Ebay Bidding Question

[boffo]

I want to bid on an ebay item, but, my normal strategy is to decide what the max amount I'm willing to pay for an item and then I always put my bid in 10 seconds before the auction ends because I hate giving other people a chance to react to what I'm doing.

But, sometimes I can't be around when an auction is ending and I'm just wondering if there is some way to put in a bid using some outside service or some service available inside ebay so that my bid goes in 10 seconds or so before the auction ends.

I hate bidding on an item 8 hours before an auction ends because I don't like giving other people a target to aim at taking out.
Anyway, I thought I heard a while back that there was a way of just doing last second auction bidding even when you're away from your computer.

Does anyone know if this is right? Thanks for any ideas.

 

[Kang]

There are services that will do it for you:

http://www.bidnapper.com/

Is the first one I found. I haven't used any of them myself...

 

[papasmerf]

You can place a maxium bid for the value you believe the item is worth......if you loose it it went for more than you thought it was worth.............

 

[Kang]

From my experience over the years on Ebay, that is not the case. Any auction I have bid on as you suggested I have lost. Every time.

Any auction I cared enough about to wait until the last few seconds and fire a bid in I have won.

I normally just look for Buy It Now's that aren't ripoffs and get items that way. Not usually worth the hassle to wait for an auction to end for me.

 

[Powershot]

I haven't tried one of the services that bids for you.

I've always done the bid in the last 15 seconds thing on auctions of items I really wanted/thought were a good deal. I always get an adrenaline rush at that point, win or lose. How sad is that!

 

[boffo]

Thanks for the Bidnapper link, Kang.
I win 90% of my auctions by deferring my bidding to the last seconds.

It's also best for buyers to hold prices down by not bidding throughout the auction. Things would be a lot cheaper if everyone just did their bidding in the last minute.

 

[great_times2]

They have a new feature called bid assistant......log into your MyeBay and you'll see it in the left navigation

 

[wingnuts]

Get a snipe program.

 

[boffo]

Bid assistant doesn't seem to let you decide "the time" that you want to enter your bid. That is key issue for me.

http://pages.ebay.com/bidassistant/

Besides it's likely against the best interests of ebay to help buyers get the best prices for their items since it would alienate sellers by keeping prices low and that would cut into the commision that ebay makes on each sale.
Ebay wants to create emotional sustained bidding wars throughout the length of the auction and creating an engine so that people can bid just once (and in the last ten seconds at that) is likely not something that is in their self interests.

Bidnapper seems what I'm looking for. A snipe program to let you bid in last ten seconds.
(BTW I had to go to dictionary.com because I've never heard the term "snipe" before.
Definition: snipe as verb: "a shot, usually from a hidden position.")

http://www.bidnapper.com/

A University study says sniping with last second bids is the most rational way to win auctions and keep prices low.

http://www.bidnapper.com/proof.php

 

[skypilot]

www.ezsniper.com

Fantastic! I have used it for a couple of years with great success.

 

[tboy]

I guess everyone's experience is different because I win about 75% of my auctions and I just put in what I feel the item is worth (to me). If it goes for more? Hey, I didn't want it that bad to begin with or (as stated) it was worth more than I was willing to pay.

So, if I understand this correctly, if you think item x is worth $50.00 and you're willing to pay $50.00 for it, and you max your bid in the last 10 seconds at $50.00 and you win, what's different than putting that bid in 2 weeks before? Do you think that just because someone sees an item ending they will not bid more?

Remember: when you set your max bid, no one knows what that amount is until they outbid you and if they outbid you, they were, and always were, willing to pay more for the item than you were.

I find that if I set my max amount high enough, then people get discouraged from outbidding me. For eg: I set my bid at $100.00. The current price is $25.00, they bid $5.00, bid goes up, they bid 5 again, bid goes up, again, bid goes up and at some point they have to think: whoa, how high is this going?

If you watched the Barrett Jackson auction recently you would have seen how real men bid, if you want the item, you don't nickel and dime it, as with the 2009 zo6 corvette: bid went to $400,000.00? So buddy goes $1,000.000.00 did anyone out bid him? NOPE and that happened a LOT.

BTW: something you SHOULD watch out for: phantom bidders. If I find someone is outbidding me a LOT then I check their history and see if they've won from , or sold to, the person selling the item I"m bidding on.