Ebay bidders - what are you thinking?

[Yankwood]

I have never used a snipe service but once when I was selling something on ebay, I had a very well known bat collector/dealer tell me that the service didn't work and then he actually scolded me for not contacting him first to sell the bat before I put it on ebay. I laughed off his "verbal spanking" as whining by a spoiled brat but ever since then I have been hesitant to use a snipe service. I use my own ridiculously high bid as my sniper. Has anyone else here ever had a "misfire"?

[bigtime59]

Could it be that they're probing...trying to find out the maximum of the bid ahead of theirs?

[big10champ]

I think as a bidder your saying that you do not want to pay market value for an item on ebay. The beauty of ebay is that you need two people to want an item at a certain price to be able to bump the bidding up. You want to throw in a bid at the last second and hope that you win a deal is not a good plan to win an item that you truly want. As a bidder why not throw down a bid ASAP, so the seller knows someone is interested and won't end the auction early to another bidder on the side? As a buyer you should research the item, and determine what the value is to you as the buyer, so you don't get caught up in a bidding war and over paying for an item. If you think the value of an item is $50.00 and no more, why not just bid $50.00 the first day of the auction and see if you win? If the item goes for more, o'well the next guy may have overpaid.

[both-teams-played-hard]

As a bidder why not throw down a bid ASAP, so the seller knows someone is interested and won't end the auction early to another bidder on the side? As a buyer you should research the item, and determine what the value is to you as the buyer, so you don't get caught up in a bidding war and over paying for an item. If you think the value of an item is $50.00 and no more, why not just bid $50.00 the first day of the auction and see if you win? If the item goes for more, o'well the next guy may have overpaid.

I agree with this philosophy. Anyway, no matter how poorly an item is listed (wrong category, misspelling, ends at a bad time, etc.) somebody else found your "hidden" treasure.

[mwbosoxfan]

If you think the value of an item is $50.00 and no more, why not just bid $50.00 the first day of the auction and see if you win? If the item goes for more, o'well the next guy may have overpaid.

I would prefer to wait until the end of the auction to place my max bid. If I place it up front (like many have learned from experience) many times there will be someone who will bid 20 times in increments of $2-5 at a time until they reach the high bid. If you get a couple of bidders going at it, well, good for the seller because they'll drive it well past potential market value. This strategy typically applies to items with not much interest, because items with lots of interest may well exceed what my max bid might well before the auction end. The bidder types who bid in small increments will typically put in a low bid to begin with. If you leave the bid alone until the end, you have a chance for the best deal.

[34swtns]

If you REALLY want an item, sniping is the best way to go.

Only amateurs keep bidding over and over, dinking and dunking money out of their own pockets, for a solid week. Ridiculous.

[Vintagedeputy]

Sniping is AWESOME........and some services are free for a good long while.