Why do people bid on items with days of the auction to run?

[Energize]

I just put what I'm willing to pay and then leave it because I don't have the time to be keeping track of everything I'm bidding on and sniping it. Decent auction websites don't end the bidding until 10mins after the last bid anyway so there's no point in doing it any other way for me.

 

[Gaijin]

I suppose the only reasoning is that using sniping sites doesnt allow the person to respond to your bid.

I.e. You bid higher than Joe Bloggs 3 days before auction end. Joe Bloggs then thinks over three days whether he'd like to bid higher, whether its worth it, whether he can raise money or justify it somehow. He then returns and out bids you.

Or, Joe Bloggs bids his maximum bid at the time. You snipe and win. Joe wishes he had bid higher retrospectively but he didnt think properly at the time as he was winning and now thinks its worth more or wants it more etc.

 

[Scania]

I see item. I decide what I would pay for item. I bid on item.

It makes absolutely zero difference whether I do this 10 seconds after the start or 10 seconds before the end, because ebay will only accept my bid to the next increment anyway.

ie if it was an item listed at 99p and I bid £100 and nobody else bids, the item still ends at 99p.

This & some people are stupid!

/thread

 

[Cupra]

That would only work if nobody bid against you. And if nobody bid against you, it wouldn't matter if you had bid in the first second or the last second.

you are right but sometimes things can be missed and bidding ont he last second could get you it a little cheaper if people are just bidding slightly over the last bid rather than sitting and thinking about it

 

[ash_scotland88]

I sometimes put in a bid instead of hitting watch the item. ebay seems to notify me more when I've bid on something.

 

[SciNeT]

Bidding at the very last second does prevent the other guy having time to think about possibly upping his max, deciding that hmm, OK, it's worth another £50, lets go again. Some people also take it almost personally when they get outbid and are then hellbent on "beating" the other guy for the affront, cue bidding war. Bidding in the last second or two removes this ability.

Lots of effort though, two browsers, one primed with "confirm bid" ready. Really auctionsniper is superb for this and trouble free, I use it for everything non essential & non Buy-It-Now.

 

[shifty_uk]

I've stuck a bid in early on and ended up winning a 'second chance offer' as the person who outbid my maximum amount backed out.

Still meant I had to pay my maximum amount, though which sucked.

Am I right in thinking that for example, if I put a max bid of £50 on something. Then someone comes in and bids £45, does the price of the item then jump up to £45? Despite the other bidder losing because of my max, I'm under the impression the item still jumps up to the price they were willing to pay leaving me to foot the bill for their bids?

 

[bledd]

I always bid with 5 or so seconds to go but I understand why some people enter there maximum bid early as they won't be home when the item ends or just incase they forget etc.

This is what I do, I set a max sensible bid with seconds to go

 

[SciNeT]

@shifty_uk, yes it does work like that, if an item starts at £0.99 & you put a £50 bid on then the auction indicates £0.99 (1 bid) If somebody then bangs in a £45 bid your bid will jump by the bid increment in order to beat it, up to your max. Auction would then show £46.00 (3 bids) in that instance (with a £1 increment)

 

[gee3000]

I despise people who put early bids in too.

 

[POB]

Early bids stop the seller dealing off the table. As a seller I'm less likely to allow someone to make a buy it now style offer if there is a bid.

If you really want something bidding early helps to ensure the item will still be listed by the time its due to end.

 

[muon]

Sniping only works when others haven't bid their true maximum bid.

Say you have an item worth 200.

Leading bidder has max bid of 50 even though he values it at 150. Sniping doesnt allow him to react and you get 200 item for 51. But if he had bid 150 then the item goes above his true valuation.

The OP is annoyed that he can't snipe in the second scenario.

If everyone snipes with their max bid, then it is no different from early max bids. It only helps when people don't have time to snipe, but then you'll bid early anyway.

 

[SixTwoSix]

I have around 700-800 items listed on ebay at any one time. At least 90% of items that sell via bidding and not BIN get bids within the final 2/3 minutes.

However, these items always have a few watchers so i'm fairly sure they will get bids in the final stages of the auction.

I list my auctions for 7 days at a time, they will go 6 days 23 hours with virtually no bids then in that final hour they will shoot up. Last weekend I went from bids of around £6 up to £73 in the final 5 minutes of the auctions.

 

[Paul11]

Surely to get it the lowest possible bid is to bid at the last second.

Bidding early with a max bid meaning you are more likely getting close to what you are willing to pay, more away from what you want to be paying.

You may well put your bid in the last second, but if someone else has put in a higher maximum fee, it will go to him.

so makes no difference

just put in the highest you are prepared to pay and let the system bid for you

 

[nydryl]

Some people don't sit on the internet as much as most forum users. It's probably more convenient for them just to enter the max price, forget about the auction, and return later to see if they won.

 

[loltim]

You may well put your bid in the last second, but if someone else has put in a higher maximum fee, it will go to him.

so makes no difference

just put in the highest you are prepared to pay and let the system bid for you

This. I wish more people understood how Ebay works.

 

[checjb]

Personally, I think that waiting can be a negative if you want to win something. If there is something that I'm not hugely bothered about and I see there are already bids on it I often don't bother. Thus, if you were my "opponent" and you bid, you might get it for 99p because I couldn't be bothered to bid/wait.
Personally, I think last minutes bids are ridiculous in many situations. It gives no-one (including you) time to adjust your bid if you want to. It's firing blind.

 

[Smit]

Personally, I think last minutes bids are ridiculous in many situations. It gives no-one (including you) time to adjust your bid if you want to. It's firing blind.

Hence why you should always think about how much the item is worth to you and how much you are willing to pay. Put in your max bid and then forget about it. If you win then you paid the price you are willing to pay. If you lose then you know you didn't go over the price you were willing to spend

 

[grimm]

Yeh I don't understand the people who bid early. At best it's showing your hand early, at worst it's driving the price up unnecessarily.

 

[SuperTronNarwhal]

I usually do it just to say ive bidded