.........

SonicScythe

..............

imalrightjack

It sounds like your experience says yes. But I don't get the negative connotations of the 'sniping' tag. Put your best price in and hope you get it. It's more sensible in many ways than the last thirty second whirlwind​ of 'I will not be beaten' price ramps and purchase regrets. 

UnclePsychosis

I've tried both methods and now I don't bother sniping. So long as you are honest with yourself as to what you are willing to pay it makes no difference. 

There is also the added advantage that there's no danger of the kids distracting you / an important work call / desperate rush to the loo / no battery at the critical moment. 

Frizer

Mrs is obsessed with sniping as you can always be outbid by £1 if you don't. Personally I favour setting your price when you're calm and then bidding whenever. The worst is when people bid in increments to find where your max is and then withdraw their bids and wait until the auction ends to snipe.

Sassafras

Frizer said:

Mrs is obsessed with sniping as you can always be outbid by £1 if you don't. Personally I favour setting your price when you're calm and then bidding whenever. The worst is when people bid in increments to find where your max is and then withdraw their bids and wait until the auction ends to snipe.

Didn't even know you could withdraw your bids.
That seems very underhanded.

Norwegian_Blue

Just decide how much you want to pay, and make that bid with 5 seconds to go... You'll either win it at the price you wanted to pay (or less), or not. Often leads to a good price, as there's no time for people to bid you up to your maximum. You'll never spend more than you have, or have the temptation to keep bidding.

AustrianJohn

Norwegian_Blue said:

Just decide how much you want to pay, and make that bid with 5 seconds to go... You'll either win it at the price you wanted to pay (or less), or not. Often leads to a good price, as there's no time for people to bid you up to your maximum. You'll never spend more than you have, or have the temptation to keep bidding.

What he said. There's no benefit to bidding early. It just gives others the chance to rethink what they're willing to bid. If your nerves (and internet connection) are up to it wait until the last 2 seconds, as that gives other bidders (and robots) less chance to respond.

Gadgie

Frizer said:

Mrs is obsessed with sniping as you can always be outbid by £1 if you don't. Personally I favour setting your price when you're calm and then bidding whenever. The worst is when people bid in increments to find where your max is and then withdraw their bids and wait until the auction ends to snipe.

WHAT???!!!!! How can this be?

Voxman

AustrianJohn said:

Norwegian_Blue said:

Just decide how much you want to pay, and make that bid with 5 seconds to go... You'll either win it at the price you wanted to pay (or less), or not. Often leads to a good price, as there's no time for people to bid you up to your maximum. You'll never spend more than you have, or have the temptation to keep bidding.

What he said. There's no benefit to bidding early. It just gives others the chance to rethink what they're willing to bid. If your nerves (and internet connection) are up to it wait until the last 2 seconds, as that gives other bidders (and robots) less chance to respond.

But isn't that what sniping does ie it automatically holds back your (up to max) bid until the last few seconds so you don't have to sit by your computer? 

Norwegian_Blue

Voxman said:

AustrianJohn said:

Norwegian_Blue said:

Just decide how much you want to pay, and make that bid with 5 seconds to go... You'll either win it at the price you wanted to pay (or less), or not. Often leads to a good price, as there's no time for people to bid you up to your maximum. You'll never spend more than you have, or have the temptation to keep bidding.

What he said. There's no benefit to bidding early. It just gives others the chance to rethink what they're willing to bid. If your nerves (and internet connection) are up to it wait until the last 2 seconds, as that gives other bidders (and robots) less chance to respond.

But isn't that what sniping does ie it automatically holds back your (up to max) bid until the last few seconds so you don't have to sit by your computer? 

Ah, but where's the fun in that? It's almost like you never eBay'd in the first place

Gadgie

I thought that was just automatic bidding or proxy bidding...or something like that. That's the way I bid for things now. Look at what it is and think what I think it's worth and use that as my max bid...sit back and let the auction run its course.

SonicScythe

...................

Voxman

Gadgie said:

I thought that was just automatic bidding or proxy bidding...or something like that. That's the way I bid for things now. Look at what it is and think what I think it's worth and use that as my max bid...sit back and let the auction run its course.

I think there's a difference. With a max bid, the system ups your bid each time you're outbid, so other bidders can see your bids, think about it and raise it.  With sniping, there's no 'bidding trail' - just a last second bid up to your max bid. So, in theory, it can catch other non-sniping bidders by surprise.  The sniping bid is much faster than you can manually input.  Even if you saw the bid go up and in the last seconds made a further bid, if the sniping max bid is higher it will always instantly react and bid automatically.  Sniping never runs out of time, but a person manually inputting in the last seconds can. 

SonicScythe

.....................

Bridgehouse

Sod's first Law of EBay - you will be sniped by £1 when bidding, but no one will snipe and raise the price when you are selling.

SonicScythe

.................

Voxman

SonicScythe said:

imalrightjack said:

It sounds like your experience says yes. But I don't get the negative connotations of the 'sniping' tag. Put your best price in and hope you get it. It's more sensible in many ways than the last thirty second whirlwind​ of 'I will not be beaten' price ramps and purchase regrets. 

From recent experience it says no, though I do agree with you about sniping having an unfair negative connotation. At the end of the day the person who wins does so because they were prepared to pay more, not because of when they said they'd pay more.

Ultimately this is true of course, but its a simplification and is only valid where max bids aren't changed.  If someone sees the bidding going up or has missed a similar item they might then reassess their max bid.  With sniping, they don't see your bidding trail because it doesn't bid til the last seconds, and thus they might not increase their max bid and its because of this human/psychological aspect that sniping can have an advantage.  

axisus

Voxman said:

Gadgie said:

I thought that was just automatic bidding or proxy bidding...or something like that. That's the way I bid for things now. Look at what it is and think what I think it's worth and use that as my max bid...sit back and let the auction run its course.

I think there's a difference. With a max bid, the system ups your bid each time you're outbid, so other bidders can see your bids, think about it and raise it.  With sniping, there's no 'bidding trail' - just a last second bid up to your max bid. So, in theory, it can catch other non-sniping bidders by surprise.  The sniping bid is much faster than you can manually input.  Even if you saw the bid go up and in the last seconds made a further bid, if the sniping max bid is higher it will always instantly react and bid automatically.  Sniping never runs out of time, but a person manually inputting in the last seconds can. 

Actually sniping does run out of time! If 5 people snipe the same auction there is only one winner. I used to work with someone who sniped a lot and she often found it very frustrating. I just put the most I'm prepared to pay in the last minute and if I win I win, if I lose I lose. I think you should never bid early and show interest.

Whitecat

Bidding early can be useful if the seller has an "or buy it now" option you want to in effect "cancel." BIN disappears when there are bids. 

RiftAmps

I like to look for items where the seller can't spell, then usually no one else finds the listing and you pick it up pretty cheaply.

For example, I just bought a Tektronix oscilloscope for a 10th of the going rate because the seller advertised it as 'Techtronicks'

UnclePsychosis

I love all this " I hate losing by £1 so I snipe" stuff. I can only assume that people still don't understand how eBay bidding works? 

For all you know the other guy's max bid was £100s more than yours, just because the sale price is only a little higher means nothing.