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I have bought and sold tons of stuff on ebay over the years from car, motorcycles, parts, slot stuff, etc. and never experienced what I did today.

This week I put a bid on an slot car item and I was the high bidder all week until 18 secs before auction end, but upped my bid considerably (by 300%) at that time to ensure I would win. I was still the high bidder at my original lower bid until 6 seconds before the auction ended, when someone won the auction with a $1 bid over my max bid. The bidding record shows no one chasing my max bid in that last 20 seconds.


Are there apps that will automatically put in a winning bid with a choosable bid delta with just seconds left after a max bid has been made?

Yes. There are sniping programs.

The one I have used with success is called GIXIN.

Thanks

Auction Sniper, put in your max bid and when you want the bid to go in, 2 - 3 seconds before the end of the auction. You may get outbid by another snipe bid, but probably not by a real time bidder. I read that some guys think using a snipe program or trying to be the last live bidder is cheating, but it is an auction. Everyone has the exact same opportunities.

I've only purchased one thing on ebay, a set of decals, and that was at the asking price not as part of an auction. My grandson bid on a Carrera Cheetah once, and was outbid when a slightly higher bid (still less than the car was worth) came in with less than 10 seconds to go. I didn't think about that other bid being submitted by a program, but I see how that could work in many cases. If I were selling something and it was below what I wanted it to go for I could see the value in having a program bump the price up as the time limit neared to see if someone else would better it. That sort of seems like cheating but in the computer age not sure that concept even computes anymore.

What's to keep the seller from having a shill ebay account and using a sniping program tied to that account to keep from selling his item going for a lower than anticipated amount?

I have bought and sold thousands of items both large and small $ with much more active competition than this and have never had this experience.

Nothing will keep a seller from having a bid program run his bid up, but if it wins the auction he is stuck with paying the fees and expenses as an ebay seller and the proxy bid charges, and still has the item. There is also nothing to keep him from live time bidding under another name. If he re-lists the item he had fake bids on, as we see every now and then, there are guys like me that see it and point it out on the forums that it is a cheating seller. Currently there is a Testors car listed that the seller has sold twice all ready!

You can also have a live bid loaded up and ready to submit at 2-3 seconds left in the auction, there is nothing to stop that. You don't have to have a snipe program for a last minute bid.

Best advice is to bid what you are willing to pay and do it with a couple seconds left in the auction, not 5 days before it ends. Auction rules are exactly the same for all bidders, no one has any kind of advantage except their spending limits.

This item was originally listed for several hundred dollars, Buy It Now, with a make an offer. I did not make an offer. Days later, the seller dropped his Buy It Now by 1/2. I made an offer and he counter offered, but I didn't accept. The item disappeared but reappeared starting at $.99. No furious bidding war ensued for a week. It went up to $25, my high bid, and remained there for days until I upped the amount to several times that amount to hopefully ensure I won the item.

Normally, I just sit on line for the last few seconds of auctions ready to pull the trigger. I guess I may have to start using an auction sniping tool.

In Japan on Yahoo Auctions if you bid like that in the last seconds the auction gets extended for another 10 minutes - good way to stop people dropping last second bids. At the end of the day you bid the highest amount you want to pay for an item and hope you are the winner. I get amazed at the number times people will bid $1 over my bid and then bid again and bid again until such time as they either give up or outbid me... bid once for the amount you want to pay and good luck.
:)
DM

Wait until you get buyers who deliberately put in a silly high amount and then retract to find out where the other bidder is willing to go up to.

Personally I have a policy of banning anyone who does this on any of my ebay auctions.

"... bid once for the amount you want to pay and good luck."

Danagermouse, there must be a cultural difference between Australia and the US in how auctions function. I am afraid your strategy will simply not work here, or on Ebay.

GUYS
I've been the first bidder a lot of times when a car first gets posted, :o
But I never bid more then I'm willing to spend :scared-eek:
The thing that BUGS ME is the TO GOOD PRIVATE Bidder :violin:
That's not fair to the regular guy, the private bidder is no better then anyone else I think :violin:
I'll go the extra mile to beat these prima donnas :violence-stickwhack:


Just saying :violence-stickwhack:
bigman :flags-waveusa:

GUYS
I've been the first bidder a lot of times when a car first gets posted, :o
But I never bid more then I'm willing to spend :scared-eek:
The thing that BUGS ME is the TO GOOD PRIVATE Bidder :violin:
That's not fair to the regular guy, the private bidder is no better then anyone else I think :violin:
I'll go the extra mile to beat these prima donnas :violence-stickwhack:


Just saying :violence-stickwhack:
bigman :flags-waveusa: