Thread: 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.

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

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.

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!!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

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

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!

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!

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