Bid enhancement

quote:

Originally posted by mommom:
I think this should have been a win and wasn't my max bid was $17.89 with 2 increment enhancement (wanted to try out the feature). The winning bid was $18.50.

Hi mommom -

When BE is added, your first snipe is placed with just your Max Bid amount. When that snipe was placed, you were in the lead and there was no reason to fire the second "enhanced" bid. BE fires upon detection of your snipe being too low. If your snipe puts you in first place, BE is not triggered because normally you would win unless you get sniped (which is what it looks like happened here).

Hope that helps - let me know, if not.

Thanks!
Cara

quote:

Originally posted by PaulMN:
Apparently BE does not respond to bids placed by others after the AS snipes.

That is correct - BE is not designed to protect against other snipers, only to protect your original snipe amount by bidding more in the event that your max bid was not enough to get you in the winning position.

We have talked about a service that would detect if you are sniped or outbid by proxy. Not sure about it at this point. Thoughts? Sounds like this is the kind of service you expected from BE and might prefer.

Thanks!
Cara

quote:

Originally posted by Auction Sniper Cara:

quote:

Originally posted by PaulMN:
Apparently BE does not respond to bids placed by others after the AS snipes.

That is correct - BE is not designed to protect against other snipers, only to protect your original snipe amount by bidding more in the event that your max bid was not enough to get you in the winning position.

We have talked about a service that would detect if you are sniped or outbid by proxy. Not sure about it at this point. Thoughts? Sounds like this is the kind of service you expected from BE and might prefer.

Thanks!
Cara

You are right, that sounds more like how I thought it would work. In essence, if you are not winning at the end of the auction (whatever your "trigger" time is) the increment would go into effect.

It sounds like maybe you are better off upping the original bid and not messing with BE.

quote:

It sounds like maybe you are better off upping the original bid and not messing with BE.

Definitely!

quote:

I think this should have been a win and wasn't my max bid was $17.89 with 2 increment enhancement (wanted to try out the feature). The winning bid was $18.50. And it says Bid increment too low,

Hi mommom!

Your snipe bid was $17.89 and your 2 increment BE bid would be $18.89. It appears that neither bids were able to be placed. With the winning bid at $18.50, the next bid that would be accepted by ebay would be $19 -- higher than any of your bids. Also, the winning bid was a proxy placed 3 hours before the auction end. Who knows what the actual bid was? -- Could've been $25, and you still would've lost even if your $18.89 bid had been accepted.

You were outbid. Don't sweat the loss. Look for the next one listed!

quote:

We have talked about a service that would detect if you are sniped

I think THAT would be an "enhancement"!

quote:

4) If AS executes your max bid, you momentarily are winning the auction, then ANOTHER sniper exceeds your bid before the auction close, does AS monitor the auction between placing your bid and the end of the auction to try a second BE bid if necessary? WHO KNOWS? LOL!

Apparently...NO!

quote:

We have talked about a service that would detect if you are sniped or outbid by proxy.

Based on the response to Bid Enhancement, that would probably encourage more to take up sniping. Whether one increments/nibbles their way to their maximum bid or places their maximum bid on a single snipe, the results are the same. The only concern would be that it would require extra time to place an extra snipe, which might either cause a not-in-time or could give a manual sniper enough time to counter-snipe. But, it could also give would-be snipers a baby-steps approach to hardcore sniping.

quote:

Originally posted by Jabbergah:

quote:

I think this should have been a win and wasn't my max bid was $17.89 with 2 increment enhancement (wanted to try out the feature). The winning bid was $18.50. And it says Bid increment too low,

Hi mommom!

Your snipe bid was $17.89 and your 2 increment BE bid would be $18.89. It appears that neither bids were able to be placed. With the winning bid at $18.50, the next bid that would be accepted by ebay would be $19 -- higher than any of your bids. Also, the winning bid was a proxy placed 3 hours before the auction end. Who knows what the actual bid was? -- Could've been $25, and you still would've lost even if your $18.89 bid had been accepted.

You were outbid. Don't sweat the loss. Look for the next one listed!

Thank you for the further reply:

I don't usually sweat it if I lose, hey if I'd wanted it, I would have bid more, right? But it did seem to me if you go 2 increments above $17.89 my max bid would have been $19.89 and this would have been a win.

I've seen from trying myself and reading here the circumstances when BE LOSES. I'd like to see when BE wins! Until then I'll up my max bid and not fuss with it.

BTW: my snipe fire is set to 3 seconds.

quote:

But it did seem to me if you go 2 increments above $17.89 my max bid would have been $19.89 and this would have been a win.

You must keep in mind ebay's sliding scale for bid increment values based on value of the current winning bid. For bids from $5 to $24.99, the bid increment is $0.50. $1 bid increments are for bids $25 to $99.99. Your auction's bids were at the $0.50 bid increment level.

quote:

Until then I'll up my max bid and not fuss with it.

Yep! I'm not fooling with the BE feature either!

quote:

Originally posted by Auction Sniper Cara:

We have talked about a service that would detect if you are sniped or outbid by proxy. Not sure about it at this point. Thoughts? Sounds like this is the kind of service you expected from BE and might prefer.
Thanks!
Cara

Yep! That's what I expected BE to do. I don't see the point of BE as it is now, over simply setting the max bid. It would be nice not to lose those auctions that someone else wins by less than 1 increment.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick:

quote:

auction ends in less than two hours.

Long two hours.

Hmmm, if it was the auction that I think it was, I won it for the opening bid amount; I was the only bidder. Sorry that I did not report back sooner, but I do not log in here as much as I used to.

quote:

It sounds like maybe you are better off upping the original bid and not messing with BE.

BE can be useful to those who might be trying to get a deal - they don't necessarily want to give up on the item if they can't get it for the deal price. Not for everyone

Once I understood that BE does not trigger if you are the high bidder at the trigger point it makes sense that I lost an item that I sniped at 242.50 @ 4 seconds and was high bidder. My BE of 4 did not come into play but I was sniped @ 245.00 a couple of seconds later and lost the auction. I understand that although $245 was the successful bid I have no way of knowing what that person's max bid actually was. Frustrating to lose by $2.50 but I suppose unless the BE can be triggered closer to the end of the auction it couldn't help in that particular scenario. Perhaps the BE could be programmed to trigger at the selected snipe trigger point. If you were the high bidder it wouldn't have any negative effect since it would only come into play if someone outbid you. In he end though, it then becomes the same thing as simply bidding the higher amount in the first place. In all fairness the feature has won a few auctions for me that I wouldn't have won without the BE feature. Once you understand the limitations it does have value in several scenarios. A higher initial bid choice is the best protection in all cases.

quote:

A higher initial bid choice is the best protection in all cases.

Sniping wisdom at its best.

Love the big enhancement feature. Helped me win an auction where my original top bid was only 23 cents under the other person's top bid. I would have lost the auction without bid enhancement. Thank you for adding this feature.

This thread is very entertaining. Things I found very humorous:

1. "Smarter than the average poster" indeed. Indeed.

2. There are tons of explanations and people are still saying "I still don't get it"

3. The never lose feature. I just read about this in the tips section, and I am willing to bet people are actually requesting it. "Shut up and take my money!"

4. Sniping when there are two hours left and I bet you're going to watch the whole time.

Rather than try to make how bid enhancements work subjective, I'll weigh in on why I think they are supposed to work.

Ever want to bid up to $50 on something but bid $50.02 as a tie breaker? It seems that rather than try to snipe a bizarre number, you could just bid the nice round number you planned on, but add a bid enhancement just in case someone outbid you by a penny. I think the key here is to curb winning by less than one increment.

And honestly, call me a nibbler, but it doesn't make much sense to say "the most I'll pay is $600, not a penny more" and really mean it. I think most people who lose my such a negligible margin regret it. I know I would have been willing to add one increment in most cases if it meant sure victory. It's kind of silly to sit and think of the absolute most you'd be willing to pay. I'd pay $300. Would I pay $325? I suppose so. Would I pay $330? Okay, I guess. How about $331? ...and so on. That's how bidding wars start in the first place. It's that really annoying hand in poker where you figure you'd call one extra chip because you have a pair, but then the guy after you re-raises.

As far as adding more than the minimum amount of increments to get in one last bid, now THAT'S some serious nibbling. You need to seek professional help right away.

I don't bid till the last minute because of what someone said earlier about people gauging their bid on other people. It seems that once you bid others are more likely to run you up. Personally I'm the opposite. If something has a bunch of bids I often don't bother because I feel like it's just going to be a frenzy. I LOVE seeing something with zero bids at the end. Whatever happened to silent auctions, anyway? It's the same principle, don't just sit there and see what others think it's worth. Half the time people assume a product is high quality because it's expensive (speaking of which, I'm sniping a snap-on cab right now ). It's the anomaly to supply and demand. If you're not selling much of it, perhaps raise the price and you'll sell more. The best example of this that I can think of is artwork, but I digress.

And thus, AuctionSniper was born. It's just a matter of time until ebay makes the auctions five minutes long. Perhaps the listing fees will be per day, then it could be like more like auctions where they showcase it for a week and you go on the last day to actually do the bidding. I guess it's kind of like that already...

That's really interesting point you have raised. Many times it happens that some people bid like $40.10 and other bid the same like $40.15..It is close and difficult to make a decision that who won the game.