Need ebay bidding help !

[augustya]

Hey Guys,

There is this item listed currently at $100 on eBay.com. I don't wanna spend more than $250 for it. The bid ends on Saturday. When should I place my maximum bid on the last day ? just one hour before the bid ends ? or I can do it ASAP which is right away, and how much should I place my maximum bid. I was thinking about a little outrageous maximum bid amount like $500 to secure I am the number one in the race. So that I secure the position.

What suggestions can you guys give me ?

Cheers !

 

[simsaladimbamba]

If you bid now, and use 500 currency units as your bid, other bidders might be able to outbid you with low or high increments, if they value the product that much, but you could also end up paying 300 or 400 or 500 currency units for the item you only want to pay 250 for.

If you bid short before the auction ends, another bidder might outbid you with a previous maximum bid that bidder gave before. If the item is at 150 now and you bid 200 for it, another bidder might have bid 250 on it and can now win the auction for 201 currency units.

 

[Weaselboy]

Hey Guys,

There is this item listed currently at $100 on eBay.com. I don't wanna spend more than $250 for it. The bid ends on Saturday. When should I place my maximum bid on the last day ? just one hour before the bid ends ? or I can do it ASAP which is right away, and how much should I place my maximum bid. I was thinking about a little outrageous maximum bid amount like $500 to secure I am the number one in the race. So that I secure the position.

What suggestions can you guys give me ?

Cheers !

I would definitely not bid now with that $500 cap. You could very well end up paying more than the $250 you want.

Here is the thing with eBay and somewhat popular items. Almost all the smart bidders come in at the last minute to "snipe" the auction. In other words, they bid at the last second to beat you out of your item without having to get involved in a price escalating bidding war. If you really want to snag the item the only way is to play that same game. That means hovering over the mouse that last ten seconds and clicking in your bid.

There are even apps that will snipe for you.

Or, if you are set on a max of $250, just enter that as your cap and let's the chips fall where they may.

 

[tgi]

As stated, just wait until the last minute or so and place your max bid of $250 with a few seconds remaining.

Who knows the bid might even go past $250 before Saturday and then you'll probably not even bother with it anymore.

 

[gnasher729]

Hey Guys,

There is this item listed currently at $100 on eBay.com. I don't wanna spend more than $250 for it. The bid ends on Saturday. When should I place my maximum bid on the last day ? just one hour before the bid ends ? or I can do it ASAP which is right away, and how much should I place my maximum bid. I was thinking about a little outrageous maximum bid amount like $500 to secure I am the number one in the race. So that I secure the position.

What suggestions can you guys give me ?

Cheers !

Consider this: If I want exactly the same item, and I don't want to spend more than $250, but I bid $500 to secure the item, and you do exactly the same, what happens? Simple: One of us will get the item for $500, twice as much as we wanted to pay.

Make your mind up how much you want to pay. If that's $250, bid $250. Doesn't matter when you do it. If nobody else wants to pay more than $200, you get it for $200. If someone else offers $300, they get it for $255. Don't worry about that, you wouldn't have gotten it for $255.

As stated, just wait until the last minute or so and place your max bid of $250 with a few seconds remaining.

Who knows the bid might even go past $250 before Saturday and then you'll probably not even bother with it anymore.

Doing it that way (bidding at the last second) is more fun. Just make sure that you are logged in and everything so that you actually manage to bid! Otherwise you might kick yourself if the item went below your limit because you were too slow. But then, you only know what the second highest bid was - you don't know what the buyer was willing to pay.

If you want to relax, you might as well offer at the very beginning. My last successful bid, I bid what I was willing to pay three days before the end, as the first offer. The price crept up very slowly because there are always some jokers trying to get an item for a tenth of what it's worth. Then you get some halfway serious bids, and some time before the end you get bidders who offer around the proper value. Sometimes they offer more than you do, sometimes less.

 

[augustya]

But the Problem again here is, and this is what has happened to me in the past. Seller Blocking me for zero feedback. And eBay should do something about it. Because Me not having a past history of buying at ebay does not mean that I will never ever genuinely buy at ebay. That is being hugely unfair to me.

So from what I understand here is, some of the key points are...


1. Put a Realistic amount as Maximum Bid

2. Try and Put at the very last, closing moments of the Auction.

3. Try and Put a odd amount to the price that I would most pay.


Now I have a couple of questions here.

First and very important is, with a zero Positive feedback a seller may block me even in the last 30 minutes of me placing my Maximum Bid, what do I do then ? A thought that comes to mind here, is even if he has blocked me, My Bid has gone in, so now even if he wants to block me if the bid ends, and it ends as me being the highest bidder. I still win the auction so it doesnt matter if he blocks me, only problem is if someone outbids me then I cant do anything because of the Seller having blocked me. And cant even take advantage of the one click bid.

The other problem to this is, If I wait till this end and the Maximum Bid that I am willing to Pay which is a realistic figure comfortable to some one else also, he bids the same maximum bid that I am planning to out, his maximum bids goes in first. That leaves me with not even having a chance of putting my Maximum Bid. Someone has already put it.

So it is a strange dilemma with zero feedback if I do it now, the seller has all the time in the world to check my feedback, analyse the situation and block me if required that completely eliminates me out of the race. It is game over for me. If I wait till too late, someone would have already put my maximum bid before me and the system wont accept my Maximum Bid. And I then cant even use the one click bid because to use that I should have one bid on the item that I am trying to bid. So it is a huge dilemma !!


What steps can I take ?

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There are even apps that will snipe for you.

That is a Macbook APP. I have a windows computer ! Any windows Sniping software ?

 

[drsox]

But the Problem again here is, and this is what has happened to me in the past. Seller Blocking me for zero feedback. And eBay should do something about it. Because Me not having a past history of buying at ebay does not mean that I will never ever genuinely buy at ebay. That is being hugely unfair to me.

So from what I understand here is, some of the key points are...


1. Put a Realistic amount as Maximum Bid

2. Try and Put at the very last, closing moments of the Auction.

3. Try and Put a odd amount to the price that I would most pay.


Now I have a couple of questions here.

First and very important is, with a zero Positive feedback a seller may block me even in the last 30 minutes of me placing my Maximum Bid, what do I do then ? A thought that comes to mind here, is even if he has blocked me, My Bid has gone in, so now even if he wants to block me if the bid ends, and it ends as me being the highest bidder. I still win the auction so it doesnt matter if he blocks me, only problem is if someone outbids me then I cant do anything because of the Seller having blocked me. And cant even take advantage of the one click bid.

The other problem to this is, If I wait till this end and the Maximum Bid that I am willing to Pay which is a realistic figure comfortable to some one else also, he bids the same maximum bid that I am planning to out, his maximum bids goes in first. That leaves me with not even having a chance of putting my Maximum Bid. Someone has already put it.

So it is a strange dilemma with zero feedback if I do it now, the seller has all the time in the world to check my feedback, analyse the situation and block me if required that completely eliminates me out of the race. It is game over for me. If I wait till too late, someone would have already put my maximum bid before me and the system wont accept my Maximum Bid. And I then cant even use the one click bid because to use that I should have one bid on the item that I am trying to bid. So it is a huge dilemma !!


What steps can I take ?

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That is a Macbook APP. I have a windows computer ! Any windows Sniping software ?

There's not much time to do something about your situation now, but for next time, try this.

Find some small value item that you might want to buy (ball point pen, batteries, thumb tacks). Buy enough to get you up to a 10 feedback score.

As to buying, as other folks have said, it's a matter of psychology. If you really want something, then decide how much you want to pay and bid with 20 secs to go. If you're not so bothered, then bid anytime. Many people waste their effort by bidding many times. IMO that just shows how inexperienced they are.

I've been on ebay for 12+ years as a seller and a buyer and I've learnt the hard way that not bidding the max amount in the last secs is the way to fail. However, unless you are bidding on a unique item, there's always another version just about to be listed. The same item can sell for wildly different amounts, so just wait a bit.

Another tip is to bid a slightly bigger amount than you decide on. e.g. if you only want to bid 250, then actually bid 253.78. That way you are proofed against the 251.19 bidder etc. My personal favourite amount is - not going to tell you ! - it's my secret.

 

[augustya]

There's not much time to do something about your situation now, but for next time, try this.

Find some small value item that you might want to buy (ball point pen, batteries, thumb tacks). Buy enough to get you up to a 10 feedback score.

As to buying, as other folks have said, it's a matter of psychology. If you really want something, then decide how much you want to pay and bid with 20 secs to go. If you're not so bothered, then bid anytime. Many people waste their effort by bidding many times. IMO that just shows how inexperienced they are.

I've been on ebay for 12+ years as a seller and a buyer and I've learnt the hard way that not bidding the max amount in the last secs is the way to fail. However, unless you are bidding on a unique item, there's always another version just about to be listed. The same item can sell for wildly different amounts, so just wait a bit.

Another tip is to bid a slightly bigger amount than you decide on. e.g. if you only want to bid 250, then actually bid 253.78. That way you are proofed against the 251.19 bidder etc. My personal favourite amount is - not going to tell you ! - it's my secret.

I have not yet told you the item I wanna bid for , so u r not gonna be able to bid on the item I have my eye on so why not tell me your magic figure.

 

[gnasher729]

But the Problem again here is, and this is what has happened to me in the past. Seller Blocking me for zero feedback. And eBay should do something about it. Because Me not having a past history of buying at ebay does not mean that I will never ever genuinely buy at ebay. That is being hugely unfair to me.

It looks unfair. On the other hand, sellers have bad experiences with buyers, and often with first time buyers. Obviously all kind of scammers that create new accounts all the time would have zero feedback, or people who are just clueless and think they can enter bids just for fun. (Obviously a scammer wouldn't be worrying about how to bid, because they would just bid as much as they like, with no intention of ever paying).

 

[augustya]

One more question about putting my Maximum Bid. Do I Put my Max Maximum Bid right in the bgeinning or do I first start with a Lesser Maximum Bid and then if someone outbids me on that Bid then go to my Max Maximum Bid later. for e.g The item is listed at $100 right now, Ideally my real comfort of buying that item would be max at $200-220 but...but...having said that If it gets really hot and gets in to a Price war I can stretch it up to $250 (Though unwillingly) so how do I do this? first put $220 as my Max Bid and see if somone Outbids me ? and then Pur $250 Or do I directly put my Max Max Bid which would be $250

 

[drsox]

I have not yet told you the item I wanna bid for , so u r not gonna be able to bid on the item I have my eye on so why not tell me your magic figure.

I wouldn't be bidding for it anyway.

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One more question about putting my Maximum Bid. Do I Put my Max Maximum Bid right in the bgeinning or do I first start with a Lesser Maximum Bid and then if someone outbids me on that Bid then go to my Max Maximum Bid later. for e.g The item is listed at $100 right now, Ideally my real comfort of buying that item would be max at $200-220 but...but...having said that If it gets really hot and gets in to a Price war I can stretch it up to $250 (Though unwillingly) so how do I do this? first put $220 as my Max Bid and see if somone Outbids me ? and then Pur $250 Or do I directly put my Max Max Bid which would be $250

You obviously didn't read my posting, but if you want to just have fun bidding, then go ahead and bid as often as you want.

Sometimes bidders try to intimidate each other by placing multiple successive bids (i.e. to say to all other bidders that he's really really serious about buying this item) - usually it fails to impress. Here's how it works :

Current price 100 with no other bids. Bidder A bids 125 and then 150 and then 175 and then 200.
Item status then shows 4 bids from A, all at 100.
Bidder B comes along and bids 130 and then 145.
He's still outbid by A at 146 with two higher bids still remaining. Is he intimidated ? Maybe.

 

[Weaselboy]

That is a Macbook APP. I have a windows computer ! Any windows Sniping software ?

I have no experience with any of them, but there are some Windows app listed here.

 

[augustya]

I have a scenario if someone can tell me how would the bid amount look like when this happens.

The current bid is at $100 I have registered my Maximum Bid as $250 some else comes in and tries to put a bid amount manually of $105 he is asked to bid higher by the system then he tries putting $110, this way the bid amount reaches say for e.g $150 finally he realises someone is behind the bush, someone has put a maximum bid, he then straight away puts $300 as his maximum bid and outbids me, what does the bid amount change from $150 to then ?

 

[drsox]

I have a scenario if someone can tell me how would the bid amount look like when this happens.

The current bid is at $100 I have registered my Maximum Bid as $250 some else comes in and tries to put a bid amount manually of $105 he is asked to bid higher by the system then he tries putting $110, this way the bid amount reaches say for e.g $150 finally he realises someone is behind the bush, someone has put a maximum bid, he then straight away puts $300 as his maximum bid and outbids me, what does the bid amount change from $150 to then ?

Probably $251

 

[Weaselboy]

I have a scenario if someone can tell me how would the bid amount look like when this happens.

The current bid is at $100 I have registered my Maximum Bid as $250 some else comes in and tries to put a bid amount manually of $105 he is asked to bid higher by the system then he tries putting $110, this way the bid amount reaches say for e.g $150 finally he realises someone is behind the bush, someone has put a maximum bid, he then straight away puts $300 as his maximum bid and outbids me, what does the bid amount change from $150 to then ?

From the chart below on eBay, it looks like the next increment in your case would be $102.50 ($2.50 bump).

 

[drsox]

From the chart below on eBay, it looks like the next increment in your case would be $102.50 ($2.50 bump).

Image

No. Remember he bid a max of $250 before the second bidder bid $300. So the bidding will show ($250+minimum increment) i.e. $255 as your table shows.

 

[Weaselboy]

No. Remember he bid a max of $250 before the second bidder bid $300. So the bidding will show ($250+minimum increment) i.e. $255 as your table shows.

Yeah... I'm an idiot and misread. I also misread that the bid was now topped $150 and meant to type $152.50, but I could not even get that right.

I'll show myself out.

 

[augustya]

I have attached a picture which I am trying to study.

looking at this picture I wanted to know certain things. Can you guys help me interpret it

1. Can we find from the bid history here what was the Maximum Bid placed on this item ?

2. When did the Maximum Bid get crossed ?

3. The item I am thinking about bidding is similar to this item, so looking at the figures here what should I place my maximum Bid, In Practicality like I said earlier, my comfort level of a Maximum Bid is $250, I am planning to put $258.91 as my maximum bid. But If looking at the figures in this picture how much should I put as my max bid If I wanna win.

4. Which are the automated, incremental bid in this picture which are as a result of someone having already put a Max bid ?

 

[drsox]

I have attached a picture which I am trying to study.

looking at this picture I wanted to know certain things. Can you guys help me interpret it

1. Can we find from the bid history here what was the Maximum Bid placed on this item ?

2. When did the Maximum Bid get crossed ?

3. The item I am thinking about bidding is similar to this item, so looking at the figures here what should I place my maximum Bid, In Practicality like I said earlier, my comfort level of a Maximum Bid is $250, I am planning to put $258.91 as my maximum bid. But If looking at the figures in this picture how much should I put as my max bid If I wanna win.

4. Which are the automated, incremental bid in this picture which are as a result of someone having already put a Max bid ?

1. No you can't find the max bid as it has not been revealed. n**r(0) has bid 5 times above $355. All you can tell is that r**r(0)'s max bid was $350.

2. see 1.

3. Put a number above $350, because if r**r(0) is going to bid again, then it'll be at least $350.

4. These aren't available on this page. The only time you see these is when the bidding actually happens. So to see these you need to see this page each time someone bids, then you will see the underbid data.

IMO don't overanalyse this - you'll drive yourself nuts. Seeing this shows that both these guys are complete newbies. I bet the seller was pleased.

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Yeah... I'm an idiot and misread. I also misread that the bid was now topped $150 and meant to type $152.50, but I could not even get that right.

I'll show myself out.

No problem - close the door