First of all, as a newbie Auctionsniper, the product rocks. And I want the community to know that what sold me over the competitors was the generous Q&A you posted that was available for non-members- classy.

Now my Q- tonite I lost 4 auctions [YES, I read the posts and know the universal answer is to BID MORE] - BUT MY QUESTION HAS A DIFFERENT TWIST. I lost three auctions by EXACTLY ONE DOLLAR over my snipe [which was a bizarre number, like 36.67 etc].

Now, the stats guys out there know that the odds of another bidder randoming picking a number EXACTLY ONE DOLLAR above my bid [submitted in the last 3-5 seconds] is extremely remote; the odds of that happening 3x in a row, astronomically unlikely.

I thought that eBay auto bid to one's maximum bid in 50 cent increments, so it isn't that.

SO- is there a bidding/ sniping program out there that posts $1 over my sniped bid, and does it with a second or two to spare? And what is the defence [other than BID HIGHER]? TX, rcs

Read up on proxy bidding - I suspect their bids went in before yours - if that's the case then I'm right and their not using any snazzy s/ware. With proxy bidding you can win by 1 cent/pence eg. high bidder bids on .99 item with a bid of 10.00 - you, being a switched on cookie, set a snipe at 10.01 - when it's placed you'll win for 10.01 and really annoy the original bidder!!!

Oh, and increments get bigger (increment?) as the amounts get higher...

R2

If the opposite of inhale is exhale, and include is exclude, and introvert is extrovert, and internal is external, then the opposite of increment can only be one thing (Hint: R2 starts one of it's synonyms with “$”).


U.S. Ebay Ex/In-crements

The eBay increment varies with the amounts:

auction 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

So your auction would appear to have been in the $ 25.00 - $ 99.99 range and you were the second place bidder. The winning bid would naturally have been your bid amount plus one dollar. Make sense?

Check the bidding history. IIRC, any proxy bids will have dates/times well before the end of the auction, whilst any bids placed at the last second by some uber-ninja secret weapon will be just slightly after yours.

At least I think so. Anyone?