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In lugnet.market.auction, Rob Doucette writes:
> Step by step
>
> I will now share the mainstream of the advice I have received. Follow this
> advice and you will win more auctions and pay fairer prices.
Lower prices, not "fairer" - let's not place a moral judgment on it. Nothing
wrong with anything either way.
> The downside is
> you really must be online when the auction ends.
Ah, there is a major catch. :-)
> And the more people who do
> this, the less effective these tactics become.
Which means publicizing the tactics in fact ruins them. Hmmmmm, are you a
buyer or a seller? :-)
:
>
> 1. Never put in an early proxy! Don't be a fool, like I was, and enter a
> proxy bid early in the battle. The conventional wisdom is early proxying
> only results in higher prices.
This is not an entirely true. I have won a fair number of auctions with "fire
and forget" bids. They also tend to be some of my better buys. The trick is
not to put in your "final offer" bid early in the process if you can all help
it. I do not like commiting a high bid and tieing up the money for a week
just to see a sniper come in at the last second.
>
> 2. Know what an item is worth. Set a maximum for yourself. Research previous
> auctions and other sources of information to determine what is a fair price.
> Then decide what is the top dollar you'll pay.
Bidding fever - identify and avoid! Good advice.
>
> 3. Never put in an early proxy for this amount. Why? Because if you bid on
> multiple items you certainly won't get all of them -- but if you do, your
> potential exposure could be bigger than your pocketbook. This works against
> setting a few $1,000 proxies on $10 items just to make sure you win. Not to
> mention what happens if someone (like the seller) catches wind of this and
> drives you up just to raise the price.
The far greater liklihood is that another person tries the exact same tactic.
This really falls under number 2 above: don't overbid, even as a tactic.
It'll just backfire.
>
> 4. Watch the item. Keep an eye on the items that interest you, but never
> bid. Don't do anything that might create interest in the item. Let the
> early-bidding stooges be asleep when you win the auction.
But then again, late bidding stooges have failed because they lost their
connection, waited too long, had a slow connection, sniped too low and
couldn't get in a higher bid in time, etc.
>
> 5. You must be there at the end. I am convinced that sniping is the only way
> to win in the environment eBay has created. Not sniping makes you a sucker.
I've had standing bids beat snipers on many occasions simply by accurately
predicting what they will bid (they are usually cheap). When I lost, it has
almost always been because I was unwilling to pay any more (i.e. in my book,
the sniper overpaid and is the sucker). I haven't seen much sniping in the
board games or computer games areas - it's Lego where it is rampant.
>
> I think this is bad for eBay, but that's eBay's problem. It also means you
> need a good alarm clock and calendar to keep track of where to be and when
> to make those final winning bids. I am vaguely aware of software that will
> automate this process, but my correspondents didn't consider it nearly as
> effective as doing the work yourself, in person, at closing. This might
> involve a last-second proxy.
I'd rather see a time reset of at least an hour, but ebay clearly doesn't want
auctions to linger. That's bad for the seller, but eBay is able to deliver
sufficient bidders to still make it an attractive place to sell items.
>
> 6. Delayed closings might be a good thing. There are some auctions that
> automatically delay the closing until 10 minutes have passed without a new
> high bid.
>
> My new sniper friends were divided on this. Most didn't seem to like the
> last-minute frenzy before the close, which added a large amount of
> randomness to the outcome. Automatically delaying closes would make the
> process a little more civil, most said. This is probably a good idea, based
> on the arguments I've seen.
Again, I agree, but evidently eBay feels there is a point of diminishing
returns.
>
> I have not spent any time as a sniper, so I am merely reporting what I have
> been told. I do not know, for example, how eBay's system response time and
> other factors might affect the effectiveness of a last-second proxy vs. a
> last-second fixed bid.
I often have a low standing bid, and when the snipers show up at 30 seconds, I
countersnipe at 10. If you want to snipe, you need a good, fast connection.
Sellers who autodump 30 auctions onto eBay that all end at the same second
open the opportunity for low opening bidders AND snipers (the snipers can't be
everywhere at once, but neither can the countersnipers). Sellers who don't
stagger their auction end times are a buyer's delight.
>
> 7. eBay might consider sealed-bid auctions. Sealed bids would end all this
> sniping stuff and might be a way to level the playing field. Or maybe not.
> It is probably worth a try. It would encourage people to bid at their
> leisure, which sniping kills.
Idunno. As a seller, I'm not sure this would fetch the best price, sniping or
not.
>
> I appreciate all the comments I have received. Especially the friendly
> ones -- whether you agreed with me or not. I did not appreciate the ones
> telling me that everything was fine because people who proxy their highest
> bid imaginable don't lose so often. But they, as I have learned, are also
> suckers and force up prices unnecessarily by taking on all comers with a
> "now beat this" response from the proxy.
I am not above sniping. Sometimes it works. I don't feel any guilt by doing
it: eBay is ultimately to blame.
Bruce
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: How to snipe on eBay
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| (...) I have won most of my auctions with fire and forget bids. I do usually check in on the auction sometime during the last day, and if the bidding is close to my maximum, I may chose to raise it. I also do some good soul searching on my maximum (...) (24 years ago, 26-Jul-00, to lugnet.market.auction, lugnet.market.theory)
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