The Home Machinist!

So why is it I can watch something for a week on ebay and no one bids on what I am watching. The moment I bid on something, I am out bid in a few hours on all 3 auctions.

Richard W.

Could be that others are doing the same thing you are and not bidding an item up early in the hopes it stays low.

Or your opponents could be using a [sniping] program.

I have been buying on eBay for many years, and I make it a point not to bid until 10 or 15 seconds before the bidding ends. To bid at any other time is foolish, it only increases the final winning bid.

Of course, you have to be willing to put in the biggest bid you can justify at that time. I usually will double or triple the bid that appears 40 seconds before the end, if I really want the object.

Only if I'm not able to be online at that time do I place an earlier bid; I usually lose that one!

I buy on eBay sometimes....but I do it differently....

If I see something I want.... I decide how much I'm willing to pay for it, and bid that.....after someone else has made a bid anyway....
Just because you bid 100 bucks on something, doesn't mean that's what you will pay. I've bid $100, and won, and only paid 20 bucks or less....it's whatever it takes to beat the closest bid to yours, and whatever the minimum bid may be if specified.
If I lose....oh well...I'll keep lookin'. I decide what I will pay before....and go with that. I don't lose sleep if I get beat by a dollar either.

Bill

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Today's solutions are tomorrow's problems.

+1


Gotta laugh at some of the little {bidding wars} where people wind up paying more for a used item than you can get it new at retail.

I recently sold something where two people bid on it the first day. Then someone bit on it the last day within a few hours of the close. Then he bid two more times shortly before the end (upping his bid, although I could not see the amount).

When the flurry happened in the last minute, he still outbid everyone but they pushed him up from $60 to $150. I knew that was going to happen, so I sat there and watched. Better than anything on TV that night.

Steve

Yep thats the way I do it.
And sometimes I put a bid in and after HOPE that someone out bids me. After thinking about it.

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Armed Men are Citizens, Unarmed men are Subjects.

I tend to put my bids in with 5 seconds to go. No need to let anyone know my intentions.

Steve

I will take exception to what "R" said about "foolish". If no one is a "fool" then there is no baseline. One may glean what the reserve is by that one bid and that person did everyone else a service.

May be also he tore up three others while you focussed on one. Not me. Not now.

now that they hide the bidders id, they can shill bid their buddies auctions at will. I think it was mainly to allow ebay to get higher "end of auction" prices when they changed that policy. Now the bidder can't really check to see how many of the high bids are from the same seller and buyer. pretty much leaves the bidder completely in the dark.

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atlas 618,MM challenger wire welder, 4x6 cheapo bandsaw, assorted junk, spears for hunting mastadons.

If you go to the bids, then click on a bidder, you can get a general idea of bidding patterns. It will tell you that a particular bidder bid a lot on stuff from one particular seller, but only anonymously and only for the last 30 days.

Steve