Are E-Bayers nuts?

[CWPinSC]

I think Gunbroker uses the 15 min. rule

That must be who I'm thinking of. I just bought something from them, so it's fresh in my mind.

[Suwannee Tim]

I know sniping is legal, it is just distasteful to me. It seems sneaky and underhanded.

[CWPinSC]

I know sniping is legal, it is just distasteful to me. It seems sneaky and underhanded.

That boils down to who is the fastest typist and who has the fastest Net connection. Back when I had dial-up. Yea, I'm THAT old. I really had to time last minute bids. I'd constantly refresh the screen to get the most up to date "time left". I pretty much knew how long it took my connection to transmit a bid and I'd add about 15 seconds to that. Sometimes I lost by a few seconds because my connection slowed or someone else got in behind me. Oh well, that's the way the gavel pounds. I'd have my top price in my mind and would never bid over that. Sometimes I'd put in my top price at the beginning of the auction, then never look at the auction again until I got either a "You won" or "You've been outbid" eMail. That's a fur sur way to not go over your set limit.

Underhanded? No. Distasteful? Maybe. Sneaky? Yup.

However, others have the option to do the same thing. How badly do you want the item?

I've gotten up at 3 AM to line up at a store door for a limited quantity - big discount sale at several stores. Got a computer one year, a printer the year after that. People who lined up behind me often didn't get the item. I put in the effort to get it.

[NCMountain]

Best to just set your high bid and let it roll! Hard to do without looking back from time to time but it is best.

[Brian Pfleuger]

I know sniping is legal, it is just distasteful to me. It seems sneaky and underhanded.

I can't understand why it would be sneaky or distasteful. In fact, it seems like a near necessity if you want a good price on any item. If you post your bid early then some eBay fool will bid in 65 (.25 cent) increments until they beat you. Which is not only pointless, since even if they bid $10,000 on a $50 item the system would only out bid you by one increment, but also serves to artificially inflate the price if you give them the time to do it.

Last second bidding does NOTHING to hurt the guy who put in his honest to goodness highest offer 3 days prior because if he's higher than me then he still wins, regardless. All it does is stop the 200 bid tiny increment overzealous, over bidders and also reduces the need for me to be present to place my last second bid manually.

[Linear Thinker]

Nothing sneaky or underhanded about sniping. Please remember - the highest Ebay bid wins, regardless of when it was placed. If that's not fair - I don't know what is.
LT

[rdmallory]

If I want something I place the Item number and price I am willing to pay on www.auctionsniper.com and forget about it.

I win some and I loose some but I never end up spending more than I wanted to.

If the amount is over my bid I get an e-mail and I delete the snipe. If it is under when It bids I win it.

Like I said earlier I sell and buy on e-bay for over 11 years and have learned the hard way not to get too aggressive bidding.

Doug

If you sign up put me down as a referral so I get free snipes.

Doug at rdmallory dot com

[SL1]

The 15 minute rule makes more sense. But, when I was looking at E-bay for a larger rotary tumbler, I noticed that they were going for more than they were worth. (I could get a NEW one shipped to me for the same price or better than the used ones, and the regular dealer offered guarantees and money-back return.)

What I saw in the bidding patterns for the items I was interested in was that a LOT of people looked at the items, but there were few, and often NO bids until the auction was nearly over. I THINK this was due to folks trying to avoid starting a bidding war when there was time for the war to get the price into the stratosphere. After a while, I noticed that some of the items started getting an early bidding war that took the price pretty high, and then that STOPPED for a substantial time, sometimes DAYS. Then, within minutes of the end, a short bidding war started. I first thought that the earlier bidding was being done by some legitimate bidders who didn't realize how the system was working. But, after seeing that those earlier bidders never seemed to follow-up when the final bidding started, I have begun to think that those early bids may have been the sellers TRYING to start a bidding war to maximize their selling price. Can't prove it either way.

But, I highly recommend sniping with a max bid that is all you are willing to pay, rather than putting that bid in early.

SL1

[Suwannee Tim]

I have bid on probably $200K worth of stuff on ebay and won about $10K and I lost a lot of auctions to snipers. My strategy was to bid low and bid on lots and lots of auctions and it worked, I got a lot of bargains. Just about everything I ever bought was a bargain, only a couple of things I paid too much for. I never engaged in a bidding war, I placed my bid and let the proxy do the rest. I saw people bid a dozen times against the proxy. Very amusing. I saw lots of people pay too much, I would send the snipers an e-mail taunting them for paying too much before ebay stopped such contacts. It is one heck of a lot easier to get a bargain on ebay if you have time and patience. If you are in a hurry you are going to get hosed. I worked in a real auction decades ago, I saw a lot of people get hosed there too.

[UpandAtIt]

If I want something bad enough I just buy it, usually if there is a buy it now, I use that. I get no thrill out of a bidding win against other people. I would much rather compete at the shooting Range, Sporting Clays course etc. something that actually takes skill, not a faster connection or computer.

If it is something I know damn well I have been looking for, for years and one shows up with a BIN feature I use that, if it has no BIN, I actually write the seller and ask them to update the listing to have a BIN. Many will do that and I just grab it that way. Most of the time I am not cheated in price and makes it fast, efficient and easy. A few times I have had to bite the bullet and pay a cpl dollars more for an item due to BIN, but now am glad I did that as a few years have past and the items value has doubled and trippled.

Snipers get some kind of thrill akin to stealing a kids candy, I just do not have that need.

Most of the items I need or want are no longer made such as peep sights, magazines and parts for 1920's and 1930's Savages or 1940's Hi-Standards.

[Suwannee Tim]

I bought several items "buy it now" where the seller had it priced low but you have to know what you are looking at and what it is worth and bid quick.

I remember one series of auctions from a gun store in Alaska that sold out. I bought four or five lots of unloaded bullets each weighing 50 or so pounds, just short of the express mail weight limit. There were probably forty such lots sold. Every one went on express mail for $15 or so. The USPS evidently doesn't do ground parcel service to AK and all the lots I bought arrived next day air. The USPS really got hosed on that one.

Some of my best bargains were buying multiple items and combining shipping while I was competing against people who were buying only one item.

One thing ebay is great for is items no longer sold new for example, Dillon 1-1/8 lock rings, not available except on ebay. Glass syringes which I use for handling oils, solvents, cleaners, same deal.