[BigMike]

I almost never place my first bid unless there is 18 hours or less left on the auction, and then I check on it every few hours.

Which is why I wonder why the bids are so long... whats the point of having a 5 day bid if no one wants to bid on it until the day of?

 

[urbaindk]

whats the point of having a 5 day bid if no one wants to bid on it until the day of?

To advertise and give exposure to the auction perhaps?

I usually try to bid in the last 15 seconds. Yeah, I'm one of those bastards.

 

[Del]

As soon as I see it and hope nobody else pays attention to it.

 

[Slugman]

Unless it is ending within 48 hours, I don't even look at it.

Bidding is typically within 10 min of it ending.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

I use a service to make a snipe bid at the last moment.

 

[amydalayna]

i don't bid unless there are seconds left.

unless i won't be around when the auction ends. then i bid and wish for the best.

 

[Crashby]

Bid in the last 10 seconds, or you are only driving up the price... pure and simple.

 

[kindtrails]

Yeah-I bid on it as soon as I see it too. Man those guys sitting in front of a computer all day sure have the advantage. Mountain bike parts have some stiff competion on ebay. I spend a lot of other peoples money on ebay for building materials. They got deals on faucets and tools.

 

[splat]

Bid in the last 10 seconds, or you are only driving up the price... pure and simple.

Snipping is Fun!! I only Bid on a Item early for one of 2 reasons.
1 ) there are 10000 of the same item all at the same price. and I have no plans on going any higher , if I win it at that price fine iof not Bid on the next one
2) it has a rediculosly low Starting price like $1 ( for a $100 Item) then I Just do it as a watch.

 

[splat]

I use a service to make a snipe bid at the last moment.

How well does the service work ? How much does it cost ? and is it worth it ? I have always wondered.

 

[binary visions]

I always put my auctions up for as long as possible. It gives more time for people to notice and keep an eye on your auction. I typically get a few bids in the first day anyway just because the price is so low.

 

[TreeSaw]

I haven't really done much e-bay purchasing. The buys I have done, I have used "Buy it Now".

 

[peter6061]

I do a lot of 'watching'. If I really want something I'll throw in a snipe bid in the last 15 seconds. I usually don't win because I'm cheap and the price goes up to more than I think it's worth.

Last thing I bought were some tires that the seller had a bunch of, so the price was basically fixed. He said he'd sell me more at a quantitiy discount if I dealt with him offline in the future. Cool.

 

[BigMike]

Its nerve racking when you have stuff up for bid and there are not bids on it for a few days.......

 

[narlus]

I use a service to make a snipe bid at the last moment.

best possible method. but, i think i've used all my freebies on the various services, and now there's a cost per auction result.

 

[jimmydean]

I snipe as well. 3-5 seconds is the average.

There are 2 times that by not bidding early I lost out because the seller ended the auction early (one was a DH bike that sold for $450 when I was going to bid $1800).

So now if it's something I want bad enough, I might toss a "good faith" bid in the first day or so, then wait to the end.

<edit> I've had good luck with 3 day auctions, but I use 5 as standard for most things.

 

[MantoR]

i toss a low bid in early, then watch till the end. If it's what I want and with in my price range then bid again.

 

[elRey]

If I really want the item I will wait till the auction is almost over. But sometimes I will do it early in the auction if the price is very attractive.

 

[blue]

<edit> I've had good luck with 3 day auctions, but I use 5 as standard for most things.

Agreed. I just threw a bunch of crap up on eBay (6 items), one has been bid more than its value, but everything mostly just sits with little views and few watchers. I think 5 days, even 3 for popular items, is the sweet spot. I tend to not look at anything ending in a day or two because I have no idea what the price is even vaguely going to be unless I really want it.

Oh yeah, and I'm the asshole who bids 2 seconds before the auction ends.

 

[Chunky Munkey]

I bid in the last few seconds.

 

[tozovr]

I use a service to make a snipe bid at the last moment.

Me too...but I'll usually toss a tiny bid in as soon as I decide I want it...

 

[Rip]

I don't use Ebay.

 

[robdamanii]

I use a bid snipe service.

 

[splat]

O also I will bid early on an Item if nobody has bid on it and it has a Buy-it-now option, So that option will go a way.

 

[bluebug32]

The problem is that if I wait, I usually forget and then it's too late to bid. But, I agree, I really like the bid-sniper services. I figure if everyone on ebay wants to be an ass and snipe, I may as well too.

 

[splat]

the funny part is back in the early days of eBay ( I've been doing this for tooooo long !!! ) you couldn't snipe , an acution use to end at the end time or 5 minutes after the last bid was recieved which ever was later. so an auction litterally had a going going gone .

 

[BigMike]

how do these bid snipe services work? is it an automated thing, or do you pay someone to sit and watch the bid all day?

 

[jimmydean]

how do these bid snipe services work? is it an automated thing, or do you pay someone to sit and watch the bid all day?

Automatic and mine has a setup and check time. It checks 30 minutes (that's what I set it for) before auction end and will email me if my current bid it too low. I have it set to 3 seconds before auction close, seems to work well enough.

 

[alentz]

I bought a 2004 Rocky Mountain Switch Pro on eBay a couple weeks ago. I didn't bid until there was less than a minute left!!

 

[Echo]

I always snipe within the last 5 seconds.

 

[BigMike]

Looks like everyone follows the trend on here........ I have two things for sale right now, and they just went below the 3 hour mark and have almost tripled in price!

 

[Echo]

Generally it isn't too difficult to beat the auto sniper services if you have a fast connection to the intarweb.

 

[drt_jumper]

Mike...try this....this is what I use....It works great.... www.auctionstealer.com

 

[dante]

if it's something I want, I'll bid it up early to show interest, then wait till the last minute.

 

[Konabumm]

Buy it now is my friend