Nah you guys have it wrong. Both tactics (last second bidding, and odd
amount bidding) are good but both can be beaten by a "good" (evil) sniper
with a good internet connection.
If you are a bidder: Bookmark the auction, set up a scheduled task on your
PC running win98\nt\2000 (control panel, scheduled task) to set up a sound
file or reminder to go off 10 minutes before end of auction. T-minus 10
minutes, check the auction. If there is little bidder activity go ahead and
place your bet in small increments just enough to become top bidder at a
nice round number. Refresh the auction every minute to verify you are still
top bidder. T-minus 30 seconds set another bid (even if you are still at the
top) at an odd amount but the max you will pay for it. The average sniper
will see you bid a bazillion times just to find the top bid mark and not see
your later real bet. He will wait the last second thinking he only needs to
bid a buck more, but alas his bid will not be enough and his snipe will have
back fired.
If there is recent heavy bidder activity, at 5 minutes until the end forget
it. Too many snipers on the field, set your bid for what you think is fair
and close the browser and go for a drive (or work on your spridget, what
ever the case may be). Check the auction later and see the results. Don't
let emotions get the best of you. You don't wanna up your max bid
constantly. If you bid more than twice in an auction you are just upping the
price and demonstrating you have interest in this auction, you are following
this auction, you are present\watching close to the end of the auction and
you want to win this auction. Play it cool.
The above suggestions on sniping are fair for all. It's not screwing the
other bidder at the last possible second, screwing the seller outa few
bucks. You give them 5-10 minutes of bid time. It's sportsman like. Might
cost you an extra few bucks, but it's nice.
There are sites out there that will place a bid for you at the last possible
seconds of e-bay auction time upping the bid until you are top bidder. Now
those are just cheap. It's like hunting domestic cows with automatic AK47s.
My method is like, using another hunting analogy, bow hunting wild pigs (And
none of those sissy compound bows either).
About 5 minutes left some sellers will get antsy and up the ante by biding
on the auction posing as a buyer thinking you are a sniper and you bid more
than what the top bid is. This will backfire when they become the top bidder
and are forced to send you an e-mail saying "the original buyer "backed out"
do you want it for the top bid?" Users with zero feedback and have an e-mail
address from the same domain name (@home @aol etc...) as the seller or a
hotmail or yahoo account is a give-away. ESPECIALLY if he gives you the
"backed out" excuse. If he does do that, then is the time to barter. You are
no longer on e-bay so any price is fair game. At the bare minimum he should
give it to you at your top bid and more like a few bucks below that. He has
to pay the ebay fee AGAIN if he is going to re-list it, so you should get at
least that below your bid.
You can send an e-mail to both e-mail addresses (10 minutes apart) and when
a reply arrives you can check what e-mail server processed the e-mail and
what time they both arrived. Usually e-mail servers serve a general
geographical location and if both e-mails have similar headers from the same
server and both arrive at the same time, another give-away bidder and seller
are one and the same. (Server thing doesn't work too well for hotmail or
yahoo users tho)
Sellers:
Don't bid on your own auctions. That just super-cheap. It's worse than
sniping. If you want more money for your auction start at a higher bid, or
set a reserve (reserves make bidders get cold feet tho). If the snipers
annoy you, set up a longer auction (7 or 10 day auction). If the crazy odd
amount bidders annoy you, set the bid increment to $2 $5, $10 (depending on
how much you are shooting for) and be done with it.
Best of luck to both sellers and bidders.
Toby
Who obviously spends too much time bidding and selling on Ebay. Sorry for
the length!
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