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eBay Auction Bidding Strategies--Overcoming the most Frustrating Situation on eBay
By Carolyn Schweitzer
The Problem...
It's happened to the best of us.
You've been watching the auction
all week, and finally you're about to
claim your prize--a rare bronze statue
from the Qing Dynasty. Or something
just as tantalizing.
You log on a few minutes before the
auction closes, and confirm that
you're still the top bidder -- no one
has challenged you in several days.
You're already picturing
"your" statue prominently
displayed on the living room
mantelpiece, your friends green with
envy as you tell them about the great
deal you got on eBay. You refresh the
page a few times, to make sure you're
still number 1. You even up your bid a
little just to make sure no body tries
to outbid you at the last minute.
50 seconds to go...30...10...the
auction has ended and the statue is
yours!! You refresh the page for the
last time so you can see your eBay ID
announced as the winning bidder. And
that's when your heart drops to your
toes. It's not your eBay ID at all,
but some joker who calls themselves
"SpeedyFingers123".
How could this have happened?
You were the winning bidder with
only 10 seconds to go!! Speedy or not,
it just doesn't seem humanly possible.
Well, you're right. No one is that
fast. SpeedyFingers123 (I made that
one up, so if it's your actual eBay
ID, please don't sue me!) won the
auction in the final 4 seconds. It
isn't humanly possible because
"speedy" didn't actually
place the bid. The bid was place on
his or her behalf, from a remote
server, using something called Bidding
Software.
You've Been Sniped!
The act of placing a bid during the
final seconds of an online auction is
called "Sniping" and it's
perfectly legal on eBay. Bidding wars
and sniping are an eBay sellers dream
and a buyer's nightmare. Why, you're
asking yourself, don't these people
just use eBay's trusty proxy bidding
process? Why not just discreetly enter
the maximum they're willing to pay at
the beginning of the auction, then let
the cards fall where they may? Well,
for a couple of reasons. First, it's
not human nature. If all you have to
do is outbid the next guy by fifty
cents or even five dollars to win,
wouldn't you?
Second, it doesn't make economic or
strategic sense to place a bid anytime
before the last five minutes of an
auction.
Think about it. eBay encourages
bidders to use the proxy system and
place bids early. What this means is
that an inexperienced bidder who wants
an item will want to be the highest
bidder right away, and will keep
upping their bid to hold that winning
position. They'll only stop when the
bidding exceeds their budget. Then the
next guy comes along and continues the
process. If this starts at the
beginning of a seven or ten day
auction, and ends with a bidding war
in the last 10 minutes, the final
price for the item can spiral out of
control. Many items sell for far more
than fair market value because people
get caught up in "bidding
fever" -- all they want is to
WIN, they're not even thinking about
whether the price is realistic.
What to Do?
A better strategy would be for
everyone to "watch" the
auction until the very end. Again,
there's two good reasons. One, the
price doesn't spiral up as just
illustrated. Two, the auction has zero
bids, so it attracts fewer bidders--
less competition. It's a fact that
once an auction has at least 1 bid, it
becomes a magnet for additional
bidders. Shoppers scanning an auction
page tend to jump to the ones with
bids, figuring there must be something
that attracted other bidders. The more
bids, the more interesting the item
looks.
Wouldn't it be great if a seller
started a two carat diamond ring at
$0.99 and no one bid until the last
five minutes, and they all bid in
fifty cent increments? Someone might
win the ring for just a few bucks!! Of
course, that never happens, but it
would be the ideal situation for a
buyer-- and it would put eBay out of
business in a hurry. eBay encourages
early bidding and smiles upon the
snipers of the world. eBay makes their
profits on listing fees and
"final value" fees. The more
the item sells for the higher the
"final value". This makes
eBay very happy. That's why you'll
never find any tutorials anywhere on
eBay telling you to wait until the end
of an auction to bid.
The Solution...
OK, so now that we understand the
benefits of sniping, lets get back to
our friend
"SpeedyFingers123". Speedy
probably started out in life just like
I did. She learned everything she knew
about eBay from eBay and never
realized there was such a thing as
bidding software. Never knew a
computer could do your sniping
automatically, bid on your behalf in
the last 2 to 8 seconds of an auction,
and do it while you're asleep. With
sniping software, you tell the
software program which auctions you're
interested in and how much you're
willing to pay. eBay never knows
you've seen the auction until your
friendly sniping service swoops in and
places your bid with only seconds to
spare. Neither does your competition.
They never see you coming. The only
way you can lose is if someone else
uses the same program sets their
maximum bid higher than yours.
(Yes, my friend, you can still
lose. There's no guarantee of winning
an auction no matter what system you
use, if someone else is willing to pay
more. If you set your maximum bid at a
million dollars for a hunk of Elvis'
belly button lint and some nut is
willing to pay a million ten, you're
still going to lose!)
"Bidding Fever" Cured
Let's face it, there IS a positive
side to losing an auction. It's the
satisfaction of knowing that you
didn't lose your head and spend more
than you could afford!! Trust me, I've
been there, done that, and come to
regret it. With sniping programs, you
can "set it and forget it"
and walk away knowing that if you
don't win, you couldn't have afforded
it anyway.
What's that I hear you saying?
"But I could have had it if I'd
just upped my bid by another fifty
cents!" Hey, did you listen to
anything I just said? Do you want to
drive yourself nuts? It's only stuff,
after all. You can't take it with you,
and there will always be more. The
beauty of eBay is that there will
probably be another just like it, or
at least something just as fabulous.
You're in Control
There's another big advantage to
using bidding software. Two things,
actually. First, sniping programs
allow you to do something called
"contingency bidding".
Suppose you're interested in several
very similar items and you want to win
at least one of them but not all.
Provided they're not all ending at the
same time, you can create a
contingency plan telling the bidding
software to cancel your bids on the
other items as soon as you win one of
them.
Second, you can change your mind
about an item you're bidding on at any
time (except in approximately the last
15 minutes). On eBay, it's a huge
"no-no" to retract a bid.
You can only do this under the most
dire of circumstances. Do it too many
times you'll be politely asked to
leave. Permanently. But, because eBay
doesn't register your bid until the
Sniping program enters it for you, (at
the very end of the auction) you can
cancel your "snipe" with no
penalty. You're canceling what you've
programmed into the sniping software,
not an actual bid on eBay. Isn't that
nice? No more "watching" an
auction you're unsure about, and then
forgetting to bid on it. No more
babysitting your computer so you can
be there for the final moments of the
auction. No more finding out you've
read the description wrong and you're
bidding on an item you don't want. Or
finding something you like better
after you've already committed
yourself to another item, and having
to pass on it. (Or worse, spending way
too much on both!) And, finally, you
have the satisfaction of knowing that
winning doesn't depend on the speed of
your fingers or your internet
connection.
Believe me, the first time you
snatch an item away from
SpeedyFingers123-- or anyone else for
that matter-- you'll be hooked.
© 2004 NetBrainer LLC. An eBay
Power Seller and rabid eBay shopper,
Carolyn Schweitzer is the owner and
editor of "NetBrainer", a
site dedicated to improving the
performance of buyers and sellers on
eBay. (You can learn more about
sniping programs at NetBrainer.com
). Carolyn also provides weekly
recorded tips on eBay for "Third
Mind USA Small-Biz radio".
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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