Interesting reality about Ebay bidding experience

polkatese

I use Ebay very rarely, and mostly to do BIN, since I have no patient and no tools to effectively win the auction. Anyways, I was bidding on MS Projects software this afternoon, and lost (highly expected). So, anyways, here is interesting fact:

User ID Bid Amount Date of bid
daytrader1323 ( 2057) US $313.03 Nov-14-05 16:13:07 PST
alistix ( 4697) US $308.03 Nov-14-05 16:13:09 PST
andmar1 ( 265) US $245.55 Nov-14-05 15:00:48 PST

The winner is daytrader1323, but check the time, how is that possible?

I am sure it involves a snipe software or something, but isn't that odd?

Mike682

It's automatic bidding: When he first bid, he had set a maximum bid and ebay will bid automatically up to that highest dollar amount. So the time that is displayed is the time he set his orig bid.

The max bid is not displayed and is unknown to other bidders. Some people will just put the highest they want to bid when placing a bid instead of watching the auction. Ebay does the rest. If someone bids higher than Ebay will send an e-mail stating someone bidded higher and you can chose to bid higher or leave it.

polkatese

ok. on auto bid, what's the increment? I thought it was more like $2?

Mike682

I think increment goes by dollar amount of current bid...lower amounts have smaller increments, etc

Proxy Bidding:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/proxy-bidding.html

Bid Increments:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bid-increments.html

polkatese

Thanks, Mike. That is very helpful. So, if someone auctioning a $20 item, and I put a maximum of $100, and the last bidder is in the range of $40 or so, will the final price (for my winning bid) be $42.50 or whatever the next increment within the range?

danger boy

polkatese wrote:

Thanks, Mike. That is very helpful. So, if someone auctioning a $20 item, and I put a maximum of $100, and the last bidder is in the range of $40 or so, will the final price (for my winning bid) be $42.50 or whatever the next increment within the range?

YUP! you got it.

MacLeod

Yup, Ebay sucks. I tried it once and wont again.

Mike682

polkatese wrote:

Thanks, Mike. That is very helpful. So, if someone auctioning a $20 item, and I put a maximum of $100, and the last bidder is in the range of $40 or so, will the final price (for my winning bid) be $42.50 or whatever the next increment within the range?

Yep, exactly

polkatese

well, this is actually not a bad proposition. That is, if I am bidding an iPod Video (retail of $299, 30GB), then I'll put a bid for $500, knowing that everyone else will stop at $300, no? That is assuming that I am dense and dying to own one at all cost.

Mike682

It's not bad because you can actually pay less for something if no one comes close to your maximum bid.

polkatese

thanks gents. very educational. Btw, I've seen people bidding stuff way pass MSRP.

faster100

E-bay doesn't suck, some of the sellers/buyers do. Like its not the guns that kill people, its the people. LOL same thing,

we collect glass and would never have the pieces we have without e-bay..

you can save alot of money buying e-bay, I think its the people who don't understand it that don't like it..

Emlyn

Seems like the software sells normally for around $350-$400 as a "Buy it Now". Both the top bidders are very experienced Ebayers and appear to have used bid sniping services. The winner's first bid was placed 9 seconds before the auction ended. The loser's first bid was placed 7 seconds before the auction ended. The "amateur" wasn't even close with traditional bidding. The one who was second place this time around bid about $40 less than the low end of the going price for the software hoping to get a minor bargain. He lost anyway. The winner bid at least $5 more than second place, but the actual maximum bid will never be known. I seriously doubt that it was higher than $340 though. Otherwise he would have done one of the buy it now auctions. The software is readily available so I imagine the second place bidder in this round will get what he's looking for soon, maybe for a lower bid than his maximum this time around. Ebay is good for the patient, but can be expensive for those who want something right away.

Mike682

thanks gents. very educational. Btw, I've seen people bidding stuff way pass MSRP

Yeah, I see that also. So far, I only bid on stuff from HK's harmanaudio store. People will go crazy on some items and wind up getting into a bidding war with each other. After the auction ends the price is way too high for the item...

first capital

I use auction snipper on ebay. I works out well. When you sign up you usually get three free snipes. If you have someone else sign up you get additional snipes free.

michael_w

Yeah I tried bidding on my first auction today but didn't know about the max bid thing. I managed to get in about 3 bids within the last 45 seconds but I got outbid too many times too fast to keep up.

BIZILL

again, i use no tools besides high speed internet. i wait until the last ten seconds to overbid the current dollar amount. i never bid past msrp. i always do my homework. hard to find items can be found via ebay. but ebay still follows the path of supply and demand. i've saved literally thousands of dollars with ebay. that's with 60 purchases in two years. i'm a buyer and have yet to sell. but i know ebay very well. i could win an item for far less than msrp, and people always try to get me to ebay for them. no deal. get with the program and learn for yourself.
but be warned. there are shady sellers and buyers out there. that is where homework and experience come into play. is ebay a market for first-time buyers? perhaps not. but one must start somewhere. the only thing i am weary of is sellers with multiple accounts. say a seller is selling a set of rti12's and forgot to have a minimum selling price called a "reserve price". they watch their auction and with no one bidding, they imagine their profits dwindling to nothing. who is to stop them from bidding using an alias ebay account to drive up the cost? even if they have to win their own auction, at least they don't sell their product for less than profit.
ebay is both a godsend and lucifer just the same. homework and experience is the key.

BIZILL

as well, don't fool yourself and think only you and two other folk are watching a particular item. most experienced users wait until that last 25 seconds to make a move. you'll never know just how many people are actively bidding/watching at any given moment. who's to say there aren't like 35 people from all walks in america bidding in those last 25 seconds.
know your ultimate bid you are willing to pay for an item. wait till the last minute and bid like 2% over that amount, just to be sure. and as with gambling, know when not to bid and walk away.

michael_w

So say the item is only at 60 bucks but you had planned on seeing it move to about 100. Would you bid 100 in the last few seconds?

BIZILL

yes sir ee bob! well, more like $105, just to be sure. but allow your internet connection time to get your bid in. but do it so that no one has time to see their price has been beat. if there's like only 5 seconds left, even with high speed they won't have enough time to bid $110...

danger boy

most people bid on items in the last 30 minutes before the auction ends. the last 5 minutes are crucial.. so place your max bid.. you may get it.. or you may get outbid too. but not overpaying and getting into a bidding war is the best way to get deals. of course patience counts for a big part of it too. and normally, i'm not a very patient guy. :eek:

BIZILL

guaranteed.......the best way to win and/or get a deal is to wait till the last second. don't assume watching an item that is stuck for the past 3 days @ $90 is gonna sell for $91. you could watch that item sell for $300 (depending on item) in the last 25 seconds. shoot, makes one's mind spin. sellers know this especially. usually they don't sweat it when they see such a low stagnant bid.

BIZILL

again, be cautious. i've waited till the last 30 seconds (best to wait till only 10-15 seconds left) and bid and assumed i've won. went to scratch myself below and with only 7 seconds left realized i had been overbid. i was arrogant. and seven seconds with my heart pounding and fingers sweating was not enough time for me to re-bid. i was pwn3d!

Mike682

guaranteed.......the best way to win and/or get a deal is to wait till the last second. don't assume watching an item that is stuck for the past 3 days @ $90 is gonna sell for $91. you could watch that item sell for $300 (depending on item) in the last 25 seconds. shoot, makes one's mind spin. sellers know this especially. usually they don't sweat it when they see such a low stagnant bid.

so true, an item could be stagnant for 2 or 3 days and then within the last 5 minutes, the item can double or triple in price.

BIZILL

sorry all, just trying to help, but one more thing. please beware of shipping prices. some folk are all too happy and joyous in the fact that they've found what they've been searching for their whole lives at less than half msrp. they are so ecstatic that they either bid or if available, "buy it now" instead. then when it comes time to checkout, whoa! 10 % OVER retail. seller plainly listed their shipping price was more than half the value of the item. sometimes it is not so plainly obvious. make sure you know what you'll be paying for shipping and factor that into the overall price. just because shipping a 1 gigabyte sandisk card that weighs less than a penny ships from seller for $25 usps does not mean that if i bid $40 and win, it's not a good deal. altogether shipped for $65 is not too shabby. of course, that is just a generalization of fact.

polkatese

BIZILL wrote:

just because shipping a 1 gigabyte sandisk card that weighs less than a penny ships from seller for $25 usps does not mean that if i bid $40 and win, it's not a good deal. altogether shipped for $65 is not too shabby. of course, that is just a generalization of fact.

or you could go to CompUSA and paid $64.64 including CA sales tax and be over with

thanks for the insight though, that's the part that I am not crazy about, watching it for 4 days, only to see it gone bye bye in the last 4 seconds. Time Value of Money..:)

BIZILL

polkatese wrote:

or you could go to CompUSA and paid $64.64 including CA sales tax and be over with

i know, that's why i ended my last post with "this is just a generalization". just a quickie example. items can be won at substantial savings. good thing you caught that. wondered if anyone would....

Polkersince85

Get a good atomic radio clock, set it to ebay time, mine is right on the money. Know you connection speed and time it takes to register your bid and pull the trigger at the last second. I keep a run chart on register times in order to get an average time from my connection. Decide first what you are willing to pay or you'll get caught in the heat of the moment and pay too much. Watch out for 0 feedbackers, they are either the seller or a novice that will run up the price.