Is crack a common drug for ebay bidders?

[TWS]

eBay has proxy bidding. This allows you to bid the maximum you are willing to pay so you don't have to have instantaneous access to the bidding status, eBay will do your up-bidding for you.

IMHO & IME the 'fairest' thing to do as a buyer is to bid your highest price you are willing to pay at the very last instant. If there is someone who's willing to pay more - fine, he gets it. If the next closest bidder is 10 bucks less than my maximum then I get it for less than my maximum - either way it's fair.

If you use proxy bidding there is very little data sent to place a bid so fast Internet connections have only a slight advantage over dial up. If you are a 'bid, watch, bid, watch' kind of bidder then you'll probably lose out either way because you'll always be outbid by the sniper if there is one.

TWS

[Rick Chamberlain]

Ok, now you've done it. You tell me to "don't ask", so I gotta ask...

Which vehicle, and were you driving?

Rick

[Lobby Dosser]

You have an option: bid the maximum you are willing to pay and wait until the 'auction' is finished. If someone 'snipes' you for a dime, then you were not willing to pay X+10 cents.

[Leuf]

Even though it's been a while I don't think we need another thread about this. I was just trying to inform OP about what's possible with the software not debate the morality of sniping. With some of the software you can set the time before the end of the auction the bid is placed, though I'm not sure if you can set it back further than a minute or so with any of them. You might, and then be able to take advantage of the management of multiple auctions in a way that doesn't bother your conscience.

However I find it humorous that in a thread about how ridiculous the prices everything on ebay is selling for there is someone complaining about the sellers getting ripped off. The system is imperfect, but it still greatly favors the seller.

-Leuf

[J]

Sealed bid auctions have been around for quite a long time. They are no different from the model used by ebay. Ebay picked this model because it offers advantages to buyers and sellers, especially buyers who are scattered around the world in different timezones and who have better things to do than last minute bidding on auctions. (and what if they are interested in two things closing at the same time? Judging by the number of users it seems to work out well for most people.

The millennium of precedent was set by auction houses which take a cut of the fees. They have a vested interest in the highest price. Ebay makes up for it in volume and by attracting bidders from around the world.

Sniping hurts no one. You always have the option to bid what you want at anytime. If you don't win it is because you don't want to pay more than the other guy.

-J

[Dave Hinz]

Exactly, and sniping bypasses all of that. The sniper gets to pick his max as 50 cents more than yours, rather than their real max.

In a real auction, you've got the "going...going...gone" to make sure everyone gets their bids in. Much as I like eBay, I'd like 'em a lot more if they had the 15-minute option.

[Lobby Dosser]

Question: assume there is less than a minute left on an item and someone bids more than your current bid, but less than your maximum bid, what does e-bay do? I suspect they outbid the sniper for you, then notify the sniper that he's been outbid. At which point it is likely too late for him to bid again. IF this is true, then bidding your maximum means that you will never be outbid by a bid under your maximum.

[Silvan]

I never thought about bid shilling until I heard the piece on the news the other day. Indeed, it's a little worrisome isn't it? But they only made one bid, and they couldn't have known how much my maximum bid was unless they had cracked eBay, right? I think I just was 51 cents more desperate to win the thing.

[Todd Fatheree]

Answer: many people use sniping software or services that automatically increase the bid to continue to beat the proxy bid that eBay is making. If the max proxy bid is more that the max sniping bid, then the proxy will win. Otherwise the sniper will win.

todd

[Lobby Dosser]

IOW, if you bid the maximum you are willing to pay for an item, a sniper cannot get that item for less. Doesn't seem like an issue.

[Todd Fatheree]

For whatever reason, many people do not bid the maximum amount they would pay. Don't ask me why this is. Perhaps they subconsciously think of it more in terms of a live auction and bid enough to outbid the current high bid. The proof is that sniping is very often successful.

todd

[Tom Veatch]

You are correct. A "sniper" bid is no different than any other bid. It is only a "snipe" when it is placed near the end of the bidding period. As far as the operation within eBay is concerned, it doesn't matter whether the bid is placed manually or using some "clock-watcher" software program.

eBay enters (and increases to the proxy maximum) the "snipe" bid exactly the same way as any other proxy bid is entered (and increased). If you lose an eBay auction to a "sniper", it is simply because you either didn't enter the true maximum amount you were willing to pay, or the later bidder was willing to pay more.

In the absence of unusual circumstances, I will typically enter only one bid in an eBay auction. But that bid will be for an amount which I am not willing to exceed - not even by one cent. Also, it will typically be entered very late in the auction. If the auction ends with mine as the highest bid, it is only because my proxy maximum was higher than anyone else's proxy maximum. If that makes me a sniper, then "lock and load".

Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA

[Lobby Dosser]

That's pretty much the way I've been doing it. About the only exception I'll make is probing a reserve. Some sellers I am familiar with will list items with and without reserve. Typically their reserve plus S&H is higher than I want to pay and sometimes higher than I can buy elsewhere off the shelf. If I bid the minimum right off the bat and find a reserve, I know not to waste any more time on the item.

Can't see what all the fuss is about, but I wasn't sure exactly how e-bay worked internally. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

LD

[Dave Hinz]

Close, but wrong. IOW, the person bidding by proxy defines his upper limit, the person bidding by sniping defines his as "50 cents more than the other guy". If it's not done to reduce what the sniper pays, then what is it for?

[Dave Hinz]

Probably because most people don't know how much something is really worth when they bid on it?

[Chris Hornberger]

Yes. Yes they are. Never, EVER underestimate the amount of stupidity out there. I recently sold a set of saddlebags for my motorcycle because they were smaller than I wanted, and ended up selling them for $40... YES! FORTY DOLLARS... more than I had bought them for. On ebay. When I listed mine they were one of about 10 sets of IDENTICAL saddlebags and the ABSOLUTE BEST I expected to do on them was break even and barely at that.

Here endeth the lesson on human stupidity. And people wonder why the world's in the state it is.

[Tim Douglass]

Unless you, as a buyer, get smart and actually make the proxy bid that is the maximum you are willing to pay. In that case no sniper can pick it off unless they are willing to pay more than your maximum. If you would bid more if you knew you were outbid in the last second then you didn't bid your maximum and have no room to complain.

Always put you initial bid in at the absolute maximum you are willing to pay, then walk away and don't look again until after the auction has closed. If you get it - great, If not, something similar will be along soon enough.

Tim Douglass

[Dave Hinz]

So you admit that a sniper's goal is to pay as little for the item as he can, right? As an occasional seller, I'd prefer that bidders each have the chance to bid against each other fairly.

[GregP]

The simplest and most productive thing to do is to go on to a snipe service site and register the max you are willing to bid plus how close to the end of the auction (usually in seconds) you wish to have your bid placed. If you end up with the item, fine. If you don't you don't. Unless you were betting on something that is extremely rare, the odds are that the same or similar item will pop up again, often within a week.

[Dave Hinz]

No, the simplest and most productive thing to do, is to use the proxy bid system as designed, rather than trying to weasel in at the last second to buy it for as little as you can.