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ebay rant (short)



Last second bidding is the way to go.  Any bids entered by yourself
before the last 5 seconds of an auction close results in jacking the
price up on yourself and puts a huge smile on the seller's face. 
Realize there are some people out there who will outbid you just for the
sake of outbidding you so they can 'win' and really have nothing else to
do in life (sad, but reality).  If you keep a low profile by not
bidding, the other bidder(s) aren't aware of your interest in the item
and *might* have a tendency to not watch the auction as closely.   

Establish what the max amount is that you would pay for the item when
you first see the auction.  If the bidding goes beyond that, oh well. 
Watch the other idiots pay way too much.  If the high bid hasn't reached
your max, enter your max bid within the last few seconds and hope the
high bidder hasn't put in a higher max bid than you.

I currently have a slow dialup connection, but still wait until the last
4 seconds or so.  I open an eBay window, sign in, bring up the auction,
enter my max bid amount and stop at the page with the 'Place Bid'
button.  Then I open another browser window and watch the auction count
down by hitting reload occasionally.  Leave that first window alone
until you're ready to hit that 'place bid' button.  You will very rarely
lose an auction if you do this, unless the current high bidder had
entered a higher max bid.

Mike

Christian Els wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Neal Tovsen" <nealtovsen@y...>
> 
> >
> > > Bid sniping is a silly illusion...
> >
> > Yeah, but it works...
> >
> 
> No it doesn't.
> 
> Either you want to pay more than the guy you are sniping - in which case you
> win 3 days out or three seconds out - or he didn't have his shit together
> and underbid in which case your bid 3 days out gives him time to reconsider
> what actual value the item holds for him and re-bid accordingly, but if your
> price is higher than his you still win. If his initial proxy bid is already
> higher than your snipe attempt, you lose, same as if his re-bid is higher.
> Where's the advantage?
> 
> Bid sniping only plays to folks who have no sense of an item's value
> (underbidding) or no fiscal discipline (paying above its value just to win).
> 
> Do your homework, figure out when you first find something what it is worth
> (to you) and proxy bid that amount. Go to bed and when you wake up either
> you won or some schmuck just paid more than it was worth.
> 
> Christian Els
> 1987 Scirocco 16V, For Sale
> www.schnellpc.com/scirocco.htm
> 
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