How to Buy Items from eBay?

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It sounds like you are being outbid on most of your "want" items which ONLY means that someone bid more then you. How much more is an unknown and you'll never really know as all it takes is one autobid over your max in order to win the listing.

Folks can engage and use all the bidding assistance programs they want but until they place the "right" bid, they simply are not going to win anything.

eBay is an autobid system which automatically enters buyers bids up to their designated max. These bids CAN be seen, but only after the fact.

The real trick is in knowing or at least having a general idea on exactly what the max bid is going to be and then entering that value plus one bid increment just before the listing closes thereby not allowing someone to "counter" your winning bid. The advice on figuring out what you are willing to pay only goes so far in actually "winning" something.

You absolutely MUST have an idea on relative value for what you are bidding on and what other folks are actually paying. This only comes with experience and even then, someone will come along with just a little bit more experience and run off with the item!

Personally, I would not be too concerned with not winning since the obvious is to place a max bid of $100,000 on everything you want. You'll win EVERY listing but you'll have also way overpaid for what you bought.

Be patient. Pay attention and learn how it works. Sniping programs won't do a darn thing for you if you do not enter a high enough max bid. Nothing.

Look at ebay as if it were a Basketball game. Most teams save the energy for the last few minutes of the game since all it takes to win, is one single basket (bid increment).

 

" . . . eBay is an autobid system which automatically enters buyers bids up to their designated max. These bids CAN be seen, but only after the fact. . . "

What does this mean? I've always entered my incremental bids manually. I have managed to snag a few items at the last moment.

Currently, I'm replacing some uncirculated ABNCo Mexican remainder notes. The only source for prices I'm aware of is The Standard Catalog of World Paper Money. These notes are not graded. The most expensive was $100.00 which was the TSCWP list price. I also buy old stock certificates. ( got a beauty arriving soon that'll I'll post.)

Mike

 

Well Midas did not care what things cost just bid more than anyone else and you get what you want.

 

What the text in bold means is that you can bid some extraordinary amount (a hypothetical $100,000 in this case) for an item, but if the current under-bidder is only at $100 then your bid will show $105 (or whatever the increment is at that level). However, as new bids come in and raise the price above $105, ebay will automatically raise your bid to one bid increment above all these competing bids as long as this new high bid is at or below your maximum (hypothetical $100,000 in this post).

 

I just found a useful website called "gixen.com". It is an online sniper tool that is easy to use and does not require a download. You put in the auction number and maximum bid, and then just leave the rest to the site. You can turn off your computer nd go about your day, and about 5 seconds before the auction ends gixen will enter your highest bid. I used it today on a coin that got a big bidding war going in the last hour, and it sniped the coin for me. Works like a charm.

 

Think I understand re: maximum bid. I returned early to finish bidding on a Mexican bill but was too late. It was really interesting reviewing the bidding after the auction was finished. I think at least one other bidder was using a snipe program or
"maximum bid" option. Thanks for all the useful responses I learned alot.

Mike

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1914-MEXICO...U-/360689304684?&maxbid=5.50&autorefresh=true

 

One other little tip I'll mention. I always bid in odd amounts. Like instead of bidding $2.00, I'll bid $2.04. Once in awhile you'll win an auction because the next highest bidder stopped at an even number and you'll just barely go over. A lot of people are doing this now but it helps me win sometimes without going over by much. People often try to figure their bid plus shipping into an even amount, so if the shipping is 75 cents, they might bid $1.25 to get the total price to $2. Always try to go just over those kind of numbers.

 

I always end my bid in either .01 or .51 for this exact reason.

 

Thanks for another good tip.

 

Thats the best way to go about it. There is no need for sniping programs if you place your highest bid first. I don't bid anywhere looking for a great deal. If something is worth $500 thats what I bid. If it's worth $500 but only comes up for auction every 50 years, I bump it up by 30% or more, depending on how badly I want it. There's nothing tricky about bidding and winning if you don't always try to get a bargain price.

 

Losing a lot of auctions is a sign you're doing it right.

 

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Been using it for over a year. Big fan, especially their grouping feature. I can bid on multiple auctions for the same item and if I win any one of them, it'll cancel the rest of my pending bids.

 

Very true statement. Let someone else pay $125 for something that is worth $80; or better yet buy some thing with an obvious flaw that you noticed. There are an awful lot of suckers that waste an awful lot of hard earned money on ebay. Some retailers know this, and make some good money with their concealing photo taking abilities.

 

How are the snipe sites/programs different from the Bay's "maximum bid"?

 

They place your bid at the last moment which *CAN* help prevent the price from going higher. How can it do that?

Let's say John puts in his max bid at $100 via a regular eBay bid.

You place a bid of $105 via a sniping program.

The sniping program places your bid, and (depending on the increment at that price), ebay bids the price up until you're higher than John's top bid of $100.

If you weren't using a sniping program, John would have time to receive an email alerting him that he's been outbid, and he'd have time to come back and bid higher (if he wanted).

Since you used the sniping program, there are usually only seconds before the auction ends when your bid goes in, so if you have the highest bid, you're going to win.

So, in some cases it can help to keep the bidding from going higher.

 

Very good explanation. I was trying to think of a way to explain it, but your post seems clear.
Bottom line is it can prevent other bidders from outbidding you in the last minutes of an auction, by putting in your highest bid just a few seconds before the auction ends, thereby eliminating your opponents' opportunity to outbid you again. (Does that make sense?)

 

Of course, if 30 other bidders also have a snipe program, it won't matter as the highest over-all bidder wins. Therefore, it's useless, once again.

 

Which is why I said it COULD save you money. You should still put in your highest amount you're willing to pay. But you may end up saving money via a snipe program vs. normal eBay bidding. Depends on the situation.

But I'll take the chance to save money over no chance to save money any day.