jljack

Yes, that is what eBay does automatically. I don't understand the "sniping". It doesn't seem like it does anything that eBay doesn't do.

writerwomen

We deal a lot with ebay. We do all our own bidding. Because we know what we want and what the value is throuh research we determine what we are willing to max at. If the item is really something we want we make sure we put in our top bid at the last possible moment. Letting someone else play with your money is dangerous. In our case we contact all those who bid n one of our items thankingthem an if possible offering them a comparable sewing mchine or will search out one for them.

wraez

It is possible that the bidder was sitting and watching, waiting to snipe if needed.

I used to buy and sell on ebay several years ago and did my own sniping. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

I always figure 'things happen for a reason' which means you weren't meant to have this one, a better one is in the future. Could be a better item and item price.

clsurz

I don't use such services. I bid in the last 30 seconds often times in the last 10 seconds and snipe it right from the other bidders.

Sometimes I'll just put in the price I'm willing to pay for an item and let eBay's system do the bidding for me. If someone surpasses it they are welcome to it.

I also do alot of negotiating with sellers on eBay and elsewhere online to get what I want at what I want to pay for it. As and example today I was pleasantly surprised after watching and trying for about 4 months to get the EQ7 program lower than I was willing to pay for it. The program retails for $189.95 and I was willing to pay $150 and not a penny more. All my negotiating failed until today when eBay sent me an email stating there was a new listing for it. I went and used BIN and got it for $138.00 which was lower than what I was willing to pay for it.

With eBay key is to be patient and not put a bid in right away and save it in your watch list. Set your calendar and time for day it ends and go in and if the highest bid is not yet higher than what you are willing to pay for it snipe it.

I also won't bid on auctions that have many bids....that means a few folks or a couple are bidding just to up the price. I will instead do a search for auctions with 0-5 bids and view those instead and put them on my watch list.

clsurz

There is no difference. All these programs will up the bid. Yes eBay will increase your bid as one bids against you to the next increment until it reaches your highest bid.

clsurz

The thrill of auctions is sniping it from everyone else wanting the item.

I've been a professional buyer on eBay going on 16 years and I've often sat there and had several windows open with several items ending within a few minutes of each other and sniped them one after another. Boy what a rush!

I like to find items I'm interested in and putting it on my watch list and mark on my calendar day and time it ends and on that day go in about 2-3 minutes before and pull them up with bid amounts sitting in it and hitting send at the 5-10 second mark.

I will roughly about 99% of my bids I put in. Not to often I'll lose one.

auntpatty

Just wanted to warn everybody. I just heard of a person buying stuff at Marshall's and selling the items on E Bay for double or triple amout. I think that's a rip off.

MTS

Why?

patdesign

For your heads up thanks, but the bottom line to the buyer is if he wants it and how much he values it, the Marshalls buyer is just making it easier for some one who may not be near a Marshalls to have what he is selling. What do you think the sellers who offer stuff from estate sales are doing? Just because an item is on ebay does not mean that the item is competitively priced, I remember several months ago a guy was asking over 1500 for a Featherweight, I watched it and it finally sold when he reduced it to $585. Still too much for that machine, but I guess to the buyer it was worth it.:)

katcincinnati

Yes ebay does. It is called automatic bidding.