Toby.... What do you charge for your services?
Toby Atwater wrote:
> Nah you guys have it wrong. Both tactics (last second bidding, and odd
> amount bidding) are good but both can be beaten by a "good" (evil) sniper
> with a good internet connection.
>
> If you are a bidder: Bookmark the auction, set up a scheduled task on your
> PC running win98\nt\2000 (control panel, scheduled task) to set up a sound
> file or reminder to go off 10 minutes before end of auction. T-minus 10
> minutes, check the auction. If there is little bidder activity go ahead and
> place your bet in small increments just enough to become top bidder at a
> nice round number. Refresh the auction every minute to verify you are still
> top bidder. T-minus 30 seconds set another bid (even if you are still at the
> top) at an odd amount but the max you will pay for it. The average sniper
> will see you bid a bazillion times just to find the top bid mark and not see
> your later real bet. He will wait the last second thinking he only needs to
> bid a buck more, but alas his bid will not be enough and his snipe will have
> back fired.
>
> If there is recent heavy bidder activity, at 5 minutes until the end forget
> it. Too many snipers on the field, set your bid for what you think is fair
> and close the browser and go for a drive (or work on your spridget, what
> ever the case may be). Check the auction later and see the results. Don't
> let emotions get the best of you. You don't wanna up your max bid
> constantly. If you bid more than twice in an auction you are just upping the
> price and demonstrating you have interest in this auction, you are following
> this auction, you are present\watching close to the end of the auction and
> you want to win this auction. Play it cool.
>
> The above suggestions on sniping are fair for all. It's not screwing the
> other bidder at the last possible second, screwing the seller outa few
> bucks. You give them 5-10 minutes of bid time. It's sportsman like. Might
> cost you an extra few bucks, but it's nice.
>
> There are sites out there that will place a bid for you at the last possible
> seconds of e-bay auction time upping the bid until you are top bidder. Now
> those are just cheap. It's like hunting domestic cows with automatic AK47s.
> My method is like, using another hunting analogy, bow hunting wild pigs (And
> none of those sissy compound bows either).
>
> About 5 minutes left some sellers will get antsy and up the ante by biding
> on the auction posing as a buyer thinking you are a sniper and you bid more
> than what the top bid is. This will backfire when they become the top bidder
> and are forced to send you an e-mail saying "the original buyer "backed out"
> do you want it for the top bid?" Users with zero feedback and have an e-mail
> address from the same domain name (@home @aol etc...) as the seller or a
> hotmail or yahoo account is a give-away. ESPECIALLY if he gives you the
> "backed out" excuse. If he does do that, then is the time to barter. You are
> no longer on e-bay so any price is fair game. At the bare minimum he should
> give it to you at your top bid and more like a few bucks below that. He has
> to pay the ebay fee AGAIN if he is going to re-list it, so you should get at
> least that below your bid.
>
> You can send an e-mail to both e-mail addresses (10 minutes apart) and when
> a reply arrives you can check what e-mail server processed the e-mail and
> what time they both arrived. Usually e-mail servers serve a general
> geographical location and if both e-mails have similar headers from the same
> server and both arrive at the same time, another give-away bidder and seller
> are one and the same. (Server thing doesn't work too well for hotmail or
> yahoo users tho)
>
> Sellers:
> Don't bid on your own auctions. That just super-cheap. It's worse than
> sniping. If you want more money for your auction start at a higher bid, or
> set a reserve (reserves make bidders get cold feet tho). If the snipers
> annoy you, set up a longer auction (7 or 10 day auction). If the crazy odd
> amount bidders annoy you, set the bid increment to $2 $5, $10 (depending on
> how much you are shooting for) and be done with it.
>
> Best of luck to both sellers and bidders.
>
> Toby
>
> Who obviously spends too much time bidding and selling on Ebay. Sorry for
> the length!
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