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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;LA_Geezer, post: 3043772, member: 89393&quot;]I&#039;ve been buying and selling on eBay since 1998, and [USER=35221]@bender9876[/USER] 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.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the old days you could click on the &lt;watching&gt; button for an auction then return to your watch list periodically to see how things are going. That doesn&#039;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&#039;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.&nbsp; The ONLY real negative to watching an item is that other bidders can see this information then develop a strategy of their own.</p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;s opening bids; all because I watched them all week long then set the sniping tool to launch what was a fair price <b><i>to me</i></b> just seconds before the auction would end.</p><p><br /></p><p>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 &lt;set and forget&gt; initial bid, then everything is fine, you have just learned that there might nearly always be another bidder who&#039;s willing to pay more. Here is precisely where a sniping tool can be your best friend.</p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;ve seen spreads larger than this, but the bidders are thinning out quickly at the lower end of the spectrum here. Let&#039;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 <b>key date</b>, 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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;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][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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