GRR ebay

[chadtower]

Okay, is it even possible to win an ebay auction with the traditional methods? I've bid my max halfway through the auction for, oh, 40 lots in the past couple of weeks. Every damn one of them got sniped in the last minutes for $1 or so more than I bid. WTF? It seems people will snipe anything now... just for the freakin' joy of sniping. It's not like I was even bidding low, I thought I was overpaying for some of those things...

[Chunky]

esnipe.com

I was pissed that someone locally had a turbo booster and about 20 games up, i bid on 10 of them and the booster, and asked him if he would combine shipping. he said if you buy one thing or 20, $5 shipping.

well ok then..........................then shit i only one 1 game. argh, whats the point.

[sisko]

Almost every auction gets sniped.

And really, its not very logical to do it any other way because you just drive up the price prematurely. I always wait until the last 2 minutes of an auction to bid myself.

[SoulBlazer]

I win a lot of stuff usuing 'regular' tactics. Really, it depends on what you are bidding on.

If you are bidding on a item:
1) That is common
2) That is listed ALL the time on EBay (many items up any day of the week)
3) That is not worth much money
4) That has no BIN option
5) That you REALLY doubt anyone else is going to be interested in, either based on past auctions or your own gut feeling

Then go ahead and put in a bid.

Many times I did just that when I was building my Sega CD, 3DO, and 32X collections. Hardly had anyone come in to make another bid.

If you can meet all of those criteria above, though, SNIPE that sucker!

I admit I do it all the time myself. :D

[chadtower]

That's the main problem though... I'm not buying common items. It's not super rare stuff either. It's mostly middle of the road saturn games or saturn bundles... I may have to look into esnipe.com.

[dave2236]

:snipersmile:


SNIPER, even I have been sniped recently. It happens. Problem is some of the auctions I want to bid on I forget about and then end a couple of minutes before I remember.

Oh, well

[gamingnoise]

I hate to be a jerk, but I think everyone's frustration with snipers is unwarranted. The goal is to bid the highest amount of cash you're willing to pay, not the lowest. So if an auction for let's say, 50 loose Atari 2600 carts is up, and bidding is at 15 bucks, and you type in 25 bucks as your bid... someone gets it for 26 with 2 seconds to go, well, then they deserve it! Bid what you're willing to pay when you see it. If you get a deal, you get a deal. Unless you can watch it to get a steal, then I'm not quite sure what the problem is? If I want something bad enough, I'll bid the higest amount of cash I'm willing to spend. If it goes for a buck more than that, well, then it's more than I was willing to pay...

Just my 2 cents.

[chadtower]

Blah, blah, we've all heard that a dozen times and yes it is true. I was venting frustration that every auction I bid on gets outbid by just about exactly $1... in the last minute. Whether or not it's a valid part of the process isn't relevant to how much it annoys me.

[Griking]

Blah, blah, we've all heard that a dozen times and yes it is true. I was venting frustration that every auction I bid on gets outbid by just about exactly $1... in the last minute. Whether or not it's a valid part of the process isn't relevant to how much it annoys me.


$1 is pretty much always the amount that you'll be overbid by. Bids are usually in increments of a dollar. If you bid one dollar more you probably still would have been outbid by a dollar untill your max was more than the sniper was willing to pay.

[dave2236]

Yeah, if you bid $55 and another person bids $110....they will win the auction for $56....hence you would be outbid by $1

[sisko]

I usually set a limit, and then bid $1.56 over it.

It works about 80% of the time.

[BigBoogie]

I snipe even if I'm around to bid. its cheap and better than losing :)

[Gamereviewgod]

Personally, if someone bids in the last 5 minutes of an auction, it should be extended by 5 minutes. Not everyone uses esnipe nor do they belive in it. It's not like a normal person can be sitting at their computer for hours on end waiting for the auction to get down to 3 seconds. It's really an unfair practice in my book, not to mention terribly annoying.

[Scoots]

I know the whole "bid your max" theory is logical, but I still get an unsavory feeling from people using sniping services. I've thought about ending all my auctions at a random time on the last day to frustrate these programs but decided it'd be too much work.

[buttasuperb]

Personally, if someone bids in the last 5 minutes of an auction, it should be extended by 5 minutes. Not everyone uses esnipe nor do they belive in it. It's not like a normal person can be sitting at their computer for hours on end waiting for the auction to get down to 3 seconds. It's really an unfair practice in my book, not to mention terribly annoying.

:roll:

There's nothing unfair about it. As others have said, if you were willing to pay more than amount bid by a person in the last seconds, you would still win the auction. I personally snipe because bidding early sometimes creates a war, which is bad news. Also, most of the stuff I bid on is not common, and does not show up on ebay often, so if it's something I really want, I make sure I do everything in my power to win it.

Stop complaining.

[kainemaxwell]

my very first auction on ebay I bid on I got sniped myself so I learned about those tactics then and there. Heck the guy who's item I was bidding on even told me the guy who had bid higher would snipe me since he really wanted the item for his collection and that he's dealt with him before.