eBay n00bie Question: Bid Sniping

[bcrdukes]

Hey guys,

There's an item on eBay I'm looking to buy but I'm afraid it will get snatched up by collectors. The auction ends tomorrow at 6:30pm PST and I want to win this auction in fear it doesn't appear on the market for a long, long time.

I don't use eBay very often and have never used a bid sniper. Do any of you guys use them and are they effective? If so, any recommendations and/or advice? Please and thank you!

(P.S. It's a vintage collector trumpet that I'm after)

[yray]

1. Check bid history to see if there are some significant bidders
2. determine the value you want to spend on the product (I would to a test bid just to test the waters, see if there are any max bidders around)
3. prepare yourself last 5 minutes of the auction by loading up the page, remove bandwidth wasting sites like RS chat
4. 2 minutes left, start bidding up but at "odd" numbers like 22.67, 24.68,25.87 etc
5. hope your internet beats opponents

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/ebay/how-to-bid.htm
I don't really trust his last second one bid method though

[bcrdukes]

I see maybe one or two people bidding constantly to drive the price up. I don't know if it's intentional or not (I don't care) and I know what the going value is for the horn. I'd be willing to pay a bit more than market price as long as I can get it because it's something that's rare and doesn't come up very often. Hardcore collectors will pay a handsome price for it but very few know of this particular one.

[GLOW]

2 minutes IMO is pushing it. i'd put in the most i'm willing to pay maybe 10min left and let whatever happens happens. if the guy sells quite a bit i dont think he'd really risk using a dummy account to drive up the price ebay checks up on that.

[jeedee]

Use JustSnipe.com

Been using it for about 2 years now and haven't had to sit there during the last 2 mins of the auction and constantly placing bids lol.

Just enter the highest amount you'd bid on it [on JustSnipe] and it'll do the rest for you. It places the lowest bid for you in the last 8 seconds.

Won 95% of auctions I've bidded on thanks to it. 5% was when my bid was too low/my eBay account wasn't linked to JustSnipe.

Good luck!

[bcrdukes]

^
Thanks for that.

Out of curiosity, do they send you junk mail to your e-mail and the address you provide them?

[jeedee]

Nope.

Haven't had any problems with them whatsoever.

I even used my spam hotmail account, and no spam/junk is sent to me

[bcrdukes]

I will try that. Thank you!

[OTG-ZR2]

I still prefer the thrill of refreshing every 10 seconds, during the last minute

[jeedee]

Originally Posted by OTG-ZR2

I still prefer the thrill of refreshing every 10 seconds, during the last minute

There's no thrill WHEN YOU LOSE

[bcrdukes]

Originally Posted by OTG-ZR2

I still prefer the thrill of refreshing every 10 seconds, during the last minute

This.

But I usually lose.

In fact, I always lose.

[bcrdukes]

I won!

Didn't use the bid snipe program though.

Holton Trumpet Silver Symphony 101B Model Bach Strad 37 Copy | eBay

Most of these horns go from anywhere between $500 to $850, an upwards of $1250. They aren't known very well but given the wealth of knowledge on the Internet, once people are convinced, they will go up in value. But for now, it will be my main brass to be kissing on Monday and Thursday evenings.

[jeedee]

Congrats!

[InvisibleSoul]

I'm late to the party, but I've been doing eBay for well over a decade, and this is what I do.

First, determine what the maximum price is that you're willing to pay.

Second, bid that amount as late as possible - within the last ten seconds is best.

Why? Because you remove the ability for anyone to counter bid. If you bid with two minutes left, someone will EASILY have time to see your bid and outbid you.

Say there's one other person out there willing to pay $150 for the item, but you're only willing to pay $100.

The other guy is currently leading the bids at $75, and he didn't bother putting in $150 as his maximum bid.

If you bid $100 with two minutes left, he will see the bid, and bid $105 or $150. Either way, you lose.

If you bid $100 with ten seconds left, he might see the bid, but it will be too late for him to counter bid.

If he does place his maximum bid of $150 early, there's nothing you can do about it... there's no chance you were going to win anyway. But trying to snipe it last second, it gives you a chance.

If I can't be in front of the computer when the auction is ending, I use JBidWatcher. It's a program that runs on your computer. I've won many auctions with it, but there was one time that it screwed up on me and couldn't place the bid.

for me, if I can be in front of the computer when the auction ends, I will always try to manually bid, and I will try to do it within the last 10 SECONDS. The later you place your bid

[jeedee]

Originally Posted by InvisibleSoul

I'm late to the party, but I've been doing eBay for well over a decade, and this is what I do.

First, determine what the maximum price is that you're willing to pay.

Second, bid that amount as late as possible - within the last ten seconds is best.

Your method basically summed up the bid sniper I recommended; JustSnipe lol

There's always a risk if you bid manually within the last 10 seconds though. Like your internet loading extremely slow while trying to place the bid, internet dying etc.

JustSnipe, you can enter the bid whenever and it places your max bid in the last 7 seconds

[bcrdukes]

I looked at the bid history and won by $1 and with 5 seconds left!
Posted via RS Mobile

[unit]

ive used esnipe with no problems. its a great service

[terkan]

i usually just have the max amount i'm willing to pay entered go to the next page where all you hit is the confirm bid button. open another window to watch the timer tick down and just click confirm with couple seconds left. haven't had a person manage to enter a bid after me yet coz usually it ended up placing the bid with 2-3 sec left. only time i don't win is if my max is lower than the final price

[Excelsis]

30 seconds before bid ended raise price by like 10 dollars

5 seconds left enter amount higher by 50-100.. whatever you're willing to spend

gratz on the trumpet lol

[OTG-ZR2]

Lets see a pix of this trumpet
=

[bcrdukes]

Soon, my friend. Soon.

[InvisibleSoul]

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

I looked at the bid history and won by $1 and with 5 seconds left!
Posted via RS Mobile

Was $413 your actual bid, or did you place a higher maximum bid?

Your bid was submitted with 8 seconds left, and someone else submitted a bid of $412 with just three seconds left.

[Szeto]

i usually just put in the maximum $ i'd spend then wait for "You've won!" email

[InvisibleSoul]

Originally Posted by Szeto

i usually just put in the maximum $ i'd spend then wait for "You've won!" email

You could do that... but you'll never win the auction at the best possible price.

[bcrdukes]

There's no thrill in that! That's like redlining an automatic Corolla!