Overcoming the most Frustrating Situation on eBayCarolyn Schweitzer Its happened to the best of us. Youve been watching the auction all week, and finally youre about to claim your prize--a rare bronze statue from the Shang Dy dynasty. Or something just as tantalizing. You log on a few minutes before the auction closes, and confirm that youre still the top bidder -- no one has challenged you in several days. Youre already picturing "your" statue prominently displayed on the living room mantelpiece, your friends green with envy as you tell them about the great deal you got on eBay. You refresh the page a few times, to make sure youre still #1. You even up your bid a little just to make sure no body tries to outbid you at the last minute. 50 seconds to go...30...10...the auction has ended and the statue is yours!! You refresh the page for the last time so you can see your eBay ID announced as the winning bidder. And thats when your heart drops to your toes. Its not your eBay ID at all, but some joker who calls themselves "speedyfingers147". How could this have happened You were the winning bidder with only 10 seconds to go!! Speedy or not, it just doesnt seem humanly possible. Well, youre right. No one is that fast. Speedyfingers I made that one up, so if its your actual eBay ID, please dont sue me! won the auction in the final 4 seconds. It isnt humanly possible because "speedy" didnt actually place the bid. The bid was place on his or her behalf, from a remote server, using something called Bidding Software. The act of placing a bid during the final seconds of an online auction is called "Sniping" and its perfectly legal on eBay. Bidding wars and sniping are an eBay sellers dream and a buyers nightmare. Why, youre asking yourself, dont these people just use eBays trusty proxy bidding process Why not just discreetly enter the maximum theyre willing to pay at the beginning of the auction, then let the cards fall where they may Well, for a couple of reasons. First, its not human nature. If all you have to do is outbid the next guy by fifty cents or even five dollars to win, wouldnt you Second, it doesnt make economic or strategic sense to place a bid anytime before the last five minutes of an auction. Think about it. EBay encourages bidders to use the proxy system and place bids early. What this means is that an inexperienced bidder who wants an item will to want to be the highest bidder right away, and will keep upping their bid to hold that winning position. Theyll only stop when the bidding exceeds their budget. Then the next guy comes along and continues the process. If this starts at the beginning of a seven or ten day auction, and ends with a bidding war in the last 10 minutes, the final price for the item can spiral out of control. Many items sell for far more than fair market value because people get caught up in "bidding fever" -- all they want is to WIN, theyre not even thinking about whether the price is realistic. A better strategy would be for everyone to "watch" the auction until the very end. Again, theres two good reasons. One, the price doesnt spiral up as just illustrated. Two, the auction has zero bids, so it attracts fewer bidders-- less competition. Its a fact that once an auction has at least 1 bid , it becomes a magnet for additional bidders. Shoppers scanning an auction page tend to jump to the ones with bids, figuring there must be something that attracted other bidders. The more bids, the more interesting the item looks. Wouldnt it be great if a seller started a two carat diamond ring at $0.99 and no one bid until the last five minutes, and they all bid in fifty cent increments Someone might win the ring for just a few bucks!! Of course, that never happens, but it would be the ideal situation for a buyer -- and it would put eBay out of business in a hurry. EBay encourages early bidding and smiles upon the snipers of the world. EBay makes their profits on listing fees and "final value" fees. The more the item sells for the higher the "final value". This makes eBay very happy. Thats why youll never find any tutorials anywhere on eBay telling you to wait until the end of an auction to bid. OK, so now that we all understand the benefits of sniping, lets get back to our friend "speedyfingers147". Speedy probably started out in life just like I did. She learned everything she knew about eBay from eBay and never realized there was such a thing as bidding software. Never knew a computer could do your sniping automatically, bid on your behalf in the last 2 to 8 seconds of an auction, and do it while youre asleep. With sniping software, you tell the software program which auctions youre interested in and how much youre willing to pay. EBay never knows youve seen the auction until your friendly sniping service swoops in and places your bid with only seconds to spare. Neither does your competition. They never see you coming. The only way you can lose is if someone else uses the same program sets their maximum bid higher than yours. Yes, my friend, you can still lose. There is no guarantee of winning an auction no matter what system you use, if someone else is willing to pay more. If you set your maximum bid at a million dollars for a hunk of Elvis belly button lint and some nut is willing to pay a million ten, youre still going to lose! But, theres something about losing thats good for the soul. Its the satisfaction of knowing that you didnt lose your head and spend more than you could afford!! Trust me, Ive been there, done that, and come to regret it. With sniping programs, you can "set it and forget it" and walk away knowing that if you dont win, you couldnt have afforded it anyway. Whats that I hear you saying "But I could have had it if Id just upped my bid by another fifty cents!" Hey, did you listen to anything I just said Do you want to drive yourself nuts Its only stuff, after all. You cant take it with you, and there will always be more. The beauty of eBay is that there will probably be another just like it, or at least something just as fabulous. Speaking of which, theres another big advantage to using bidding software. Two things, actually. again. First, on eBay, its a huge no-no to retract a bid. You can only do this under the most dire of circumstances and if you do it too many times youll be politely asked to leave. Permanently. Second, sniping programs allow you to do something called "contingency bidding". Suppose youre interested in several very similar items and you want to win at least one of them but not all. Provided theyre not all ending at the same time, you can create a contingency plan telling the bidding software to cancel your bids on the other items as soon as you win one of them. In all cases, you can change your mind about an item youre bidding on at any time except in approximately the last 15 minutes because eBay doesnt register your bid until the Sniping program enters it for you, at the very end of the auction. Isnt that nice No more "watching" an auction youre unsure about, and then forgetting to bid on it. No more finding out youve read the description wrong and youre bidding on an item you dont want. No more finding something you like better after youve already committed yourself to another item, and having to pass on it. Or worse, spending way too much on both! There are several sniping programs out there. My personal favorite is PowerSnipe, at www.PowerSnipe.comaf=netbrainer , because their "Auto Search" feature makes the bidding process even easier by allowing you to browse auctions through the program’s built in web browser. You can check out competitors with a simple search in Google. Take a no-risk tour through the Power Sniping program with their trial version. Believe me, the first time you snatch an item away from Speedyfingers147--or anyone else for that matter--youll be hooked.
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