A good example of eBay sniping and bidding strategy *PIC*

[rkawakami]

Here's a pretty good example of how sniping and understanding how to work within eBay's bid increment rules allows for some interesting wins:

eBay item # 220110924551 IBM Thinkpad T23 1.0Ghz Pentium III Parts or Repair


For about 7 hours and up until the last seven seconds, the bidding stood at $152.50, a bid increment over the second highest bid of $150. As it turns out, "desiamerican's" proxy bid was actually set at $175.00. The sniper, "dogooder10-4", put in a bid of $175.04 and thus, won by 4 cents. If he/she had bid "normally" (i.e., not used a snipe) it would have been painfully obvious from looking at the bidding history that his/her maximum bid had already been reached.

Since the current bid stood at $152.50 before the snipe, the minimum amount that one could have possibly entered was $155.00 (the $2.50 bid increment). eBay's proxy bidding system will automatically raise the bid up to the maximum amount that one has entered, yet allow for a 1 cent win as long as the minimum bid increment is satisfied.

(edit: eBay link changed to image in order to retain bid history)

[ryengineer]

I have never snipped in my 6 years of ebaying career.

But now I know, I have been a target of snipping several times.

Thanks for explaining in detail Ray.

[RealBlackStuff]

I have been a target of snipping several times.

You can be snipped only once (unless you have an extra set of b....)
You can be sniped many times.

[ryengineer]

I'll go with sniped.

[Temetka]

I got snipped once.

My wife in I no longer live in fear of the dreaded missed period...

Being sniped is actually more painful.

[rkawakami]

Being sniped is actually more painful.

Good thing I had just finished my Starbucks® Double Chocolate Chip Frappuccino® before reading this... otherwise I would be cleaning it off the screen of my T23 as undoubtedly it would have been expressed out my nostrils!

[leoblob]

Sorry, I'm not understanding this (but I'd like to)...

Where's the bid of $152.50? And how do you tell that dogooder10_4 had reached his/her maximum? (and if the maximum was $175.00, how did he/she bid $175.04?)

[rkawakami]

The $152.50 was reached when Fred from Virginia (phred_va) bid $150 but was still outbid by desiamerican's earlier bid of $175.00. Because of this, the bid stood at $150 + the minimum bid increment of $2.50. This is the breakdown of how the minimum bid increment changes with the current high bid:

0.00 to 0.99 minimum bid increment is 0.05
1.00 to 4.99 -> 0.25
5.00 to 24.99 -> 0.50
25.00 to 99.99 -> 1.00
100.00 to 249.99 -> 2.50

Perhaps it's easier to see what is going on when I re-sort the bidding history by time. What is posted above is by bid amount. So, doing that this is how it went:

May 9th 18:58:02 tsr0914 opens the bidding at $0.99 and a minute and 40 seconds later raises it up to $29.99. What is still displayed as the high bid is $0.99 however. He can't outbid himself!
May 10th 4:17:59 phred_va enters his first bid of $111.00 and becomes the high bidder. That puts the current bid at $30.99 (tsr0914 high bid + $1.00).
May 10th 10:23:28 desiamerican enters the picture and puts in $175.00. He becomes high bidder at $113.50 ($111.00 + $2.50).
May 10th 11:31:47 phred_va sees he has been outbid and submits a $150.00 bid. However, since desiamerican has entered $175.00, phred_va's attempt only puts the current high bid at $152.50 ($150 + $2.50 increment).

Here's where the 4 cent outbid comes into play...

Since the current high bid was at $152.50 up until the last seven seconds of the auction, one only needed to submit a bid of at least $155.00 to satisfy the minimum bid increment. dogooder10_4's snipe of $175.04 was enough for the minimum bid increment AND was also higher than desiamerican's.

Let's assume that dogooder10_4 did not snipe and instead entered his $175.04 bid an hour before the end of the auction. He still would have been the high bidder, but a look at the bidding history would have revealed that the difference between his high bid and the second highest bid was less than the bid increment. This means that anyone who wanted to outbid him knows he's already at his maximum.

[al7kz]

This is interesting but I don't see what the mystery is about bidding on e*bay. It's common in sealed bidding to add a few odd cents to a round number bid - and e?bay is a form of sealed bidding. I don't see where using a pejorative to describe a legitimate bidder is useful.
Edit: As an example, I always add a certain number of cents to any e#bay bid. (Which I will not reveal!!!) If desi&&american had done that, then do??gooder would not have won by a mere 4 cents. Cheers...

[leoblob]

@ rkamakawi... thanks for the explanation.

[rkawakami]

This is interesting but I don't see what the mystery is about bidding on e*bay.

As you and I share the same bidding strategy (using odd-numbered cents) we know it's sometimes useful to do so. However, not everyone here is familiar with the ins-and-outs of eBay bidding. I started this thread as an example from previous talks that have been held in this forum about sniping. Now I'm not going to get into the discussion on whether or not sniping is "fair" or "moral". As eBay currently permits this type of bidding, I can only say that it's something that should be considered when placing ones bid. It's up to the bidder to decide if they will or will not snipe. When I saw this auction finish I noticed that it also contained a prime example of the odd-cents bidding style, coupled with the sniping technique, and thought that I would use it as a learning tool for those that may be interested.

I don't believe that I or anyone else in this thread is/was disparaging towards any of the bidders in this example. My use of the term "normally" in the OP in describing the bidder dogooder10-4 possible use of a non-snipe bid, was exactly that, a "normal" bid. I'm also not knocking using odd-cents bids. I do it as "standard operating procedure".

@leoblob: You're welmoce!