Why do eBayers drive prices.

[The Russian Bear]

Seriously why do people insist on having a bidding war days before the product is due to finish? Take this for example, Witcher 2 CE sealed which has over 4 days until the auction finishes but it is already at £82 and had a starting price of 99p no reserve.

Why can't people wait until towards the end of the auction to bid instead so that the prices stay reasonable. I mean i got the Shogun 2 CE for £31 thanks to everyone bidding on it in the last minute.

Please share your opinions

[asiak75]

As a fellow seller and buyer in eBay I know exactly were you come from.
Bidding at the last moment is usually to keep the price as low as possible and I agree thats a good way to get a bargain...sometimes.
But then again some items that are listed have an initial value so low that some people just want to secure that the item does not get changed or edited. So they do that initial bid for 0.99 cents. As a seller i have many times observed that depending on the item you have listed it can go from start to finish bidding up slowly or just get bid up at in the last couple of minutes in the auction.
Sometimes when i am interested in a particular item such as at the moment a listed Assassins creed press kit book i wait till up to the last 24 hours and then start to bid on a regular base bid by bid. 20 seconds form the end, and of course if i really want it i will set the bidding increase price quickly to a 10er above my last bid. sometimes it works and sometimes well i get outbid and then again I am happy i did not win because it went of the roof.

[Venner]

I never understand this either, if theres somthing i want i add it to my watch list and bid the 99p to start it then wait till the last 20secs to bid again. But many times people will over bid me with 5days left which i dont understand.

[gurpswoo1]

Alot of the time, bidders see the listing but can't be bothered to wait or remember the time it ends, so they put their maximum bid in.

There is also the practice of the seller inflating the price early to get people to put the maximum bid in.

[thefunk007]

Well it depends how badly you want it, some people if money does not really matter will just bid what they are willing to pay (for example £100.00), then buyer B tries to outbid buyer A by putting what they are willing to pay for it (in this case say £50.00) with only two bids the item now sits at £50.00.

Yes it's frustrating, I always only bid within the last few seconds, but miss out quite often :-/

Although that Collectors Edition is much sought after now :-/

[gurpswoo1]

I got my copy on release day, has some rips to seal ( Thanks Shopto). I might get rid of it at these crazy eBay prices.

[MrBubbles]

I always use my ebay sniper. Don't have to worry about getting it, don't have to drive prices up in the days before ending.

I also don't understand those people, maybe it's to scare others off or something. :1:

[The Russian Bear]

lol its gone up to £92, if i'd known they would sell for that much i would of kept it sealed ^^

[lhurgoyf]

Well it depends how badly you want it, some people if money does not really matter will just bid what they are willing to pay (for example £100.00), then buyer B tries to outbid buyer A by putting what they are willing to pay for it (in this case say £50.00) with only two bids the item now sits at £50.00.


If you bid what you are willing to pay with 5s left on the auction it avoids the whole bidding war issue, and also ensures that you don't have second thoughts and bid more than you wanted to (out of gut reaction).

Sniping programs are another story. That is just cheating. I have and always will snipe an auction with < 3s left, in person. If you can't do it in person, you lack the determination and don't care enough about winning the item.

[MrBubbles]

If you bid what you are willing to pay with 5s left on the auction it avoids the whole bidding war issue, and also ensures that you don't have second thoughts and bid more than you wanted to (out of gut reaction).

Sniping programs are another story. That is just cheating. I have and always will snipe an auction with < 3s left, in person. If you can't do it in person, you lack the determination and don't care enough about winning the item.

I disagree. Sometimes I'm looking for a specific item and if the seller comes from the US chances are big the auction will end in the middle of the night in Europe. I don't have the time to stay up all night, and if I want a item really bad I use a sniper. No cheating, it's just a service where you have to pay for.
Sometimes Ebay is running slow for some reason and you won't be able to snipe an auction yourself in time. I have missed out on some great items because of that reason.

[gurpswoo1]

OMG it's gone to £155 now:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Witcher-2-Collectors-edition-new-sealed-no-reserve-/250828146883?pt=UK_PC_Video_Games_Video_Games_JS&hash=item3a6685c8c3#ht_500wt_1156

[The Russian Bear]

wow i should of bought multiple copies of it :(

[twistedsymphony]

Alot of the time, bidders see the listing but can't be bothered to wait or remember the time it ends, so they put their maximum bid in.

There is also the practice of the seller inflating the price early to get people to put the maximum bid in.
^this

Also I think a lot of people simply don't fully understand the bidding process, they don't get that you can put in a bid higher than what you'll actually pay, and they get into emotional bid wars where they're more concerned about "winning" than about getting the item at a reasonable price.

I always use my ebay sniper. Don't have to worry about getting it, don't have to drive prices up in the days before ending. ...
I use a sniper too!

Unless the auction is a "Buy it now" or "Best Offer" I use Auction Sniper for 100% of my bids... http://auctionsniper.com/ (if you tell them twistedsymphony referred you I'll get some free snipes :D)

Auction sniper is great because I can sit and logically think about the maximum I'm willing to pay for an item, set up the snipe and then forget about it.... I don't get roped into bid wars driving the price up above my max.

Not only that but bid activity attracts more attention to the item so by not bidding you're keeping people's awareness of that item lower.

They also have a "bid group" feature which is awesome... so if there are say 10 auctions for the same item, you can put them all in a bid group and it will snipe each of them as they end and stop sniping as soon as you win an auction.

Using this feature I setup a bid group of about 75 auctions and was able to win a Wii with Zelda, the week of launch and only payed about $20 over RRP after shipping... the seller wasn't too happy as he was expecting a windfall but basically I loaded the bid group up with all the auctions I could find and I ended up winning one that ended in the middle of the night at the same time as a few others that got more attention.

I highly recommend sniping, and I wish everyone sniped... people would get the items they're looking for, sellers would get the max that people are willing to pay, and none of the bidders will pay more than they wanted to.

[lhurgoyf]

I disagree. Sometimes I'm looking for a specific item and if the seller comes from the US chances are big the auction will end in the middle of the night in Europe. I don't have the time to stay up all night, and if I want a item really bad I use a sniper. No cheating, it's just a service where you have to pay for.
Sometimes Ebay is running slow for some reason and you won't be able to snipe an auction yourself in time. I have missed out on some great items because of that reason.

Set an alarm and take the 2 minutes to place a bid. Like I said, if you are using a program to do the bidding, you don't want it bad enough. Half the time I do it from my phone... notification goes off for < 5 minutes hit bid button with 5s left and done. I've used this practice for 13 years on ebay, even back in the day on dialup, never a problem if you know what you are doing.

What you want is a silent auction where everyone can just write their bid down, with no one else knowing, and at the end the person who wrote the highest wins.

[asiak75]

If two or more person want the item badly and you bid in the last moment. Its not an auction anymore in my eyes its a lottery game since it is time that is a factor.
I think since I am on eBay everyday almost and my dear wife works even there i can guaranty you that its not a question of if you get it but rather when you will get it. how many times I have seen auctions going over the top and suddenly 2 days later someone puts up the same item as buy it now/ Best offer for a fraction of the price...

By the way just saw that in case:
http://cgi.ebay.ie/Witcher-2-Assassins-Kings-Collectors-Edition-/230626784673?pt=UK_PC_Video_Games_Video_Games_JS&hash=item35b26d75a1#ht_595wt_1139

[twistedsymphony]

If two or more person want the item badly and you bid in the last moment. Its not an auction anymore in my eyes its a lottery game since it is time that is a factor.

eBay works mostly like Silent Auction... you have a time limit in which you can place your bid, it doesn't matter if you place it in the first 5 seconds or the last 5 seconds, the highest bid wins...

The only people who lose because of a last second bid at the end are those who don't fully understand how the eBay biding process works.

"If two or more people want an item badly", they should both punch in the maximum amount they're willing to pay for the item and the person who is willing to pay more will win the item.... it doesn't matter who entered their amount first, there's no "lottery" involved.

[thefunk007]

What Twisted said!

[lhurgoyf]

eBay works mostly like Silent Auction... you have a time limit in which you can place your bid, it doesn't matter if you place it in the first 5 seconds or the last 5 seconds, the highest bid wins...


Not entirely correct. eBay is a standard english auction type-- you can see if you have been outbid, you get immediate feedback on whether you are winning or not when you place a bid. A silent auction is silent. You place your bid anytime, at the end of the bidding period you see if you win.

The practice of sniping makes ebay almost like a silent auction. If 3 people are sniping, then neither has the opportunity to respond (even though they know if they did not win with their bid). eBay typically doesn't want this though.... with an english auction you know you didn't win and can re-evaulate you max bid ;) = more $$ for seller and more fees for ebay.

[Mike1888]

Not entirely correct. eBay is a standard english auction type-- you can see if you have been outbid, you get immediate feedback on whether you are winning or not when you place a bid. A silent auction is silent. You place your bid anytime, at the end of the bidding period you see if you win.

The practice of sniping makes ebay almost like a silent auction. If 3 people are sniping, then neither has the opportunity to respond (even though they know if they did not win with their bid). eBay typically doesn't want this though.... with an english auction you know you didn't win and can re-evaulate you max bid ;) = more $$ for seller and more fees for ebay.

Just watched an MGS3 Subsistence LE get bid on a good 20 times by a guy in the last 10 seconds until he eventually bested my bid by a cent.

Is this guy using a sniper? If so, I hate them. :rant:

[gurpswoo1]

He may have manually entered one large bid and the automatic eBay system made the bids.

[lhurgoyf]

Just watched an MGS3 Subsistence LE get bid on a good 20 times by a guy in the last 10 seconds until he eventually bested my bid by a cent.

Is this guy using a sniper? If so, I hate them. :rant:

If they end up making multiple bids then that sounds more like someone did it in person. I assume with a sniping service you provide a max bid and it will bid that at the last second... all or nothing approach. If your max bid is greater than the current max bid, then you only see 1 bid in the log. If your bid is lower than the current person's max bid, the log will show your bid + I believe the current max bidder's bid moved up to whatever you bid + increment (or they add a new bid for the max bidder, I don't remember which). Could still be someone using a sniping service, but having it attempt multiple bids instead of 1 max bid seems kind of odd.

[Mike1888]

If they end up making multiple bids then that sounds more like someone did it in person. I assume with a sniping service you provide a max bid and it will bid that at the last second... all or nothing approach. If your max bid is greater than the current max bid, then you only see 1 bid in the log. If your bid is lower than the current person's max bid, the log will show your bid + I believe the current max bidder's bid moved up to whatever you bid + increment (or they add a new bid for the max bidder, I don't remember which). Could still be someone using a sniping service, but having it attempt multiple bids instead of 1 max bid seems kind of odd.

Thats what I figured, but it seemed SO automated going up $10 every half a second and it started with like 10 seconds left. Like I can understand reentering a max bid 3 or 4 times, but over 10? Anyways I lost the auction :( Time to move on! :surrender:

[twistedsymphony]

Definitely not a sniper, nor ebay's automatic Max bid mechanism... that was done manually by the person bidding, and obviously someone who doesn't understand how eBay bidding works.

had YOU used a sniper, that wouldn't have happened :P