Don't beleive it.

[gremlin 0]

Have just bought a new house and need a fridge freezer for it. Saw one on e-bay and put a bid in. The bid has been in for 3 days and I have been the highest bid. With 2 minutes to go someone puts in a higher bid. Thankfully I was online and upped the bid. With less than 30 seconds left they up my bid. When I tried to put in a new bid I was told the auction had closed. Now have to go through the whole thing again and still don't have a fridge.

I'm drunk, you're drunk, lets go back to mine....

[FlyingJ 0]

Sucks to be on your end of the deal, but that's the way to win at the lowest price. Starting to bid any earlier really just raises the price.

Starting early - you bid, they bid, you bid, they bid - it ends up way higher. If you just wait until the last second and bid your max amount than others won't have the opportunity to reconsider their max amount and rebid.

You take the risk of your max bid not being high enough, but it takes away the opportunity for others to raise their max bid.

By last minute I mean hitting submit when there is 10 or so seconds left in the auction. It has worked very well for me - and it frustrates me to no end when I see people bidding up an item days before it is due (unless of course I'm the seller!!!).

Happy bidding, and good luck next time.

Killing threads since 2004.

[freethefly 6]

That was so uncool (pun intended) of them

"...And once you're gone, you can't come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black."
Neil Young

[pringles 0]

Im with flyingJ here. Wait until there is only a matter of seconds left before you bid. It works great when you have high speed internet. If you have dial up I would assume that you can't play this game as well. Thats how I bid. I hate it though when I have something for sale and someone like you doesn't come along. Then the item goes for a price that is way too low.

Matt Davies

[jumpergirl 0]

Quote

I hate it though when I have something for sale and someone like you doesn't come along. Then the item goes for a price that is way too low.

That's why when I have things for sale, I start the bidding at a price I can be happy with. Otherwise, I feel like you do, it goes for too low. I bid the same way if I can. I wait until the last 30 seconds or so to bid. Most of the time, I win.

[gerrcoin 0]

Quote

If you have dial up I would assume that you can't play this game as well.

Hah, tried doing that today. The item way sitting at the same bid for the last 3 days and I figured that everyone else was holding off for the last 10 seconds. So I have the max bid typed in ready to go and just as I press confirm, an incomming call trips the modem and drops the connection. It ended at the same bid.
I also had a bidding war with an anonymous bidder for the last 2 minutes of another auction. I got pissed off and didn't counter the last bid. Auction ended and within 10 minutes I got an email from the seller claiming that he had another identical item if I wanted to buy. Almost positively a schill bidder. I declined, slightly less than politely.

[SpeedRacer 1]

Quote

I also had a bidding war with an anonymous bidder for the last 2 minutes of another auction. I got pissed off and didn't counter the last bid. Auction ended and within 10 minutes I got an email from the seller claiming that he had another identical item if I wanted to buy. Almost positively a schill bidder. I declined, slightly less than politely.

hmmmm, sneaky. or maybe it was the seller himself.

Speed Racer
--------------------------------------------------

[LouDiamond 1]

I saw a piece on the TV about a service called bid assassin or something like that where you can have them pull that last minute shit for you. Some how they do this and I believe they guarantee it.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[gerrcoin 0]

Well technically Ebay has this too. The mistake most people new to ebay make is bidding at the reccommended value. For that last minute stuff, it's best to enter your absolute maximum bid and the thing will bid for you automatically up to that max.

[Zenister 0]

Quote

I saw a piece on the TV about a service called bid assassin or something like that where you can have them pull that last minute shit for you. Some how they do this and I believe they guarantee it.

there are a number of 'auction snipers' services available..if your really after an item, its pretty much the only way to guarantee you'll get it. Their use is getting so widespread I'm expecting some sort of controls by ebay to curb them as it puts normal users 'out of the cold'

____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[mr2mk1g 10]

Quote

Well technically Ebay has this too. The mistake most people new to ebay make is bidding at the reccommended value. For that last minute stuff, it's best to enter your absolute maximum bid and the thing will bid for you automatically up to that max.

But that's a pants way to bid. All you do is push the price up. You only win stuff that way by paying more than you can get the item for. It's a crappy way of getting a deal.

Never bid on anything until the last 30 seconds. THEN bid the highest you are willing to pay - not simply just enough to beat the current bidder.

I'll say this again as it's quite important: BIDDING EARLIER SIMPLY PUSHES UP THE PRICE FOR SOMEONE ELSE.

[gremlin 0]

Thanks for the advice. Will try again. E-bay watch out.

I'm drunk, you're drunk, lets go back to mine....

[AndyMan 7]

Doesn't ebay have proxy bidding?

Where you put in the maximum you're willing to spend, and it will increment one buck at a time whenever someone outbids you?

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.