Bidding on eBay

This is not a 'Grumpy' moan, merely an observation.
I have been following an item on eBay  and it has had quite a lot of bids already, even though there are still two days to run.
Looking at the bidding pattern there are some people who, when an item is listed will place a bid. Then, when someone else places a bid that tops theirs they feel that they must place a higher bid straight away. All they are doing is pushing the price of the item higher and higher. It seems to me that the only bids that matter are those placed in the last few seconds of the bidding process. Anything else is merely pushing the price higher than it may normally go. This is all good if you are the seller, but pointless if you are hoping to buy a bargain.
There are programmes on the net designed to place your bid on eBay some 8 seconds before the item finishes. Yes, you have to decide your maximum bid, but at least this saves sitting in front of the screen checking the current bid amount. Remember that your maximum will not be bid if it is not necessary. Many times I have won an item for far less than the maximum I set.

Mick. 

I buy TONS of stuff from e-bay, BUT, I always watch & never bid, then make a point of looking-in about 10mins from the end, very often it gets silly, the numpties get into a bidding frenzy & end up paying more than it can be bought elsewhere, I place my max & NEVER go above it.

I forgot my ebay or was  it ebuyer login details so never buy anything from them.

If I want anything from Yorkshire it's not too far to drive there.

Regards
Fred

I "won" my BMW R100 by slipping the winning bid in seconds before the auction ended. The previous high bidder was not amused though.Shame about that.   

Bid once and bid your max I never get into a bidding war, once I'v decided on how much to bid on an item I use these http://www.auctionstealer.co.uk . Cant believe how many times I'v noticed people bid more on ebay than they could have paid just by doing a little searching.

I never bid early seems a waste to me and as has been said puts the price up, I wait until the very last few seconds, always "won" when I was bidding that way. I also sell I am surprised how many have bid when an item I have listed has only been there a matter of minutes when I list it for seven days, crazy, good for me though.

If I'm the first bidder and I want the item, I always bid early, no matter how long there is to go.

If you don't, you pass on to someone else the chance to get the item at minimum bid, and if that happens you then ~have~ to bid no less than whatever they bid plus the minimum bid increment. Of course I don't initially bid as much as I will eventually bid - just enough as a placeholder in case there are no other bidders.

Another tactic that is sometimes useful is to bid against yourself...

BTW, last time I looked, Auctionstealer and all of the similar services are in violation of Ebay's terms of use, and can result in your account being terminated. They can also be a major security risk, because you have to give your login details to a third party (in breach of Ebay's terms of use).

E-bay will bid on your behalf,  put in a maximum amount and they bid in small amounts until and if it reaches your maximum, will notify you if someone bids more than your maximum in case you  want to increase it. If the winning bid is less than your maximum you only pay the lower amount, have done this a few times.

daisy mae wrote:E-bay will bid on your behalf,  put in a maximum amount and they bid in small amounts until and if it reaches your maximum

I know how Ebay works - I've been using it for around a decade and have +ve feedback of over 500 across three accounts. There are several issues with putting in your maximum and letting Ebay auto-bid - one being that it makes shill bidding far too easy. It's Ok for things that you don't care much about, but it's no substitute for tactical bidding and being there at the end...

mojo,

I was just explaining for those that may not know, your reply doesn`t come across very well I was only saying, yes I prefer tactical bidding. I have done more that way, only a couple of times with maximum bid way,  After all I do not know what you know , how could I ?   I also have 100% feed back over many years,

Yep, me too, been a member since late '03, almost 600 feedback & also 100%,

BUT, I STILL don't know many of e-bays ins & outs like many people out there do. 

There's a lot of Ebayers here. 12 years and over 700 positive feedbacks and I still 'enjoy the chase'.

Me too. Just won a pair of doccers..............very pleased !!!