Fed up with last second bids

[dercoggins]

I getting outbid 4 seconds before the end of an auction, when there has been no other prior bids. These bids are made by anonymous bidders, obviously professionals as they have 30 or so going at the same time. It's no fun any more - eBay must be losing buyers in droves - it's just becoming a commercial marketplace. There needs to be some changes made somehow - of course you can't contact anyone in eBay to complain directly. David

[thegrump179]

I guess I am one of those irratating bidders.   My theory is to come up with the max bid I am willing to pay.  Knowing there are others out there doing the same thing.  Wait till the last 5 seconds ( it's all manual ) and hit bid.    That stops me and another bidder getting into an auction frenzy.   I have placed my max bid and I can not go any higher because the auction is finished.  You can do the same.

[purple.cow]

I getting p-ed off with being outbid 4 seconds before the end of an auction, when there has been no other prior bids. These bids are made by anonymous bidders, obviously professionals as they have 30 or so going at the same time. It's no fun any more - eBay must be losing buyers in droves - it's just becoming a commercial marketplace. There needs to be some changes made somehow - of course you can't contact anyone in eBay to complain directly. David

Them's the Ebay bidder breaks :^O

[leader-of-the-band]

I guess I am one of those irratating bidders.   My theory is to come up with the max bid I am willing to pay.  Knowing there are others out there doing the same thing.  Wait till the last 5 seconds ( it's all manual ) and hit bid.    That stops me and another bidder getting into an auction frenzy.   I have placed my max bid and I can not go any higher because the auction is finished.  You can do the same.

excellent advice grump!

der, remember, bid your maximum . . . . . generally, if it is the highest you will win . . . . . if it is not the highest you will not win.

Don't whinge if you do not win because someone else bids higher in the last seconds.  If they had bid with five minutes to go and you would have bid again then you have not bid your highest.  Don't bid the opening bid amount and expect to get it at that price because you are the only bidder until there are seconds to go.

Don't join the last seconds snipers you despise so much . . . . bid your maximum with 3 minutes to go.  If their snipe bid is below that amount then their snipe will not win.

[nicnacs_4u]

Them's the Ebay bidder breaks :^O

Hey Moo how`s your depression?,r u all okay now??

[purple.cow]

Wrong message board, wrong time to discuss such topics unless you want to see them removed by the mods.

Thanks for asking though.

[lynnie3024]

I cannot believe someone who has been an ebay member for over 13 years does not bid in the last few seconds....btw ALL bidders are anonymous...only you can see your name and others can only see theirs.

[***super_nova***]

There needs to be some changes made somehow - of course you can't contact anyone in eBay to complain directly. David

NO, there do not!  And of-course, very successfully run multi billion company does not want to listen to such complaints.  🙂

[cjm2589]

There needs to be some changes made somehow - of course you can't contact anyone in eBay to complain directly. David

David, eBay are not going to make changes that stop members from bidding while an auction is still 'live', including in the last 4 seconds.  There is a format for "first bidder wins", it is called Buy-It-Now.

[dercoggins]

Thanks for the comments - all very interesting points. Yes, I should put my maximum bid up first, but with sniping I don't get the chance to go "just one dollar more" and take the item. Yes, I have been a member for 13 years, and in the early days it was exciting getting in at the last seconds. No point now. I guess it's part of the "win however you can" society. If real life auctions allowed the same sort of bidding, they would very likely cease to exist. 

[***super_nova***]

 with sniping I don't get the chance to go "just one dollar more" and take the item.

There is no reason to believe that if you would get the chance to go just $1 more that you would win the item.  My last auction I won for about $15 with my snipe 3 seconds before end, my actual bid was $45.  That means that the person who I outbid had only $14.50 as their highest bid.  It is unlikely they would have wanted to pay as much as my highest bid was.  If they did, it their fault they did not bid what they would want to pay.  As others said, it is the highest bid that wins.