sockeyed
Well-known
I'll admit it - I do it. I sometimes use stealthbid to snipe auctions. And sometimes I even win them.
Am I a bad person?
Am I a bad person?
No, if I really want something, that is what I do if I can. I still follow the same rules, I only bid what I am willing to pay and walk away if that isn't enough. I think that by sniping you you give yourself a chance to get a bargain. I have seen time and again, if you bid early and high, there will always be someone over the course of the auction who will bid more. Your bid gets raised little by little, and in the end a sniper takes the item. Your early bid becomes a target regardless of how high it may be. If nobody bids early, then in the last minutes your competition is cut down, not as many people available to bid in the last hour than those who see the item in the course of a week, and he who is willing to bid the most wins. More like a blind auction. Both ways are fair in my eyes though.
kiev4a
Well-known
Sniping is part of the game. If you were at a regular auction, anyone can bid right up to the point when the auctioneer says "sold."
If you don't want to snipe, put in whatever amount you feel the equipment is worth to you. If someone outbids you, wait for another example to come up for bid.
The only time I get irritated is when I am bidding against someone with (0) feedback and they bid far above what the item should bring because they haven't done their research. Of course you run into that type at regular auctions, too.
If you don't want to snipe, put in whatever amount you feel the equipment is worth to you. If someone outbids you, wait for another example to come up for bid.
The only time I get irritated is when I am bidding against someone with (0) feedback and they bid far above what the item should bring because they haven't done their research. Of course you run into that type at regular auctions, too.
Honu-Hugger
Well-known
I have already donned my NHRA flame-proof driving suit and I'm prepared to reply: after a quick learning curve of losing the first three or four items I bid on back in '98 or thereabouts, since then I enter every one of my bids on eBay within the last five seconds -- which some have taken to call "sniping." There is no rule against it and the ethics are entirely subjective; personally I slept much more soundly last night knowing I bought the Alpa than I would have if someone had paid ten dollars more than me in the last few seconds and I had lost it. Even if there are no other bids on an item I will not bid until the very last moment -- if you want to win it's the only way.
dmr
Registered Abuser
Honu-Hugger said:
I keep thinking about the logic. To me it seems that there's really no reason to bid early, is there? I don't buy from Ebay that much, but I'll often times place a bid early in the process and wonder that if I held off, people would not have jumped in there and outbid me by just a little.
I think the important thing is to not in the heat of battle bid more than the thing is really worth.
kiev4a
Well-known
There are ways of discouraging some snipers, some of the time, but I don't want to divulge trade secrets. People who bid really low early in the auction usually are ebay dealers who hoping they will get lucky a get something cheap enough so they can resell it at a profit. There are also certain times of the day and week when there isn't as much competition. Actually, it all pretty interesting
K
Kin Lau
Guest
There's a choice? 
Seriously though, in a real auction, your max bid is also your the final price regardless of whether anyone else is bidding, so there's a bit of a tradeoff.
Sniping is also a good way of shooting yourself in the foot and paying too much, especially when you see the bids going up during the final few minutes. I'm often put in my bid in the last few minutes, and then _not_ look or refresh until after the auction is over... my wallet thanks me.
Seriously though, in a real auction, your max bid is also your the final price regardless of whether anyone else is bidding, so there's a bit of a tradeoff.
Sniping is also a good way of shooting yourself in the foot and paying too much, especially when you see the bids going up during the final few minutes. I'm often put in my bid in the last few minutes, and then _not_ look or refresh until after the auction is over... my wallet thanks me.
R
RML
Guest
Snipe all you want but, please, DON'T on an auction that I'm bidding on!
ABarGrill
Established
Sniping doesn't violate any particular norms of society. It's just a technique for competing. I have not "sniped" but I have "counter-sniped" upping my bid in the last minute when another bidder raises the ante. I find that my counter-sniping is counter-productive. I tend to get into the competition and bid more than I planned. Thus, I do my best to sit on my hands.....and it sometimes works......
JoeFriday
Agent Provacateur
I'll occasionally put in a low initial bid on an auction that is several days away from ending.. it's sort of a 'bookmark' for me.. but if I'm even remotely serious about winning the item, I'll be there in the final minute, throwing in a bid with less than 30 seconds left.. I've had other snipers beat me in the final 5 seconds, and I don't take it personally.. in fact, I've even contacted a few afterward to praise them on their sniping ability
auctions are like buses (and women).. no point in running after one in particular.. there'll always be another one coming along
auctions are like buses (and women).. no point in running after one in particular.. there'll always be another one coming along
Honu-Hugger
Well-known
JoeFriday said:
True in most cases, but if and when I finally see a 25/4 Topogon I'll be bidding like the fool I am!!!
JoeFriday
Agent Provacateur
oh.. I've bought at least 3 of those in the past couple months.. but they were all inaccurately described as "Tamron".. I think I paid about $25 on average, including shipping
Honu-Hugger
Well-known
For years I had never seen a Nikon/Alpa lens adapter available anywhere, eBay or otherwise. I even wrote Steve Gandy willing to pay market price and he just laughed and said good luck. So I slowly sold off all of my favorite Nikkor lenses and was down to the last one that was most precious to me; talking with my Dad he asked if I was certain that I wanted to let it go and I said sure but watch; next week there will probably be a Nikon/Alpa adapter on eBay (we laughed). It didn't even take a week -- three days after I sold the lens an adapter came up on eBay!!! And I have not seen another since (that was two years ago).
JoeFriday
Agent Provacateur
that's the same thing with marriage (from what I hear).. once you make that decision, you gotta stop shopping
JoeFriday said:
Well, you can window shop, just can't step into the store.
jlw
Rangefinder camera pedant
dmr436 said:
Yes, there is, and not everyone knows it, but here it is: In case of a tie, the earlier bid gets the item. And with proxy bidding, the time you first started your proxy counts as the time you placed your bid, no matter how many times it gets upped later.
Suppose you see something you want right at the start of an auction, and you decide the most you're willing to pay is $117. So you enter the minimum bid, and eBay's proxy bidding keeps it up to date for you. If nobody else bids more than, say, $30, you'll win the item with a bid of $31.
But suppose there's some sniper watching the auction, and he jumps in at the last second with a $117 bid. You'll win, he'll lose -- because your bid was placed first. Yes, I've won items this way.
Another fallacy about sniping: People will say, "I should have sniped because somebody topped me at the last minute, so I could still have won the item if I had been prepared to go $1 higher." Well, you don't KNOW you could have won that way -- you have no way of knowing how high the other person was prepared to go. He might have entered a maximum bid of $10 more, $100 more, or $1000 more than the final price. The only way to find out what his top bid was would be to top it -- which might turn out to be a LOT more than you want to spend!
Let's suppose that Bill Gates decided he wanted to be even more of a jerk than he already is, by winning everything on auction on eBay on a given day. He could log on and enter a maximum bid of one million dollars on every newly-listed item, then go off to sharpen his pitchfork or get a pedicure on his cloven hooves or something, leaving proxy bidding to work for him.
Now, suppose you watched one of these items and hoped to get it by a last-second snipe. Maybe it hasn't attracted a lot of interest, and bidding is up to $17 (with the winning bidder being Bill, of course.) So you go in and bid $18, and then he goes up to $19 and the auction closes.
Does this mean, "I could have gotten it if I had gone to $20"? Of course not. You'd have had to bid a million and one dollars to win this item -- you just don't know it, so of course you're frustrated and think you were "soooo close..." when in fact you were never in the ballpark.
Sniping can be fun (if you think of eBay as a contest rather than simply as a way to buy and sell things) but it also can lead to "auction fever" -- i.e., paying more than you really intended because you get fixated on "winning" rather than simply on buying.
The easy way to deal on eBay is to decide up front "What's the absolute most I'd be willing to pay for this?", enter that as your maximum bid, then walk away and let proxy bidding do your work. You'll get a lot of items for less than your maximum bid, you'll get some for your maximum bid, and you'll beat out a few snipers who matched your top bid but didn't get in as early. And if you don't get the item, at least you'll know you didn't pay too much. Boring, I know, but fiscal prudence usually is.
nikon_sam
Shooter of Film...
I just did it last night!!! With 3 seconds to spare...
There was an item I was looking for and knew what the price could get to...so I watched the end of the auction and put in the highest bid I was willing to pay...normally this item would fetch about $60 more than I paid for it. Anyone doing their homework would have known this.
You can get too emotional during a bidding war...so you're better off sniping with seconds to spare so you only get one shot at it and don't over pay.
I've been the victim of snipers too... so all's fair in love and eBonk.
There was an item I was looking for and knew what the price could get to...so I watched the end of the auction and put in the highest bid I was willing to pay...normally this item would fetch about $60 more than I paid for it. Anyone doing their homework would have known this.
You can get too emotional during a bidding war...so you're better off sniping with seconds to spare so you only get one shot at it and don't over pay.
I've been the victim of snipers too... so all's fair in love and eBonk.
R
ray_g
Guest
I had used this a lot in the past, for benefits that had already been cited. I learned my lesson though. You may want to read this:
http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=009Tpq
http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=009Tpq
JoeFriday
Agent Provacateur
sniping is for people who feel it's important to get the item at the lowest possible price.. of course they aren't considering the value of the time they spend on ebay at 2am when the auction ends (and yes, I've won auctions that way)
if you place a proxy bid for, say, $110 days before the auction ends, you might possibly win it for $45, or $97.. and all is well.. of course, you might also lose it to someone who ends up paying $110.55 (which is how I tend to bid).. I always tack on an extra two bits.. by doing that, I've won many auctions where if the other bidder had gone up that extra dollar, he would have won it instead of me
if you place a proxy bid for, say, $110 days before the auction ends, you might possibly win it for $45, or $97.. and all is well.. of course, you might also lose it to someone who ends up paying $110.55 (which is how I tend to bid).. I always tack on an extra two bits.. by doing that, I've won many auctions where if the other bidder had gone up that extra dollar, he would have won it instead of me
N
Natalia
Guest
Guilty...but I only bid what I am willing to shell out