HOW did I lose this ebay auction?

[alex71]

Now, I'm not new to ebay, but this situation has happened to me before, and it has never made sense. I put in the winning bid a couple of seconds before closing, but was outbid by the same bid, that was placed days earlier, but appears later in the list....

see below, these are the bids in the last few seconds: my bid is the second line...

Bidders:12Bids:19Time Ended:Jan-22-10 19:30:12 PSTDuration:7 days
Sorry, you were outbid. This item sold for US $300.00
Only actual bids

Bidder Bid Amount Bid Time
l***l( 29Feedback score is 10 to 49) US $300.00
Jan-21-10 16:26:02 PST

rover-71( 378Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $300.00
Jan-22-10 19:30:10 PST

a***c( 170Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $266.00
Jan-22-10 19:29:40 PST

a***c( 170Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $252.00
Jan-22-10 19:29:20 PST

a***c( 170Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $236.00
Jan-22-10 19:28:48 PST

a***c( 170Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $226.00
Jan-22-10 19:28:24 PST

Link to listing: http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=250564263799

 

[swgray]

I didn't look at the auction, but earlier bid of two equal bid amounts wins.
If you would have bid $300.01 and the other was $300, you would have won.

I always add a few cents onto a bid.

 

[Torque1st]

Earliest bid wins. You would have had to bid at least $305 to win.

 

[Torque1st]

A bid must go over the bid increment.

 

[alex71]

Looking over the list again, with the automatic bids shown, I see what happened. the winning bidder placed his bid one day ago, and the system auto bid for him after I put in mine. the timestamp on the winning bid is just confusing.

 

[Torque1st]

????????????????

 

[Charles (in GA)]

The auto bid step up is in pre specified increments. However, if you specify am odd maximum to start with, say $300.33 the computer will go to your max if need be, even if it is not a full $5 (or whatever the increment happens to be). I've done this more than once. I always specify odd cents and sometimes odd dollars, Instead of $250 I might specify $253.53.

Charles

 

[ihredo4]

In this situation $300.01 would have won this sale. Even though someone bid $300.00 before hand. The next high bid was $266. The next step would have been $271, $276, etc. But because of a bid going in at $300.01 and the $5 increments the last bid would have been $295.01 thus the $300.01 would have won. It is kind of a gray area but that is all that makes sense to me. Not sure if I explained this quite right.

 

[48548]

Yep his proxy bid was either more than yours beause he bid say 350 and won it for 300, or because you didn't reach the next bid increment of 305. I had this happen a few times, I felt I bid what I was willing to do and walked away... Try like the others said above and I figure 5 dollars usually won't make me think twice so I am willing to go maybe up to 5 more like 304.99 or so or 303.99.

 

[alex71]

... I felt I bid what I was willing to do and walked away....

That's exactly what I did. I put that max into my sniping software when the auction only had a 9.99 bid a week ago. Even spending $300 on that set was a stretch for me, although to buy those new from a dealer would be a lot more.

 

[48548]

The problem I have is after I always wondered a 1.20 more and would I have won... What was their max bid as it doesn't tell you....

 

[alex71]

that's just the nature of ebay. whoever is second never loses by much. I can live with it.

 

[Adam McLaughlin]

YEAH, I won that set of metric flank drive plus wrenches earlier this week by bidding 166.66 and that was the winning bid, so..... Similar thing.

Adam

 

[Red Green]

It says somewhere on ebay if their is a tie bid the first person to place the bid is the winner.

What happen is the computer doesn't show every bid increment that the winner placed. On Jan-21-10 16:26:02 PST the winner placed a $300 maximum bid. The computer dosen't list every time it was rasied automaticly. Your 300 dollar bid pushed his to the max but wasn't higher so he won.

 

[alex71]

oh well, at least i made someone else pay. muahahahaha!

 

[M900]

This thread is hilarious....

 

[Stick Figure]

I hate to give out the strategy here, but its pretty easy to figure out someones max bid. If bid increment is $5 and current bid is say $250 you bid and odd number say 256.43 or something like that. If the current bid jumps to $261.43 you have to keep going, if however it stops at $260.00 that is the max bid they put in, and your next bid will be the current high bidder.

 

[alex71]

I hate to give out the strategy here, but its pretty easy to figure out someones max bid. If bid increment is $5 and current bid is say $250 you bid and odd number say 256.43 or something like that. If the current bid jumps to $261.43 you have to keep going, if however it stops at $260.00 that is the max bid they put in, and your next bid will be the current high bidder.

Yes, except if they increase their bid after that. you won't know it until you're outbid.

I don't know about you, but I don't have the kind of time to babysit auctions that way. I just put my max into the sniping software, and leave. Next time I'll add $1.67 though

 

[evintho]

When I was building Thunderstang, I knew I was going to be bidding on Ebay quite a bit. Therefore, I purchased a 'sniper' program. It was $50 per year. I used it for a couple of years and NEVER lost an auction unless the bidding went over what I was willing to pay! I probably bid on 75-80 auctions and won almost all of them.

Search Ebay and find what you're looking for. Open the sniper program and plug in the maximum amount you're willing to pay. Hit enter and come back in a week to see what you've won! The program will bid in increments and at the end it will enter bids in micro-seconds before the end of auction. Sometimes I paid my maximum amount but many times I paid way under what I was willing to pay. IMHO, well worth the $50 per year! I'll probably use it again this year when searching for T parts!

 

[Kev442]

First personal rule of epay: Never bid in even increments like 5.00 or 300.
Second personal rule of epay: Never bid 9.98, 10.00 will win. Bid 10.17
Third personal rule of epay: bid enough to be able to live with losing, but don't go past that amount. Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda will keep you awake at night otherwise!
Fourth personal rule of epay: Another one will be along if you lose, sooner or later

Murphys law of epay: After you win an auction, a better, nicer one will sell for less!

 

[TAMPAGT07]

Got a quick queston: When an auction site has a 15 minute rule, does sniper software have an advantage? Or is there any kind of software that will somehow give you an advantage?

 

[wesmamyke]

I hear you on the nicer one selling for less after you win something....every single time.

 

[48548]

The other thing is for sniping programs, I use auctionsentry and it really is cheap, they don't charge for winning... Here is the cost and you set the time to place the bid, I use 3 seconds, but you can say 2 or less... The problem when I lose is because someone was willing to pay more than me or bid more than me. Here is the cost of the software, also I don't have anything to do with the company, just been a happy user for over 6 years...

Three Year License - $28.95 - only $9.65 per year - save 25%
Two Year License - $21.95 - only $10.98 per year - save 15%
One Year License - $12.95

https://www.auctionsentry.com/index.htm

 

[Elroy]

After you win an auction, a better, nicer one will sell for less!

Regardless, That looks like a nice set of "thin" wrenches.

Sorry you lost out. Those would be a nice additional to anyone's collection

 

[TAMPAGT07]

Originally Posted by hholmberg
BTW: I also met Elroy years ago, I was not at all impressed with him, the guy was like a talking potted plant!

Hey Elroy, what kind of potted plant are you? I think I'd be very impressed with a talking plant.

 

[Elroy]

You'll have to ask Buck

 

[tonydanzah]

Because I won it!!!!!!!

 

[Shadowdog500]

First personal rule of epay: Never bid in even increments like 5.00 or 300.
Second personal rule of epay: Never bid 9.98, 10.00 will win. Bid 10.17
Third personal rule of epay: bid enough to be able to live with losing, but don't go past that amount. Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda will keep you awake at night otherwise!
Fourth personal rule of epay: Another one will be along if you lose, sooner or later

Murphys law of epay: After you win an auction, a better, nicer one will sell for less!

+1, but I add another rule. If possible always wait until the last five seconds to bid. I once bid a couple dollars and some change over $1,200 for something a whole minute before it closed. During that last minute I got to watch someone take the price from just under $400 to $1,200 in the minimum bid increments. It took him the whole minute to do it. I still got the item for my max bid, but if I would have waited till the last second I probably would have saved over half a grand. If the other guy followed these rules, and just entered his max bid, there is a good chance he would have won.

Chris

 

[tonydanzah]

+1, but I add another rule. If possible always wait until the last five seconds to bid. I once bid a couple dollars and some change over $1,200 for something a whole minute before it closed. During that last minute I got to watch someone take the price from just under $400 to $1,200 in the minimum bid increments. It took him the whole minute to do it. I still got the item for my max bid, but if I would have waited till the last second I probably would have saved over half a grand. If the other guy followed these rules, and just entered his max bid, there is a good chance he would have won.

Chris

you never know if that guy was shill bidding, he could have been just doing minimum increments to max out your bid and get the most monies

 

[Shadowdog500]

you never know if that guy was shill bidding, he could have been just doing minimum increments to max out your bid and get the most monies

You never know if anyone is shill bidding, but I learned my lesson to wait till the last second so it don't happen again.


Chris

 

[Shadowdog500]

Got a quick queston: When an auction site has a 15 minute rule, does sniper software have an advantage? Or is there any kind of software that will somehow give you an advantage?

I don't think sniping software would be much of an advantage on an auction with a 15 minute rule. The big advantage of sniping is that the other person don't have the time to enter a higher bid if they were dumb enough not to enter their max bid in the first place(see rule 3). The 15 minute rule gives these bidders adequate time to slowly work up to their max bid one bid increment at a time.

I really don't know why most people like to work up to their max price one increment at a time instead of just posting their max bid. Sometimes I think they are in the mindset of an old fashioned auction where the auctioneer works the price up one bid at a time. Whatever their reason, I'm glad they do it, because it saves me money, and wins auctions that I may have lost otherwise.


Chris

 

[alex71]

Regardless, That looks like a nice set of "thin" wrenches.

Sorry you lost out. Those would be a nice additional to anyone's collection

Yep, it sure was a nice set. the rare thing about it is the completeness...23 pieces. Oh well, another will come along. Not like I have a shortage of wrenches anyway

 

[TAMPAGT07]

I really don't know why most people like to work up to their max price one increment at a time instead of just posting their max bid. Sometimes I think they are in the mindset of an old fashioned auction where the auctioneer works the price up one bid at a time. Whatever their reason, I'm glad they do it, because it saves me money, and wins auctions that I may have lost otherwise.


Chris

If the seller knows what your max bid is, couldn't he have a third party bid right up to your max amount to get a higher price for the item?

 

[Shadowdog500]

If the seller knows what your max bid is, couldn't he have a third party bid right up to your max amount to get a higher price for the item?

How would the seller know your max bid??? I cant think of any auction that shows max bids on an active auction to anyone, even the seller.

Chris

 

[TAMPAGT07]

How would the seller know your max bid??? I cant think of any auction that shows max bids on an active auction to anyone, even the seller.

Chris

Ohhh, I always thought the seller could look at what your bid was. Actually, I never sold anything on Ebay, I have only bought. Thanx for clearing that up.

 

[PowderKeg]

Since I've been stuck with dial-up for the past while and can't trust the connection for "traditional" final seconds bidding, I've been using Gixen for free sniping in the 'bay:

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

And I'll still wait till the closing minute to bid in a 15 minute auction like GunBroker, even though the time gets extended. For one, you never know if the other bidder is watching those closing minutes, and two, bidding early only increases the possibility of a nimrod (with no clue of what it's worth to them) coming along and nickle 'n diming up to/over your limit.

 

[evintho]

Got a quick queston: When an auction site has a 15 minute rule, does sniper software have an advantage? Or is there any kind of software that will somehow give you an advantage?

The 15 minute rule doesn't apply to sniper programs. I used PowerSnipe and was very pleased with it!

http://www.powersnipe.com/

 

[Shadowdog500]

The 15 minute rule doesn't apply to sniper programs.

Please explain. I thought any bid reset the 15 minute clock. How would a bid placed by your sniper program not reset the clock?

I know someone who buys on Gunbroker all the time. He always complains that he spends allot of time placing minimum bids one at a time during the overtime session. That still don't make sense to me because I would just place my maximum bid, then I would become a spectator. The only thing I would change is that I would probably place my max bid at 16 minutes before the auction ended so the auction would not go into overtime if no one else was watching. I figure this would close the auction in the shortest possible time.

Chris

 

[evintho]

The sniper program bids at the last possible second. If an auction is scheduled to end at 23:00:00 and the sniper program bids at 22:59:58, why would it reset the clock for 15 minutes? If that were the case, the seller could get 7-8 sniper bids in the last couple of seconds, the clock would reset 15 minutes for every bid and the auction would continue for another couple of hours!

Try PowerSnipe. They have a 30 day money back guarantee. If it doesn't work for you, simple cancel within 30 days and receive your money back.

 

[Toolhorder]

You're complaining yet you use sniper software? LMAO.

I hate bid snipers BTW so I can't give you any sympathy.