new buyers in last 3 seconds

[dunlopmorgan]

not for the first time today I was outbid on an item I was bidding on in the last 3 seconds by a buyer who suddenly appeared.

Is there a trick to bidding I am not aware of?

[cathy1971]

A lot of members bid at the last minute. I am one of them. Some members use a sniping program to do it for them.

I never bid on anything because that shows I am interested in the item and people will bid me up. I always bid at the last second and put my highest bid. If I don't get it my philosophy is there will always be another one next time.

Cathy

[thesoulyearns]

If they bid within the last 3 seconds, they may have been using a sniping program that automatically bids on their behalf at the dying moments of an auction. Being a new buyer doesn't have much to do with that.

If the items were all similar, it may have been the same buyer using the same tactic.

[lyndal1838]

It is not necessarily a sniping program when bids are placed in the lst few seconds.

I do not use a program and regularly place bids in the last 3-5 seconds.

[*sparklz*]

I use the one click bid in the last 3 seconds.

But to use that you need to have placed a bid previously so I bid the min amount needed so I can then do the snipe near the end.

[the3coopers]

Ebay is not like an auction on TV where they say "going, going, gone!", and the auctioneer waits until everyone has finished bidding.

Instead, eBay works more like a tender process, with a fixed ending time. Everyone has equal opportunity to make an offer, and nobody really knows what each other has bid. Whoever offers the highest, wins.

So, irrespective of when the bids get placed, the highest bid wins. Therefore strategically it is usually much better NOT to place a bid early, because it gives other people the opportunity to counter-bid. Much sneakier to hold off until the dying moments.

These "snipe" bids (snipe as in sniper, who shoots you out of nowhere) are the most common bidding strategy with experienced buyers. There is no second chance, the snipe must be extremely decisive... the techinique is to decide on a maximum price and offer it. If you win, great... if you miss out then the other person paid too much.

A saying that I heard years ago sums it up perfectly...

The nibble bidder bids for a bargain and hopes for a win - yet the sniper bids to win, and hopes for a bargain.

[papermoon.lady]

I use the one click bid in the last 3 seconds.

But to use that you need to have placed a bid previously so I bid the min amount needed so I can then do the snipe near the end.

I didn't know that... I remember that I saw the one-click button in the past, but I haven't seen it lately. So how early would you have to have placed a previous bid in order to see the one-click button? The "confirm bid" thing is always a bid scary because I never know exactly how long it takes to bid, then confirm a bid... Once I lost an auction because I clicked on Bid too late and the page just would not load and go to the Confrim Bid page (when it did the auction had already ended...).

[the3coopers]

The One Click bid thing appears if you've previously bid at any time - so it could have been a week earlier. I've been a member for over 10 years and I've never used that button, so that's all I know.

With the sniping - you don't need to leave it until the very last second... it doesn't really matter. Always remember - the HIGHEST bid wins, not the latest.

In fact, due to the way that eBay works, an early bid gives some advantages. This is because subsequent bids must be at least 1 Bid Increment higher in order to be accepted. And if 2 bids are identical, then the earlier bid wins.

In practical terms, that means that any bid placed in the last 10 to 15 seconds will be good enough to win a snipe. Even 10 seconds doesn't really leave the opposition enough time to notice the price increase, type in a new offer and click to bid.

And even if you are the highest at 15 seconds, eBay doesn't expose your actual bid - the opposition only know that you are 1 bid increment higher than the 2nd placed bidder. Thus they still have to guess your maximum and offer higher than it.

In summary - it's not really the "last moment snipe" that makes it successful - but rather that you are bidding decisively with your maximum price. The snipe is the "swecondary defence" - done simply so that your maxium offer is not out there for 7 days so that other people can repeatedly bid and bid and bid against it and push the price up (or even beat you).

[lane-ends]

Sniping programs are handy because

You dont forget to bid, or miss it because you are busy having a life or other such nonsense

You can slect your price subjectively without being rushed by what others are doing

As opposed to an early high proxy bid you can cancel it anytime up to when it is placed, handy for change of mind, or better option turning up (providing you remember you have set it..!)

No warning so others cant keep having second thoughts and upping their bids

[pixiecoo]

Whilst you're right about eBay beiong more like a tender process, I disagree about the auction scenario.  At an auction the auctioneer  "does wait until everyone has finished bidding" but there is nothing to stop you from bidding as he says his last "gone".  He then asks again for more bids and does the going, going, gone again.  I have done this and seen it done, usually everyone is so astonished by the bid at the very, very last minute that they can't get themselves together to bid again.  This is particularly effective if that very, very last bid is quite a bit higher than the last one.