General question about Ebay bidding

[brownscollector78]

Why do people bid on the first day of a 6 day auction?

I never understood this.

[familytoad]

I will bid on an item just to get a placeholder at a low price, like opening bid price plus a couple bucks.
I don't check eBay constantly, nor do I use a snipe service.
I can't say I have won many auctions lately using this method, but realistically I don't expect to win every auction I bid in...(maybe others do?)
If I am paying attention towards the end of the auction I might bid again at a price where I think its near my comfort level...even a few times to see where it's at.
If I lose track of it, no big deal.
Now those are cards that I wouldn't mind having, but they aren't critical.

For cards that are critical...(well there really is no such thing) I try a little harder.

For the other AH bids, I just throw a bid at the items I like, no matter the start or end time...it's usually 75- 80% of my top bid. Then if I have time on the day the auction ends, I start to look them over and see which ones I still am in play on, and pick ones to get serious about.
There is no shortage of inventory, nor any shortage of places to buy.
EBay is my least favorite of them.

[steve B]

My watching list is often full, stuff that's BIN that I just haven't bought, stuff I want to save the pictures but didn't have time just then, stuff I thought I wanted but either found cheaper or it went for more than I could/would pay.

So when it's full and I'm browsing and maybe 20 pages into a category and I can't put something into watching since I just filled it....

Then I sometimes place a minimal bid which makes the bid list sort of an extended watching list.

Embarassingly enough one time my very low bid won and I missed the emails having completely forgotten the item. So I found out I won when the reminder to pay came through.

Other times I'll put in a bid to hopefully slow down the seller from selling off ebay.
Or a small bid on something I want cheaply but that I'm not really after. I've won a couple of those, maybe 5-6 in more than 10 years. Yes, I'm that cheap sometimes.

Steve B

[brownscollector78]

Originally Posted by familytoad

I will bid on an item just to get a placeholder at a low price, like opening bid price plus a couple bucks.
I don't check eBay constantly, nor do I use a snipe service.
I can't say I have won many auctions lately using this method, but realistically I don't expect to win every auction I bid in...(maybe others do?)
If I am paying attention towards the end of the auction I might bid again at a price where I think its near my comfort level...even a few times to see where it's at.
If I lose track of it, no big deal.
Now those are cards that I wouldn't mind having, but they aren't critical.

For cards that are critical...(well there really is no such thing) I try a little harder.

For the other AH bids, I just throw a bid at the items I like, no matter the start or end time...it's usually 75- 80% of my top bid. Then if I have time on the day the auction ends, I start to look them over and see which ones I still am in play on, and pick ones to get serious about.
There is no shortage of inventory, nor any shortage of places to buy.
EBay is my least favorite of them.

I suppose I could see your reasoning...you bid on a lot more items at a time than I do. I seem to rarely ever have more than two bids going at once. Generally if Im going to want an item, I put it on watch and then us Gavel Snipe to do the rest.

[brownscollector78]

Originally Posted by steve B

My watching list is often full, stuff that's BIN that I just haven't bought, stuff I want to save the pictures but didn't have time just then, stuff I thought I wanted but either found cheaper or it went for more than I could/would pay.

So when it's full and I'm browsing and maybe 20 pages into a category and I can't put something into watching since I just filled it....

Then I sometimes place a minimal bid which makes the bid list sort of an extended watching list.

Embarassingly enough one time my very low bid won and I missed the emails having completely forgotten the item. So I found out I won when the reminder to pay came through.

Other times I'll put in a bid to hopefully slow down the seller from selling off ebay.
Or a small bid on something I want cheaply but that I'm not really after. I've won a couple of those, maybe 5-6 in more than 10 years. Yes, I'm that cheap sometimes.

Steve B

I save a lot of items as well but put them in my "Wish List" on Ebay. That way my watch list is cleared up and I can watch items I really want that are bid items. Like previously noted, I just use Gavel Snipe to do the bidding.

Putting a small bid on an item to discourage a seller from ending the listing early....interesting idea. However in my experience, that has never worked.

The reason I asked the initial question is that people just drive up the prices during the auction by bidding so early. If those who really wanted it waited until the end, they could get it cheaper.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by brownscollector78

I save a lot of items as well but put them in my "Wish List" on Ebay. That way my watch list is cleared up and I can watch items I really want that are bid items. Like previously noted, I just use Gavel Snipe to do the bidding.

Putting a small bid on an item to discourage a seller from ending the listing early....interesting idea. However in my experience, that has never worked.

The reason I asked the initial question is that people just drive up the prices during the auction by bidding so early. If those who really wanted it waited until the end, they could get it cheaper.

I'm not familiar with the wish list. I thought it was for stuff you want but can't find listed? I'll have to check it out.

I don't know if the small bid to discourage early ending works or not. Probably not, but it at least makes someone cancel a bid and just maybe wonder what the max bid really was.

The bids I place to use the bid list as watching overflow are usually so small that they have nearly no effect on the final price. Like if an auction starts at .99 and it's an item I think will sell for $100 I might bid anywhere from .99- $10. The one I won was a stamp that catalogued around $20 and started at .99 Which was all I bid. It should have sold for much closer to 20 since the centering was really nice.

Almost all the stuff I have in watching is stuff I might bid on. Budget makes me choose which ones, especially in winter. Big old house=large oil bill.
Come spring I'll probably clear about 10 BINs that I just can't justify at the moment.
Sometimes other people make the decision for me, like the bike I wanted that started at $100 which would have been a fantastic buy. It got to $1500 by the time it had 3 days left. That's when I saved off the pics and deleted it from watching.

Steve B

[Runscott]

As a seller, I like to see a few bids before the last day. If I don't see any bids, then I start wondering if my item is too esoteric for ebay customers, and I sometimes pull it just before the deadline and move it to a fixed-price listing.

As a bidder, I understand the above, and so if I really want an item (even if I also intend to snipe), I place a bid if it isn't getting much action, just to encourage the seller not to end the listing.