Thread: Why Do People Bid on Ebay Auctions Days Before They End?

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

Personally, I think sniping is wrong, and I'm willing to lose to stand by that.

I'm prone to agree, but Ebay doesn't see it as I do. So I stick with things that have a 'Buy Now' price. Saves me a lot of frustration. I can't remember which auction site I saw this on, but they had a 15 minute rule. Final bid had to stay steady for 15 minutes. If someone came in with a bid during that frame, the clock would reset to 15 minutes which eliminated sniping and gave the previous high bidder a chance to respond.

Agreed, having a no sniping rule would be my preference as well... and I think eBay would do well for their sellers' (and inherently their own) revenue if they had it in place.

The concern raised here, regarding driving the prices up by premature bidding isn't the real problem. The way I see it, high number of bids and views draws attention to these items, making them "popular" so they will get suggested to more people looking for similar items. This is the real price driver, in my opinion.

Often, I will draw my bidding line in the sand at odd times because I don't want to be caught at work or be busy when the auction ends. I don't know if it really changes anything in terms of the winning bid, but I have won some items for good prices. However...I have also lost some items I really wanted so your results may vary

I have two different approaches depending on the listing.

If it is something that is listed irregularly and/or something that I really want I will use a sniping program to place my bid. I won't watch or bid through eBay as this increases the visibility to other potential bidders.

On something that I wouldn't mind picking up at a fair price but am not desperate to own I'll just go ahead and enter the highest price I am willing to pay regardless of the time left. I have won quite a few auctions this way and have seen way more get away. One thing that should be considered is that often when a razor or other item is started at a fair, but not ridiculously low price, a single bid may shoe off other potential bidders. Often when I see something interesting, if there is already a bid and the price is about what I consider my maximum I just move past without even throwing another bid at it, even though there is a small chance $1 more and I could be the winning bidder. This style of bidding works better on the less popular items and very rarely brings in a Wade & Butcher, Puma or the like.

Let's not forget that ebay is alive because of the buyers not because of the sellers... Yes.. you need stuff to sell, but the more people buying on your auctions site brings seller as the consequence. Ebay's strategy is to favor the seller.
i'm not sure if this is correct, but years ago (maybe 10 years, and correct e if I'm wrong), you maximum bid would be visible to others... i mean you would see a bid of 3$ and bid your hones top bid of $15 and the item would not go to 4$ and wait for other bidders, it would just st up at 15$... that's the proper way of doing it if you want to favor the sellers, but it gets difficult for the buyers.. they don't want to bid too high if other are not willing to pay. this is a good way to regulate what the people is actually willing to pay even if they really want the item.

by hiding the higher price you are willing to pay, ebay is protecting you as a buyer, but resenting the ending time of a bidder protects the seller. that would be a nice balance, unfortunate those methods void each other some how...

if you think about that, on a real auction, they would give time for the last bidder to bid his last effort before calling it done... everyone goes in knowing what's their highest.. but the things get hot and people over bid per pride some times.. that favours the seller,
even for snipping, you should always bid as much as you are willing to pay.... if the other buyer sets his snipe as his own honest limit, at least the people never waste more money than they are willing to...

lastly, yeah.. this of course affects the market price of an item.. because you might have your own conception of how much a razors cost.. and maybe the other person too.. but both of you are thinking maybe it will be cheaper ... then another guy comes and pay 10$ more and you realize that it's still a fair price and you would have paid it... had you know that was the price...

I dunno.. it's complicated to get a good balance.. but for sure eBay is OK with snipping.. if you are playing by the rules....... then it's not dishonest i guess

Here in west central WI, we have a few on-line auction houses. They allow viewing of all the items prior to and during the time span of the auction. The best of them use the time extension of five minutes after the final bid. I have seen some auctions go for over an hour past the closing time.
~Richard

A few days ago, an auction I was interested in was ending at some silly hour in my timezone. I wasn't gonna wake up at 3AM to snipe it, so just placed my best bid and went to bed. This is probably the first time I won an auction this way and these bad boys are in now the mail [emoji41] Got them well below my highest bid by the way!



I know folks who will only buy this way. No fuss, no drama, just place the best offer and walk away.

I placed a monster bid on one of those massive labeled Eschers once , to make sure I won it.
My bid was beaten by a small amount.
So some one els lay down a huge bid.
I know I did the seller a favour that day and kept my cash..phew *wipes brow*

I had my eye on those, always looking for blade lots to fix up and rescale. Good score!

Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

I had my eye on those, always looking for blade lots to fix up and rescale. Good score!

Thank you, I hope I can do them justice. I have some natural materials, mostly horn and bone that should look nice on these.

Here's another example of the right bid placed early. Date and time from this morning in my TZ. Not too early, but still, I went to bed around 2AM and wasn't gonna wake up. This by the way NEVER happened to me. Some may call it "the worst case scenario" [emoji23]