Recently I've been trying to buy a zoom lens for my camera on ebay and I keeping getting beaten by the stealth last minute bidders. last nite the auction ended at midnight so I'm thinking with 2 minutes left with no bidders I'm in like flint...wrong, price jumped $50 buck in the last minute this mofo edged me out by $1 Oh well just bitching I know I use the same last minute bidding to win to so I guess i shouldn't be complaining.

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GIGANTIC CUNT

You do know about incremental bidding don't you?

People enter the top amount that they want to bid and Ebay automatically makes bids for you when someone else bids higher up to your maximum limit...

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Originally posted by A.J. You do know about incremental bidding don't you? People enter the top amount that they want to bid and Ebay automatically makes bids for you when someone else bids higher up to your maximum limit...

I know about that I was bidding against 1 guy and it said i had the winning bid and this other mofo who was waiting in the wings topped me at the last second. And yesterday I had to leave before the end of the auction so i place my max bid and some beat me by $1. I'm just mad as hell!

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GIGANTIC CUNT

theres some website that my buddy uses that places your bid for you at the last minute so you win. ill ask him about it next time i see him.

another thing you might want to do is add some wierd change onto the end. Most people bid with the quarter increments (1, 1.25, 1.50, 1.75) I don't know how many auctions I've won because someone tried to snipe my bid by placing a x.25 bid and my max was x.37. Just a hint.

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Originally posted by DJ_Bod another thing you might want to do is add some wierd change onto the end. Most people bid with the quarter increments (1, 1.25, 1.50, 1.75) I don't know how many auctions I've won because someone tried to snipe my bid by placing a x.25 bid and my max was x.37. Just a hint.

yeah that's what i do.

my item was expensive and I was bidding in 5 and 10 dollar increments but AJ is right I should set my highest max bid and not try to use small increments at the last minute. I guess the heart of the matter is there are a lot of stupid mofos who will bid more than the item's fair value just to win it. Like the lense I'm bidding on is $300 new. These mofo's are bidding up a used lens to $200+ with no warranty.

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GIGANTIC CUNT

Zoom lens for Photography or Film?

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often imitated never duplicated
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Soundcloud: Taso Zoitas

Chances are that the person upping the bid last minute is the seller or an associate of the seller. Though its supposedly illegal, if you ever attend a seminar on how to make money with EBay, one of the major points they try to teach is that you should have multiple user namer registered for the purposes of raising a bid till it gets to the desired level. Especially in a heated moment of "competition" like in the last few minutes of an EBay bid, people tend to dissavow their limits and spend much more on a product than they normally would, because they want the object. By preying on the American (over 60% of EBay users are from USA) value of victory in competition, these sellers are able to raise prices well over market value to turn a nice profit.

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Originally posted by tribu Chances are that the person upping the bid last minute is the seller or an associate of the seller. Though its supposedly illegal, if you ever attend a seminar on how to make money with EBay, one of the major points they try to teach is that you should have multiple user namer registered for the purposes of raising a bid till it gets to the desired level. Especially in a heated moment of "competition" like in the last few minutes of an EBay bid, people tend to dissavow their limits and spend much more on a product than they normally would, because they want the object. By preying on the American (over 60% of EBay users are from USA) value of victory in competition, these sellers are able to raise prices well over market value to turn a nice profit.

im a n00b to e-bay, but what if you're the one ending up with the last bidding?

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Originally posted by Trancer85 im a n00b to e-bay, but what if you're the one ending up with the last bidding?

Then you relist the item, (essentially for free), up the shipping costs a bit to cover your ass, and repeat the process. Remember, the purpose of this tactic is to raise the price above market value, so youre profiting regardless. If you win your own auction, you simply leave yourself good feedback, pay Ebay what they want (often a small percentage, but varies depending on the final price) and carry on. This tactic works best for someone selling several things per day but even if you only have one or two auctions ending per day, you can still profit nicely with this tactic. Additionally, theres a rule of three. That is, do not re-raise the intended buyer more than three times, as this is almost always the limit at which the buyer's self-preservation will kick in and they realize they may be over paying for this item. With proper management, profiting off of EBay is simple.

Ebay is actually not a place to save money really. It's a place to find hard-to-get or rare items. You can save money, but you'll need to have a great amount of patience, and expect to be outbid many, many times.

One thing I really hate about Ebay is the autosniping: people who use automated services (either client robot programs or actual internet services) whose sole purpose is to put in automated bids in the very last minute, seconds of an auction. That puts everyone else who is doing this the traditional way at a big disadvantage.

Bottom line: don't bid with what you think you can get away with (ie least price). Bid with the most amount that you're willing to pay, and do it in the last minute. Then hope someone doesn't outbid you.

If you dislike doing all this rigamarole (and I can't blame you) try finding some Buy-It-Now items with a fair price...

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Desktop DJ Ordinaire
"Where words cannot express, music does"