Please Post All Your eBay Issues Here (Please Read)

[jmatchett]

I don't get the "sniping." If you're willing to pay a certain amount for a card, then enter that amount and walk away. If someone bids higher than you, it means that your "snipe" would still lose you the auction, as it wouldn't beat their bid. And if everyone bids lower than you're willing to bid, then you'll win. I've laughed at people who try to snipe and have their computer lock up, or have their snipe beaten by another snipe. Just pick how much you're willing to pay, and hope you win it for the amount you're comfortable with.

[centrehice]

I don't get the "sniping." If you're willing to pay a certain amount for a card, then enter that amount and walk away. If someone bids higher than you, it means that your "snipe" would still lose you the auction, as it wouldn't beat their bid. And if everyone bids lower than you're willing to bid, then you'll win. I've laughed at people who try to snipe and have their computer lock up, or have their snipe beaten by another snipe. Just pick how much you're willing to pay, and hope you win it for the amount you're comfortable with.

More bids attracts more bidders to the auction, that may not have checked to begin with. I always snipe on what I feel is a real deal. If there are tons of bids and it's still an attractive price, I walk away simply because I know that some morons only bid on cards that already have bids, and it will get hit again relentlessly.

The snipe is best used when employed as a tactic on an auction with zero or one bid, and very, very effective.

[jmatchett]

I guess I'm different. If there's an auction of something I want, the # of bids does nothing to deter me or bring me in. If I want it, I'm going to attempt to get it. Also, with "sniping" you'd better hope that your snipe bid isn't 10 cents lower than the winner's max. bid.

[centrehice]

I've been out bid on the snipe countless times by the original bidder, and by those sniping along side of me. About 1 in 20 auctions I am angry, as my snipe bid was only countered and won by bid of 25 cents or less.

Most times when I don't exceed the original bid, or if I am sniped by 1, 2 or 3 others, the card ends up being sold for much more than I was willing to spend.

I sniped on an auction last month. The cards were worth $130.00 BV. My snipe offer was $6.77. I lost the auction to somebody that paid $37.00 for it, which is far too high for insert/parallel cards with a $130.00 BV.

I do not pay more than 18% of BV at anytime when I bid on eBay, and I have won thousands of cards this way, at least 75% by sniping.

[jmatchett]

Well I'm glad for you.

[hang time]

I also find that I get carried away with auctions so I typically only bid in the last few minutes so I don't get caught up in a bid war. I don't see the need to drive the price up between myself and another bidder if I can outbid them in the last few seconds before they decide 'well what's another few bucks'...

[MattDMC]

I don't get the "sniping." If you're willing to pay a certain amount for a card, then enter that amount and walk away. If someone bids higher than you, it means that your "snipe" would still lose you the auction, as it wouldn't beat their bid. And if everyone bids lower than you're willing to bid, then you'll win. I've laughed at people who try to snipe and have their computer lock up, or have their snipe beaten by another snipe. Just pick how much you're willing to pay, and hope you win it for the amount you're comfortable with.

I have to agree, I don't get the whole point of sniping either. If theres a card I want and I'm willing to spend up to $70 on it then I'm just going to place my bid of $70, if I win I win if I don't I don't.

[RGM81]

The purpose of sniping is to hopefully avoid shill bidding practitioners driving up the price of their listing(s).

One of the drawbacks to posting up your bid early is that sometimes you gradually see the price rise by a couple bucks here and there, and it's the same bidder. You see that he's got 95+% activity with this seller and a host of bid retractions. By the end, you're right up against the maximum limit of what you wanted to pay for the card.

Is it still within the range you would be willing to pay? Yes. But just because you *will* pay X for a card, doesn't mean that you *want* to pay X for a card. By sniping in the final 3-5 seconds, the card owner or his proxy don't have the time to nudge it up a dollar at a time.

I have an example of this to share. As some of you may know, I own 7 of the 10 copies of the 2007-08 UD2 Josh Gorges High Gloss. I've never paid more than $15 for any of them, except for one. I saw a listing and put in my max bid of $25 very early to stake my territory. This was back in the day when you could see actual competitors' names and profiles, not just **22d**, on the bid history. Over the course of the next 3 days the card went from initial bid to $9.99 to $10.99 to $11.99 to $12.99...all the way up to $24.99. It was so obvious that it was shilled. Who bids in an amount ending in .99 if they want to overtake another bidder? The majority of people enter in an even dollar amount. Top it off...the "competitor" was from the same city as the seller. Very high bid percentage with him.

Now, I still got my card at $24.99 which is in the range of what I was willing to pay. But if that person's shill bids were removed - the price of the card drops to $10.50 or something like that. That seller got double the money out of me in an illicit and improper fashion. I was furious and let eBay know that malarkey was afoot. Naturally, they didn't do anything for me, but within a month that seller and my "competitor" were both not registered users.

Since then, I put in my bids late 95% of the time.

[andrewconnors9]

If a card is low starting and I know its going to go much higher (ie. its at 2 - 3$, will easily go to 40 - 50$), ill put in an early bid moreso as a reminder of a 0.50$ increment, which then allows you also to make that 1 click bid "snipe" at the end.

[jmatchett]

The purpose of sniping is to hopefully avoid shill bidding practitioners driving up the price of their listing(s).

One of the drawbacks to posting up your bid early is that sometimes you gradually see the price rise by a couple bucks here and there, and it's the same bidder. You see that he's got 95+% activity with this seller and a host of bid retractions. By the end, you're right up against the maximum limit of what you wanted to pay for the card.

Is it still within the range you would be willing to pay? Yes. But just because you *will* pay X for a card, doesn't mean that you *want* to pay X for a card. By sniping in the final 3-5 seconds, the card owner or his proxy don't have the time to nudge it up a dollar at a time.

I have an example of this to share. As some of you may know, I own 7 of the 10 copies of the 2007-08 UD2 Josh Gorges High Gloss. I've never paid more than $15 for any of them, except for one. I saw a listing and put in my max bid of $25 very early to stake my territory. This was back in the day when you could see actual competitors' names and profiles, not just **22d**, on the bid history. Over the course of the next 3 days the card went from initial bid to $9.99 to $10.99 to $11.99 to $12.99...all the way up to $24.99. It was so obvious that it was shilled. Who bids in an amount ending in .99 if they want to overtake another bidder? The majority of people enter in an even dollar amount. Top it off...the "competitor" was from the same city as the seller. Very high bid percentage with him.

Now, I still got my card at $24.99 which is in the range of what I was willing to pay. But if that person's shill bids were removed - the price of the card drops to $10.50 or something like that. That seller got double the money out of me in an illicit and improper fashion. I was furious and let eBay know that malarkey was afoot. Naturally, they didn't do anything for me, but within a month that seller and my "competitor" were both not registered users.

Since then, I put in my bids late 95% of the time.

I understand that. But instead of trying to get the bid in at the 3-5 second mark, why not at the 1-minute mark? Or, check the seller's feedback and look at the activity.

On a side note, one thing that I don't get about shilling is that the seller doesn't know you maximum bid. Don't they run the risk of winning the auction?