Opinions please: dirty dealings or sniping?

[tralfaz_no1]

Recently bid on an item which had a Buy Now of $5000 but no reserve. My bid at $$2200.00 was the highest for days and I had entered the bid price I was prepared to go to as $2800.00. Twenty seconds before the bidding closed the price suddenly went from $2200.00 to $2850.00 with no intervening bids at all.

Automated bidding I have seen in the past normally just escalates exceptionally quickly, but this one jump of $650 straight over what I had been prepared to go to gives the impression that someone could see my intended limit, and used that to beat me.

The bidder was a new identity with less than 9 feedback score and all recent bids on their bid history with the seller. If I was outbid using a sniper program then good luck to the buyer as I don't use them, but the sudden increase of $650.00 made me suspect that the item may have reached no-where near the "Buy Now" price, and the seller could have intervened with another ID to prevent what was to them a substantial loss. The seller has a feedback score also less than 10.

I don't mind sellers pulling their items but I understand that it can't be done within a certain period of the auction end (I don't sell so really don't follow this closely). What does the group think - dirty dealings or sniping? Or was the buyer just lucky picking the amount? 😉

[leader-of-the-band]

Quote " I don't use snipe programs either, never have.  "

It is the same as saying...

" I have lots of money and dont care how much i end up paying for the item. As long as my name is " currently the highest bidder " then I am happy. LOL

I always have to laugh at people that can afford to pay more than they would pay if they are using a sniper program.

There is no other reason other than more money than brains.

where does that flawed thinking come from?  What a ship load of carp that is.

I simply bid manually in the last seconds on items that have not passed my total spend limit.  If my bid is high enough I win, if it is not then I don't win . . . . same as a snipe bid.  In fact, I try to manually bid 6 or 7 seconds before the end so that if a snipe bid set for 5 seconds (a common snipe bid time) is the same as mine then I beat the snipe.

I think your statements that basically say that by not using a snipe program I am paying too much are total rubbish and totally unfounded.

[***super_nova***]

This one was just so unusual with the one higher bid coming 20 seconds before the end that it caught my attention. What was also unusual was that with every time in the past I have been sniped the winning bid is usually only a few dollars higher, not $50.00 in one hit,

As i already explained in post #7, the increments depend on the price of item; if you are bidding on something for $10 the next increment will be 50c higher.  When you are bidding on something for many thousands, the increment will be $50.  I am not really sure how the break up goes, but I think over $100 the increment is $5???  Whatever, the increments gradually increase, as the price goes up. 

As far the timing goes; my snipe is set to 3seconds before the auction end.  That is the minimum, I can set it at whatever I want 3 seconds or more, so I could set it at 20 or 19 seconds. 

I have also once did some manual sniping meaning to snipe at 3 seconds, when I got momentarily distracted and bid slightly later, and WON  !, and the bid showed as being exactly spot on the time the auction ended; bet I upset all the other bidders who were sniping in the last few moment.  But I won not because I sniped in the very last moment, but because I sniped with the highest bid, which was still quite a bit more than the $ I got the item for.

[***super_nova***]

OK here the correct increments:

The bid increment is the amount by which a bid will be raised each time the current bid is outdone. It is predetermined based on the current high bid.

Here is how increments are determined:

Current Price

Bid Increment

$ 0.01 - $ 0.99   =  $ 0.05

$ 1.00 - $ 4.99   =  $ 0.25

$ 5.00 - $ 24.99  = $ 0.50

$ 25.00 - $ 99.99 = $ 1.00

$ 100.00 - $ 249.99 = $ 2.50

$ 250.00 - $ 499.99 = $ 5.00

$ 500.00 - $ 999.99 = $ 10.00

$ 1000.00 - $ 2499.99 = $ 25.00

$ 2500.00 - $ 4999.99 = $ 50.00

$ 5000.00 and up  = $ 100.00

Note: A bidder may be outbid by less than a full increment. This would happen if the winning bidder's maximum bid beats the second highest maximum by an amount less than the full increment.

A bid increment will go higher than the standard increment in two situations:

To meet the reserve amount

To beat a competing bidder's high bid

If you were bidding against another bidder's maximum bid, your bid had to meet the other bidder's maximum bid plus one cent to become the current high bidder on the item.

Sometimes the auction page for an item will show that there are 2 bids, yet there is only one bidder. This happens when a member places more then one bid to increase their maximum bid amount. For example, if you are the first bidder on an item and you place a second bid to increase your maximum bid amount, the item page would show the current high bid at the opening bid amount, but would show that two bids have been placed on this item.

[***super_nova***]

It simply looks like someone bid 3000 then it automatically jumps one increment above your max bid of course. This link might help -

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/buy/bid-increments.html

😞  oooops missed the link here 

[thesoulyearns]

As kopenhagen5 and super_nova have pointed out, it just seems that you were outbid by a random amount but the bid increment went up by $50 because the item price was over $2500.

The bidder could have been using a snipe program or just manually bid in the last seconds but it's not necessarily dodgy. You're free to report the seller if you think it was dodgy but remember that alot of bidders do wait until the very last moment. It's not unusual for an item to increase by quite alot in the last 60 seconds of an auction.

[jameshouseofstyle]

Hi Op,

if I was you I would be thankful I didn't win anything that it's worth $5000 for $2800.

That would be a lot of money for someone to loose and I would feel awful - and probably offer the seller more, closer to the value.

After all Ebay is only a shopping site, just like any other - and depriving someone of that much money is not a good idea.

I even hate being the only bidder on 99c items for the fear I might win it, let alone something as dear as this.

If you were buying a house, or anything of value, they would just can the auction if there is not enough money, not complete the sale just for the sake of it. Or the owners would put in their own bid.

As that can't be done on Ebay most low bids and items sold well under value result from some sellers still taking Ebay's advice to start low " to encourage more people to bid"

[kasiablue2000]

I have been sniped and I have sniped. It is all part of bidding.

Personally I save a lot of money waiting until the end of the auction and then putting in my max because I usually get the item.I have tried putting in my max early so I don't have to worry about remembering when the item is closing, and find that most often, I get 'bid out' or what you call 'sniped'. Sometimes I think it's part of a shopping addiction for many people...they see that someone else wants an item they 'may' also want and they can't help themselves by scooping it at the last second. I have a work colleague like that. It's despicable but she is also somewhat of a hoarder ....and that's a whole other story.

I think sniping is more about smart shopping. It has nothing to do with being 'dirty'. I prefer to get away from the 'drama' and don't have time for a bid war and that's another reason I just put in my max at the end. I really prefer buy it now, as well, for the same reason.

And the person who bid over you would have no idea what you bid....he or she just entered their max and it happened to exceed yours. That's just how it goes sometimes. 

I also agree with the comments on here about shill bidding. If the seller was really doing it, he or she wouldn't want to keep the item so wouldn't have been the successful bidder.

If the seller has been around for awhile with good feedback, it isn't likely that he or she is doinng anything bad or it would have been happening in the past...and the jig would have been up long ago.

You 'win' some, you 'lose' some. That's the way it goes.

[tralfaz_no1]

Again, thanks everyone for the opinions. Surprise, surprise, I have been given a Second Chance offer, not at my bid before the "winning" bidder escalated the bids by $450 in one hike, but at the top bid I was willing to pay. Apparently the winning bidder has disappeared completely, but as the seller now knows what I was willing to go to, this is what I have been offered. I have declined, but told the seller that if they would accept what was my winning bid before I was gazumped by the mysteriously vanishing winner, then I can provide cash tomorrow. As the seller had a very, very low feedback score I also mentioned a few things about shill bidding. :^O Lets see what happens.

I also have to say I was somewhat bemused by the commentator who thinks that it is bad to buy things at a low price, as eBay is really just another retail outlet, and we buyers shouldn't do sellers out of a good profit. The definition of "auction" being used here is obviously different to my interpretation.:O

[lyndal1838]

A second chance offer is always just one increment below the winning bid....your highest bid.

The seller is not doing anything wrong by offering it at that.

[nonny_muss]

It will be interesting to see if they accept your offer of 'pre-guzumping' price...