HOW DO I BEAT THIS GUY??!!

Increase your bid amount. The other guy may still outbid you, but you'll at least get some "revenge" by causing him to spend more money. Also, the seller will appreciate you.

Grasshopper

Find something that you really want and increase your bid, but if he's bidding more than your willing to pay, then I don't see the issue.

Try adjusting you bid amount to the MAX that you are willing to spend. Try 3 or even 2 seconds to bid from AS. It's kind of a troubleshooting thing. Also, AS has some difficulty when the servers are overloaded, typically Sunday evenings.
So, if you are bidding on an itme that is to be closed on a Sunday night, beware.
Ciao

Hmmm, if you knew for sure he had a lot of money and was putting in really high snipes you could put in really high snipes yourself that were just a bit lower than his.

At least then you'd have the satisfaction of knowing you were forcing him to pay way more money than the item was worth.

If you did that a few times then maybe he'd stop bidding that way.

It's dangerous for him to do that but so far he probably hasn't been too badly burned by very high snipe bids he places.

I've seen it here a lot of times doing support. Some people put in very high snipe bids to ensure they win the item. Not realizing that if another sniper did exactly the same thing they'd be screwed.

For example. Many times I've seen people putting in $150 bids on items only worth about $30-40. If one other sniper did that they'd end up paying that $150 for something they could eventually bid on and win for $30!

Normally you could do something slightly unethical probably. Which is to place a very very high bid after your competitor has bid. i.e. enter $10,000. That would then bump his bid to his max. Thereby telling you his high bid. You could then retract your bid. Leaving you knowing what his high is without you having a bid in. But since he bids at 15 seconds you dont have time to do that and retract. It's not something I'd normally recommend doing but I have to admit I'd be tempted to do it once just to see if this guy is always bidding some really high snipe bid like you think he's doing. I guess that's another reason sniping is a great way to bid, it keeps you from doing what I've said which could reveal a persons max.

I think eBay also has some new rule now where you cant retract a bid in the final minutes of a auction. So this is out of the question in this case anyways. But in the olden days I know some people used to do that to find out a persons max. And if someone was beating me day in and out for months or years on end I know I'd be tempted to take a peek at one of his max bids!

I suggest everyone stays on Sara's good side.

One thing you can do is check his bidding record, including items not won (if any) as far back as eBay will let you. If the guy lost even one bid you could see what his max was for an item starting at X dollars. I have found that many bidders bid a multiple of the starting price -- three times as much, five times as much, ten times as much, etc. But no matter what this fella is doing, if he's bidding an amount you're not willing to top, then you lose. Sorry. Getting a bid in at 3 or 4 seconds does absolutely no good if his proxy is higher than your max bid.

Several of the people I bid against in my specialty are millionaires. I'm not exaggerating; I know them personally. One of them recently paid $300,000 for a single lot at Sotheby's. None of them are snipers; they don't have to be. What they bid for an item entirely depends on how badly they want it. So, in fear and trembling I put in snipes against them (my max, of course) -- and sometimes I win! And that, my friend, would be my advice to you -- keep trying.

It could be that he is researching YOUR high bids knowing that you've bid on the same auctions for awhile.

That's possible, but since I'm a sniper how do they know I'm even interested until it's too late? Remember, these people are not snipers. I've seen many auctions involving these people where they've bid against one another and the bid amount has gone astronomical, far and away beyond the real worth of the item involved. I'm talking $25,000 for an item that ordinarily goes begging at $3,500. The first millionaire puts in a single max bid of $24,000 and walks away. The next millionaire starts bidding in $5,000 increments until he tops the first one. This is just chump change to both of them. Unbelievable.

If someone is willing to pay more than you - it doesn't matter if you snipe or not, but sniping does help, since at least the other person doesn't know what your bid is until it's to late - unless they have already put in a proxy that is higher than what you're willing to pay.

A millionaire? The difference between 1 million and 999.99 million is substantial (a factor of 999.99). Someone that is a high triple digit millionaire has a lot more “buying” power than someone that is a low single digit millionaire. When talking about billionaires, the range in somewhere between 1 and 40 (a factor of 40). Once the discussion is about billions, the actual amount is not that important. Bill Gates is worth 40 billion (give or take). The 1st gulf war cost 20 billion, or half of a Bill Gates. This gulf war looks to cost about 2 Bill Gates (that is not a political comment; just an observation of the facts and an effort to put this in perspective).

There’s a very wide range to the term “millionaire”. I don’t think someone with 1 million would be bidding like that. Perhaps someone with 50+ million would. Definitely someone with 500+ million could.

What’s my point? I don’t actually think I have one. (It’s been kind of slow on this forum.)

Rick: 'There’s a very wide range to the term “millionaire”. I don’t think someone with 1 million would be bidding like that.'

Perhaps I should have said "multi-millionaires." Personally, I'll never know what it's like to have a million bucks, let alone multiple millions of bucks, so I won't try to analyze the bidding habits of those who do.

Does a person that used to be a millionaire (before the stock market tumble) still bid the same way as he/she used to? Or has it changed? Thier income hasn't really changes, but thier net worth has taken a nose dive.

Inquiring minds want to know.....

I'm a hacker, so this is how _I_ would be tempted to do it.

First off, if the guy uses a sniping service, you're probably screwed. Possible solutions at the end of my post.

Disclaimer:
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Don't do any of this. Period. It's just conjecture, and is a bad idea. All of it. I specifically discourage it.
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Method 1)
Send the guy an e-mail. Get him to respond. Often times, his IP address is included in the header, especially if the guy uses a freemail service. Wait until 45 seconds before the end of the auction. Flood away.

Method 2)
E-Mail virus, the day of the end of the auction. Hope for the best.

Method 3) Find out his ISP, get another computer on the same router. Wait until 30 seconds before the end of the auction, send some bad ARP packets, and have his packets routed into obvlion.

The below methods are ESPECIALLY not recommended, but should work regardless of if he uses a sniping service.

1) Offer him $50 to lose the auction.

2) Set up your own auction you know he will win. Get his address, put out a contract on his head.

3) Same as above, only have his computer trashed, or him kidnapped.

4) If he doesn't use a sniping service, find out his address, and blow up a nearby transformer 3 minutes prior to auction end.

The following should work if he uses a sniping service:

1) Bribe the sniping service to have "technical difficulties" during the last minute of the auction.

2) Hack into the sniping site, get his password, have him snipe a couple of really expensive cars, then change his password and email.

3) Figure out what the providers are for the auction sniping site, and flood the crap out of them for the last 3 minutes.

4) Flood ebay right after you make your snipe.


NOTE: DON'T DO THOSE. NO REALLY, DON'T.

NOW, THAT'S WHAT I CALL "BID STRATEGY"!

"A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money." - Senator Everett Dirksen

quote:

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Originally posted by Rick:
"A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money." - Senator Everett Dirksen

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Heck, given enough monopoly money, eventually you have enough paper to be worth something.