Out bid?

WELCOME to the forum.

You (almost) never know the max bid of the leader. eBay only uses as much of their bid as is necessary to get/stay in the lead. This is known as Proxy bidding. The winners max could have been $200 or more! Only sure thing is, at least one other bidder thought it was worth more than you did, and that winning bid could have been placed hours before yours.

>Click Here< to learn about proxy bidding at eBay.

Care to share an auction number?

Item # 6112116181

The winning bid was placed over 5 days before auction end!

Did you read and understand the Proxy bidding thing? Here is the auction.

The following table has been reorganized and sorted into date order.  First
bid placed is line #1.  That should make it easier to follow the auction.
Two additional columns have been calculated and added.  They are the current 
bid and high bidder, as displayed on eBay after each bid is placed.        v2.1.08
* = Winning bid. (may be less than actual maximum entered.)
 
                      Max                        Current Winning
  #    Bidder         Bid      Day & Time         Bid  &  Bidder
                    (US $)
  1   rallot         20.00   10-Aug  15:26:12    20.00   rallot       
  2   wannabuyalot   40.00   10-Aug  18:46:53    20.50   wannabuyalot 
  3   13berlin     *129.25   11-Aug  18:51:09    41.00   13berlin     
  4   wannabuyalot   50.50   12-Aug  04:48:56    51.50   13berlin     
  5   fpsoc          77.00   17-Aug  00:52:46    78.00   13berlin     
  6   fpsoc         104.00   17-Aug  00:53:27   106.50   13berlin     
  7   rob2626       126.75   17-Aug  07:14:51   129.25   13berlin     
         End                 17-Aug  07:15:00              

p.s. It is very confusing untill you 'Get It'. If you're still confused, I'll walk you through it one bid at a time.

quote:

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Unlikely that someone would have bid $124.25, up from $51.50 with just a few minutes to go.

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The most important thing when bidding is to decide what the most you want to pay is. You did it when you prepared your snipe. 13Berlin did it when he/she made the winning proxy bid. Sniping protects you against bidders who bid responsively and cannot decide the value of an item for themselves. Sniping does not give you any advantage against a solid proxy bidder.

I "Get it" now. Max proxy always out-trumps lower max snipe.

Yep. Highest bid wins, not always the last.

Greetings,

I am constantly amazed that even long time eBay users don't understand proxy bidding.

This, of course, works much to a snipers advantage, those that nickel and dime their bids are always trumped by an adequate snipe, while those that bid their max the first time out, have a much better chance of success.
High bid always wins, no matter when it was placed...hope they don't catch on!!!

I agree, Robert. These folks amaze me, too. I guess they have never really taken the time to analyze the process and review the bid histories.

Chatter posted:

quote:

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I guess they have never really taken the time to analyze the process and review the bid histories.

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That's because they don't have access to Puppy's bid-analysis spreadsheet! Every time Puppy has the opportunity to roll that thing out, I am amazed all over again how a careful reading of that data sheet can clear up the mysteries of how ebay & proxy bidding works!

But Jabber, I do miss your stories.

When I first started on ebay, proxy bidding was a bit confusing to me.

One thing I find useful, which helps prevent disappointment in bidding, is just to do some basic market research. You cannot expect to get a $200 item for $20 every day of the week. Of course, it happens now and then, which is part of why we all love auctions!

eBay lets you search completed auctions. Use search terms to find completed auctions for whatever it is you are bidding on (this can be hard to do with extremely rare items, I know, but it's easy with mass-produced items). Find out what these items sold for in previous auctions, and you'll have a good idea what you can expect to pay. Of course, you may get lucky.

I always say, though, that I'm looking for a deal, not a steal. I want the seller to get a fair price too.

Good advice for something you must have, and you're unsure of the 'value'. Don't forget the rest of the web... there is more to life than eBay. I've found better deals more than once at other web sites selling the same item.

Good point! Sometimes auction mania drives prices up way beyond what's reasonable. You also may want to ask yourself if something is really worth what the current market has decided it's worth. A bit of a trickier question, yes, but unless the item you're buying is something you really, really need in daily life, there is always the option of doing without.

Remember Cabbage Patch Kids and the prices they brought during the peak of the craze? I really feel for the parents whose kids just HAD to have one.