Secrets to winning ebay auctions

[sgarrity]

I've got a question. After bidding on numerous items over the last few years I've rarely won an auction. I always seem to get beat in the last 5 seconds by less than $100. Is there some kind of sniping software that people are using? What's the secret? Thanks for any info!

[sgarrity]

I just answered my own question. (Gotta love the Google! LOL) And the answer is yes. What a crock!! Now we have to pay for a service to win ebay auctions??

Is this what y'all are doing? Any recommendations?

[mrmando]

I use auctionstealer.com. Just the free version. Sometimes that's enough.

The other secret to winning eBay auctions is to bid on stuff no one else wants.

[Jim MacDaniel]

I use auctionsniper.com, but they only charge when I actually win an auction using their sniper, and it's a nominal fee -- especially compared to what the seller pays eBay between posting fees, final value fees, and PayPal fees.

(BTW, I unintentionally sniped an auction for a mini-Tele out from under Martin once using auctionsniper -- but I think that was before he was using auctionstealer. )

[MikeEdgerton]

I just sit and bid in the last few seconds of the auction, that's all the services do.

[allenhopkins]

The other secret to winning eBay auctions is to bid on stuff no one else wants.

My method exactly. Want to see my Polk-A-Lay-Lee?

The other method is to bid the limit of what you'll spend, realistically, and then if someone else outbids you, so be it. If you decide that used Eastman is worth $800, bid $800, watch the bidding approach that figure, and then if some sucker goes $850, that's more than you would have paid for it anyway.

It's so easy to get caught up in the excitement, and feel deflated when some sniper outbids you by $25 with one second to go, but that's how prices get inflated past reasonable levels. I've bought on eBay a Chinese tri-cone resonator guitar, a Chinese resonator ukulele, a Guitaro (Oscar Schmidt's mutant guitar-shaped Autoharp from the '70's), a Mexican Weissenborn copy, a "project"-to-playable Howe-Orme mandolinetto, a Merrill aluminum bowl-back mandolin, and the aforementioned Polk-A-Lay-Lee (a four-foot-long "surfer uke" from the '60's). Never gotten into a bidding war for a really desirable instrument, just "off" items and oddities. Now and again I get tempted, but so far no "big ticket" bidding.

[sgarrity]

I've gotten some good deals on ebay int he past but it's been at least 3-4 years ago. I usually bid the max I'm willing to pay. But what aggravates me, and I guess this is just the neature of the beast, is if I bid $1500 and then get beat int he last 5 seconds by $25. Would I pay $1525.....well sure. But oh well.....it's not like I "need" any more mandolins!! LOL

[Eddie Sheehy]

Beware the "I only lost out for less than $100" syndrome. If you had gone the extra $100 and still lost by "less than $100" would you bemoan the fact and wish you had gone an extra $200 or $300 or $nnn ? I'm with Allen, bid the max you are prepared to pay and if you win it then fine. There's a lot of things I have won by less than $100 margin that in hindsight I wish I had lost...

[MikeEdgerton]

There's a lot of things I have won by less than $100 margin that in hindsight I wish I had lost...

I am with you on that one.

[JeffD]

I've gotten some good deals on ebay int he past but it's been at least 3-4 years ago. I usually bid the max I'm willing to pay. But what aggravates me, and I guess this is just the neature of the beast, is if I bid $1500 and then get beat int he last 5 seconds by $25. Would I pay $1525.....well sure. But oh well.....it's not like I "need" any more mandolins!! LOL

Well I guess the thing to do is figure the most you would be willing to pay, then figure how much more someone could bid and you would feel like you lost out, and then add $26 to that. Thats your bid.



Creeping incrementalism in what you are willing to pay is a disease akin to MAS. When they are combined, its best to seek help.

[Tom C]

Just bid the max that you would for the item. Ebay increases by bidding by $10 for example until your max is hit. At least you will not sniped by somebody bidding with a less max than your max.

[Jim Garber]

I'm with Allen, bid the max you are prepared to pay and if you win it then fine.

That is what I like about the sniping software: you bid your max and then walk away. You are not caught in the emotional heat of a bidding war. Then open your computer after the auction is done and see if you won or not. I have won all sorts of stupid things on eBay that way.

The odd thing I have noticed was that some folks will wage a war to get an item that could be had easily from a non-ebay dealer for much less than they are paying. Esp odd (to me) are items that are readily available like new instruments (the aforementioned Eastman). The high bidder just has a competitive streak and goes ballistic.

[journeybear]

I've only ever won one big-ticket item - my 1917 plain A - and even at around $900 I can't say it was an incredible bargain, and have not understood how I got it. I do recall there was only one other person bidding on it, who may have gotten cold feet or fell asleep at the switch. In any event, there was not a huge bidding war - its condition is not perfect (but much better than "playable") and it's not an F model, so it may not have attracted a lot of interest. I had lost several auctions leading up to this, all of which went well over $1000, $1500 or more, and have seen plenty since go that high or higher, so in that context I feel pretty lucky. What I don't understand is the huge bid increase strategy - the bidding has been poking along and then suddenly jumps by an outsize amount. I wonder if that's supposed to scare "non-serious" bidders off, or if the seller or an accomplice is tring to drive the price up. When this happens days away from closing it just seems ill-conceived; I would think it more effective if done closer to the end.

I usually sit tight as long as I can, and try to get that last bid in as close to the final bell as possible. Sometimes it takes two windows to do this, plus having the computer's clock on top. Also, if I'm bidding on something replaceable, like a CD, I ALWAYS check the price at amazon or some such site and keep that price in mind. Why pay more for something that you could get any day of the week elsewhere?

[Jim Nollman]

and always pay close attention to shipping costs. Like the tool i saw last week with shipping of $65. The tool went for $32, probably to some sucker who never thought to pay attention, to understand why no one else was bidding.

[toddjoles]

I think the way to win ebay auctions is to NOT announce to the whole cafe by starting a thread that says "Hey guys look at this Mandolin I'm bidding on! Is this a good deal?"

[barney 59]

I guess it depends on what your looking for. I'm hunting vintage instruments that need some level of work or repair. I search for miss listings and listings by people who are somewhat new at it where the photos and such are not that attractive. I look for listings that close at odd hours. With that said I miss out most of the time. I've used snipping software and it doesn't seem to help much. All you can do is study the item you want to bid on and determine what it's value is to you and be there at least near the end.(You don't want to show your hand early but if you decide how far you will go you don't need to be there at the last second either.) I used to think of it as winning and losing but now I think of it as "buying at auction" and thinking that way helps control my impulse to attempt to win it anyway when it has passed what I predetermined I was willing to pay. Before I bid on something I've studied it for several days- searched for it from other vendors to determine what it's value is if I were to buy it from a reliable dealer. If I can purchase something from a dealer at a particular price I wouldn't pay more than about 2/3rds of that price on an online auction---3/4 tops. I've studied the feedback of the seller. I've probably asked questions of the seller, sometimes to find out something about the instrument, but also to get a take on the seller. I have won some really great stuff on ebay and the thing is if your looking for something specific and you miss this time-wait and one will come around again and maybe one time one falls through the hole and you get a great deal. I've worked on specific things for years before I score one and others I'm still waiting for the right deal. I'm always amazed at how sometimes you don't see a particular instrument for months and months and then one week there will be 4 of them at the same time.

[Rob Gerety]

I think the way to win ebay auctions is to NOT announce to the whole cafe by starting a thread that says "Hey guys look at this Mandolin I'm bidding on! Is this a good deal?"

You better believe it. Lay low. Snipe your absolute highest price in the last 5 seconds. Its the only way. Never, ever, bid before the last 5 seconds. That's just the way it is.

[Tom Sanderson]

The other method is to bid the limit of what you'll spend, realistically, and then if someone else outbids you, so be it. If you decide that used Eastman is worth $800, bid $800, watch the bidding approach that figure, and then if some sucker goes $850, that's more than you would have paid for it anyway

This is what I do. If I want something, I think about how high I will go, then I wait until the last minute or so before the end of the auction. Bid it and Forget it. I'm an auto mechanic. I buy all my Snap On tools on Ebay. I refuse to pay more than 1/2 price, so I look up the price on the Snap On site and bid 1/2 or less. I "win" about 1/2 the time.

[journeybear]

I think the way to win ebay auctions is to NOT announce to the whole cafe by starting a thread that says "Hey guys look at this Mandolin I'm bidding on! Is this a good deal?"

Really? But gee whiz, I was just trying to get some expert advice on this. You mean someone else would be interested too? Huh! Hadn't thought of that ...

In other words ... Really? Really!!! Don't go increasing the size of the competition. Whenever I post about something on ebay, it is for humor or genuine curiosity. It's safe to assume I'm not bidding on it. Really!

[jim simpson]

Last night I put in my best bid for an old Gibson A mandolin case. I was getting together with some bandmates for pickin' and wouldn't be home at the end of the auction. I would normally wait till the final moments to put in my bid and I didn't use a snipe service. My limit was $150.00 and I believe it went 2 more bids to end at $157.00. I guess I could have put in a limit of $200.00 and increased my chances but I'll try my luck next time. I didn't realize how much wider the old Gibson A's are compared to modern A's.

[bratsche]

Sometimes you can get lucky, if you're very patient, by creating eBay searches for items you're looking for or even mildly interested in, and keep them in open browser tabs sorted by "newly listed". Then you can refresh the searches as frequently as you like, looking in particular for extremely low-price "buy it now" deals. That is how I got my Flatiron N1 mandola ($250) and my Vega bowlback ($275), as well as a MidMo M-11 that I used to have ($200). I think I bought all three before anybody else had even seen them show up! There were no negative issues with any of them, or even any repaired cracks, and the MidMo was in completely pristine condition (I wish I had kept it!) I've also done that with quite a few non-musical items (just yesterday was the latest one, on an item I had "laid in wait for" for several weeks), as I use eBay a lot for shopping. If you're not sure what a decent price for an item is, you can research the subject beforehand, of course.

bratsche

[f5loar]

About 10 years ago I bought off ebay a DVD on "Secrets to winning ebay auctions" for $9.95 plus shipping of $3.95.
From the secrets I learned in that DVD I have been able to win at least 80% of the items I bid on. I don't use any automated services and most of the time I am there at the final seconds. Will I share those secrets with the cafe?
You gotta be kindin' !
Most post here about ebay items because they have some doubt about something about it and there is not a better place in the world to get a second opinion about anything mandolin then right here at the cafe. True you may conjure up some more bidders on your item but you would have gotten a better idea of what it is worth or what might be wrong about it. Take this ebay item below. You want a genuine Gibson F5 and you believed the seller on this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/GIBSON-F5-MANDOL...item4cecebe32f
Best to get that second opinion when in doubt.

[rgray]

I use esnipe and just bid the max I am willing to spend. If I am outbid I get an e-mail an hour or so before closure letting me know in case I want to up my bid, which I never do. If still in the hunt, my bid hits at 3 seconds before closing. If I win, I pay whatever incremental bid beats the next lowest bid up to my max bid. If I lose, I'm fine. I don't contribute to a bidding war that could continue for days and cause emotional bidding by myself or others.

[Hans]

I'm with toddjoles, and don't start threads like "Secrets to Winning ebay auctions".

[Ben Milne]

Hans down best post in this thread, Hans.