e-bay's internal bidding system, comments please

[deh333]

As you will be able to tell from this very basic question, I'm new to e-bay bidding. I'm curious about e-bay's internal bidding program. E-bays instructions say that I can place my hightest bidding amount and that they will bid on my behalf, in small increments, up to my high bid. Does it work well? It appears to me that at times one bidder is outbidding themselves, sometimes over and over. What is that about?? Yes, I do know that I can use a sniping program if I choose to.

 

[johnmfaeth]

Hi,

Sniping is by far the best approach. i use bidlammer.com but most are about the same. I'm delighted with them

If you want to do "proxy" bidding, it works just fine and I've had over 700 transactions in 7.5 years. About 2/3 of these were purchases. Never had a situation where it didn't work 100% as advertised.

When you see in the bid history a bunch of bids from one person, they are manually putting in one bid after another against someone who has set a proxy (maximum) bid.

 

[deh333]

so, the manual bid is the one we see. The proxy bid is unseen. But, the manual bid will be "top" bid when the proxy bid has reached its max??

 

[Giselherr]

As you will be able to tell from this very basic question, I'm new to e-bay bidding. I'm curious about e-bay's internal bidding program. E-bays instructions say that I can place my hightest bidding amount and that they will bid on my behalf, in small increments, up to my high bid. Does it work well? It appears to me that at times one bidder is outbidding themselves, sometimes over and over. What is that about?? Yes, I do know that I can use a sniping program if I choose to.

It works great for the seller, but as a bidder/buyer I recommed using a sniping program. A sniping program has one valuable feature (at least for me): it forces you to set a firm maximum bid to put in as your snip. If someone else is also sniping, he or she may have a higher maximum and they will win the auction, but you, at least, will not get caught up in a bidding war.

One bidder appearing to be outbidding himself is a result of ebay's "proxy" bidding program. To illustrate: I put in my maximum bid, say of $200.00 for a watch that had a starting bid amount of .99 cents. If no one else bids on it I will get the item for .99 cents, if someone else bids $25.00, ebay will automatically bid $26.00 on my behalf, if someone else comes and bids $27.00 ebay will then bid $28.00 on my behalf. All of the bids placed on my behalf will show up on the bid history page as having been placed at the time of my original bid. That is probably what you are seeing.

 

[bnoble]

Here is the theory behind sniping:

Often, you'll see people "nibbling the bid"; just trying to bump up by small increments. The amount they are willing to pay is often much higher, but they never bid that amount, thinking that they can "get a better deal" by bidding lower and hoping. Defering your bid until the last second doesn't give the nibbler a chance to place their true-value bid---the auction ends before that happens, and you get the property at a lower-than-fair price.

At the same time, there might be a bidder who really wants something, and in the heat of wanting pays an amount that, in the cold light of the next morning, they regret. Not disclosing your bid until very late prevents such emotional reactions, ensuring that someone else won't pay a higher-than-fair price, leaving you looking for the next auction.

Put simply, sniping works great against the uninformed and irrational bidder.

On the other hand, if the only bidders are those who are rationally valuing the property, then the bidding process works exactly as you'd expect, and the resulting price is "fair". Sniping isn't quite so advantageous in this case---even if the other bidders are not bidding at the last second.

 

[trice01]

Basic Idea

You can't really outbid yourself, unless you keep rebidding to reach a reserve. Once you've placed your maximum bid, eBay will automatically reenter bids for you against other bidders until your max is reached. Once someone exceeds your bid, you're out.
What you may be seeing in bid histories is people who repeatedly enter bids which are less than someone else's maximum, and they keep getting outbid notices until they outbid the current high bidder.

 

[AwayWeGo]

"Proxy Bidding" May Be A Funny Name For It, But It Works.

It appears to me that at times one bidder is outbidding themselves, sometimes over and over. What is that about?

That 1 bidder might be automatically outbidding other bidders over & over, via eBay's system of "proxy bidding." Or that bidder could be rebidding each time somebody else puts in a higher bid. The eBay system of "proxy bidding" eliminates the need to keep rebidding manually every time somebody else puts in a higher bid on an item.

Say I want an eBay points timeshare for a maximum of $350. I see 1 I like that's only up to $55.52. I could wait till the closing seconds & snipe in my maximum bid of $350. Or I could go on the Internet & get eSnipe to do it for me. Or, I can just go ahead & bid my full maximum bid amount -- $350 -- right at the start.

I do that & -- POW! -- I'm the high bidder, but my high bid stands at $100, not at just 1 bid increment over the $55.52 that was shown as high bid when I clicked in my $350. That means somebody else's earlier proxy bid was up in the high 90s -- even though only $55.52 was showing -- & it took my bid of $350 to outbid the previous high bidder's hidden "proxy" amount.

Now I'm high bidder with $100 showing. Other people may bid me up 1 bid increment at a time or several bid increments at a time. But when the dust settles, I win the auction at $152.52 -- even though I was proxied in up to my maximum of $350 -- because in that example nobody else bid more than $150.02 so I get my eBay points timeshare for $152.52.

Click here for a real-life story about how I sniped in manually during the closing seconds of an eBay auction & snagged an outstanding Floating Diamond 3BR lock-off timeshare.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[deh333]

Thanks to all for their replies.

Giselherr - thanks for your detailed explanation. I did not think to look at the numbers lower on the page.

Alan Cole - Thanks for your sniping story.

Now I have a last minute sniping story for you . . . I was patiently waiting to do a last minute, real-woman snipe on e-bay. Down to the last 3 minutes. My lovely daughter was hanging around so I asked her to add-up some numbers for me. The piece of paper I handed to her fell on the floor. I used my foot to move it and, darned if my foot did not disconnect a computer wire!! Took me 5 (very slow) minutes to re-do everything (I knew what I was doing, it really just took the whole time). I'll never know if my bid was going to win, but the winning bid was the 5 minute out bid that I was going to try to beat!! Maybe the gods intervened and there's something better out there! Gotta think something like that!!

 

[LLW]

What's happening when you see 2 bids of the same amount by 2 different bidders, but one on top of the other?

Also, if a snipe gets entered at the last second with proxy bids, and the existing top bid also has proxy bids, does the bidding by the ebay system continues until the higher maximum bid gets entered, or does it stop at the exact prescribed ending time?

Thanks!

 

[AwayWeGo]

Snipe, Shmype.

What's happening when you see 2 bids of the same amount by 2 different bidders, but one on top of the other?

When there are 2 bids of the same amount, the bid that gets there soonest is the 1 that counts. Any bids of the same amount coming in a split-second later are no good.

Also, if a snipe gets entered at the last second with proxy bids, and the existing top bid also has proxy bids, does the bidding by the ebay system continues until the higher maximum bid gets entered, or does it stop at the exact prescribed ending time?

All those snipes & proxy bids -- if any -- sort themselves out rapid-fire during the closing seconds of the eBay auction. Last-second sniping alone won't win unless the amount of the last-second bid is not only higher than everybody else's snipes but also higher than all "proxy" bids already in the system for that item.

With all those automatic snipe services out there & a growing population of savvy operators hip to the ins & outs of eBay, the competitive edge gained simply by sniping is bound to be shrinking. To win eBay auctions, the bottom line is bidding more than everybody else -- regardless of whether that's early, late, or sometime in between.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[LLW]

Thanks, Alan!

 

[Giselherr]

When there are 2 bids of the same amount, the bid that gets there soonest is the 1 that counts.

To be absolutely correct: it is the bid that is placed earliest that counts, so if you put in your snipe say on Dec 5 at X hour for 200.00 that will trump any bid of 200.00 placed after Dec 5 at X hour. It surprises me that this seems to apply to snipe bids external to eBay, not just eBay proxy bids.

With all those automatic snipe services out there & a growing population of savvy operators hip to the ins & outs of eBay, the competitive edge gained simply by sniping is bound to be shrinking. To win eBay auctions, the bottom line is bidding more than everybody else -- regardless of whether that's early, late, or sometime in between.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

That's the benefit to sniping - it forces you to set a firm maximum price and to stick to it. I make it a rule for myself to set the snipe price and then I rely on the system to tell me if I have won or not. I do NOT monitor the course of the auction.