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29 replies

Really upset...

F firefightersmomMember
This is the letter I sent to Sniper. Does anyone know why this would happen. Is it something that happens often? I have not heard back from them. I am wondering if they will do anything since they were responsible?

"I placed a snipe on Ebay auction . My max was $18.76. I went to see why I didn‘t win. The auction was won by someone else for $18.50. You never even placed a bid. I am very upset with this. I have been telling people how great this is. I had been looking for this item for months. Now I lost it. I am really unhappy about this.

Thanks for any help

FireFightersMoM
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region2region2Member
What Sara was trying to say was that your snipe was not high enough to be at least one increment above the high bid so couldn't be placed. Don't get upset, your snipe failed in the same way as a bid would fail if placed for the same amount.

Follow Sarah's links to learn about bid increments. Also look up proxy bidding on ebay's help.

R2
region2region2Member
Hiya!

In your example your snipe will get placed as long as the existing bid (by others) is $49.99 or less (assuming it is 50 cent increments at this value). However, if the other bidder has set up a proxy bid of $50.49 or higher then you'll lose!

Hint: once the auction gets going, do some research on your fellow bidders (and maybe the bidders on the item last time it came up). Did they snipe? Did they bid round numbers ($50.00)? Did they nibble? etc etc. This might help you to better guess what your max should be.

R2
rickrickMember
FireFightersMom,

Bid what you think the item is worth. Before you bid, just ask yourself a two questions: 1) How would you feel if someone outbids you? 2) How would you feel if someone doesn’t outbid you? If someone were to outbid you and you think you might feel like you wished you had bid more, then set you snipe at a higher bid. If you aren’t outbid but you think you might feel like you paid too much, then set your snipe at a lower bid.

One of the hard (really hard) things about sniping is to determine what YOU feel the value of something is, and not be overly influenced by others. I use “overly”, because it can be difficult not to be “somewhat” influenced by other bidders.
mrsmmrsmMember
When I place a snipe, I look at the item and decide what is the most I want to pay. If it is "rare", I might want to bid a little extra. I always set my snipe amount to an odd number. Instead of bidding 20.00, I bid perhaps, 21.86. You would be surprised how many times it has given me the winning edge.

Hope you have better luck next time. Just keep looking. The item will come up again! Smile
F firefightersmomMember
The one that I lost, I did the odd amount. That is how I always win them also Smile That is why I was so confused (ok, angry) on the one I wrote about. They bid $18.50 and my finally was $18.76...So how do I have to watch something like that...since the email was so late coming, I didn't know it happened.

So if I understand this right, I want to bid odd numbers, but it has to be at .50 increments???

I feel supid, cause I'm really not sure how to make sure this doesn't happen again, or .24 cents???
mrsmmrsmMember
It does not matter if your bid is too low, what amount you entered.! There is no way to avoid that. AS does not guarantee you will win. It only helps avoid bidding wars by entering you bid (PROXY) at the last possible moment.It is up to you to have placed a high enough bid to win. If you want to be mad at someone, I guess you are the number one pick! You placed the bid that was not high enough to win!
1. Use AS
2. Bid an odd amount
3. Bid the max you are willing to pay ( if you then get out-bid, you will know the other person paid too much!)
4. Sit back and wait
F firefightersmomMember
That is where the confusion part comes in. They won the auction at $18.50, my max bid was $18.76. I did not understand the increments till now.

Is there a way to deal with that? Where it was a .50ct increment, how would I know that they would bid $18.50??? Or is there no way.

I am not upset now...I hope I am not coming across that way. I am trying to understand if it was something I should have known...or could have corrected before the end????
rickrickMember
quote:
cause I'm really not sure how to make sure this doesn't happen again, or .24 cents???
The winning bid might have been a lot more than 24 cents.


quote:
Is there a way to deal with that?
Not really. Just bid you max amount.

quote:
Originally posted by FireFightersMoM:
Where it was a .50ct increment, how would I know that they would bid $18.50??? Or is there no way.
There’s usually no way of knowing. Sometimes, when the 2nd highest bid is less than a full increment from the high bid, then that will tell you.

quote:
I am not upset now...I hope I am not coming across that way.

You don't sound upset to me.
D daveMember
quote:
The item will come up again!


Usually so, but I waited almost FIVE years for a particular genuine antique phone (there were many reproduction ones) to show up; I would hate to have to wait another five years! Big Grin Lets just say that I used a 1700 manual pound hammer backed up with a 2100 pound AS hammer for this one; you see, the auction ended right at a busy even hour (xx:00:00) and I didn' want to take any chances. BTW, looking back on it, AS did just what it was supposed to do when it was supposed to do it and I didn't need my manual snipe.
S sblMember
It's not clear to me that FireFightersMoM really understands the bid increment issue. Put simply - it is not enough that your max bid is higher than someone else's. eBay requires that any higher bid must be a certain amount higher than the previous high bid in order to be accepted. This amount, the bid increment, increases in size as the bid values go up, meaning that the bid needs to be $1, $3, $5 or more higher than the previous high bid, depending on what it is. eBay will tell you what the next minimum bid is, or you can find help pages at eBay that list the table.

I too was upset when I lost an auction (not using AS) on an item I wanted very much - something from 1963. But another DID come up for auction within a week or two, and this was in much better condition. AS helped me win it and I have it in my home now.
S sblMember
quote:
Originally posted by FireFightersMoM:
Well you all know what this means! I lost the auction. I have to bid at the 3 seconds. Someone came in and got it for a $1.00 more.


No, you don't have to bid at 3 seconds. You have to bid the maximum you're willing to pay. If you try bidding at 3 seconds, your bid may not get made.

Even if a sniper comes in after you, if their maximum bid is less than yours plus the bid increment, you will still win. What evidently happened in your case is that another sniper had a higher maximum than you.

This is probably the single biggest mistake new snipers make, overly conservative bidding. You don't get a chance to bid again, so bid the most you're willing to pay. It's the highest placed bid that wins, not the last.

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