what if no one bids?

quote:

My question is what will AS bid if no one bids.
Will it bang in my maximum bid or the sellers minimum.

It will always bang your maximum bid, regardless of what other bidders have or will do and regardless of what the current price is. AS only places ONE bid – your maximum.

quote:

Or am I best entering the minimum bid directly so that AS just outbids me?

You can’t bid against yourself (there are a couple of rare exceptions), but not a good idea to place a bid directly and use AS – defeats the purpose of using AS.


http://www.auctionsniper.com/faqbasics.aspx#basics15

quote:

quote:
My question is what will AS bid if no one bids.
Will it bang in my maximum bid or the sellers minimum.
It will always bang your maximum bid, regardless of what other bidders have or will do and regardless of what the current price is. AS only places ONE bid – your maximum.

Thanks for the reply.
You are wrong in saying that AS only bids your maximum.(full stop) I recently won an item where my max was 65 and it bid 41 to win it.

quote:

You can’t bid against yourself (there are a couple of rare exceptions), but not a good idea to place a bid directly and use AS – defeats the purpose of using AS.


http://www.auctionsniper.com/faqbasics.aspx#basics15

I read this FAQ before posting the question.
My understanding of this is that AS continues to place the bid regardless of your earlier bid. As it say it doesnt have time to see that you are bidding against yourself.
So I read this as you're wrong again.

quote:

I recently won an item where my max was 65 and it bid 41 to win it.

If you check the auction you’ll see that the bid AS placed was for 65. ebay’s bidding increment required that you only needed 41 to win. If that’s not the case, then this service HAS A MAJOR BUG, which you’ll want to report to support:
http://support.auctionsniper.com/

quote:

So I read this as you're wrong again.

Nope, you can’t bid against yourself (with a couple of rare exceptions).



I may not always be right, but I'm never wrong.

quote:

quote:
I recently won an item where my max was 65 and it bid 41 to win it.
If you check the auction you’ll see that the bid AS placed was for 65. ebay’s bidding increment required that you only needed 41 to win. If that’s not the case, then this service HAS A MAJOR BUG, which you’ll want to report to support:
http://support.auctionsniper.com/

Remind me who said
+++++++
It will always bang your maximum bid, regardless of what other bidders have or will do and regardless of what the current price is. AS only places ONE bid – your maximum.
+++++++++++

ROFL you clearly know nothing.

Appears that this has become a standoff. Perhaps someone will come along and break this tie. If not, you might want to contact support and get their input (I left the link above).

Thanks for the support link.

You’re welcome. Glad that I could be of some assistance.

If you find the time, I would obviously appreciate your posting the response you get from support.


Happy sniping!

Great customer service from AS.

Here's the reply
Auction Sniper follows eBay rules. So while we send eBay your maximum bid, you will only pay the next highest bid above the current minimum. Also, eBay will accept just the next increment over the previous bidder‘s max bid. Remember that eBay doesn‘t show a bidder‘s max bid, just the next increment needed over the previous bidder.

Please note that if you are the only bidder then your max-bid will be placed. It will not follow the bid increment rules because bid increment rules are followed only when there is a previous bid.
--------------

So as I knew there's 'Major bug' with AS. It's your understanding of how it works. It doesn't as you stated just place your maximum bid regardless of anyone else or the price.
It places it with regard to the next increment over the previous bidder‘s max bid

Which was why I won an auction with 41 when my max was 65.

So as I knew there's 'Major bug' with AS. It's your understanding of how it works.

Anyway, what I was worried about is that IF no one bids. So yes if no one bids it will just fire off my maximum. So, I've formulated a work around solution and that is to register another acccount (my busines account) to ebay.) So I can place an early bid and use AS to out bid myself. There by ensuring if no one else bid I wouldn't end up paying my maximum.

Once again thanks for the link.

Glad to know even those that are never wrong aren't always right.

quote:

From AS support:
So while we send eBay your maximum bid

Yep.

quote:

Originally posted by jp01:
It places it with regard to the next increment over the previous bidder‘s max bid

Nope.

Perhaps this will reduce the confusion:

quote:

Originally posted by jp01:
It doesn't as you stated just place your maximum bid regardless of anyone else or the price.
It places it with regard to the next increment over the previous bidder‘s max bid

AuctionSniper (AS) always (that should read ALWAYS) places one and only one bid and that’s for the amount (aka maximum) you gave it. Now, what ebay does with increments and proxy bids and determining if your bid is accepted and whether you won and what amount you won the auction at is all controlled by ebay. The snipe (that’s from AS) will be for your maximum amount. Your AS maximum bid may not be high enough to be accepted by ebay, but AS will place the snipe and ebay will reject it.

If you still disagree, then the standoff remains and hopefully someone will come along and explain this to one or both of us.

The reason you didn't understand is that you said

''If you check the auction you’ll see that the bid AS placed was for 65.''

This is of course impossible.

As AS support pointed out to you.

''Remember that eBay doesn‘t show a bidder‘s max bid, just the next increment needed over the previous bidder.''

So there's no major bug only the one between your ears.

quote:

From AS support:
''Remember that eBay doesn‘t show a bidder‘s max bid, just the next increment needed over the previous bidder.''

That’s correct, but that’s in reference to what someone else’s highest bid is. If you bring up your “My eBay” page you’ll see what your maximum bid was. Ebay doesn’t keep your maximum bid hidden from you, only what someone else bids. Of course, you’ll need to sign into eBay to see what your bid was, as you will also need to do to see your “My eBay” page.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick:
Perhaps this will reduce the confusion:

Gosh, I was so hopeful. At least the link did some good (maybe).

JP - what is it you don't get or are you just being obtuse?

AS bids your MAX no matter what the state of play on the Auction. Eg, if your snipe was set to £1 and the auction was £1000 then it would bid £1. Likewise, if your snipe was £1000.01 and the auction was at £1 then it would bid £1000.01 and you would win (unless, of course, the actual existing high bid was actually £1000.01 or more but that's another story!).
AS does nothing but place the bid, check the response and, if you won, charges you for the pleasure. That's it - no rocket science!

R2

And after all this, obtuse turns out to be the magic word - how about that!

Thank you for posting this question which I didn't even know I had until I saw it-and had a snipe in on a no-bidder auction ending soon-I am new but will only use AS since a friend told me about it--AS really is the only way to go- -but-after reading all the posts on this I was even more confused and getting nervous-well I am only commenting in case someone else got confused too-You do not need to put in any bid but one you make with AS . And if you get another ID and put in a minimum bid then you will a little more than you would if you just trusted AS. I went back and looked at my old snipes and it turns out that I had already sniped a no-bidder auction and I won with the minimum bid. AS just put in my bid, which was high and recognized the minimum bid the seller had put in-so if anyone else is confused too just wanted to say-Trust AS to do what you would do if you were bidding manually-Ebay doesn't care if there are no bidders-you will win as bidder number one-and pay the same as if you had done it yourself- the minimum-Thanks AS

I read this, and found this so interesting and humorous all at the same time that I had to throw down.

I feel for you Rick and R2.

JP, what up, man? You need to chill out for a minute and stop wanting to jump right in. READ what is written, 3, maybe even 4 or 5 times over, let it absorb. Then type.

You are all saying the SAME exact thing!

JP, you need to put down the crack-pipe, quit being a horses pitootey and LISTEN to what the experts here have to say! I am BRAND new to this, last night I signed up for service and came to this board to see if I could get a bit of "AS 101" training under my belt before my big (ha, I almost typed "bid"!) debut as the newest AS member to DOMINATE eBay!

I read what you, Rick and R2 said here, it took a while, but now I really understand it. As a result, tonight, I just was successfull with AS my first auction out! CAN I HAVE AN AMEN BROTHER!

AS saved me a BUNCH of money and aggrivation that I know, my old "manual snipe" method would have probably NOT succeeded in.

By the way, do I expect AS to work perfect each time? NO! Only 99.99999% of the time! But what is the alternative, manual snipe? That is what I had done before for 7 years on eBay, sometimes successful, sometimes not. But, it used to bug me that I couldn't win all the time, and I didn't like it when I "left money on the table", so to speak. Not that I have bid or bought that much stuff on eBay over the years. I got pretty good at manual snipes, but not anywhere near as good as AS or anyone using a snipe tool! I heard about these things and thought "Huh, I think I am going to use that too, see how good it is!" You know what, it ROCKS!

What is up with you? You seem real quick to say "Your wrong" instead of reading what is being said! Even though I am new to all this, I can tell Rick and R2 KNOW what they are doing and how it works! We should be so LUCKY we have people like this, willing to give there time to us, FOR FREE!

As for how the process works, regardless if there is already a bid or not, it really doesn't matter!

It is REAL REAL simple process, and it works the same way every time. Not sure why you are not getting this, because in essence, you are saying the same things Rick and R2 are saying!

Let me see if I can "dumb it" WAY down for you! Here goes:

When you want to use AS, you tell it the MAXIMUM amount of $ you are willing to pay for an item on auction. Are you with me so far??? I'll slow down if I am going too fast!

At the same time (OK, maybe not exact simultaneous, but the next thing in order) you tell AS how LONG before the auction is OVER you want it to go to work for you.

Are you with me so far?

While the auction is on, AS doesn't do ANYTHING except watch the clock.

At the exact point in time YOU told it to (or maybe a second or 2 sooner on busy nights) AS kicks into gear, finds the eBay servers, and JUST as if you were logging in and typing it yourself, (except WAY faster than any human could type) AS logs into eBay AS IF IT WERE YOU, with YOUR name and password, it enters the auction number for the item (because YOU told it the number, OK, I skipped that step, but so what), and it plunks down your MAXIMUM bid, END OF STORY!!!

AS fakes eBay into thinking it is you, and tells eBay how much you are willing to bid AT A MAXIMUM for an item. OK, maybe "fake" isn't the word AS would use, acts as your "agent", that sounds better.

AS doesn't care if nobody else has bid.

However, I think you are thinking AS checks to see where things are at and only bids the minimum starting bid, then checks where you are at, increases the bid, etc. IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY! It doesn't need to, since eBay has layed all the ground work for us so we don't HAVE to do that.

If there is a reserve, and assuming you told AS a $ amount higher than whatever the mysterious reserve was (that is not exposed to us normally in an auction) eBay accepts that bid and by default, looks at your MAX bid and will (based on how much $ you said your MAX BID was) meets or exceed the reserve amount based on the bid increment (if I understand that part correctly, but who really cares if I am wrong).

THAT IS IT!!! It is JUST as if you were sitting there doing it all yourself, manually, except it does it way faster than any human could, hence why it can wait until there are 7 or 8 seconds left in an auction and STILL successfully win it for you!

IT DOES NOT place the min bid, then check to see if that is successful, and then go back and place a higher bid the moment someone outbids you. It simply puts in your highest bid you are willing to accept, but eBay is nice enough to not "show all our cards" to the other players.

For example, my bid tonight, I told it the MAX bid amount was $412.49, a nice odd amount (I learned that reading up on AS tips!). There was 1 bid already in at $300, the next bid increment was $305. I got AS ready to snipe the auction about 5 1/2 hours in advance. I had some errands to run, and ate dinner. I came back to my computer, there was about 10 minutes left, and the bid was still at $300. In the last 6 or 8 minutes, there were 6 more bids, mine won at $332.12. Someone had bid an odd amount earlier, doesn't really matter, I WON!

There are some REAL subtleties here that I am SURE I have missed, and I am sure Rick and R2 could teach all of us MASSIVE amounts about this stuff, helping us to become the most dominant and successful eBay bidders on the face of the planet.

Me, as interesting and fun as that sounds, just don't have enough time to learn that much and put it to enough practicle use to make it pay off, but maybe someday, and then I'll quit my job and make a full-time living off what I buy and sell on eBay, isn't that what all those late-night infomercials are all about?

JP - peace bro. You know I was just pulling your chain a bit here, but that is only because it was out there so far that I could reach it.

Chill out, listen to the brothas and sistas of AS and you shall be successful!

AS-ATTACK -

End of the magic show.

AS Attack - well said.

Rick does his absolute best - often under trying circumstances and gets all sorts of "flak" from clueless "Goons" who just will not bother to read what he says.

When it gets to the point of stupidity, I normally wade in and give the offender a good "verbal kicking" This sets them off in generally saying:

"I am a paid hack for AS" and I am very rude.

Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

It means the idiots move off and never return. It is my small service to preserve the Rick's & R2's sanity so that they continue to help the people who are new to the game and want advice.

Could I give sensible advice about sniping? Yes, but as you can see I haven't the patience `that Rick has to deal with "those of little brain"

I joined eBay in 1999 and use AS for all my bidding activities. I spend several thousand dollars a year collection information for my web site, which then gives me a steady income to support me in my old age! So yes, I am a experienced sniper, but like all things you need to develop tactics to suit your marketplace.

So a bit of advice as you asked so politely.

Firstly, stop thinking of eBay in conventional terms. It is called an auction, it is an auction, but it is not an auction as we know it from our experiences of going to say a Public Auction.

There people bid - but only in a limited time span. There is a start time and a stop time, but only for as long as people continue to raise their hands. Driven if you like by people in the room or who have placed a proxy bid earlier.

eBay operates differently - a fixed time of days in which people can freely place bids. Similar in principle to "bids by tender", but unlike them in that it immediately publishes your bid.

Now the effect of this is that it encourages "nibbling" a sort of protracted bidding war over time. This is unlike any real auction in that it lasts for days, enabling earlier bidders to be notified and respond. This they do, driving up the price of the good in "tit for tat" form.

What might be good for sellers is not necessarily so for buyers, hence the rise and rise of sniping services. Originally computer based, they now are predominantly web based services like AS

A "Snipe" preserves the pattern of a real auction. The gavel is raised and the auctioneer says "Going, going ....." and the last bidder comes in.

As far as eBay is concerned, you have appointed a third party to bid for you (think those on the phone saying "my client bids $2m" at those Sotheby's Auctions. This shows that rumours that Sniping is "illegal" or is going to be banned are utter nonsense. We are purely late bidders through a proxy.

Without us, the clients of eBay would simply be poorer!

Now we come to the point of confusion. AS is only a very rule bound and rigid proxy bidder. If you set a total for AS to bid, it will do exactly as you instructed. It will bid once and bid the sum you set. It does this in the closing seconds of the auction. It has one cartridge in its barrel and it fires it - once.

So why the confusion, why the tirade above in this thread? Why the hoards of "confused" complainants? Simply because eBay has a proxy bidding system of its own. Because it is an eBay auction and it is an eBay system, it overrides all other systems. What makes it more difficult to understand is that it does not work like AS, for it can fire multiple rounds - rather like a machine gun - if it has the ammunition.

Turning now to eBay's system:

If you place a bid with eBay for a $1000 (never do - always bid $1002.67 - an irregular sum - Why? Gamesmanship!) what eBay does is place just part of your money to keep you ahead of the sum already in place (an increment above the starting price or a rival bidders existing bid) This it does in split seconds - so that's why prices suddenly jump.

Now here's the rub - it will bid for you as long as you have "money in the kitty" So if somebody doubles the $2 to $4, it will bid $5 for you and keep on raising your bid each time someone else retaliates. That's why it pays not to place any money with ebay's system for it will spend it in a trice for you!

By using AS, you can think better of bidding right up to the last minute. I do. Yesterday I cancelled a bid, because I saw I could get it cheaper elsewhere! Also you can "up your bid" if you see at a later time that you had set a lower bid than the prevailing price.

Other advantages besides not driving up the price like the eBay system. You are a hidden bidder - you do not affect the price by bidding. Sounds daft? Not really, by hiding your intentions, you often get the item cheap because no one else has noticed it. How often does curiosity drive you to investigate something because you see a crowd gathering? That's why bidding frenzy starts - people are driven by what they see other's do.

I think that's more than enough for now.

There are other questions that are often asked here about tactics. Perhaps the most common is "Should you manually bid?" The answer to that is "only if it is something very rare or vital to you" Most things do not fall into these two categories as rarity is only relative on eBay - another usually comes along.

Happy Sniping

Paul

quote:

Originally posted by Camera:
When it gets to the point of stupidity, I normally wade in and give the offender a good "verbal kicking" ...

Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

It means the idiots move off and never return.

The Crusader turns infidel. We (Camera & me) should go down in the Role-Reversal Hall of Fame.

quote:

The Crusader turns infidel

Ooh you have a wicked turn of phrase young Rick!

I genuinely appreciated that summary

Barbed, but clever and that is rare these days!

Good Night!

Paul

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Camera:

Rick does his absolute best - often under trying circumstances and gets all sorts of "flak" from clueless "Goons" who just will not bother to read what he says.

When it gets to the point of stupidity, I normally wade in and give the offender a good "verbal kicking" This sets them off in generally saying:

"I am a paid hack for AS" and I am very rude.

I find you entertaining and informative![B]

Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

[B]Yes, but I think you have to bitch-slap morons like JP, especially when they keep coming back for more, telling you that you are wrong, but regurgitating the essence of what you JUST said to them as if it were their own original idea. THAT is the point the trigger needs to be pulled, and escort the offender to the door, hopefully to never bear witness to his/her stupidity EVER again. Like you said...

It means the idiots move off and never return.

Could I give sensible advice about sniping? Yes, but as you can see I haven't the patience `that Rick has to deal with "those of little brain"

Again, your advice is right on the money, so kudos...

I joined eBay in 1999 and use AS for all my bidding activities. I spend several thousand dollars a year collection information for my web site, which then gives me a steady income to support me in my old age! So yes, I am a experienced sniper, but like all things you need to develop tactics to suit your marketplace.

I joined in 2001, but am new to sniping (automated fashion)

Your advice is right on the money, should be packaged and put on the FAQ page for new-comers....


What might be good for sellers is not necessarily so for buyers,

AMEN, my brother! ...

Without us, the clients of eBay would simply be poorer!

DAMN STRAIGHT!...

Now we come to the point of confusion. AS is only a very rule bound and rigid proxy bidder. If you set a total for AS to bid, it will do exactly as you instructed. It will bid once and bid the sum you set. It does this in the closing seconds of the auction. It has one cartridge in its barrel and it fires it - once.

I don't get why JP (or anyone else for that matter) gets confused over how AS or any other automated snipe tool works. I am not trying to pat my own back, but I read about AS, and in moments understood, at least that much. It is not rocket science! Again, well said by you, put a link on the FAQ page to this string!...

If you place a bid with eBay for a $1000 (never do - always bid $1002.67 - an irregular sum - Why? Gamesmanship!)

Great advice for all!...

Now here's the rub - it will bid for you as long as you have "money in the kitty" So if somebody doubles the $2 to $4, it will bid $5 for you and keep on raising your bid each time someone else retaliates. That's why it pays not to place any money with ebay's system for it will spend it in a trice for you!

Again, why we NEED AS! And, no different (but better) than any good strategist with experience on eBay would do. Just WAY faster, more reliable and the biggest thing, you don't have to hang at your PC! BINGO!!! ...

Yesterday I cancelled a bid, because I saw I could get it cheaper elsewhere! Also you can "up your bid" if you see at a later time that you had set a lower bid than the prevailing price.

Other advantages besides not driving up the price like the eBay system. You are a hidden bidder - you do not affect the price by bidding. Sounds daft? Not really, by hiding your intentions, you often get the item cheap because no one else has noticed it. How often does curiosity drive you to investigate something because you see a crowd gathering? That's why bidding frenzy starts - people are driven by what they see other's do.

VERY good practicle advice, and who said you weren't going to take the time to teach us all something???...

"Should you manually bid?" The answer to that is "only if it is something very rare or vital to you"

Sage!...

Happy Sniping

Thanks Paul, same to you! Always a BIG fan of MPFC.

NOW P*** O**, I HAVE WORK TO DO!!! hehe. That is fun, I could like UK life!...[/B]

quote:

Originally posted by LindyLou:
Thank you for posting this question which I didn't even know I had until I saw it-and had a snipe in on a no-bidder auction ending soon-I am new but will only use AS since a friend told me about it--AS really is the only way to go- -but-after reading all the posts on this I was even more confused and getting nervous-well I am only commenting in case someone else got confused too-You do not need to put in any bid but one you make with AS . And if you get another ID and put in a minimum bid then you will a little more than you would if you just trusted AS. I went back and looked at my old snipes and it turns out that I had already sniped a no-bidder auction and I won with the minimum bid. AS just put in my bid, which was high and recognized the minimum bid the seller had put in-so if anyone else is confused too just wanted to say-Trust AS to do what you would do if you were bidding manually-Ebay doesn't care if there are no bidders-you will win as bidder number one-and pay the same as if you had done it yourself- the minimum-Thanks AS

Well said.
Clearly some replies on here just added to more confusion. Hence your post!

The proof of the pudding was revealed today.
I put in a manual Ebay bid for 0.01, as no one had actually bid so at to make myself the first bidder. I then set up a much higher bid using AS.
I was delighted to get an email from AS saying
Congratulations! You've won this item using Auction Sniper.

Oh and the price 0.01.

I hope that helps others.
You can use AS to bid against yourself and
you don't need to worry about AS firing in your maximum bid and outbidding yourself IF no one else bids.