Ebay Bitching! Need to vent? Vent away! - Collecting Tiki

K Kono Member Orlando Joined: Oct 08, 2003 Posts: 1266	K Kono Posted posted on Sat, Jan 29, 2005 5:10 PM On 2005-01-28 19:45, christiki295 wrote: As an Ebay novice, just making my first bid now, what is Ensnipe, etc. and how are they better than Ebay's internal automatic bidding system? Mahalo. (PS - after reading all this I have doubled my automatic bid - just in case.) The best way to bid on an auction is to bid the maximum amount you are willing to pay for the item (consider shipping costs) and bid that amount as late as possible. You can do this manually or you can use a sniping service. With the sniping service, a third party automated system will enter your bid with just seconds to go before the auction ends. That way you can go to bed or go out drinking etc. Why is it important to bid your max amount? Well, you want to win right? You'd feel silly if you thought an item was worth $60 and you only bid $40 and lost. Why is it important to wait until the last moment? 1) other bidder (we'll call him Kono) perhaps did not bid his max amount. By bidding early you have let him know he is losing and he has time to raise his bid. 2) Perhaps Kono did bid his max amount but by you outbidding him he gets emotional and in the heat of the moment bids beyond his comfort level in order to "win" (this happens all the time). You lose, he wins but might have buyer's remorse and the perceived market value of the item is likely now elevated. 3) by outbidding Kono you have given him the curiousity to do some more research on this item since it may be worth more than he originally guessed. He may do a search of completed ebay auctions on this item and rationally decide to raise his max amount. 4) By bidding at the last moment you prevent yourself from going #2 and getting emotional and bidding beyond your comfort level for the item. I've fallen prey to the latter scenario myself, especially if you are being beat by someone that beats you often (like Woody with Sooprised). You start feeling like "I'm gonna beat that #$&! no matter what it takes!" and then you spend more than you should have. I've never used a sniping service, I do it manually, but I probably should. Doing it manually keeps you tied to the computer. Sniping services work in conjunction with ebay's automated bidding. Once the sniping service enters your bid then ebay's bidding system kicks in, though with very little time left for it to work.

On 2005-01-28 19:45, christiki295 wrote:
As an Ebay novice, just making my first bid now, what is Ensnipe, etc. and how are they better than Ebay's internal automatic bidding system?

Mahalo.

(PS - after reading all this I have doubled my automatic bid - just in case.)

The best way to bid on an auction is to bid the maximum amount you are willing to pay for the item (consider shipping costs) and bid that amount as late as possible. You can do this manually or you can use a sniping service. With the sniping service, a third party automated system will enter your bid with just seconds to go before the auction ends. That way you can go to bed or go out drinking etc.

Why is it important to bid your max amount? Well, you want to win right? You'd feel silly if you thought an item was worth $60 and you only bid $40 and lost.

Why is it important to wait until the last moment? 1) other bidder (we'll call him Kono) perhaps did not bid his max amount. By bidding early you have let him know he is losing and he has time to raise his bid. 2) Perhaps Kono did bid his max amount but by you outbidding him he gets emotional and in the heat of the moment bids beyond his comfort level in order to "win" (this happens all the time). You lose, he wins but might have buyer's remorse and the perceived market value of the item is likely now elevated. 3) by outbidding Kono you have given him the curiousity to do some more research on this item since it may be worth more than he originally guessed. He may do a search of completed ebay auctions on this item and rationally decide to raise his max amount. 4) By bidding at the last moment you prevent yourself from going #2 and getting emotional and bidding beyond your comfort level for the item. I've fallen prey to the latter scenario myself, especially if you are being beat by someone that beats you often (like Woody with Sooprised). You start feeling like "I'm gonna beat that #$&! no matter what it takes!" and then you spend more than you should have.

I've never used a sniping service, I do it manually, but I probably should. Doing it manually keeps you tied to the computer.

Sniping services work in conjunction with ebay's automated bidding. Once the sniping service enters your bid then ebay's bidding system kicks in, though with very little time left for it to work.

Post #138215 by Kono on Sat, Jan 29, 2005 5:10 PM