Frustrated because I want good trusty eBay back. But it appears the days of waiting patiently (or impatiently) while the auction clock tics down are no more. For 2 years, whenever I place a bid I get hit with a series of sniper bids in the last 1/4 second and there’s no time to put a higher bid. I thought maybe if I bid high I will outbid the snipes, but no - the multiple snipes are always sligtly above whatever I put. Is it truly impossible to bid without using a sniping software nowadays? Do I have no choice but to join the dark side?
A snipe won’t beat you unless it is higher than your bid. It will actually lose in the case of a tie since you were there first. You can snipe if you want but it isn’t needed as if you bid lower than someone else snipe or not, you will lose.
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you are the light within the darkness
Dont forget that
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@gottaketchumall true, thanks for that. I wouldn’t want to bid more than a few minutes prior to end, less time for people to consider raising their bid the better. Thus, I spend a lot more time/effort than someone who puts a snipe and goes to sleep. Still I might keep up the struggle out of pure despise of snipers.
@kaminoikari haha thanks for the encouragement my friend
Just always have a set price in mind that you will pay. Ebay will pay up to the price you bid so if someone bids 120 and your max bid is 140 ebay will put you at 121.
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I think the frustration here lies with losing an auction moreso than how you actually lose it. I know the feeling it’s not great 
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You’re not losing auctions because of sniping softwares, you’re losing because your max bids were too low
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the idea with sniping is that people only get one shot to put in their absolute “max”, which should in theory help you win the auction because not everyone puts in their absolute max value. if everyone put in their prices early and the auction sits there, it gives people time to mull it over, adjust their max, and put in a bid that’ll be higher than yours. believe me, the reason you felt salty was because you probably didn’t bid your absolute max. when i bid, i have a “max” in mind, but when it comes down to it, i normally still put in that extra 10-15% because i know my “max” was not truly my max. but this has to be for a card that you actually want, not just a random pick-up.
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Yes. I have come to realize this also. It really sucks to lose a card you need over $10 when it only comes up for auction once or twice a month. For cards you really need, you may need to be willing to risk overpaying. Depending on the bids you may get it cheap or you may not, but the important thing is acquisition.
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If you really want a card, your max bid should be at the price point where you’re *almost* just as happy to lose the auction because you didn’t end up spending all that money. *Almost*
People who get consistently outbid for cards they want are probably hoping they’re able to get the card they want at a price below what they’re actually willing to pay for it - having their cake and eating it too, so to speak.
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You can never “overpay” for a card👀
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I use sniping software and I lose plenty of auctions, if I snipe 10 I might win 1-2. It’s not the software, your bids are just too low.
Also for ‘big’ auctions I usually sit there and watch them, then bid manually in the last 3 seconds. Honestly putting your max bid in early is a bad move because you’re giving people time to rationalize spending more to outbid you.
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I actually didn’t know this, so I avoided auctions. Now I might take part in them from now on.
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While I understand this frustration (too much lol), there was still someone willing to pay more for the items than you were in these cases. The sniping software is just a conduit of the other bidders’ actual bidding intentions.
I do, however, think there is something to be said about the fact that sniping software removes some amount of human fallibility that was more prevalent before. I’ve surely lost auctions before I started using sniping software due to oversleeping, forgetting to set an alarm to bid near the end of an auction, forgetting about that auction completely, etc. But with sniping software this human error is largely removed. With it, I can put in a bid at the last second while sleeping after having not thought about that auction for an entire week. While the removal of human error/forgetfulness provided by these softwares definitely makes auctions slightly more competitive, I’m not bothered by it, because I can use the same tool to my advantage as well.
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Yeah as others have said always be prepared to pay more than your original intentions for the best chance at winning an auction. The best way of approaching an auction is by ensuring that your max bid is an amount that, if somebody outbids it, yes you’ll be disappointed you didn’t win, but you’ll be content in the fact that it went over the absolute maximum price you’d be willing to pay for that item. You won’t need to frantically watch the last seconds of the auction, you’ll submit a single number then carry on with your life.
One thing many people don’t factor into their maximum bid is missed opportunity cost. If that item sells for more than what you’re willing to pay at the time, what’s the likelihood of you getting that item at the same price in a future sale? I am a PERFECT example of this. I was too stingy with my bids on a PSA 8 1st ed zard 3 months ago at £3750 when I could have won it for £4k. That same card is now £20-25k and I am most likely permanently priced out of it unless I sell a bunch of stuff that I really don’t want to sell. Yes I’ve adapted my goals to the current market, but my regret is immeasurable.
Also, don’t risk it and set your maximum bid higher than what you’re willing to pay if you’re just gonna be a douchebag and cancel the order if it wins on that max bid. God I hate that.
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I do have some sympathy, as for niche items with little to no sales data it can be hard to gauge a suitable price, regardless of how much you want it. It’s all well and good wanting to just bid your max, but that’s partly a function of what a ‘fair value’ would be. I want to say this is one reason why people bid up the value well before the deadline.
On the other hand, for items that are popular and/or sold frequently you go into the process with a ballpark figure of what to expect.
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Thanks for all the wisdom guys. I admit I bid low because I wanted a deal more than the card. What I’ve been confused about is that this has happened a few times and there never seems to be any bidding war between snipes. The snipes are always a couple dollars above my max, making me think the software is smart enough to read the highest bid. Or is this coincidence?
It’s not the sniping software, it’s ebay’s automatic bidding . If current bid is say $25 and you put max bid $100, the new bid will be $26. If the other bidder has a max bid as well, say $80, ebay will automatically bid for you up to $81
@nevyn Yes I understand how that system works. What I’m confused about is this-
30s left - I place my bid at $100. I am the highest bidder
1s - I’m still highest bidder
0.5s - New bid at $101
0.3s - New bid at $102
0.1s - New bid at $103 (I’m not 100% certain I’ve seen a third snipe but pretty sure I have)