sufficient time to change your bid if you need to beat out a late bid (by using the other browser, which is set on the "enter bid" page). American Now with the other window just watch the time tick down and wait until about 6 seconds or so before the auction ends and grap a win at the last possible min. In the early days, sellers unsuccessfully lobbied eBay to prohibit last minute bidding. 0 results for last minute bids Save last minute bids to get e-mail alerts and updates on your eBay Feed. Last-Minute Bidding and the Rules for Ending Second-Price Auctions: Evidence from eBay and Amazon Auctions on the Internet By ALVIN E. ROTH AND AXEL OCKENFELS* Auctions on the Internet provide a new source of data on how bidding is influenced by the detailed rules of the auction. However, your idea of outrageously high may be someone else's market value. Continuously click the reload or refresh button that appears in the last few minutes of an auction, just above the Place Bid button. Remember, sniping is a game. I will leave the bid page on in the browser with my maximum bid and just leave it sit there while i monitor it in my other computer and see what the bids are and, it sort of give me and estimate of how much extra to add to win. "I just gotta have it!". If you decide to use proxy bidding to manage your eBay bids, you will generally wind up paying more for the item if there is anyone else interested in winning that item. You'll be better prepared to make decisions in the crucial last seconds of the auction; Tip If you are immediately outbid, someone else has placed a maximum bid higher than your current bid. If you bid a higher amount of money in the last 10 seconds how come that you don't pay the exact amount of money you bid but ending up paying less as a winning bidder which is really a good deal? For example, if I come along during an auction and see that someone already has a bid on something I want, I will normally bid a dollar more than what they have showing just to see if that person is using proxy bidding. Auction sniping is the practice, in a timed online auction, of placing a bid likely to exceed the current highest bid (which may be hidden) as late as possible—usually seconds before the end of the auction—giving other bidders no time to outbid the sniper. I have to agree with Telecaster's comment above. I dont use ebay but i will definitely try these steps and use to buy something on ebay. Know how fast (or slow) your Internet connection is. Find great deals on eBay for last minute auction. Within the last minute of the auction, place your bid. ive never been on ebay before should i use this techingue to????????????????????? Make sure you do not place any early bids. By reloading the item continually, you’ll be aware when you’re in the last 60 seconds of bidding. Shop with confidence. Number of bids and bid amounts may be slightly out of date. RolyRetro from Brentwood, Essex, UK on April 13, 2012: I use the Auctionsniper site, you can import all of your watched items and set a maximum price, and how many seconds before the end you want to place your bid. Here are things to keep in mind when you get ready to place your snipe bid: Know how high you’re willing to go. If the seller accepts your offer then great, you have your item! I was suspecting the sellers were doing a last second bid using a different I.P because they were unhappy with the current price of 99 cents. Category numbers: You can enter additional eBay sub/category numbers (numbers there are hidden at the end of eBay category URLs) to include for your search, comma-separated. Im currently on Ebay and theres 4 days till the auction ends. 1) The Sniper will of course know a proxy is running and will have tested for it, but he still has to best-guess the Proxy-max and could fall foul of his own tactics by sniping only to be sniped back by the proxy with even less time to respond, or more likely, no time to respond! By bidding early, you indicate to other browsers that an item has value. Automatic bidding is the easiest way to bid on an eBay auction. You can also use special software to automatically place sniping bids for you. The bidder's intention is to leave no time for reactionary bids from other bidders. Donna Wallace from North Carolina on June 11, 2010: Great advice! You won, congratulations! Your outrageously high amount suddenly isn't so outrageous after all. This happened to me twice, the last 10 to 15 seconds of the auction I bid and a screen pops up and say you have to bid one of these amounts, by the time you do that the auction is over. 2 min article; Tips for winning auctions. I've lost items before because i was either not logged in lol or because my reminder on my phone would come up and i will snooze it for an extra 4 mins and forgot about it. Last-Minute Bidding and the Rules for Ending Second-Price Auctions: Evidence from eBay and Amazon Auctions on the Internet By ALVIN E. ROTH AND AXEL OCKENFELS* Auctions on the Internet provide a new source of data on how bidding is influenced by the detailed rules of the auction. The Proxy bid does have two significant advantages over the sniper on high ticket items, though. wow, the things you learn on hubpages, e.bay is great if you know how to work it your advantage. Sniping (doesn't matter which auction site: Howrse is similar to eBay I imagine) doesn't work for those on dial-up because by the time you 'swoop' in, the auction is probably going to end, no matter how much time you allow for the page to load. How to Outbid the Competition at the Last Minute in an eBay Auction. hope this help every one get good wins! If you are unclear about any of eBay's rules, spend some time on eBay's Help pages. But remember, you’ll have to pay the piper later. Don’t place a bid yet but keep and eye on the bid prices. The reason why is most people bid incrementally, gradually increasing their bids as they sit there and figure out just how badly they want the item. “Bid Sniping (last minute bidding) eBay always recommends bidding the absolute maximum that one is willing to pay for an item early in the auction...” A seller’s view (Axis Mundi, 1999) “THE DANGERS OF LAST MINUTE BIDDING: Almost without fail after an auction has closed we receive emails from bidders who claim they were attempting to place a bid and were unable to get into eBay. Certainly, if the item has some emotional value and you just have to have it, bid as high as you want. I called Ebay and they said "Ebay is not letting bids the last seconds of an auction because others might be bidding … If your Internet connection is slow, make your bid within the final two minutes before the auction ends. 2 min article Best Ebay Snipers: 10 Sniping Services You Can Use. And if they reject it and tell you they will let the auction run then you can just wait and snipe! Guess that was just far-fetched. great tips...very useful to resolve ebay problem...thanks for sharing.... Great article, but a little note. The moment you see "50 seconds," place your bid. Last-Minute Bidding and the Rules for Ending Second-Price Auctions: Evidence from eBay and Amazon Auctions on the Internet ByALVINE.ROTHANDAXELOCKENFELS* Auctions on the Internet provide a new source of data on how bidding is in‘ uenced by the detailed rules of the auction. Last-minute bidding and the rules for ending second-price auctions: evidence from eBay and Amazon auctions on the Internet. Early bidding always encourages nibblers: people who don't generally care one way or the other if they want that item, but if they can get it at a good price they'll take it, so they'll bid just to see how serious you are. Here we study the second-price auctions run by eBay and Am- Best of all, Auction Sniper is free to try. I am so mad, I bid at like the 2 min mark and stayed and watched the timer tick down till I won the bid. I guess I usually put in a bid which is much higher than the current bid, because I want to be sure that I will win the item. EVERYBODY wins. I have engaged in many reverse auctions where the window is extended multiple times, thus driving the price even lower. Emma (author) from Boston on April 19, 2010: Yeah another thing you can do is add some cents to it incase someone bids the same amout. 2 min article “Bid Sniping (last minute bidding). Always add a few cents/pence to your max - £23.77 rather than £23.00. I'm having a problem with last minute bidding. Once you win an item in a group, BidSlammer will cancel bidding for the remaining snipes in that group. However I've been hearing more lately that people who shop on eBay are more and more inclined to buy items that have the "buy it now option". All the auctions where I put a bid earlier, a few days or so before the end of the auction, I always lost the auction. This is called shill biding. Bidding a serious max early is also fun as there is an element of 'here I am, catch me if you can' as you watch the auction unfold. … Skip to main content. There is another dimension to all this, often overlooked by writers when they champion their favourite on-line auction strategy. Shop by category. Use two browsers. Adjust the amount of the bid as high as you feel comfortable so that you can beat out the competition. This allows you to spread multiple bids around for common snipes to get the best price. This gives my fingers enough time to fumble around on the keyboard. That's how I do it, win an ebay auction, exactly how you describe it, starting at around 50 seconds before it ends. Many people are intimidated by eBay when they are new, so this is the perfect tool to help them out. Use the other to view other snipers or last-minute bid changes (by hitting reload). But I still have the feeling that I often paid way too much for the item, despite bidding in the last minute. This can be done manually, by software on the bidder's computer, or by an online sniping service. In this way, the eBay system favors the buyer over the seller. I thought that was the only way how you can win an auction. I have managed to place a bid on the last 10 seconds through my phone app, it makes it easier and quicker. This paper examines the differences in last minutes bidding behaviour between eBay and Amazon. Here we study the second-price auctions run by eBay and Am- Because many shoppers use eBay's automatic bidding system, eBay auctions may not behave in ways that make sense to you. A nice article! Great hub. Have friends are relatives bid on the same item. I'm a touch typist, but sometimes those number keys are tricky. Bidding early basically tips your hand by indicating your interest in an item. A seller's goal is to sell the item at the highest possible price. Here we study the second-price auctions run by eBay and Am- Before you start sniping, figure out how long it takes to get your bid confirmed on eBay. My husband had an item for sale that was bid up to $770, which was much less than he thought it was worth, right up until the very end. This tactic is used to try to prevent other bidders from having a chance to place a higher bid before the auction ends. Simply enter the highest price you’re willing to pay for an item, and we'll do the rest. If I am engaged in a 'reverse auction' (one in which multiple suppliers bid against each other, in the hope that the buyer will end up with the cheapest price) it is pretty much standard practice for the bidding window to be automatically extended if a bid is made in (say) the last five minutes. In closing, I would also like to add that proxy bidding is fairer to sellers and lets face it, without them there would be no eBay! Other bidders may be using the automatic bidding system. Sometimes, its better to wait until last minute. il deffo use these tips cuz im rubbish with Ebay most the time! Personally, as a seller sometimes, I'm on the sellers side. It's pretty nerve wracking on the seller's part too. Last-Minute Bidding and the Rules for Ending Second-Price Auctions: Evidence from eBay and Amazon Auctions on the Internet ByALVINE.ROTHANDAXELOCKENFELS* Auctions on the Internet provide a new source of data on how bidding is in‘ uenced by the detailed rules of the auction. Other members may be using the same tactic, could have set up automatic bidding , or may simply react quickly and place a higher bid before the auction ends. A paper entitled Last Minute Bidding and the Rules for Ending Second Price Auctions: Evidence from eBay and Amazon Auctions by Alvin Roth et al (2002), published in the American Economic Review examines the phenomenon. Driving the price up. That's when the mad frenzy of bids just keep coming..usually. Bid in the final moments of the auction for the best advantage. It is not the last bid placed that wins, but the highest bid. When it ended the winning bid was $1600! The answer to your query is, indeed, one increment higher than the last person's highest bid ~ but..... a word of caution. The only ones which I won, were the ones where I placed my bid in the last minute. To put it as simply as possible, the tactics to use (Proxy or Snipe) are relative to the Providence and Market Value of the item. Some sellers might go the extra mile. If you have a slower connection just be carefull to not leave it too late for the page to send data back to the server! I read it because although I used to be a frequent eBay user (and serial sniper) I haven't used it for years and wanted a refresher on technique! Good TUT - May i add that if you open the same auction page in the backgraoud (NEW WINDOW) the place then side by side use one window to click place bid - enter you maximum bid You are WILLING to pay here and leave it where it says CONFIRM BID. Last-minute bidding in eBay charity auctions. Very Nice work! Always add a few cents/pence to your max - £23.77 rather than £23.00. This not allowed on ebay. Im so sorry justin, i feel that but i hope that doesnt happen to me today. Thank you so much for this information!GREAT idea to buy something in less price .thanx once agin great hub! This stuff is supposed to be fun. Although it's a risky strategy for these "forced-bidders", they seldom run across each other it seems. In the last 15 minutes of an auction you've bid on in the past, you can instantly bid one increment higher than the current bid by clicking the "1-Click Bid" button. Interesting advice and comments and I suspect the Proxy v Snipe debate will carry on for ever! It is a savvy bidding process for bargain buyers, but sellers hate it because they might have gotten more money for their item if other bidders had had time to respond. You also can see instantly whether anyone else is doing any last-minute bidding. Once you find an item that you want to bid for, … i haven't won many auctions! Bidnapper does this automatically. 2) The early bid by the proxy out-trumps a same-bid by the sniper AND even a close-higher snipe if the snipe does not meet the next increment, which on higher priced items is going to be £5 or even £10 a pop. For example, a pair of socks for a fiver is best Sniped-for in the hope of picking up a bargain at the last minute and the adrenaline flow does get the blood racing! I had enough time to click place bid and type the amount but the page refreshed before I could hit enter. Test it a few times until you know how many seconds you have to spare when placing a bid. Especially sticking in your maximum bid near the end rather than nibbling. Often sellers start auctions at 99p or less, hoping a bidding war … Yea you are totally right. Let me explain why. But if you want to avoid trigger higher bids (which in the heat of the moment can go very high), all you have to beat is the human reaction time. What if your opponent had also pitched his/her bid at something 'outrageously high'? By reloading the item continually, you’ll be aware when you’re in the last 60 seconds of bidding. If you've made a mistake when bidding on an item, you can retract your bid in certain circumstances. When I was using Ebay regularly I won tons of auctions using it. Sometimes someone will put in a bid slightly higher than your current visible bid just to test how badly you want an item. With many bids coming in the final seconds, your bid might be the last one eBay records. If your Internet connection is slow, make your bid within the final two minutes before the auction ends. Log in to eBay and go to the item’s page 2 minutes before the auction ends. So another thing you can do if you really want an item is message the seller yourself and make an offer. Here's her sniping strategy for winning with the lowest bid possible. Auction Sniper is an eBay sniper that automates the process of placing your eBay bid in the closing seconds of any eBay bidding auction, dramatically increasing your chance of winning. Keep in mind that you will have to provide your eBay login info to these services, but it will save you from having to do the work yourself. I usually snipe (without software) in the last 3 seconds, but usually fail cos of these "risk-takers". Analysis of Bidding Rules on eBay: This page explains why last minute bidding on eBay (called sniping) is the best strategy for buyers, and also why sniping is the most civilized and polite way to shop. This is usually because 1) The seller gets impatient and worried if their item is not making as much money as they expect for it. The practice you wish to curtail, is the practice of bidding. bryanps from Australia on February 24, 2011: those are really sound advice. eBay always recommends bidding the absolute maximum that one is willing to pay for an item early in the auction. This page was last updated: 05-Dec 03:11. Great advice, but sometimes it takes nerves of steel. One of you will end up paying an outrageously high price. A "snipe" is a winning bid that takes place in the last minute or so of an auction. However, 4 times out of 5, there's always someone who places their proxy maximum bid clearly much higher than me, and probably 10x the actual value of the item. So maybe if this trend continues, auctioned items will be easier to buy! So you see, there is a place for both types of bidding. :-(. My strategy is similar to your actually but the only difference is i use a time to keep up with the bid clock. That’s it, you’re done! Auction sniping, the process of placing bids at the very last moment of an auction, is an (often unduly) controversial topic on eBay.Though there are groups of buyers and sellers alike that advocate sniping, and competing groups of buyers and sellers that are sure it’s a kind of cheating, most of the eBay community pays sniping little heed. If they see that you are, then they may wander off and never come back to that auction at all—but they've just driven up your bid and therefore the final cost of your item. 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