Outbid with 3 seconds to go.

Ugh! I was watching a nice little light on the bay since Thursday. I placed a bid, op out bid me.
Fair enough I figure.
I bid until I was the highest.
And placed a max bid that if op surpassed for this non working light, so be it.

So I'm watching the clock wind down until "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, YOU'VE BEEN OUTBID"
Are you kidding me?

I'm new to the auction thing and have passed up a bunch of nice items that somebody else seemingly wanted more. Gentleman thing and all.

Ironically the item 'stolen' at the last second was a jewel thief light.
Hey op.... I have a nicer (working) one on the way for less than half what you paid to steal it from me. lol.

Anybody else been outbid with seconds left?

That would be what is referred to as sniping. They even have apps/scripts that will do it for you.

Occasionally, rare or unique items show up on eBay.

These items will attract competitive bids and most likely will be "sniped" at the last minute.

If you really must have one of these items from eBay you must place your bid during the last two or three seconds.

Buyers who troll ebay for rare items use "sniper" software to place these bids.

But eBay provides a countdown clock, so you can also place bids at the last second manually (with a little practice.)

For these rare or in-demand items, do not place bids in advance, this will only drive up the final price.

Nobody says it's fair, but that is how it works.

Friend told me if you place a bid $100 more than top bid you actually only pay a dollar more than top bid. Is that true?

The term is sniping. Edit. Forgot to add some auctions have a 15 minute anti sniping rule. A bid within the last 15 min will extend the auction another 15 min or something like that however I don't think that is an option on flea bay.

Bummer, might be teaching you to suck eggs here, but if you bid at any time before the final few seconds.............your bidding against yourself by adding it up too early. By bumping it up, not only lets others know there is some competition, but it adds the cost up too. I always wait till the final few seconds on stuff i really want( not always easy to do hence really want).

If for example its at $20 , i will have my max amount i am happy to pay in the box ready to click on so no time wasted(if it goes above this before it ends, then simply its too much for me!). I hit it, many times it reveals the top bidders amount as it increases quick before the end and for me to win by very little. For example it will jump up to $23.56 but i have put a max of $27 in as an example.

Just thoughts

Edit- yes to the question :laughing: and its real annoying !!! So i just adapted a different method and mind set, if i win great , if not there will be a better deal around the corner...........think positive .

Thanks for the info fellas. Now I know what to watch for.

The snipe thing is dirty pool imo. But I have the satisfaction of knowing the op paid 4x what a working one in mint condition is worth.

I typically prefer the seller to say I want "x" for it.

Edit: just got sniped again. But again the op paid waaaaay more than it was worth. That time I jacked up the max to 10x what it was worth. lol

Edit 2:
There was about a minute to go when I typed the previous edit. Went back and somebody else had snatched it from the one who sniped me. Crazy.

There's a company that offers to place last second bids called eSnipe. Don't remember what the charge, but if it's an item you've just got to have, thus is is how to do it.

I've heard that the founders of eSnipe worked at the bay and knew the system inside out.

I usually place a bid early then if I really want it wait to snipe it myself. I'm at around 80% provided I'm home for auction close.

Actually it used to be fairly easy to 'snipe' manually, that was until ebay ceased showing the exact time (to the second) when the auction would end. I used to keep an 'atomic' clock ( a clock synched to WWVB's time signal) next to the keyboard, and I was quite regularly able to place bids in the last 2 or 3 seconds of the auction. As to how much more you will pay, if you set an arbitrarily high bid? If the item is less than $25, you will pay 50 cents over the top bid. For $25-$100 it is $1. Above $100 it is $2.50, above $250 it is $5, above $500 it is $10. The other thing to do if you want to win is to add a few cents to the bid. If you want to win, always bid a few cents more than the next dollar. You'd be amazed at how many auctions I have won by literally pennies.

Ebay still shows the exact time on every listing:



This from a few minutes ago. In red is the countdown......

This seems to happen to me often. I just think it is Gods work. lol

Str8stroke said:

This seems to happen to me often. I just think it is Gods work. lol

Click to expand...

Good point. Very very very very very good point.
His will and all that.

I just started into the auction thing this past week. And scored a couple of nice flashlights along the way.

About the exact time thing...I cannot say. But can say I watched one end, was the highest bidder at the end and got an email saying my bid was 25¢ less than the winner.

That one surprised me as up to that point I was the only bidder.

One more is waiting and it's back to all 'buy it now' for this shopper. I'm finding way better stuff at other sites anyway.

For some, Ebay is a divisive contrivance born of human greed for an advantage over another. Other folks enjoy the bargains and others get taken. Why does Ebay continue to promote sniping? Does it benefit the seller? I think not. Would Ebay make more money if auctions were to continue 15 minutes after the last bid?

Each of us has a choice to take part, or not. I would flush Ebay down the toilet if I could. Lust for stuff run amok. Maybe if we spent more time with our family instead of staring at a sniper's countdown clock...

I used to enjoy eBay eons ago but this was when it was an auction site for things like one would find at a garage sale that had been buried in someone's attic for 20 years. Now it's mostly just stuff in a seller's storefront. I occasionally still buy things there as well as participate in some auctions.

Prior to bidding I've determined the max I'm willing to pay including all extraneous fees like shipping etc. I then bid using the proxy bidder that automatically bumps my bid, as others counter-bid, up to my max. My work schedule can change daily and I have no plans to stay glued to my computer during my off hours sweating over some item. Nor am I going to get up in the middle of the night to place a bid because the auction ends at 03:47, local.

If I win then fine. If not then oh well, someone else wanted it more that I did. I'm not concerned if this happens 2 days or 2 minutes before the end of the auction. Nor do I care if I'm the first bidder because the auction info tells me how many people are watching the item. I know that I'm going to have competition before it ends.

About sniping? I don't care if I happen across something that ends in 20 minutes nor do I mind if someone else has watched the item for a week and placed their bid with 15 seconds left. All the info was there from the beginning; start, stop, shipping, etc. Do the research if one wants to play.

One of the gun auction sites (can't remember which) has something they call "the 15 minute rule" or something like that. This extends the auction ending time to allow others to increase their bids thereby allowing the host site to collect more in fees from the higher final selling price. The auction site calls this "fair" and I despise them for that. Call it what it is: more money.

What's fair, is posting specifics then adhering to them. "Hello all, here's an item for bid. The auction ends exactly on this day and at this time. You have one week to do your research and submit your bid." End of story.

They're free to run their business as they wish and make a profit. For that reason, that site will never see one cent of my money. It's only fair.

FWIW,

Dan

Well I have been sniped, but that was when I accessed the site via AOL portal over dial-up; you might want to do some "dummies guide"-style reading if you're just now getting around to online auctions..

I'm sorry to say but I always bid last 10 seconds and often "steal" at the last moment. But I think if you bid early you alert other buyers who may then increase their maximum bid in response to competition. I think it's good fun, sometimes you win sometimes you lose. I don't think it's unfair, it's just the nature of auctions
In fact last week I was outbid in last 10 seconds on a 7C maglite with serial no. 00000002! That was pretty gutting but like I said, that's auctions for you.

Ladd said:

Occasionally, rare or unique items show up on eBay.

These items will attract competitive bids and most likely will be "sniped" at the last minute.

If you really must have one of these items from eBay you must place your bid during the last two or three seconds.

Buyers who troll ebay for rare items use "sniper" software to place these bids.

But eBay provides a countdown clock, so you can also place bids at the last second manually (with a little practice.)

For these rare or in-demand items, do not place bids in advance, this will only drive up the final price.

Nobody says it's fair, but that is how it works.

Click to expand...

Exactly! I worked this out very quickly after losing every auction in the last 4 seconds,even 10 seconds is too early. Damn slow internet connection makes it hard though.

KITROBASKIN said:

For some, Ebay is a divisive contrivance born of human greed for an advantage over another. Other folks enjoy the bargains and others get taken. Why does Ebay continue to promote sniping? Does it benefit the seller? I think not. Would Ebay make more money if auctions were to continue 15 minutes after the last bid?

Each of us has a choice to take part, or not. I would flush Ebay down the toilet if I could. Lust for stuff run amok. Maybe if we spent more time with our family instead of staring at a sniper's countdown clock...

Click to expand...

+ 10,000 fleabay is a place I have NO desire to ever go. I view it as everything that is wrong with mankind, in 1 site.

Well I have the satisfaction of knowing on 2 occasions the sniper paid $32 for a $5 bill. lol.

I like the old fashioned way where there the guys says "hey,bludh-thuh-bluh-nuh-nub-$2 over here, nub-buh-bibd-dub-$2.50 over here" while the gentleman in the rear scratches his ear to show he's willing to go to $3.
"$3 to the gentleman in the rear-nub-bluth-dug-blea- do I hear $3.50?" "$3.00 going once, going twice"...
Then snipe away!
But this thing of sitting on a e-pole like some vulture waiting to snatch up a baby bunny....
Eh, to each his own I suppose.

Actually eBay does not show the time the auction will end. It shows how long until the auction will end. The problem is that it is being reported by software from the site, and by the time it is displayed on your computer, may in fact be several seconds off because there is no way to account for propagation delays within the internet for the information to get from eBay to you. that time ranges from perhaps 100millisecons if you are lucky, to literally seconds if you are unlucky. It was accurate when it was generated, but it may not be accurate by the time it is displayed on your computer! That is the problem.


By contrast the ending time used to list the exact ending time, i.e hh:mm:ss. It now only lists hh:mm