Bidding When Is The Best Time

I'm struggling to understand this. It seems to me the exact opposite; as a seller, I'd want every auction to get lots of early bids (and attention), rather than posing as a low-value item until the last few seconds.

The goal of sniping is for the buyer to win at a low price. An early bid reveals interest, and multiple early bids can indicate high value. A closing auction with a high leading bid encourages others to second-guess their own judgement -- "up to $150 already? It must be that VAM I wasn't sure about!" "Do I really want to lose this by just $10? I'll kick in another $20." These are the things a seller wants to happen.

 

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If someone wants to place their bid early, that's fine with me! It only means that I know they are "in the mix" regardless of what their max bid might be. Like I said, I estimate what a fair and reasonable bid should be and base my "one and only" snipe bid on that amount. If I'm outbid, so be it.

FWIW, I never considered that the goal of sniping was to win at a low price. For me, the goal of sniping was to WIN! If the winning bid was lower than expected, that's just a bonus.

Chris

 

I bid when I want and I know what I am willing to pay if it exceeds that I give up and I don't bid if it says private bidders sometimes I win sometimes I loose but to me it seems it really doesn't matter when I bid

 

As soon as I see a coin I want to bid on I’ll place one initial bid one increment above the current bid. I do this only to “watch” the coin without having it mixed in with the multitude of coins on my actual watch list.
Then if the current bid is still below what my max bid is, I will place my max bid with about 10 seconds left. That way I avoid any ridiculous bidding wars and overspending.

 

I use JustSnipe, its $5 per month unlimited bids, you can join for free and have 5 free bids per week.
I have a an 89% success rate from all bids placed.

 

My internet is relatively fast 110mb, and being in Ca., I hit the button @ 3 sec. with my high. If I don't get it, move on.

 

Thank you Chris I'll check into that service
Dave

 

I have had my share of bidding wars. It all depends on what your demand for each coin is. I will pay higher for a high grade coin that has not been in the market for a long time.

 

Dude!...
Don't bid anything until the last 8 seconds!
That's how I have won 95% of the stuff I get on ebay. I just put my max bid.

 

I do as a couple have mentioned. I put in a low initial bid to get it on my Bidding list. Then I'll watch other Ended auctions that may be similar (and before that point too) to figure out if I want to continue bidding. Then I'll start bidding within the last 30 seconds, or even 10 seconds.

There's sniper programs but I think two ways. If I can get it lower than I think, or have to push up the price to my max. A lot to think about in the last 30 seconds depending upon what it is.

 

Thanks that seem to be what most people are suggesting so that's probably the thing for me. Thanks paddyman98
Dave

 

Well so far I haven't bought anything under a 64ms, but of course I no I will I just bought 7 coins today. LOL
Dave

 

I honestly don't think it really even matters much on a lot of things anymore. A lot of people use the snipe programs just because it's easier and they don't have to remember.

For eBay at least the 3-day listing time was perfect for auctions but they charge for that one now which ruined a lot of the bidding. Early bidders seem to lose interest and move on and most of the hard stuff where bidding time would matter is set with BINs now

 

Dave, if you are new to collecting, I recommend that you stick to graded coins until you know enough to see when a coin has been cleaned. Raw coins are likely to have been cleaned, especially those sold on ebay, that really hurts the value of the coin and makes it ungradable. The best thing you can do know is to learn about grading. To that end you should read (study) 'The Art And Science of Coin Grading' by Jason Poe. It's concise, well written, easy to understand. As far as bidding goes, I agree with every opinion posted here, especially the ones that say it doesn't matter when you bid. The best advice is to decide what it's worth to you before you bid and don't go beyond that. Don't get in a bidding war. Patience. What you want will come around again. Good luck.

 

I've been buying and selling on eBay since 1998, and @bender9876 makes a lot of sense... but, the others who say to set and forget make just as much sense... but, even though there really is no definitive answer, using a sniping tool works best for me.

In the old days you could click on the <watching> button for an auction then return to your watch list periodically to see how things are going. That doesn't work anymore if bidders are annoyed by all of those emails that eBay will send, and I suppose it does annoy the OP or he wouldn't have mentioned it. If you build a watch list — which is very convenient, BTW — another list off site would not be necessary, so my first bit of advice is, accept all of the promotional emails that eBay will send so that you have a watch list that can be a lot of help. The ONLY real negative to watching an item is that other bidders can see this information then develop a strategy of their own.

Bidding too soon has two negative effects. First, it alerts other potential bidders to an item that might otherwise be overlooked. Just today I won four exceptional IHCs for an average of $21.12, and three of these coins were won on the seller's opening bids; all because I watched them all week long then set the sniping tool to launch what was a fair price to me just seconds before the auction would end.

Just as importantly, bidding too soon enables other bidders to place small bids subsequently until they overtake your bid. If you can abide by your <set and forget> initial bid, then everything is fine, you have just learned that there might nearly always be another bidder who's willing to pay more. Here is precisely where a sniping tool can be your best friend.

Just as an example, suppose you saw this 1917 quarter in such beautiful condition that you just gotta have it. If you have done your homework and researched this coin, you might have found that ones like it have sold on eBay for as little as $200 and as much as $400; ones slightly nicer might be going for thousands on other coin auction sites. I've seen spreads larger than this, but the bidders are thinning out quickly at the lower end of the spectrum here. Let's add to this that the seller had an opening bid of $99, and that with just two days before the auction ends, two other bidders have offered enough to bring the total to $109. If your research showed you that this coin sells for around $200 usually, then the assumption must be that at least one of these bidders will return, and, you might assume that there might be at least one Coin Talk member who saw this coin, too, and has already loaded it in his snipe tool. If I were the CT member and this coin were a key date, I can assure you that the number in my sniper would be closer to the historical high. Why? Because most bidders are looking for bargains. That set and forget bidder lost out because he called attention to a potentially great coin at a bargain price.

I may or may not lose a potential bidding war, especially if I have to bid against others with a similar interest — especially if he has deeper pockets. It is just as likely, though, that interest will wane, and I'll be able to pick up this awesome find for well below what others have paid, perhaps as little as 55% of the top figures.[/I]

 

I'd much rather people drop their high bids early in the final bidding war (a.k.a. 30-60 seconds to go) rather than generally early in the auction, for pretty much the same reasons you mentioned. Chaos with time quickly running out = higher last second bids.

 

That's why people use snipe programs. They don't HAVE to monitor them, the program does it.

Now let's say this guy who was bidding against you in bid the thing way up like that was a shill bidder, but you didn't have that maximum bid in there. So he bids the other people up to say $60 and no higher because your max bid wasn't there. Then your snipe bid comes in in the last three seconds with your $110 maximum bid. The shill bidder doesn't have a time to react and you win the coin for $62. You not only one and didn't get outbid, but you got it for $48 less than your maximum bid. That's the problem with putting a maximum bid in early, it gives others the chance to bid it up so that even if you do when you end up paying more than you had to. Sure you thought it was worth $110, but why pay that if you don't have to and can potentially get it for less? Sure it doesn't always work you may be up against somebody who is put in a maximum bit of $120, but in that case you are still not overpaying. Snipe bidding protects you from over bidding just as a max bid does, but improves your chances of paying less than you have to.

 

I follow exactly what you are saying. It never occurred to me there was so much psychological swordsmanship at play on these things!

 

I'd imagine most shills are using programs by now as well

 

When I first started bidding on eBay I foolishly got caught up in some bidding wars. Talk about adrenaline. That was when “winning” was often LOSING.

Now, I determine my max bid and, just for the fun of it, will do a manual snipe with 5-6 seconds left. If I will be busy (or asleep) when an auction will end, I put in my max bid and get on with life.

Steve