If you bid on a lot of auctions you notice these patterns after awhile. I'd see that I was always getting outbid on auctions at the last minute, so I realized what was happening and started doing it too whenever I can. I find something I like, then set it to "watch" it and go back when there are only a few minutes left. I'm more likely to win and to pay a lower price. It's just something you need to do. Something else I've noticed for buy it now: I'd see a lot of coins I wanted but I thought the buy it now price was just way too high, so I'd pass them up. But as time goes on, I see that the same coin is still there as weeks go by. So I figure, the seller probably wants to get rid of this coin by now. So often I send them a private message, and I'll say "Krause lists this coin at 75 cents and you are asking $5 for it. I think a fair price is $2.50. Would you consider an offer?" Nine times out of ten they take the offer, and I get what I want at a fair price, and the seller still makes some money.
Well, the way I see it, one person may pay more than what I'd pay or what the book value states. I might be willing to pay $100 for a coin I want when everyone else says it's worth $75 and the books say it's worth $80.
Yea but in this case, the Britannia was available for buy it now @ $250 from many sellers and plus Apmex was selling it at $220. Anyway Ebay should more akin to an auction where other bidders have opportunity to counter bid. Most often these days all the bids seem to happen in last min before the auction ends.
Winning something has nothing to do with "when" you bid as much as it has to do with "how much" you bid. I'm of the opinion that sniping should not be allowed in that there should be a least 1 minute between the last bid and the auctions closing. Just like a real auction.
This is rather easy and its all a guess based upon experience. If I really want something, I'll enter a bid when I see the item and then drop a big one near the end. If I only want something, I'll make a guess at what other folks "might" bid and then add a couple of bucks. If I don't care if I win or lose, I'll just drop a random bid out there and hope for the best. I try not to snipe unless I feel that others will be doing the same thing AND I really want the product. Those items that I do win, generally sell for list or higher so I don't have a problem with it. I try not to entertain silly thoughts such as "I'm high bidder and there are 4 days left". If I want it, I go after it.
That's because ebay is actually more akin to a mail bid auction where the bidding ends at a preset time. People tend to think of it as a live auction because they can see the changing high bid. It isn't. It is a mail bid sale where the highest bid received before a preset ending time wins the auction. You wouldn't expect a mail bid sale to be extended for another day if they got a new high bid in on the last day just in case an even higher bid might come in the next days mail.
that's why i said 15 min rule as in gun broker any bid within the last 15 min. time gets added to auction therefore no sniping simple
Most bidders don't bid early because it draws attention to the auction. Also if the seller has another account they can shill bid the auction.
OK say it adds 5 min. So you modify the sniping software so that it looks at the current high bid and just bids the next increment. that adds five minutes. So 4 min and 55 secs later it looks again and you aren't the high bid anymore it bids another increment. This continues until win or it exceeds your max bid. You could potentially extend the end point of an auction by hours that way. Tick off both bidders and sellers. Frankly do something like that to make it difficult for me to set a snipe, and if the auction is going to end at a time when it is inconvenient for me to be watching it (which is most times) and I'll just pass on the auction, So I think the end time extensions would result in fewer bidders and possibly lower prices.
I do 100% of my bidding via sniping. No reason not to. My main reason has nothing to do with trying to steal the auction. I find going through and setting up my snipes that I sometimes change my mind. You cannot change your mind for a bid, but can always change your snipe until the auction closes. Its a great way to manage your budget. Get too lucky with some auctions? Then trim down or delete some snipes for other coins you have scheduled. I also agre with Conder if they kept extending auctions on Ebay I would probably be less likely to use the service. The way they do it is fine, its like a live auction. Coin lots in a live auction are auctioned off in seconds. Actually, I snipe live auctions in a manner of speaking, using an agent to buy for me. Either Ebay or live auction, I do not have to be around waiting for the lot to be sold. Chris
All that would do is change the timing of the snipe. The hard deadline sets the time. I get very aggravated by sniping and if you look at my old posts you will see that I express that anger at times. But if you bid the highest price you are willing to spend on a coin and someone else is willing to spend more, we really shouldn't be upset. I've set the price many times since the second highest bidder is the one who actually sets the price in an eBay style auction. The problem with schill bidders is that they aren't actually purchasing the coins. They are just driving the price up contrary to the rules of the auction. Some see no problem with this, while I do. I still want a second REAL bidder to set the price so I don't over pay.
