Cycling UK Forum

Bonefishblues wrote: ↑11 Mar 2024, 9:33am

rareposter wrote: ↑11 Mar 2024, 9:11am

cyclop wrote: ↑11 Mar 2024, 7:48am Yes,I realise that but the point is that I had no chance whatsoever of upping my bid .

Which is exactly the point of the software!

Bid the maximum you're prepared to pay at first instance and let nature take its course, as it were.

We'll, quite. I've not had any trouble deciding how high I'm willing to go and putting that in. However late other bids are, if they're lower than my maximum I'll still get it and if they're higher then they get it because they're higher.

If you can't decide how high you'll go then I'd suggest it might be just as well if you don't have time to raise after a late bid!

Pete.

pjclinch wrote: ↑11 Mar 2024, 5:37pm

Bonefishblues wrote: ↑11 Mar 2024, 9:33am

rareposter wrote: ↑11 Mar 2024, 9:11am

Which is exactly the point of the software!

Bid the maximum you're prepared to pay at first instance and let nature take its course, as it were.

We'll, quite. I've not had any trouble deciding how high I'm willing to go and putting that in. However late other bids are, if they're lower than my maximum I'll still get it and if they're higher then they get it because they're higher.

If you can't decide how high you'll go then I'd suggest it might be just as well if you don't have time to raise after a late bid!

Pete.

One of the last times I 'won' an auction on fleabay, I made an educated guess about what the item was worth and then put in a maximum bid much lower with the sniping software. I was actually testing the sniping software as it was still fairly new to me at the time (this was a few years ago). There were a few other bidders and a little flurry of activity in the last few seconds, and then I 'won'. £200 less than what I would have wanted if I was selling that item.

Jezrant wrote: ↑11 Mar 2024, 6:01pm
One of the last times I 'won' an auction on fleabay, I made an educated guess about what the item was worth and then put in a maximum bid much lower with the sniping software. I was actually testing the sniping software as it was still fairly new to me at the time (this was a few years ago). There were a few other bidders and a little flurry of activity in the last few seconds, and then I 'won'. £200 less than what I would have wanted if I was selling that item.

Yes, but surely you would still have 'won' it without the sniping software if you had just entered your maximum bid at the outset??

Ebay bids automatically for you, up to your maximum bid doesn't it.

SimonCelsa wrote: ↑12 Mar 2024, 4:45am

Jezrant wrote: ↑11 Mar 2024, 6:01pm
One of the last times I 'won' an auction on fleabay, I made an educated guess about what the item was worth and then put in a maximum bid much lower with the sniping software. I was actually testing the sniping software as it was still fairly new to me at the time (this was a few years ago). There were a few other bidders and a little flurry of activity in the last few seconds, and then I 'won'. £200 less than what I would have wanted if I was selling that item.

Yes, but surely you would still have 'won' it without the sniping software if you had just entered your maximum bid at the outset??

Ebay bids automatically for you, up to your maximum bid doesn't it.

No, not really and yes.

Early bidding at your maximum price pushes up what others will offer and starts irrational bidding wars. I’ve found it best to wait towards the very end and then place my best (highest) bid.

EBay does automatically place incremental bids for you up to your best bid limit.

The experience has left me scarred for life.......you,ll find me in the shed cleaning and polishing my chains.

SimonCelsa wrote: ↑12 Mar 2024, 4:45am Yes, but surely you would still have 'won' it without the sniping software if you had just entered your maximum bid at the outset??

That's not how auctions work though. If I'm selling an item I have a rough expectation of what it'll fetch cos I've done my research, looked at similar items etc. Let's say I reckon it'll go for £20.
I put it on at a starting bid of £5 - that encourages people to look and to think it's a bargain and there'll usually be a few "placer" bids at £5 / £6 or so - people staking their place in the auction.

Then it'll sit there for a few days with no bids as everyone watches and waits. Maybe a new bidder will come along and go for £6.50. In the last few hours the bids will creep up and it'll go from maybe 5 or 6 bidders down to 3, down to 2 and then those 2 will engage in a bit of bluffing and one-upmanship. Neither wants to go and stick a bid of £30 on cos that's a waste of money if they can get it for £18. So there'll be a bit of brinkmanship and it comes down to the last bidder standing in the final few seconds.

In fact if I saw someone stick a bid of £30 on it straight away, I'd assume it was some sort of troll or bot - someone wanting to screw with an auction. ebay are fairly hot on that sort of thing and will quite often just cancel the bid, especially if they've detected that bidder doing similar elsewhere or if it's someone new or someone with mixed feedback. Or they might assume it was shill bidding (the seller getting a mate to bid artificially high to inflate the price) which is a big no-no and can result in your own account being suspended while they investigate.

rareposter wrote: ↑12 Mar 2024, 8:13am

SimonCelsa wrote: ↑12 Mar 2024, 4:45am Yes, but surely you would still have 'won' it without the sniping software if you had just entered your maximum bid at the outset??

That's not how auctions work though.

In fact if I saw someone stick a bid of £30 on it straight away, I'd assume it was some sort of troll or bot.

That’s not how Ebay works. Ebay puts on automatic bids for the buyer. You as the seller will only see my highest bid and never my maximum.

When you're ready to bid on an auction listing, enter the maximum amount you'd like to pay for the item and select Place bid. We'll then bid in increments on your behalf – enough to keep you in the lead, but only up to your limit.

If you are selling and saw the item jump from £5 to £30 that’s because someone else had bid £29.

In a perfect world, people would act rationally and predictably.

tatanab wrote: ↑10 Mar 2024, 8:42pm If I want something, I wait until a minute to go before entering my bid and then wait until the last 5 seconds before committing it. This is not fool proof since I can be beaten by sniping software or by a previous bidders higher limit.

^^^this.

yostumpy wrote: ↑12 Mar 2024, 8:54am

tatanab wrote: ↑10 Mar 2024, 8:42pm If I want something, I wait until a minute to go before entering my bid and then wait until the last 5 seconds before committing it. This is not fool proof since I can be beaten by sniping software or by a previous bidders higher limit.

^^^this.

You will be beaten by a sniper.

Paulatic wrote: ↑12 Mar 2024, 8:29am ...

That’s not how Ebay works. Ebay puts on automatic bids for the buyer. You as the seller will only see my highest bid and never my maximum.
...

That was my understanding, too. I only use eBay now for BUY IT NOW items, as I can't be bothered with all this ...

but back-in-the-day I remember telling eBay my MAX BID, then walking away, knowing I didn't WANT to pay more than that. (maybe I'll get the item, maybe I won't because someone was willing to pay more). And you couldn't outbid me by a penny to "win " the game, as eBay had a minimum "raise" (as would any sensible real world auction room).
So now I've made it clear that I am decades behind the times ...

Are folk here saying that the current Sniping Software is cleverer than eBay's inbuilt feature? IAMFI :-)

mattheus wrote: ↑12 Mar 2024, 10:07am ...
Are folk here saying that the current Sniping Software is cleverer than eBay's inbuilt feature?
...

Auction sniping:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auction_sniping

Jonathan

mattheus wrote: ↑12 Mar 2024, 10:07am

Paulatic wrote: ↑12 Mar 2024, 8:29am ...

That’s not how Ebay works. Ebay puts on automatic bids for the buyer. You as the seller will only see my highest bid and never my maximum.
...

That was my understanding, too. I only use eBay now for BUY IT NOW items, as I can't be bothered with all this ...

but back-in-the-day I remember telling eBay my MAX BID, then walking away, knowing I didn't WANT to pay more than that. (maybe I'll get the item, maybe I won't because someone was willing to pay more). And you couldn't outbid me by a penny to "win " the game, as eBay had a minimum "raise" (as would any sensible real world auction room).
So now I've made it clear that I am decades behind the times ...

Are folk here saying that the current Sniping Software is cleverer than eBay's inbuilt feature? IAMFI :-)

Sniping software is cleverer than the punters who think they can outgame the system by frantically upping their maximum bid in the final moments of the auction.

mattheus wrote: ↑12 Mar 2024, 10:07am

Paulatic wrote: ↑12 Mar 2024, 8:29am ...

That’s not how Ebay works. Ebay puts on automatic bids for the buyer. You as the seller will only see my highest bid and never my maximum.
...

That was my understanding, too. I only use eBay now for BUY IT NOW items, as I can't be bothered with all this ...

but back-in-the-day I remember telling eBay my MAX BID, then walking away, knowing I didn't WANT to pay more than that. (maybe I'll get the item, maybe I won't because someone was willing to pay more). And you couldn't outbid me by a penny to "win " the game, as eBay had a minimum "raise" (as would any sensible real world auction room).
So now I've made it clear that I am decades behind the times ...

Are folk here saying that the current Sniping Software is cleverer than eBay's inbuilt feature? IAMFI :-)

Sniping software is cleverer than the punters who think they can outgame the system by frantically upping their maximum bid in the final moments of the auction.

Jezrant wrote: ↑12 Mar 2024, 10:18am

mattheus wrote: ↑12 Mar 2024, 10:07am

Paulatic wrote: ↑12 Mar 2024, 8:29am ...

That’s not how Ebay works. Ebay puts on automatic bids for the buyer. You as the seller will only see my highest bid and never my maximum.
...

That was my understanding, too. I only use eBay now for BUY IT NOW items, as I can't be bothered with all this ...

but back-in-the-day I remember telling eBay my MAX BID, then walking away, knowing I didn't WANT to pay more than that. (maybe I'll get the item, maybe I won't because someone was willing to pay more). And you couldn't outbid me by a penny to "win " the game, as eBay had a minimum "raise" (as would any sensible real world auction room).
So now I've made it clear that I am decades behind the times ...

Are folk here saying that the current Sniping Software is cleverer than eBay's inbuilt feature? IAMFI :-)

Sniping software is cleverer than the punters who think they can outgame the system by frantically upping their maximum bid in the final moments of the auction.

Posting on my phone.