eBay Bidding Question....

[fab5freddy]

I have a question about eBay bidding.....

When you place a bid in the Blue Bidding Field : "Place Bid"
does the bid instantly show up so everyone can see that you bid
that amount, or does eBay hide your bid until someone else bids higher ??

I think ebay has somethinig called Proxy Bidding, where it hides your bid ??

i was just trying to figure out if Ebays bidding is just as good
as sniping ?

 

[wadejc85]

Your highest bid will not be shown. The only bid to show up will be the lowest at the moment. eBay bids on your behalf up to your maximum.

 

[greg555]

If you have put in the highest proxy bid the price will go one bid increment above the next highest bidder, but not to your maximum bid (unless that is needed to beat the 2nd highest bidders maximum).

This does allow you to bid if you aren't going to be around for sniping at the end, but does have some disadvantages.

- the previous top bidder may have gotten attached to the idea of "winning" the item and will now think about bidding higher to "win" it back. So you may still win the auction but may pay more than you should have.

- more people are likely to look at an auction with several bids rather than one with zero or one bid ("gee it must be worth looking at"). So being the first or second bidder (prior to the last few seconds of an auction) may increase interest and thus bidding.

- some people have shill bidders put in a high bid (to see what your bid is) then cancel it ("oops, I meant to bid $50, not $500"). Knowing what you are willing to pay they can later drive up the bid to your maximum amount. If you snipe at the last second they don't have time to play that game.

Greg

 

[fab5freddy]

thanks for the info. It was very informative.
i am rather new to eBay, and find it is rather complicated.

 

[greg555]

You're welcome.

Here are a couple of articles with more info http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-109173.html and
http://www.wikihow.com/Snipe-on-eBay

Cheers - Greg

 

[da2005pizimp]

ebay has a new thing called "click bid" or something like that and when the item has just a few minutes left it lets you just click bid and puts your bid in, this takes away having to confirm very helpful if you get in a bidding war against someone.