eBay sniping

[krypticide]

I've been trying to get a Pocket PC off of eBay, but every auction I've been sniped in the last couple seconds. I guess I shouldn't be mad considering I wouldn't have paid any more than I bidded, but still...it's aggravating to be the highest bidder until 10 seconds before the end of auction.

[Jason Dunn]

Yeah, I hear you, I've lost a few auctions that way, but the reality is that's the way auctions work - if you're not willing to pay more than $50 for something, and someone else buys it for $60, they would have won the real auction anyway. ;-)

[Perk]

I'm a regular seller there and I support www.auctionsniper.com. Sign-up and get your first three winning snipes for free. No waiting around!

Why do I support them? Simple, I know people use them on my auctions at the last second so by alowing them to place a banner in the bottom of my ads, it sort of levels the playing fields in my mind.

[dlangton]

I always get a kick out of snipers: they invariably pay lots more than the buy-it-now price. It seems like they think the purpose of an auction is to win it, not to get it at the best possible price.

[firescorpy]

I always use buy it now because the price is always lower than auction.

[PDANEWBIE]

I only snipe up to an items worth. I know I still lose ALOT of auctions but I still get the great deal occassionally.

Scenario -
Someone puts up a 50$ item at a .99 start price, Someone else bids up to 30$ but is the only bidder hence showing a bid of 1.00 and change. I put in the snipe at 40$ and win the auction at 30$ and change.

I hate to say it but in my case the person doing the bidding should have put their max bid (if they really wanted to spend more than 30$) and it would have been more than mine so I really don't feel bad in my scenario.

Another good thing is I always have a firm limit as to how much I will snipe for so if I get outbid then "oh well" and let the other person be the sucker who pays too much.

I still must admit I won't pay the sniping services they may be able to put a snipe in within the last 2 seconds but imho 20 seconds vrs 2 seconds isn't gonna change my winning in most cases when I have the criteria.

Actually what I do more of is put a max bid out there and I then add in about 10 auctions of the same item. I usualy walk away with 1 at least.
Sometimes I win 2 items (when I don't watch the auctions closely) but thats not always bad (I won 2 sealed box Sony DSC-F828's for $500 each totaling $1,000) but I turned around and sold 1 for $750 on ebay. After fees I ended up only paying about $300 dollars for a nice on average $650 to $800 camera.

About BINs I use the if I see them and if they are a good deal. I have seen BINs for an item that are almost 120% of retail cost whats the point of that? Now if there is a BIN of $90 on a retail item usually costing $110 heck yeah I'll jump on it. Anyways I have notied alot of the people that use BINs also use a reserve on their auction hence why it usualy goes over the cost.

[firescorpy]

Well I bought my iPAQ 4350 with charger, cradle, international charger, aluminum case, and 256mb SD for $200 flat using buy it now.

[Perk]

I often set my Buy it Now items a little higher since the ad costs more. I only do BIN if I know the item is popular and lots are selling.

There will always be ther rare exception where someone new uses BIN on an item they're selling and it's a low price. There are ways to research the average selling price of your particular item over the last 60 days.

[krypticide]

Well, you guys are right for sure. I always bid my maximum, but I guess the mentally aggravating part is seeing yourself be outbid by $2.50. ;-) In any case, I guess I still don't have enough experience with eBay. I've always thought BINs were way more expensive than what the auction would end at. I'll be a bit more circumspect in the future.

In any case, I just bought a new Axim from Dell. $314 for the high version. Hope that's not too expensive. Unfortunately, about two days later the price dropped down to $297, and then I realized that I could have gotten a 1 GB SD card for $66 more from Dell, but I had just bought one for $78 total from Newegg. :oops:

[tregnier]

n any case, I just bought a new Axim from Dell. $314 for the high version. Hope that's not too expensive. Unfortunately, about two days later the price dropped down to $297, and then I realized that I could have gotten a 1 GB SD card for $66 more from Dell, but I had just bought one for $78 total from Newegg. Embarassed

With technology purchases, always stop shopping price after you buy the item. You will NEVER find that it has gone up. You'll only make yourself feel bad when in actuallity you may have made your purchase at the best price at the time of your buy. In shopping, the time for pricing is before you buy, not after. Never look back.

[apanther28]

I agree with tregnier, except for when you buy items locally from a best buy, circuit city, or compusa. If the price goes down within 30 days of your purchase, you can get the difference refunded to you.