As you guy's know I have only been doing this for a short time, I pretty much stopped CRH although still do some. I have been buying coins on ebay and I wanted to no in your opinions should I wait till the end or start from the beginning. My emails get over whelming trying to keep up with bids although I have managed but it's annoying. I would appreciate any opinions in the best way to do this thank you. Dave I'm new to the ebay thing anyway I'm trying to catch up with paddyman98. LOL
Set it and forget it. Place a bid that represents the most you would comfortably pay for an item and then see what happens. You’ll win some and lose some, but you’ll stay out of bidding wars. Good luck, TC
Thanks I don't want to get in bidding wars for sure I have been able so far not to get caught up in that. Dave
If you bid early you are showing your hand to other bidders. I use a sniper program, it bids in the last 5 seconds and cannot be manually outbid in that period. However many others use snipers so at the end of the day its high bidder wins. I love early bidders, but only on my stuff I have listed.
The problem with sniping is that several times I did not get paid because the buyer didn't want to pay the bid he/she won with.
I usually put in a low early bid to make sure that item ends up in my bidding list and so does not get lost in the mix. Then I think about what my maximum is over the next day or so and I place it in the last 30 seconds before the auction ends. I actually prefer to bid on other sites, not Ebay, but there is usually not enough volume. OLA for example, extends the bidding for 10 minutes beyond the last bid so the concept of sniping is impossible.
I would go nuts if I was trying to beat the clock on these things. If a piece strikes me, I enter what the piece is worth to me and go on to other things. Don't have the time or the patience to monitor these deals down to the wire.
I prefer sniping last second. Bidding wars are fun and sometimes hilarious, but I'd rather spectate than participate. Maybe I've been on eBay too long, but I'm starting to feel like I can make guesses on stranger's personality traits based on their bidding alone.
Terrible move if you're buying, but sellers like myself (and I guess @daveydempsey as well) absolutely looooove it
Maybe I am missing the boat here. I don't do a great deal of trading on EBay. This would be a typical scenario for me; I see a piece that I am willing to pay $110.00 for and the bid is open for six days. I enter $110.00 and go on about my business. Next bidder enters $25.00. The site then says he is outbid at maybe $27.00. So the next guy enters thirty bucks and the site says he is outbid by maybe $32.00. And so this goes on up until the point that my $110.00 bid is exceeded. If somebody buys the piece for $120.00 then that is fine with me as I have already determined in my mind the value to me was a maximum of $110.00..... In fact two weeks ago I won a very choice Barber quarter that to me was worth $120.00 which was the figure I entered. I won the piece for $80.00 as I recall......... I don't see how sniping can actually occur unless the other bidders truly know what my max price is. What am I missing?
How come? I normally have a max price in my head. Why put it in early? Someone might say "wow. This is high early. They must know something" and then bid me up early. By waiting til the end, you avoid this. But please, tell me what I am missing. Would love to know the reason
Not sure I see what sniping has to do with this. If a buyer tries to back out on a winning bid, that's bad behavior, but I've seen the same thing happen both with early bids and last-minute bidding wars.
20-30 seconds is not the end, that is like throwing a pile of kindling on an inferno. If you're going to bid last second, make it 3 seconds so as not to give others a chance to raise their max. You will save money in the long run. Throwing your high bid right when the other bidders are frenzied and liable to emotionally raise their bid is the worst.
@Dave363 That is the fault of the bidder. That has nothing to do with the sniping service. When I was actively buying on eBay, I used Bidnapper, and I won about 85% of the auctions over a 10-year period. I'd place what I thought was a fair price to pay, and forget about it. The only time I'd get a e-mail was to notify me that I had been outbid or that I had won. The greatest advantage to a sniping service is that your bid is not entered until the very end with only a few seconds left. By the time your bid is processed, it is too late for anyone to place a counteroffer. I don't know what the sniping services charge these days, but when I used Bidnapper, it was $43 per year for unlimited snipes. I made that back in the first week from bids I won for underpriced items. Chris
I also like to put in early low bids on several items of interest, and then track the items in my Bidding section to see how things are going.
When I was still bidding on auctions, I used myibidder, which is free (donations encouraged). I was a bit nervous about sharing my eBay credentials with a third party, but nothing bad has ever come of it. It's been a long time since I've done anything other than camp on new BIN listings, so I'm not sure what the sniping landscape is like today. I did just pop over to myibidder -- took me a while to remember the name -- and it looks like it's still up.