Maximum bid or just enough?

My personal choice is to use 8 seconds during normal times! On Sunday, during primetime, PST, PM between 5 and 8:30, I add 15 seconds. On the hour, half, and quarter hour, I add 10 seconds. These are very busy traffic times for Ebay.The most important is to bid the max you want to pay in your snipe. The snipe is a proxy bid that Ebay will place one time. Ebay will uses enough of it ,considering you have placed your max high enough, to win. If you place it that close to the end, no one can hand place a bid after you! It works for me! Happy Sniping!!

AS bids just like you could on eBay (except for the timing) AS bids only once for your max amount. eBay accepts your bid as a proxy bid. If your max is the highest, and at least the minimum bid amount, you will win.

Good advice from Mrs.M about adding the extra seconds for auctions ending at certain times. eBay traffic sometimes gets very heavy. You will want to make sure your bid gets received and processed before auction has ended. It's not the last bid, it's the highest that wins.

... and to the forum.

Thank you to you two for the warm welcome.

I did indeed win the auction yesterday evening, however, I was the highest bidder (since I had bid previously on Ebay) but AS still placed a bid, (so I paid £1 more than I could have).

Is this normal? I would have thought that if I was the highest bidder already, AS would not take action - but this wasnt the case.


Thanks again for the welcome.

AS will place all bids you asked it to. (you could have been raising your max)

A function of eBay is to attempt to raise the bid to the next bid increment above the next to highest bidder. This is the only time a price should go up if you bid and are already the high bidder. Example:

You bid 40 ... lets say current price showing is 30
I snipe for 39.50... current price would be 40 with you as winner
You snipe for $50... You win for $40.50 (one increment above my 39.50)

If my bid had only been 35 you would win for 36 and your snipe for 50 would not raise the price.

If AS does not place a snipe if you are already the winner you could have lost to a snipe from me for 45, even though you were willing to pay 50.

Did I make all that clear?



[This message was edited by Puppy Raiser on March 18, 2004 at 07:22 AM.]

Hi all,

Thanks, I think I am getting it now.

Lets say a current auction is happening, someone is winning at the moment with £30.

If I set AS to bid £50, it will bid this.

Then Ebay will work out who the winner is - that is by using the lowest possible amount bid that beats the previous guy. For example if the previous guy bid £35, I would win on £36.

However if the previous guy had bid £50, he would win with the previous £50 bid.

Yes

Another newbie here, I have my eye on a certain item and a friend recommended AS highly.

So, if I understand the previous discussion, if I set my max bid in AS to $500, AS submits it to AS as a proxy bid of $500, and if the amount required to win is (for example) $250, that's what I end up paying.

If the reserve has yet to be reached and I bid $500, and the reserve is $400, do I get the item for the reserve price?

I think that's the case but I'm still a little antsy, and want to make sure I understand the process. Mostly I know it's about understanding eBay's proxy bidding process.

Also, with regards to timing, it sounds as if it's better to be a little earlier than too late, and not have your bid posted at all. Does that make sense?

Thanks in advance.

quote:

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Originally posted by gail:
So, if I understand the previous discussion, if I set my max bid in AS to $500, AS submits it to AS as a proxy bid of $500, and if the amount required to win is (for example) $250, that's what I end up paying.

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Yes

quote:

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If the reserve has yet to be reached and I bid $500, and the reserve is $400, do I get the item for the reserve price?

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Yes

quote:

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Also, with regards to timing, it sounds as if it's better to be a little earlier than too late, and not have your bid posted at all. Does that make sense?

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I have been setting my snipes at 10 seconds recently as I have had 2 snipes not make it. But 8 seconds seems to be the norm, unless its Prime Time Sunday nite or an auction ending on the exact quarter hour, half hour or hour. Then add a little time to allow for lag.

My only other tip is to make your snipe an odd amount eg. $203.64 instead of $200. It may make the difference between and win and a loss.

Good Luck and Welcome to the Forum

My personal choice is to use 8 seconds during normal times! On Sunday, during primetime, PST, PM between 5 and 8:30, I add 15 seconds. On the hour, half, and quarter hour, I add 10 seconds. These are very busy traffic times for Ebay. It works for me! Remember to bid your max as the highest bid wins! Happy Sniping!!

Hi there,

With regards to using an odd number - be careful though.

I just won a snipe for £32. I bid with 7 seconds left to end of auction.

Looking back at the bid history, someone else tried a snipe (I wonder if they are reading this) with 4 seconds to end. However they bid £31.89.

So I won the auction by 11 pence. I suppose the other guy didnt realise that it was only 11 pence. But this is probably the closest auction win I have had....

More people bid .00 than bid odd so, in theory, you have more chance of winning if you're odd. Which I am...

R2