Why do people bid so early on ebay?

[sanchofyasko]

I wonder if some people are bitter about those who can afford the item 's final price and they get kicks out of raising the price. And perhaps they get an added thrill out of taking the risk that they might actually win something they can't afford. I mean, there are people who win auctions and never pay. This is a very cynical reason and personally I bid as late as possible but I think I can picture some people doing this, am I alone in this?

[MFH]

I honestly never got it, I'm always snipping in the last seconds? (without tools!)

[Raa]

Quite frankly I think eBay should move to open-ended bidding. IE: The auction ends 5 seconds after the last bid.

As a seller, I feel a lot of frustration that bid sniping occurs at the last second and I'm not getting my 'full monies worth' from a listing.

Equally, as a buyer, I also think the same way, I possibly could've won an auction and been willing to pay more if I wasn't outbid "at the last second".

Hence I tell everyone : Bid early, bid often. DON'T leave it to the last second.

[mattmatik]

I never buy more expensive items on eBay unless it's a Buy Now and the price is close to what I want to pay.

When it comes to bidding for lesser items, I just enter a max amount I feel I want to pay for the item. If someone pays more and I lose it, not a big deal I just find another auction.

I guess if you are someone who is always buying stuff on eBay or one who has to have the item, then pulling out scientific calculations will work for you. I guess I'm in the minority.

[HyBry]

I don't see anything wrong with it. I suppose it all comes down to you time constraints, budget as well as how important the item is.

There are a lot of people on e-bay that would just like the item, but are not too bothered about it. You enter the bid high enough and don't worry about it as long as you are willing to pay.

I mean the value of item should not change from amount of bidders and current price.

That said, it is stupid to enter bid of 100 2 days early for an item worth 500. That simply serves no purpose.

Therefore I think it does not matter if you snip or not. You set your limit as to how much you are willing to spend and as long it is that or below you got what you wanted.

Your limit should not change whether you snipped or not and it did not change for other highest bidder. Only way you pay less money is if snipper does not make it in time and that is not depended on wheter you did it or not.

My argument might not be valid if the item is something that you really want. Then you should have more relaxed budget and time to raise the bid.

[+DKAngel Subscriber²]

i bid early to jack the price up just for the hell of it, especially if its a bidding war, then i just leave and go find something else to bid on

[FMH]

Why do people bid so early on ebay?

Because it is addicting!

[HoochieMamma]

I usually bid in the last 10 seconds about $5-10 more if its a low price and I get it about 90% of the time unless someone else does the same thing haha

edit: jeeze this is an old thread, and I notice I even posted in it after posting this

[game_over]

This is how eBay works:

You see an item you want, and bid the maximum you're willing to pay for it. If you are willing to pay the most, you get the item, if not, you don't.

It shouldn't matter when you bid, as long as you bid the maximum you're willing to pay.

wouldn't that decrease your chances of winning the auction?

Surely if you put your maximum bid in straight away, and someone wants the item more or is willing to pay more then they will keep bidding throughout the auction to outbid you.. when they do that your out because you have already bet your maximum...

if i bid on something and keep being automatically outbid by someones maximum bid then i'm more likely to splash an extra few quid to try and beat them if it's close to the amount i'd want to pay for it..

i do it 50/50 i have a few bids early on/mid auction but save the main bidding until the last 30 seconds... if it's pretty cheap i'll throw 1 maximum bid in.

[Starbuck84]

I tend to think it has to do with how much you want the item. If you come across something you really want, you become excited and place a bid. Not only does it end up in your bidding list, it also alerts you when someone outbids you. Convenience is key here I think. But to call people naive or stupid just because they place a bid early... you might take a look in the mirror and start criticizing what you see there. No offence, but not everyone is the same.

[MillionVoltss]

But I must have the new Back To The Future trainers.

[Vice]

I wrote a program to bid for me at the last second of the auction. So I'm almost guaranteed to win the stuff I want. I'd say I win 3 out of 10 auctions due to the auto bidder, that is to say 7 times out of 10 I would have won anyway regardless because of other bidders not willing to meet my maximum. And 3 times out of 10 I win because I was able to get the last bid in before someone else.

There are programs written by other people that do this but most of them require you to enter your ebay account information in the program itself and I don't like that as these programs are accessing the internet and you don't know if they are forwarding your account information on to someone else. That is why I wrote my own.

Before this I would lose most of my auctions usually because right at the last 2-3 seconds someone else would outbid whatever my maximum bid was. I didn't like putting in the maximum amount I'm willing to pay because when people try and bid and notice your maximum bid is over theirs sometimes they see that as a challenge to outbid you and then what you've done is artificially inflated the price, this is why bidding with your maximum bid right at the last second is the best way to win as it doesn't give other people the chance to decide if they want to outbid you.

I've got some great deals on ebay this way. I got a Core i7 920 for my server half retail price. I got a HP SAS Expander Card for ?110 on there yesterday (brand new still in the box) retails for ?320. I've saved tons of money over the years using ebay and I never bid early.

[Cast Iron Leader]

Because they are idiots - only a idiot would start bidding on a item that's got days or even hours of auction time to go. I have browser plugins and standalone software on desktop and phone to do any bidding for me, even if I forget the auction is running. If I know that I really want something, like the Schwalbe Ice Spiker Tyres I recently won, then I already know how little I can get them for brand new - I could have paid ?38.39 each through Wiggle, but instead in the last 6 seconds JBidwatcher got them for me for ?25 each because I snipped them, at ?38.38 and it did all that for me while I was busy at work occupied by how to keep the wheels of industry running and not sat in front of my PC waiting for the auction to end.

I used to do the watch the auction bit, but since I've had software do the bidding and watching for me I have made some amazing savings and if anyone wants to bid more than me then they are quite welcome to whatever it is that's up for sale because I already know how little it costs elsewhere.

[Pikey]

If you are the only person bidding on a particular item , it doesn't matter when you put it in.

I've won several items on ebay with early bids , simply because there was no one else interested!

If there is competition and I *really* want to win , of course I leave it till the last 2 - 3 seconds!

[protocol7]

I usually bid within the last few minutes if I can (assuming the price is still within reason). But as Spielo said earlier if you want something and are prepared to pay more than anyone else for it, then it doesn't matter when you bid.

This is one pitfall people fall into when they get outbid at the last minute. There's no point bidding 50 for something with a few minutes to spare hoping for a bargain, if you would be prepared to go to 100 if pushed. Pick your price and go all-in. If you win that's great, if you don't then someone was willing to pay up more than you were. eBay will bid incrementally until it reaches your max bid.

[Southern Patriot]

that would be rational if you weren't engaging in a bidding war. ebay accepts a bid and will incrementally increase the bid until it reaches the ceiling you specify. in this sense, if you won't be around when the auction ends, you should put in your valuation and then hope for the best. if your valuation is the highest at this point, the price will go up only incrementally; and if your valuation isn't the highest, you would have lost anyway.

now, a bidding war (by the same people) suggests that people are putting in successive bids, which is irrational. there's no reason to not put in your real valuation.

As a frequent seller on eBay, I've never understood the logic of people who will get into a bidding war over an item. I've actually had people do that on items and actually drive the price well above what I had originally set as the Buy-It-Now price! The other thing I've never understood: sometimes I list items with ONLY a B-I-N price, and yet people put it on their watch list. Why??? If you are interested in the item at the price it is listed, then just ****ing buy it! If you don't buy it when you are looking at it, it is quite likely that it WON'T be there when you come back later.

[Charisma Veteran]

As a frequent seller on eBay, I've never understood the logic of people who will get into a bidding war over an item. I've actually had people do that on items and actually drive the price well above what I had originally set as the Buy-It-Now price! The other thing I've never understood: sometimes I list items with ONLY a B-I-N price, and yet people put it on their watch list. Why??? If you are interested in the item at the price it is listed, then just ****ing buy it! If you don't buy it when you are looking at it, it is quite likely that it WON'T be there when you come back later.

Well... at least you get to profit from people's stupidity, that's something (Y) I never understood that either. Boggles the mind. :blink:

[Southern Patriot]

Then i quickly realised i wasnt going to get that brand new sony laptop for 0.99p :p

That's the other thing that gets on my nerves as a seller. Serisously people, do you REALLY think that you are going to get something for 1 or 2% of its market value?? And yet, I get max bids in the $10 range for laptops, etc. all the time.

[Rudy]

When I used ebay I always put my bid at the end

[Southern Patriot]

edit: jeeze this is an old thread, and I notice I even posted in it after posting this

Oops, yeah. I didn't notice that either!!

[zeke009]

As a seller: I love it!

As a buyer: It drives me batty. But it does make me think about the item and whether I really need it. I determine my limit leading up to the last minute of the auction and then hope for the best.

[threetonesun]

As a frequent seller on eBay, I've never understood the logic of people who will get into a bidding war over an item. I've actually had people do that on items and actually drive the price well above what I had originally set as the Buy-It-Now price! The other thing I've never understood: sometimes I list items with ONLY a B-I-N price, and yet people put it on their watch list. Why??? If you are interested in the item at the price it is listed, then just ****ing buy it! If you don't buy it when you are looking at it, it is quite likely that it WON'T be there when you come back later.

I watch BIN items because if I'm picking something up off Ebay, I watch prices for a week or two before buying / bidding. If it's something rare or unusual, yeah, I'll just BIN before someone gets it, but when you're trying to get the best price on a mass market item, it's a good idea to keep tabs on a few and see if they sell or not rather than search for them every time. I do the same when selling to get the best value.

This is especially true of sporting or season items, as you can watch the BIN price of some things drop at the end of a season, or pick up just before. As for bidding early, I suppose I do that since I just plug in the price I want it at. If it doesn't pan out, I keep bidding elsewhere.

[Davo]

It's either the person who listed the auction trying to jack up the price or it's automatically being done by people who set up automatic ceiling bids.

[desjewers]

I agree as a seller it is great but never happens to me. As a buyer I have seen idiots bid for a used item for mor ethan the can get new as a "buy it now", stupid stupid stupid. These people need to understand what an acution is about. Keep your cards to your self until the last minute. I had these idiots...

[n_K]

Woo one post necrobump.

The fact you registered an account just to do that is even more win.