What's your go-to bidding strategy on eBay?

As Coinman1234 said, bid slightly above the bid increments, and bid odd change. For example, I bid on a coin for $351.67. The final bid was $350.07. Someone bid the regular increment plus a few cents. My extra dollar over the increment won it for me.

 

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I make few purchases so I'm a sniper!

 

Same here, I recently beat a guy by around only cents with that method lol.

Here is an example of how I bid, It seems I do the same as you
Minimum bid: $10.50
I bid $14.56 cents at 4 seconds left
I win by $3.56 lol.

 

I do odd change above the expected price, too.

And, not just 0.01 above or 0.25... like 0.17 above.

 

The great majority of my bids are placed within the last four seconds of closing with my maximum price to be paid if I win. I use a variation of this strategy depending on the item, recent pricing from sold lots, the quality of the seller, prices of competing lots, etc. I always factor in the shipping cost for a total price. I do set-up an alarm for bids I place in the middle of the night, where warranted. I am a purchasing agent by profession, as well.

 

I also use gavelsnipe (entering my max bid), and set my bid at an odd change price. There's another strategy I use on certain coins, that sounds somewhat similar to your #2. If I see a coin that was set with a starting price equal to or slightly below the market value, I immediately place my max bid and do not snipe. For example, let's say there's a common-date Morgan dollar for which the seller has set a starting price of $20, and market value is around $25. It's in my best interest to bid immediately, because then other potential bidders will see that someone has bid on the coin. They will then be more likely to assume that they no longer have a chance of getting a good deal and that it's not worth their time to bid. I stand a much better chance of getting that $25 coin for $20 than I would if I tried to snipe it.

 

It depends. If it's something unique I'll wait until the end to bid and I'll put in what my real max is. If it's something that there are a few of available, I will throw out a low bid early, something like 25% of what I think is a fair value. Reason being I think that if someone stumbles on a decent coin and sees there are no bids they are more likely to watch list that one. If they see one with a bid and they try to put a bid on it themselves and see that they are outbid immediately, they are more likely to watch one of the other available ones.

 

There are some caveats as well, where you may want to consider BIN over auctioning.

- If a BIN price shows up really cheap, below the historical/observed average price for that item (assuming same condition, etc.), I'd use BIN right away and get the item.

- If it's a rarer item and doesn't show up often, assuming it's not beyond your reservation price, you may want to consider buying the item outright via BIN. If it's an auction and BIN combo listing, then I'd consider putting the maximum auction price at the BIN price - this eliminates the BIN option for all other buyers. But, you do risk the auction price soaring beyond the BIN price... so it depends on the auction/item.


Another point to consider: never watch an item! It's convenient, sure, but it indicates to other buyers that there's interest in that auction listing. Just have the tab/window open for that item. If you turn off your computer, set your browser to automatically open the last session you closed.

 

Why wouldn't you want to indicate to other buyers that there's interest in an auction listing? That seems like it would make them more likely to bid, not less. I try to avoid listings that have multiple watchers whenever I can.

 

I don't care how many people watch an auction. Do people really care about that?

 

Say there's a seemingly "regular" coin up for sale but you notice what could be an error (e.g. doubling). You wouldn't want to draw attention to the listing by watching it, and make people think it's worthwhile among the slew of similar listings. However, I can see how what you're saying makes sense, too.

 

Mostly I bid my max and check after the ending time to see if I won. After getting involved in bidding wars and all kinds of crazy stuff I've finally come to realize that the same coin or one better will come back around soon enough, so I don't have to have every coin I see. Also, if I like something I will snipe quicker than you could say, "dirty rotten rat"!!

 

Ah I see, good point. One further "watching" strategy - never watch a best offer coin before making an offer on it. As a seller, I'll drive a harder bargain the more watchers I have on a coin.

 

My strategy changes depending on the coin. I don't use sniping software, but I might give it a try. I have 3 or 4 strategies.

 

I won while sniping during last nights game - much less competition even though it was a Sunday night. Multi-tasking has its benefits, and so does bidding on big event days and holidays!