I just had something really strange happen on Ebay, and I wonder if anyone else has had the same experience. I had two auctions going and was the high bidder on each. One I had a margin of about twenty dollars over the existing amount, and the other I had fifty dollars. The same person managed to outbid me by less than three dollars at the last minute on both items. This person had shown no prior interest and had made no prior bids trying to find my max bid. How can one person twice pick my max bid out of the air and out bid me. Example: A medal had a bid of 56 dollars on it and my max bid was 75 dollars. This person made no other bids but managed to bid 76 dollars in the last minute. This same person did the same thing less than one hour later. Something really smells about this. I am suspecting this person is managing to find out what my max bid is. I have told EBay what happened and they promised to check into it.
correct me if I'm wrong but you don't see the proxy bids in the background. He could have sniped with $500 as his max bid and would have won by a dollar at $76 simply because $1 is the minimum bid increment for that dollar range. Now if he had sniped in the last minute and won the auction by less than a dollar over your max bid that would have been really coincidental.
I have a lot of items in my watch list daily. But I never show my hand by placing a bid early, because usually others bid the price up fast enough! I have won many items by bidding in the last 20 seconds or less, because that really gives me a good idea of what other bidders may have already in for their maximum bid. So I try to out-guess them by a several dollars & odd cents. Plus I usually have researched the wholesale & retail values thoroughly before the auction ends.
The winning bidder is going to win for one bid over your max regardless of what he bids. So If your max bid was 75 and he bid 90 he would win for 76.
That is the way eBay operates. He could have bid $1,000 above your bid, but all you are going to see is the step required above your bid (probably $2.50 in this case). And you have no idea if or how much previous "interest" he has shown. The only way you can tell if he has shown "interest" is by his bidding. He could easily have been sitting until the last moment or used a sniper program.
The first item was one dollar above and the second was 2.50. At that time I have seen the incremental bids change to 2.50. So the first one was a lucky guess and the second was the incremental bid. Oh well it is good to understand. I was afraid someone had hacked my account or my computer. I have way overspent anyway.
eBay has certain price ranges that the incremental bid is automatically .50, 1.00, 2.50, 5.00 :thumb:
Some buyers use sniping software that places their bid at the very last second! I use EZ snipe myself sometimes. Sometimes its good to get the bid up early though. I hate it when I list a 7 day morgan auction and it shoots up to $30 on the first day! Means less watchers.
i am fairly new to the coin scene (started collecting maybe 6 months ago) but i have been an avid ebay hawk for over 10 yrs.... Like one of the previous posters said "never bid early or it will cause the bid to be ran up". example: 2 auctions, 1 medal a piece,i bid on 1 medal. The next bidiot comes along and sees the 2 auctions and bid on the one im currently bidding on and leaves the other alone. He does this because he thinks you know something he doesnt or he just want to be a prick. for yrs i never bid on anything i let my sniping program do it for me, i dont care if it is .99 cents worth. You should look into sniping because it is so useful. It is also so much better to "set it and forget it" instead of staring an auction down to the last second. I honestly would never shop for coins on ebay without one because you always have someone bidding with you in auctions. I use hammersnipe, i have lost 2 auctions since i have been using it and it was only because my rivals max bid was larger than my, i just failed to enter a larger amount of money then them. I have over 500 buys on ebay so thats not that bad of a ratio. You should try it! good luck!!! http://hammersnipe.com/ you get 3 free snipes a week. it will start bidding from 20- 10 seconds left. you can also buy priority points and bid down to 1-3 seconds for those auctions you just dont want to let slip away
I also use EZ-Sniper and have had great luck on bidding New. Using a snipe program lets you place you high bid with them so you don't have to hang around until midnight playing games with numbers. I wait until the last day or two before the auction ends before I activate my program so I can get an idea of what others may be bidding. It works for me. Bruce
I'm the type that bids early and bids my max. Early for me is withing the last 24 hours ... but not a snipe. I don't want to sit in front of my computer, hand poised over the keyboard, watching the seconds count down. I've got other things to do. Nor do I want to pay for some sniping software. I decide what I'm willing to pay for an item and bid that amount. If someone outbids me as far as I'm concerned they overpaid.
Here - here. I am the same way, but have been know to bid as soon as I see a coin I might want. If you are going to only bid so much - then it does not matter if it is early or with 5 seconds to go. I also don't worry about shill bidders. This is another good reason to use Heritage. Sometimes the first bidder to reach the last auction price is the one that wins.
You two need to have your cake and eat it too. Try http://www.gavelsnipe.com. It is free and you get a bonus that it stores your bids. I am not sure just how long. I started using it 11/2010 and I can still see every bid I have used it for since then.
I pick out what I think I would like to bid on 4-5 days early. Put them on my Watch List. That give me time to comfortably evaluate what I think they're worth. Then bid as I said above. This keeps me from making most mistakes; I don't have to hurry an evaluation.
Like Kanga, when I see something I want to bid on I'll put it on the watch list or just make a single low bid to see what it does.
If a coin makes it to my Watch List 95% of the time it will either get my max bid or be deleted. It's rare that I'll make a low ball bid just to see.
I have been "sniped" so many times, I lost count. Somehow, I feel there might be shills involved in some of those. Generally, I find a dealer with a decent shipping policy and try to load up on items in a BIN. I still do auctions, but nearly as much, since my time is worth something. I mean, why bother ? Gary
I think you're taking it way too personal, it was just a coincidence. We all have coins sniped from right under our noses all the time. Just let it roll off your back and move on to the next sale. You will be out bidding people as well, it works both ways. better luck next time, soldier. :thumb:
When you bid on an item it will only take the highest bid necessary to become the high bidder, saving the buyer from overpaying.
