ebay auctions and trading

miniTrdr · Jan 20, 2003

after playing to many hands of hold'em over at yahoo. i needed another outlet to improve my trading. so i headed over to ebay.

i backtested my method - find what i want, wait until the last 10 seconds then hit it. sniping the bastards... looked like it would work. so i synced up my computers time (a fast amd 1800 because nanoseconds would count) and started scanning. what did i want? hmm lets see what is ending today in the next 15 minutes. ohhh yeah scsi raid card. after looking at various models available i found one that was still cheap and would work on windows 2000. now i just had to wait for my setup. started getting nervous. there was only 10 minutes to go. should i just go in now? no the high bidder might come back in. i didnt want to spend more than $30. if i wait to the last moment my bid might not get filled, i could be just $1 short of being the high bidder and not have time to chase it. so i weighed the probabilities - i looked at the bid history. out of about 7 bids this joker was in there like 4 times. he only bid enough to be high bidder. thats when i knew i had it. just had to be patient. fortunately the auction had a hit counter in the html showing the volume of quote checks - someone out there was inpatient and it wasnt me. at T-10 seconds i filled in my bid and hit submit. then quickly hit the confirmation button. 3 seconds later auction ended and i was the proud owner of a quality scsi raid card for $1 more than previous bid

i learned to be patient for the right setup. this time i clicked on the right buttons at the right time. im still left wondering - do i really need a scsi raid card when i was looking for anti virus software?

crackedback · Jan 20, 2003

There is free sniping software avaiable on the web that doesn't require you to even watch the auction at the last minute. I have used it and won a few auctions. Set your high bid and let the software do the rest, sending your bid in the last 10 seconds or less.

Later,

Cracked

FasterPussycat · Jan 20, 2003

do you have a link?

nkhoi · Jan 20, 2003

I was bidding for Rober Miner book, for some reason Ebay clock didn't update in the last minute so I kept waiting for last seconds to enter my bid meanwhile the auction was already over.

sunnie · Jan 20, 2003

http://esnipe10.esnipe.com/

have to put some money into an account, though, but it is a very minimal fee...works especially well when you don't want an item bid up or the auction closes in the middle of the night

Doubter · Jan 20, 2003

Now I know who has been sniping my bids on ebay.

opm8 · Jan 20, 2003

Sniping has been around since eBay's launch. It's nothing new, it's how online auctions work.

--opm8

Babak · Jan 20, 2003

doesn't ebay have a free service where you can set your maximum and it will automatically fire off a bid just (min tick) higher than the previous bid...(as long as its below or equal to your preset max price)

TGregg · Jan 20, 2003

Quote from Babak:

doesn't ebay have a free service where you can set your maximum and it will automatically fire off a bid just (min tick) higher than the previous bid...(as long as its below or equal to your preset max price)

Yeah, but that's no fun

. See, if you bid on something but do not win it, all you've done is raised the price. Everybody takes the previous winning bids into account during the auction process (well, not everybody, but the pros do, anyway). So one of the keys is to not bid unless you are going to win. The second thing has to do with what I call "imprecise Value".

Most people will not want to pay full price for an item at an eBay auction. There's more risk, they cannot exam the item, most times it's not brand new, they have to wait to get it, etc. So, you see something you want, and put a max bid of $20 on it. And it's bid up to that plus another $.50. Now you have to decide, it was worth $20 to you, is it worth another dollar? Most people are going to say "Screw it" and bid it up a little more.

However, this takes a moment or two to consider. If you "snipe" it, (make the highest bid in the last few seconds) then that person does not have time to consider, so they do not raise their bid.

BTW: Don't snipe against me. I've got an excellent net connection, and I only snipe with 2 seconds to go

.

Momento · Jan 20, 2003

The one clitch about that is:

The chances of you paying the exact highest amount you placed is practically 100%!

let me explain why (or how the seller can manipulate bids to attain this)

Let's say the item is now at $210,50 and you really don't mind paying upto 300$ for it. Knowing that there are only 3mins left... what are the chances that it would even reach to $275 in matters of minutes.

So you put your max bid: at 300$.
Now you are presently the highest bidder at $215,50 (assuming that the increamental is 5$)

Now, all the seller has to do to filter out and see the highest price bid is to do the following:

Use another account, (simply ask a friend) to bid an outragest 1000$. Then, your 300$ will be revealed right away on ebay, showing $305, as the highest bid.

Seller then cancels the friend's bid (perfectly legal and permitted on ebay), and then make a second bid at $295, pushing the price back up to the "true" highest, which is you.

================= I have seen this happened alot when it comes to collectable items.
So guys.. don't fall for that trap, just use those damn softwares if you desperately want to win.