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Lost eBay bid at the last second by $1. How did he do it????

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Lost eBay bid at the last second by $1. How did he do it????

Old 08-06-01, 10:53 AM
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Lost eBay bid at the last second by $1. How did he do it????

Some guy bid a buck over my maximum bid at the last second and I did not have time to respond. It was at $62 until 5 seconds to closing, and WHAM!, it goes up to $82 (my max. bid was $81).

He knew exactly how much my max. bid was!

How did he know?! Is there some way of knowing?!

Pls let me know.....very frustrated!!!!!
Old 08-06-01, 10:56 AM
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He didn't necessarily know your maximum - if he bid anything over your maximum, he would have won. So even if he bid $1000 in the last second, it only would have gone $1.00 over your maximum.
Old 08-06-01, 11:07 AM
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marty888,

thanks for the reply.

He made his move 6 seconds before closing. I do understand your point, but him doing so less than 10 seconds before closing?!
you see, he probably would have bid anywhere of $62 and up until he reached my max bid. That takes time. Unless he just went for, say, $1,000 as you mentioned....

BTW, does a bid that does not beat a higher bid show up at the 'bid history' after closing?
Old 08-06-01, 11:44 AM
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Originally posted by jinjen

BTW, does a bid that does not beat a higher bid show up at the 'bid history' after closing?
Every bid that was made during the auction shows up after the auction closes. If one bidder bid 15 different times, each of those bids would show up.
Old 08-06-01, 12:02 PM
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Originally posted by jinjen


you see, he probably would have bid anywhere of $62 and up until he reached my max bid. That takes time.
I think there are actually some sniping programs that the more determined bidders use - you might want to check out the discussion boards on eBay.
Old 08-06-01, 12:24 PM
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Originally posted by jinjen
marty888,

thanks for the reply.

He made his move 6 seconds before closing. I do understand your point, but him doing so less than 10 seconds before closing?!
you see, he probably would have bid anywhere of $62 and up until he reached my max bid. That takes time. Unless he just went for, say, $1,000 as you mentioned....

BTW, does a bid that does not beat a higher bid show up at the 'bid history' after closing?
What he did to you is basically what I do on all auctions on Ebay now. I never bid on an item until the last possible second. I see what its currently at, figure out exactly how high I'm willing to go, and place my bid with less than 10 seconds left. If its still not enough no big deal, as I had no intention of going any higher. If I overshoot no big deal either, as I'll just get it for the other guys bid + $1 or so. Since its under 10 seconds, there is no time left for him to change his mind and up the bid again. Bidding early really has no advantage unless you aren't going to be around when the auction ends, and helps keep the bid prices lower overall.
Old 08-06-01, 12:25 PM
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First, it's OK to say Ebay here.

Second, you were "sniped", most likely by a person using a program. I snipe most of the auctions I bid on and use a program called "esnipe" ( www.esnipe.com ).

More information about strategy at ebay can be found in this thread:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=104933

By sniping, he saved himself money. If he had bid with 2 hours to go, you surely would have bid again to outbid him.
Old 08-06-01, 01:16 PM
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Sniping is the only way I've ever bid on something on eBay. Just over three years now. If you read some of the message boards, it's pretty much split 50/50 on sniping. But technically, it's legal.
Old 08-06-01, 02:59 PM
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There's nothing wrong with 'sniping' ... a bid is a bid is a bid, whether it's placed 5 seconds after the auction starts or 5 seconds before it ends.
Old 08-06-01, 07:23 PM
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I pretty much agree with what's been said. While it is frustrating and annoying to those that get outbid, it's the best way to do your own bidding. You see what you want, establish your limit, and know within a few seconds if you get it right. It's better than waiting out a week long sale, you prevent any other bids, and maybe best of all to some, you establish your limit up front. I've known plenty of people who set a bid limit on ebay, then got outbid and decided to pay more. In the end they pay more than they wanted just because they "got caught up in the moment" and get attached to their items
Old 08-06-01, 07:27 PM
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Jericho,

Agree. The attachment factor is there.

Well, looks like everyone is in favor of sniping, so from now on, I must leard how to do it.


Heat,

Your link should come in handy. Thanks.
Old 08-06-01, 08:23 PM
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I always do my sniping "in person" and have never tried esnipe. To me, it's part of the thrill to do it myself. This is only for items I REALLY want; otherwise, I've bid on items the night before and woke up to find I lost the auction as expected.

A while back, I put in a bid with about 30 seconds, but got sniped. So next time, I won with 1 second to go. I'll put in my max with less than 20 seconds to go, and if I'm outbid, fine. It gives me discipline because I run out of time to bid again and cannot keep "chasing" the item as I might otherwise.

And I also always put odd amounts as my max, not the "normal" increments.
Old 08-06-01, 08:51 PM
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Re: Lost eGay bid at the last second by $1. How did he do it????

Originally posted by jinjen
very frustrated!!!!!
Why should you be, though? You put in a maximum bid (i.e. - the most you were willing to pay) and he beat that. He was willing to pay more, so he won the auction.

If you were willing to pay more, then you should have put that higher amount in for your bid.


I've had people get upset at me before for beating them at auctions, sending me nasty e-mails and stuff. Frankly, I don't understand it... It's a fair game -- bid what you are willing to pay and if you get outbid, move on. Someone wanted it more than you.
Old 08-06-01, 10:01 PM
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Re: Re: Lost eGay bid at the last second by $1. How did he do it????

Originally posted by bboisvert


I've had people get upset at me before for beating them at auctions, sending me nasty e-mails and stuff. Frankly, I don't understand it... It's a fair game -- bid what you are willing to pay and if you get outbid, move on. Someone wanted it more than you.
Very true, tough people get upset at all sorts of bizarre things. One of my favorites to laugh at is sportswriters who get sent letters. Now I'm big into sports and there are many sportswriters I don't particularly care for. But they say one bad thing about a team, and the hate mail poors in. And so much of it is so illogical, dumb, and comletely off-base. I kind of wonder what possesses people to write in to somethings. But I can't complain, it does provide comic relief.
Old 08-07-01, 01:58 AM
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bboisvert,

Oh, don't get me wrong! I was under the impression the 'sniper' knew my max bid.

Regarding wanting it more...well, some items have a wide range of final bids and one gets luckier than another. It is hard to determine a 'fair' bid for it and thus I max out at little over the average. Sometimes it work and sometimes, like this incident, I get sniped. It doesn't give me a chance to follow-up like in a real auction where you always get that "going once, twice..." thing.

Oh well, life is too short to ponder on such trivial matter. After all, it is just a dvd.
Old 08-07-01, 03:15 AM
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What I do is keep two auction windows open - one with my bid all ready to submit, and the other I keep refreshing to know the current bid level and the time remaining. With about 15 seconds left, I simply count a few seconds and hit submit on my bid window. I also try to establish to the second when the auction ends. Works pretty good. But I may give that e-snipe thing a try.

Yahoo does things a bit differently. I'm not certain if this is an option for every auction, but I've seen it where, even though the auction has ended, you still have a set time to beat the final bid. The problem is - who uses Yahoo auctions? I haven't for a very long time and thus I can't remember exactly how everything works there. One feature I just love is Yahoo's little pop up clock. Works great.
Old 08-07-01, 09:23 AM
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It's called zero second bidding. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
Old 08-11-01, 06:42 AM
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last minute bidders

I have had alot of stuff I bid on and in the last hour of bidding there is this big wave of people that get into a bidding war on it.
But the funny part is the ending price, even before shipping, ends up more than store price. )
Old 08-11-01, 03:20 PM
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The only reason I do not snipe (Quit laughing dammit, I really don't) is because of some of the horror stories I have read on various message boards on the old Yahoo (I think it's something else now) and other forums I used to visit.

Snipers would get hammered w/email threats from fake/phony email accounts for sniping. People were really getting worried about it. I think that is when Ebay took the time to send emails only through it's site.

Still, my take is to set the highest your willing to pay for an item. If you get sniped, then so what. There are 50 more people selling those items. The longest I tried to get an item was 8 months for a Faith Hill cd.
Old 08-14-01, 09:59 AM
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He didn't necessarily know your maximum - if he bid anything over your maximum, he would have won. So even if he bid $1000 in the last second, it only would have gone $1.00 over your maximum.
Hi, I'm new to this ebay thing but what I gather about this statement is that if the seller indicated an increment going up by say $1.00 and the highest bid is say $200. Now if somebody bid $1000.00, the seller won't actually get $1000 if the bidder won but only $201?
Old 08-14-01, 01:01 PM
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Originally posted by tyg
Hi, I'm new to this ebay thing but what I gather about this statement is that if the seller indicated an increment going up by say $1.00 and the highest bid is say $200. Now if somebody bid $1000.00, the seller won't actually get $1000 if the bidder won but only $201?
That is correct, except the seller does not set the increments. Ebay has standard increments for all sellers.
Old 08-14-01, 06:54 PM
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Originally posted by POWERBOMB
The only reason I do not snipe (Quit laughing dammit, I really don't) is because of some of the horror stories I have read on various message boards on the old Yahoo (I think it's something else now) and other forums I used to visit.

Snipers would get hammered w/email threats from fake/phony email accounts for sniping. People were really getting worried about it. I think that is when Ebay took the time to send emails only through it's site.
I ALWAYS snipe (for the past 2 years), and have never gotten a threatening e-mail.

As far as eBay requiring e-mails through their site, that was more to reduce spamming and offsite transactions.
Old 08-15-01, 10:06 AM
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Originally posted by tyg
Hi, I'm new to this ebay thing but what I gather about this statement is that if the seller indicated an increment going up by say $1.00 and the highest bid is say $200. Now if somebody bid $1000.00, the seller won't actually get $1000 if the bidder won but only $201?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



That is correct, except the seller does not set the increments. Ebay has standard increments for all sellers.
So what's to stop somebody from bidding a ridiculously high amount so he/she will have a chance to win knowing that he/she will not need to pay that amount?
Old 08-15-01, 10:43 AM
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Nothing. But they could have to pay that amount if someone else does the same thing. This is called proxy bidding. The system will automatically bid for you, up to your max. So if you bid $100, and the current winner is at $10, then it will enter a bid of $11. If someone else comes along and bids $20, the system bids you up to $21. This repeats until we run out of proxies or bidders.

Basically, you need to be prepared to pay your max, because you don't know what anyone else's max is, or how high later bids might go.

-Gren
Old 08-15-01, 05:53 PM
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Originally posted by Todd B.
I ALWAYS snipe (for the past 2 years), and have never gotten a threatening e-mail.

As far as eBay requiring e-mails through their site, that was more to reduce spamming and offsite transactions.
I'll agree. I've sniped dozens of auctions since 1998, and no one has threatened or complained to me. However, every time I placed a bid I got about a dozen spam emails, and I used a unique email address for eBay so I know that is where they came from. I wrote eBay a lot of complaints about that.

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