E-Bay bidding

[slimpickins]

O.K., I gotta ask this from some of you who may bid on e-bay frequently. I was bidding on a knife and had high bid up till about 47 seconds left when I was out bid. I immediatly went to increase bid and when I went to enter an amount higher, my screen started freakin' out, blinking on and off and doing weird things and guess what, auction over. Is there some mysterious secret to last minute bidding? Slim

[tjmurphy]

None at all Slim. I normally "snipe" all my bids on ebay, meaning that I bid my max at about four seconds to go. It could be that several other bidders were bidding at the same time and one of them exceeded your bid

[Mr Rick]

O.K., I gotta ask this from some of you who may bid on e-bay frequently. I was bidding on a knife and had high bid up till about 47 seconds left when I was out bid. I immediatly went to increase bid and when I went to enter an amount higher, my screen started freakin' out, blinking on and off and doing weird things and guess what, auction over. Is there some mysterious secret to last minute bidding? Slim

Slim,

I've done what you've done until recently, and never encountered the problem you report but, trying to bid at the last minute is hit and miss.

I have found a free sniping service and it sure makes last minute bidding a lot easier. But it does not guarantee success.

This is how it works: Long before the end of the auction you give the sniper your maximum bid. A few seconds before the end of the auction the sniper automatically places that bid for you. If you have placed the highest bid you win. Of course this does not preclude you're being out sniped, or out bid.

To use the sniper you need to enter your eBay user name and password. To place a snipe you need the number of the item, and your maximum bid.

At the end of the auction you can sit back and let the sniper do it's work.

This is the one I use.

http://www.gixen.com/index.php

If you have any questions send me a PM.

[jerryd6818]

I think T.J. may be correct. It sounds like there was a whole lot of last minute bidding going on.

Like T.J., I'm a sniper. I seldom place a bid before three seconds left on the auction. My philosophy is if I place my highest bid several days before hand, it gives someone or someones time to nibble away at it and figure out what I'm willing to pay. Can't do that to a last minute (or should I say last second) bid. I'm my own sniper program.

I'll bid ahead of time if I'm trying to get a bargain and on those occasions I almost never place a second bid if someone wants it more than I do. Sometimes that works, most times it doesn't.

[tjmurphy]

Just one thing to remember when you snipe......be sure you're logged in, right Jerry?

[jerryd6818]

Just one thing to remember when you snipe......be sure you're logged in, right Jerry?

Right smart a..., er uh T.J.

[tjmurphy]

Hey, it happens to the best of us, don't cha know

[TripleF]

I usually place my max bid as my bid. If I win, I do........if I don't - oh well!

[Paladin]

Slim,
Did the item end up selling for more than your high bid amount?
You can click on the bid link and see all bids entered. Check and see if your bid got in.

Ray

[philco]

I've experienced something very similar to what Slim has described when I attempted to place a last second bid and when I checked the bid history later, my bid did not show up as having been entered. I think what happened was that there was a bidding frenzy in the last few seconds and by the time I entered my bid, someone else had already surpassed the amount I'd entered so the system did not allow my bid to be inserted. The last second bidding does not allow for any recovery time and when you place a "too low" bid there are a couple of different screens that appear in response. It can all be a bit discombobulating in the heat of the moment.

[jerryd6818]

The last second bidding does not allow for any recovery time and when you place a "too low" bid

That's why I decide on my "best bid" and stick to it (usually). I may waver back and forth on my "best bid" several times but by the last minute of the auction, I've decided and I'm mentally locked in. Then if I don't get it, as Scott said, oh well. There will be another.

That's just the way I do it. Your mileage may vary.

[daddynewton]

If you watch an auction for any length of time your computer may go in to sleep mode. The ebay clock doesn't work when computer is in sleep mode. When you go to check on your auction the ebay clock shows the time when your computer went in sleep mode. I always hit the refresh button first when I return to watch to make sure I have current time showing. I have lost more than one auction like this.

[jerryd6818]

Good tip Dad. I've disabled sleep mode on my box.

[daddynewton]

I will tell you another thing that aggravates me on ebay. When searching something like vintage knives or any other large category. If you pause and look at couple knives, when you get to the bottom and hit next page the next page will skip how ever many knives that are in the time frame you paused in. Notice the time on last knive might be 9.11 and you have looked for 10 minutes on page 1. When you go to page 2 the first knife will be 9.21 and you might have missed 10 minutes of auctions. That's not a lot but could have been the one you were looking for.

[jerryd6818]

I will tell you another thing that aggravates me on ebay. When searching something like vintage knives or any other large category. If you pause and look at couple knives, when you get to the bottom and hit next page the next page will skip how ever many knives that are in the time frame you paused in. Notice the time on last knive might be 9.11 and you have looked for 10 minutes on page 1. When you go to page 2 the first knife will be 9.21 and you might have missed 10 minutes of auctions. That's not a lot but could have been the one you were looking for.

That's because the listings that expired during the time it took for you to scroll down the page disappeared when you refreshed by moving to the next page. That's why you should refresh that page until the last knife on it "sticks" and doesn't move up, then go to the next page. You may still miss one but what ya gonna do? It's the nature of the beast. That whole scene can get real hectic on Sunday night when there are a ton of auctions ending.

[wishful]

Phil, It's very easy to avoid that problem; add a zero (to the right of course).

[slimpickins]

Thanks for the tips fellas. I think I was probably just slow on the draw, along with not making a high enough max bid. That's what I get for trying to steal. It was a Chas A Langbein baloon whittler with typographer's punch. Levine's shows one marked William Langbein , Charles son, in the special purpose multi-blades valued at $375, Sold for $90. Oh well, lesson learned. Slim

[tendots]

I don't have an Ebay acount,a German friend does all the bidding for me,he travels for work all of Germany and parts of France,so no last minute bidding .Still I have plenty of knives coming.If a knife is worth 300 bucks,your prolly not the only guy to notice. The only time you may get lucky is when somebody describes a knife poorly or has bad pictures,but there are always people like this TJ fellow lurking in the woods.

[tjmurphy]

Hey!!!!!!!!! You a-callin' me a bushwhacker Why I orta........

[jerryd6818]

Hey!!!!!!!!! You a-callin' me a bushwhacker Why I orta........

Fess up and be proud.

[tjmurphy]

You're right Jerry OK all you ebayers, don't turn your bids on me or I'll snipe ya for sure

[Colonel666]

Hi. I can try to help "Slim" but first you need to mention what type of device that you are using to access eBay with. Is it a 4G or a 3G ? What brand? Is it a mobile or classic screen? Before I upgraded my device "blinking" like yours would happen. It would become "corrupted" from leaving it running too long. An upgrade to a modern 4G device should do wonders. Hope this does well for you!

[slimpickins]

Colonel, I'm using an old Gateway PC with Windows XP. I'm long over-do for an upgrade. Slim

[jerryd6818]

Colonel, I'm using an old Gateway PC with Windows XP. I'm long over-do for an upgrade. Slim

If you're over due, then what am I? I'm running a seven year old Dell and WinXP Pro. Works just fine for me. I'm considering a 2.0/3.0 add on USB card and external hard drive for back up purposes but other than that, everything is just fine thank you very much.

[orvet]

Colonel, I'm using an old Gateway PC with Windows XP. I'm long over-do for an upgrade. Slim

If you're over due, then what am I? I'm running a seven year old Dell and WinXP Pro. Works just fine for me. I'm considering a 2.0/3.0 add on USB card and external hard drive for back up purposes but other than that, everything is just fine thank you very much.

We are in the same boat Jerry, I just been on the boat longer.
My Dell is about 9 years old and I am running XP Pro as well. I haven't found an operating system I like better than XP Pro.
I also have the Office 2000 Suite for word processing & spreadsheets, etc. Why buy a new Microsoft product and have to debug it yourself? Office 2000 has been out so long they don’t offer upgrades any more.
It has been thoroughly debugged by now!