Mathematical analysis of sniping strategy

Here's a cool paper, for those who really enjoy the nitty-gritty of eBay bidding:

CiteSeerX — The effects of proxy bidding and minimum bid increments within eBay auctions

It talks about the effect of sniping as a strategy for winning auctions and why sniping makes sense to do over incremental bidding. Interestingly, there is a bit of an inefficiency in eBay's system introduced by the fact that there are minimum "increments" allowed at different stages of the auction, and these increments mean that it isn't always the best to be the very last sniper to enter a price. Instead, these guys think that the best strategy is to be the FIRST of the snipers who enters a price, because that person gets a slight advantage when other bidders' bids are rejected as not exceeding the minimum increment.

Anyway, I know some people here could care less about this stuff, but for those who enjoy a little dash of theory, this paper is a cool read.

True, I once lost a snipe to a barely-earlier snipe of the same bid

Right, you get the benefit by being earlier if both are equal.

But these guys point out that the later sniper can lose, even if his bid is higher, because the later sniper might not have bid enough to exceed the minimum bid increment, whereas the earlier sniper doesn't have to worry about this as often.

It's he who gets there firstist with the mostest. If it is equal the first guy takes precedence. I always put mine in manually. I never use a program. I want the adrenaline rush. Generally 4 seconds before the end, give or take a second. The negative aspect is that my bid must be enough because there is no time to put in a higher bid. This has turned out to the good though, I don't always win but my bank account is less depleted. :beer2:

meh, I get sniped by 10 bucks or better most times. what can I say, I'm frugal!

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

The negative aspect is that my bid must be enough because there is no time to put in a higher bid.

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The other negative aspect is that if you have an internet connection like holli4pirating's, you may click "submit" and get a "server is taking too long to respond" error as the auction ends

I hate Time Warner!!!!!!!!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by holli4pirating

I hate Time Warner!!!!!!!!!!

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It hated you first

You can snipe manually or by computer, but the paper does point out that sniping has the obvious advantages for avoiding incremental-style bidding.

I know, I know, you just want to bid what your highest price is and then be left alone! Ok, that's cool too!

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Originally Posted by JeffE

You can snipe manually or by computer, but the paper does point out that sniping has the obvious advantages for avoiding incremental-style bidding.

I know, I know, you just want to bid what your highest price is and then be left alone! Ok, that's cool too!

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It makes no sense at all to bid incrementally AFAIC. A seller's dream.

I always bid in the last seconds unless there are many of the object, and little interest.

I just figure the highest price I am willing to pay, set up the bid price, and wait out the seconds. It was much harder to do when they did not show the seconds remaining, I had to use a clock.

When new I entered into one of those "bidding wars", never again!!:beer2:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

It's he who gets there firstist with the mostest. If it is equal the first guy takes precedence. I always put mine in manually. I never use a program. I want the adrenaline rush. Generally 4 seconds before the end, give or take a second. The negative aspect is that my bid must be enough because there is no time to put in a higher bid. This has turned out to the good though, I don't always win but my bank account is less depleted. :beer2:

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Note to self: Start bidding with 6 seconds left . . . :)

His paper is invalid. He didn't factor in what happens if your about to do a manual snipe and you computer freezes or your connection slows and you can't get it in in time. That throws everything off.:w

On the website of ebay,
with auctions aglow,
I lost a great razor,
By bidding too slow.

For bidding's a pleasure,
But losing is grief,
And a tricky bad sniper,
Is worse than a thief.

A thief will just rob you,
And steal what you've got,
But a sneaky bad sniper,
Will take what you've bought.

On ebay it ain't who gets there first. It is who gets there with the most regardless. :gwh:

I dont expect all to share my opinion, but using a sniping program just doesn't seem sporting to me. If it is all about the end result, I suppose anything is fair game. Waiting to manually bid at the last possible second is certainly fair and a good way to keep your razor budget intact. I just feel the third party programs are somewhat like shooting a wild animal that you have lured to a kill zone with a salt block...it might get the game in the bag but it just doesn't leave me feeling good about myself!

I just want the razor. I don't care about the "thrill" of ebay or anything else that goes along with it. I have no problem using a sniping software.

I'm in it for the razors.