e-mail notification when bid too low?

quote:

Another was lost because I was not the highest bidder. At 16:57 PDT another bidder's bid went in for $33.57; my bid was sniped in at 17:58 for $32.57 (the e-Bay bidding history confirms this).

Auction number or bid history? Alternatively, read up on proxy bids on ebay. You were beaten by a higher proxy bid. Your snipe was NEVER below the auction high bid until AFTER it was placed, therefore you would never be notified about your snipe being too low. You can't know what the winning bid actually was since it is only one bid increment above your sniped bid (it may actually have been $50 or $100 for all we know!).

well spotted!

R2

[/QUOTE] Auction number or bid history? Alternatively, read up on proxy bids on ebay. You were beaten by a higher proxy bid. Your snipe was NEVER below the auction high bid until AFTER it was placed, therefore you would never be notified about your snipe being too low. You can't know what the winning bid actually was since it is only one bid increment above your sniped bid (it may actually have been $50 or $100 for all we know!).[/QUOTE]

Thank you for your prompt reply. I have used eBay proxy bidding for a couple of years, and found that whenever someone else's max proxy bid was higher than mine, I was notified by eBay, and able to nip in and increase my max to remain high bidder, until time ran out. I understand that the winner bidder's max may well have been anything from $33.57 to 33.57 + n*1.00; I've just reviewed the eBay writeup on proxy bidding just in case my memory needed refreshing.

What confuses me about this particular bid history was the time the winning proxy bid was placed--it was placed about an hour before the AS snipe.

Unless I've got something wrong, this means that if I had used eBay proxy bidding, I would have had a chance to increase my Maximum bid before the auction was over?

I'm wondering if doing proxy bidding on my own with eBay when there's just a single item I'm interested in gives me a better chance when bidding against other proxies--I've been successful in the past using F5 and sniping myself at the 5 second mark.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/outbid-notice.html


Auction number and bid history follow. I appreciate any enlightment to help me make most effective use of AS. Like what I've seen so far. In this case, there were several auctions I was interested in [wanted all 7 items, so group bidding didn't apply], so AS was quite useful.

Auction Number: 6763414598

Bid history:

headachedoc ( 38) US $33.57 May-01-05 16:57:16 PDT
dyannli ( 14) US $32.57 May-01-05 17:58:51 PDT[--THIS IS THE AS SNIPE FOR ME]
christine9161 ( 3 ) US $12.00 Apr-27-05 23:17:08 PDT

quote:

Unless I've got something wrong, this means that if I had used eBay proxy bidding, I would have had a chance to increase my Maximum bid before the auction was over?

That’s true, but you also increase your chance of someone else doing the same thing to you – increasing their maximum bid. If you are willing to increase your max bid when someone outbids your proxy bid, why not snipe that increased amount and reduce the chances of starting a bidding war, or the dreaded attack of the Nibblers?

P.S. Your quote would have worked had there not been the "/" in the first QUOTE.

quote:

That’s true, but you also increase your chance of someone else doing the same thing to you – increasing their maximum bid. If you are willing to increase your max bid when someone outbids your proxy bid, why not snipe that increased amount and reduce the chances of starting a bidding war, or the dreaded attack of the Nibblers?

Trying not to waste the forum's time, I searched "nibblers" on the forum, and have been browsing posts. There's a whole philosophy of strategy (with sometimes some strong moral opinions) involving nibbling, double bidding, sniping, and so forth--is there a reference other than the AS FAQ, which I've read, that can clue me in? It seems that the "nibblers" are following the strategy appropriate to a live auction with bids from the audience only (like some farm sales) and the "snipers" are espousing the strategy mandated as a response for a call for tenders?

My original puzzlement still is stalled on a point of logic:

First puzzlement: E-bay's site says that says that using the proxy means that it keeps bidding by increments as other bidders put in their bids until the proxy max is reached. If my AS snipe wasn't entered until an hour after the winning post, how could my snipe have triggered that incremental proxy bid? E-bay supposedly bids on the proxy in response to real time bidding and they shouldn't have seen my AS snipe until it was placed. The chances that another eBay proxy bidder chose exactly the same oddball amount as I did is pretty slim?

Second puzzlement is a seeming contradiction between how I understand AS' explanation of "Bid too low" and what happened in this auction. If the winner's proxy bid was $33.57 at 5pm, how come AS sniped $32.57 at 6pm? While the notice on MySnipes said "Bid too low" which is supposed to indicate according to the explanation link that "Your snipe could not be placed because your maximum bid was below the current minimum bid," eBay history shows that the snipe was actually placed with eBay.

How do others respond to the "Bid too low" message on the MySnipe board when they see it before the max is locked in?

Apologies if this information is available in obvious places that I have missed. I am not complaining, just trying to understand how all of these things tie together.

Thank you.

quote:

Originally posted by Danny:
Trying not to waste the forum's time, I searched "nibblers" on the forum, and have been browsing posts. There's a whole philosophy of strategy (with sometimes some strong moral opinions) involving nibbling, double bidding, sniping, and so forth--is there a reference other than the AS FAQ, which I've read, that can clue me in?

I found this site has lots of good ideas:
http://members.cox.net/cruentidei/ebay/terms.html
http://members.cox.net/cruentidei/ebay/strategies.html
http://members.cox.net/cruentidei/ebay/invalid.html
http://members.cox.net/cruentidei/ebay/proxy.html
http://members.cox.net/cruentidei/ebay/myth.html
http://members.cox.net/cruentidei/ebay/snipercool.html
http://members.cox.net/cruentidei/ebay/ebay.html
http://members.cox.net/cruentidei/ebay/general.html
There are various links on that site that will provide additional food-for-thought. Hopefully the links I left will encourage exploration and not a headache.

quote:

Originally posted by Danny:
If my AS snipe wasn't entered until an hour after the winning post, how could my snipe have triggered that incremental proxy bid?

The snipe acted no differently than if you placed a manual bid. Your snipe triggered ebay’s proxy bid to increase headachedoc’s proxy bid. If you noticed, headachedoc didn’t make a second bid (only one entry in the bid history), but his proxy bid only increased to beat your bid by one increment.

quote:

Originally posted by Danny:
E-bay supposedly bids on the proxy in response to real time bidding and they shouldn't have seen my AS snipe until it was placed.

And ebay *didn’t* see your AS snipe until it was placed.

quote:

Originally posted by Danny:
The chances that another eBay proxy bidder chose exactly the same oddball amount as I did is pretty slim?

headachedoc’s bid might have been a nice round number like $50. The only reason it’s an odd bid was because it was exactly $1.00 over your $32.57 bid.

quote:

Originally posted by Danny:
If the winner's proxy bid was $33.57 at 5pm, how come AS sniped $32.57 at 6pm?

That first half of that statement isn’t accurate. $33.57 wasn’t headachedoc’s full proxy bid, but something higher. Until your snipe was placed, headachedoc “showed” a bid of $12.50 (christine9161’s $12.00 bid + $.50 for the next increment.

The answer to the second half (the question) is that you asked AS to place a snipe of $32.57, which it did 9 seconds before the end of the auction.

quote:

Originally posted by Danny:
While the notice on MySnipes said "Bid too low" which is supposed to indicate according to the explanation link that "Your snipe could not be placed because your maximum bid was below the current minimum bid," eBay history shows that the snipe was actually placed with eBay.

That is strange. Don’t know why you got that message. “Proxy Outbid” would have been more accurate.

quote:

Originally posted by Danny:
How do others respond to the "Bid too low" message on the MySnipe board when they see it before the max is locked in?

They either change their snipe amount, or they hope the top bidder will retract their bid, or they go onto the next auction.


Hope this helps.

Danny, everything is working as it should. When a bidder places a bid during an auction, his max does not show, but ONLY ENOUGH TO KEEP HIM AS THE HIGH BIDDER--one increment above the second place bidder's amount. This entry shows up as a single bid. Even when someone comes along later and bids higher, pushing the first place bidder's proxy bid up, the same single bid amount simply shows higher. There are not multiple bids made. Let us look at an example.

Had one looked at an auction while it was going on--shortly after the winning bid's time stamp--one would have seen the eventual winning bidder's name listed as the high bidder, but WITH A LOWER high bid, because the amount shown is only what is needed to keep the winning bid one increment above the second place bidder. If bidder X is the second place bidder at $22, and bidder Y is the current high bidder, the latter's high bid will show as $23, no matter what his maximum bid was--even though he may well have bid $250. One dollar is the increment that Y needs to stay ahead of X at that price level, so that is all that shows. But at the last second, bidder Z, a sniper, comes along and bids $175. This causes Y's bid to use more of its proxy, and when the auction closes, he will be listed as the winner at $177.50, because the increment at that level is $2.50, and one increment above Z's snipe is all that is needed. Like yourself, Z wonders why Y's costly bid did not appear until the end of the auction, but in fact, it had been listed all along, but with a lower bid amount, because only the amount needed to win is shown. Remember, there is NO WAY, during or after the auction, to know what the high bidder's max was. You will always see only one increment above the second place bid.

quote:

I found this site has lots of good ideas:
. . . the links I left will encourage exploration and not a headache.

Exploration and enlightenment, not a headache at all!

quote:

. . . but his proxy bid only increased to beat your bid by one increment. . .
And ebay *didn’t* see your AS snipe until it was placed. . . . it was exactly $1.00 over your $32.57 bid. . . . Until your snipe was placed, headachedoc “showed” a bid of $12.50 (christine9161’s $12.00 bid + $.50 for the next increment. . . . you asked AS to place a snipe of $32.57, which it did 9 seconds before the end of the auction.

The part that had me confused was the time listed in the bid history for his $32.57. I now understand that the time in the bid history was the time of the original proxy submission, not the most recent increment bid from that proxy.

quote:

That is strange. Don’t know why you got that message. “Proxy Outbid” would have been more accurate.

Thanks; that saves me trying to puzzle it out.

quote:

Hope this helps.

Especially thanks for the time you have taken on this, and for the links. I've just won another snipe, and have two more in. It's good to feel I'm closer to knowing what I'm doing, and how AS fits in with proxy bids.

Chatter wrote

quote:

. . . the same single bid amount simply shows higher. There are not multiple bids made. . . . shortly after the winning bid's time stamp. . .

Chatter, this is one of the more lucid explanations of what goes on with proxies and increments. As I mentioned to Rick above, it's the time stamp for the proxy on eBay's bid history that had me wondering. If the time stamp marks the time the original proxy was specified and not the time the incremental bid was made out of the proxy, then this all makes sense.

And the links, explanations and time spent by you and Rick are very much appreciated.

Danny

quote:

Chatter, this is one of the more lucid explanations of what goes on with proxies and increments. ... then this all makes sense.

And the links, explanations and time spent by you and Rick are very much appreciated.

I think the light has gone on. The proxy thing is a rather simple concept that is sometimes difficult to grasp and challenging to explain. Good job guys!