Dodging Snipers

[ssjones]

From the bid screen, can someone tell me what my "total bids with this seller" is? (%)

There are some curious numbers there on some of the bidders, higher %'s with that seller than seems normal.

I suppose that could be shill bidders?
Never mind, that "Total Bid With this Seller" is the percentage of bids on that seller for the bids that buyer made in the last 30 days, so that makes sense.

 

[shutterbugg]

The downside of putting in the highest price you're willing to pay and leave it to proxy, is when a last-second sniper wins by $1 and you think "Shit, I would've paid another fiver!"
The downside of using a sniping site is there's still no guarantee you'll win, because if there's a proxy in place more than your bid you still will lose. At least you only get charged the snipe fee if you win.
These days fleabay is becoming less of an auction site, in fact I know a ton of people who filter their searches for strictly buy-it-now + free-shipping. From the seller's side, fleabay has been gradually but persistently trying to drive out small sellers and discourage auctioning. Pressure to use their stock descriptions (the ones the big-volume sellers use), ridiculous restrictions on wording that cause it to take a half hour to list something due to all the red flags, plus the fee increases. It's a shame.

 

[pagan]

Shill bidders are the latest problem, I always figure shipping cost into what I am willing to pay, I bid that amount within the last half hour if I can and walk away to wait it out

 

[blueeyedogre]

Looked last night before bed and I was still highest bid and this morning got the confirmation that I'd won!!

 

[jndyer]

The downside of putting in the highest price you're willing to pay and leave it to proxy, is when a last-second sniper wins by $1 and you think "Shit, I would've paid another fiver!"

In your example you did not put in the highest amount that you were willing to pay. Also, the thinking of, "Well I would of paid another dollar" is part of the psychology that can lead to over paying for items on any auction site.
The main way I get burned on ebay is when I do not bid what I am willing to pay and am looking instead for a good deal. There have been a few pipes that I really wanted and should have bid the amount that I was really willing to pay, so that at least if I did not win it I would have forced the eventual winner to pay something closer to true market price (or at least what I deem to be true market price).

 

[tslex]

Adam Smith social experiment in real time.
"The price of a thing is what it will bring."
Very interesting.

 

[cigrmaster]

If I see something I like, I put my high bid in a day early. If I win great, it not no biggie. I have found this works better than sniping.

 

[laearl]

I snipe. Every time. Why? It keeps the folks who place a bid then watch. I come along see it and place my max bid. The previous bidder comes bad and tosses multiple bids out until he passes my bid or drives the cost up beyond his price.
By sniping I quietly place my max bid and watch the auction off of eBay. This keeps the above described bidding behavior down, and has the added benefit of not driving the views whacha can give the impression that it is interesting and worth possibly upping the initial minimum bid.
When the auction ends my bid goes in at the last second. I've seen auctions end radically different the last few seconds. In either case I drop my bid and hope for the best.

 

[ashdigger]

You only think you lost by $1, but in reality the winning bid might have been more than $50 beyond yours, but eBay only posts what it took to beat you.
I know for fact because I saw a must have pipe and I bid sky high at the last second and won by $1, but my high bid was actually $100 over that.

 

[balkisobrains]

ashdigger

You only think you lost by $1, but in reality the winning bid might have been more than $50 beyond yours, but eBay only posts what it took to beat you.
I know for fact because I saw a must have pipe and I bid sky high at the last second and won by $1, but my high bid was actually $100 over that.

Yep, that is how the proxy bidding system on Ebay works. Using a sniping program to place your max bid with 5 seconds to go is no different than manually sniping with your max bid with 5 seconds to go, except that the item may not be in your e-bay watch list if you are using a 3rd party program to keep track of it. Yeah, there's some logic to keeping the item out of your E-bay watch list so it is less likely to show up in the "see what other people are watching" list, but if you found it, someone else is probably going to as well. You need to delete your PCs browser history and such, and your ebay app history any time you even look at an item through ebay to avoid it being marquee'd.

laearl

The previous bidder comes ba(ck) and tosses multiple bids out until he passes my bid or drives the cost up beyond his price.

Like I mentioned before, the worst is when you bid early and get out-bid, and then high-bidder bails (because he is actually the seller on another account or a shill working with the seller), leaving you holding the bag in first place at your max bid. At least if you and he snipe, and he wins and bails after the end of the auction, and you think it was shady, you are only going to get a second-chance offer which you can decline, despite your max bid now having been exposed to everyone, for whatever that is worth.

 

[pagan]

Set max bid and walkaway, at least you keep to your bid and morals

 

[ssjones]

at least you keep to your bid and morals

I'm not exactly sure what that means, but last second snipping is my max bid/price that I'm willing to pay and I have no moral issues with that ebay strategy.

 

[ashdigger]

All is fair in love and eBay.

 

[mso489]

It occurs to me that if you spend much time bidding, and pay yourself double minimum wage in your area, you can end up spending enough time and money on the pipe that in many cases you could buy it new at retail. Time is money. Not a definitive answer, but worth considering in your calculation.

 

[conlejm]

I was taught to run in a zig-zag pattern to dodge snipers. Learned that as a kid. All the neighborhood kids used to take a shortcut to school that ran though this old Fart's yard. Every morning he'd sit out on his porch with a BB gun at take shots at us as we trespassed across his yard. Zig-zagging was the only way to dodge that sniper. After he passed his wife would stand out there with a friggin' hose and hose us down as we cut through. One time this kid grabbed the hose from her and hosed her down. She could run! Nowadays these two would be put in jail. I look back and think "aah, the good ol' days".

 

[tuold]

mso489 wrote:

It occurs to me that if you spend much time bidding, and pay yourself double minimum wage in your area, you can end up spending enough time and money on the pipe that in many cases you could buy it new at retail. Time is money. Not a definitive answer, but worth considering in your calculation.

It took me three years to come to this realization. I did get some very good deals, but the market has been getting very tight recently and flaky sellers seem to be proliferating. I was spending more time waiting for pipes that never came or being very disappointed when one did.