Do any of you bid early on ebay?

Never, ever, everrrrrr. Pointless. All it does is raise amounts early, as I see it. I always wait until the last few, precious seconds.
 
I say just choose your maximum and input it with 5 seconds to go...then cross your fingers, toes and testicles and see what happens!
 
@operator1975, I think your right, I just looked at the bid history of an axe and saw that the first two bidders looked like they were bidding on similar items. Maybe the seller has different accounts to drive up their prices.
 
It could be. I know it's an issue that's been brought up to eBay and one they are working on. I feel it's rampant on the site.
 
Of course bidders on an item are bidding on other similar auctions. Why would that be abnormal? You haven't ever bid on two different items of the same category at the same time? Not to say price driving doesn't go on.

An interesting variant to the auction style eBay uses: Some sites reset the auction clock to ten minutes if a bid is made within the last ten minutes. This eliminates bidder frenzy and usually encourages more accurate prices on valuable objects.
 
@jpeeler, the two bidders were bidding on unusual items but they were almost identical. The two bidders were bidding on axes, womens boots and womens sweaters. A bit too unusual to be coincidence, could be though
 
I have tried to buy some Hawks on EBay, there are a couple makers who do not take orders and just sell there, the makers who also sell or take orders on a web site usually get much more if they sell by auction because of the "I'll win at all cost mentality" . I usually get sniped at the last minute by someone who is willing to pay retail plus for an item. I have found a couple custom hawk makers that I will deal with, and in the last couple days have bought four semi custom hawks for about the cost of one "EBay" custom, and these makers will do total custom one off work with a deposit, I'm just waiting on the test orders to show up to check quality etc. I will still shop EBay, sometimes you can find some really eclectic stuff no one wants.
 
Please enlighten me why you wait for the last 5 seconds? If someone is willing to pay higher than your maximum bid you will lose. How does bidding earlier drive up the price? Just bid once, your highest bid, and ebay will automatically increase your bid up to that point. That way you don't get excited and start bidding higher than you really want to pay because someone outbid you at the last moment. If anything "auction fever" goes on during the last seconds.

From the article:
"I'll be honest: when I see an item with no bids in the search results, human nature is to think there's something wrong with it.

If I see something with 25 bids, I'll check it out out of curiosity."

I don't think that at all, in fact I've never looked at the number of bids when searching for something. Usually lots of bids means there's lots of interest and that the price will therefore be higher.
 
Last edited:
Yeah that's what I'm talking about.

Again, from that article:
"If I had done the right thing, and not early-bid (or bid at all), I would have saved this nut hundreds of dollars.

If I had bid at the last second, this nut wouldn't have seen my bid, and I would have paid many hundreds of dollars less than he did."

...what?
 
When an item comes up and I want it, I will place a max bid which is my budget. I do this early on because I don't have the time to wait until the last minute and start driving up the price to see if I get the high bid. Most of the time when the bidding time ends, for me, it's not when I'm able to see the final few minutes. I'm in Central Time and I think eBay is Pacific Time. If I really want the item and am willing to pay above premium price, then my max bid will be so stupidly high that I'll get it and really don't care what anyone else bids. I've only done that twice and both times got the item. Only because, that's what I was willing to pay.
 
I do pretty much exactly what Ajack60 does, but every situation is different. Sometimes I bid early, sometimes I wait. Frankly though, I hate getting sniped, so I try not to do it to other people. I prefer an honest account of what you're willing to pay, and if I'll pay more, then I win. Should be simple as that, not this bidding game.
 
jpeeler said:
I do pretty much exactly what Ajack60 does, but every situation is different. Sometimes I bid early, sometimes I wait. Frankly though, I hate getting sniped, so I try not to do it to other people. I prefer an honest account of what you're willing to pay, and if I'll pay more, then I win. Should be simple as that, not this bidding game.
Click to expand...

If ill pay more is precisely the bidding game.
 
I think jpeeler and I play it the same. I may bid early if I want to get the email alerts- sucker bid, lowball. Or I may bid my max if I will be away from PC near auction end. I do not use sniping software- my choice.

I was one of the bidders on the recent trio of connecticuts that went high, more $$ than I had to spend so I lost, sucks but then so do many things in life. Recently lost two Rix for 1 dollar each in the final seconds, one other guy had more to spend than I did.

Bill
 
I start with a small bid so the ebay will remind me that im bidding near the end.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top