Ohhhhhhhh Noooooooooo!!!

[ChristopherCoy]

I HATE being scooped on eBay!!!! I've watched this monolight for two friggin days! Even set an alarm clock this morning to get up and bid... And I was scooped in the last FIFTEEN seconds! It went from $180 to $260 in the last few seconds, and all I got out of it was a wasted adrenaline dump...

ETA: it was a photogenic 600 w/s powerlight.

[hotshot38]

I think the official term is 'sniped' ..and there are many programs that you can setup to auto-snipe for you. Or at least you could. I haven't bought or sold anything on ebay in at least 3 yrs.

[S-Man]

Originally Posted by ChristopherCoy

...and all I got out of it was a wasted adrenaline dump...

I wonder why that happens...I get the same thing. It's weird, I mean, it's just an item...The human body is a strange place.

[wilded]

I set what price I am willing to pay and put it in an auto snipe program that bids for me in the last 5 seconds. Sometimes I win sometimes I lose, that's why they call it an auction.

[srwatters]

http://www.auctionstealer.com

Works for me.

[RKEnnis]

Yeah, an auto-bidder is a must have when trying to get that highly desirable item at the last second.

Saves the nerves, and software is much better than a human for bidding at the last second!

I've been using JBidwatcher on the Mac

[wilded]

Using a bid sniper also keeps you from getting caught up in the emotion of the auction and bidding more than an item is worth to you. Not that I would ever do that. :)

[Jeff_Green]

I hate people who set up the sniping programs. If you want it, put the effort into winning it fair and square instead of having a program doing for you when you don't have the interest in keeping up with it on your own. Oh well.

[dbphotos]

I use eSnipe.com. You tell it the most you are willing to pay for an item and it bids for you in the last 6 seconds. Like said before you can make an itelligent bid without getting caught up in the emotion of competitive bidding. You can always make changes before the bidding stops too.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

The question is would you have been willing to have paid $265? $295? $300 for the light? If yes you should have put in a higher maximum bid and forced the other guy to pay more -higher it gets the less likely you will feal sad that you lost, BTW there had to be 2 other bidders to get that price $80 above your bid because if it was just one then it would have gone for $185 or so.

[Flea77]

I agree with Paul, if you just put the max you are willing to pay right off the bat there is no need for a sniping program at all. You either win, or it goes for more than you are willing to pay, just that simple.

Allan

[wilded]

Originally Posted by Flea77

I agree with Paul, if you just put the max you are willing to pay right off the bat there is no need for a sniping program at all. You either win, or it goes for more than you are willing to pay, just that simple.

Allan

I used to do that until I saw that I lost many auctions by $1.00 You expose your bid if you bid your top amount. If you want to win any hot item you play the game or lose. JMHO

[miffed67]

No, you don't....your max amount will not push the current price up to whatever that dollar amount you put in was. eBay's system increases the price by $.50 or $1.00 depending on what the current value is, and it will keep bidding for you until it reaches whatever your max amount was, at which time you can be outbid. A lot of auction buyers will inch it up (kinda like walking a bullet up to the target) until they find what your limit was, and then outbid you. That's why you've been losing by $1.00. I've done that myself many times, and I never use sniping programs. I've also set the highest price I'm willing to pay for something and walked away. If I win it, I win it...if not, then oh well, there will be plenty more where that came from. There's NO shortage of people selling whatever I'm looking for, the eBay market place is HUGE.

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by Jeff_Green

I hate people who set up the sniping programs. If you want it, put the effort into winning it fair and square instead of having a program doing for you when you don't have the interest in keeping up with it on your own. Oh well.

I dont buy from ebay very often, but when I do I watch the item very closely. If its nearing the end, and its still in my budget, I'll set an alarm an hour before the auction ends. Then I sit down at the computer 15 mins before the end and prepar to bid within the last 5. This time it got down to the last 15 seconds before everyone starting adding bids. It made a $50 jump in price at about 7 seconds left.

ChristopherCoy added 4 Minutes and 7 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Originally Posted by DEMDeepEllumMusic

The question is would you have been willing to have paid $265? $295? $300 for the light? If yes you should have put in a higher maximum bid and forced the other guy to pay more -higher it gets the less likely you will feal sad that you lost, BTW there had to be 2 other bidders to get that price $80 above your bid because if it was just one then it would have gone for $185 or so.

I wasn't willing to go over $200 for a light that old, which is why I quit bidding when it jumped. The way that I look at it, $180 was a deal. Once it got over $200 I could have just bought a brand new AB for nearly the same price, and had the comfort of a warrant as the first owner.

And there was at least 4 of us bidding... or at least I was, the other three could have been using programs, as thats what it sounds like according to the explanations above.

ChristopherCoy added 6 Minutes and 13 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Originally Posted by wilded

I used to do that until I saw that I lost many auctions by $1.00 You expose your bid if you bid your top amount. If you want to win any hot item you play the game or lose. JMHO

Not to mention the fact that if I do that... I may win an auction by paying $50, or $100 more than I would have had to if I just follow along attentively.

[C!LLY]

I just dont deal with ebay period. it isnt worth my time.