I'm macho. I Never use a sniping program. And Always pay more.

Wrong. I primarily sell and I've been able to protect myself against buyers trying to scam me. eBay's built in checks n balances were in my favor.

How insightful

what sniping does is eliminate the possibility of emotional mindless last minute bidding by someone else on an item that you want.
It even eliminates that possibility in you.
You get the best possible price that can be achieved on this auction.

I have bought bicycles from bare frame through needed components using auctionsniper bidgroups.
One of these two frames is going to work for us.
The Geliano in my daughter's size was nice, but way outbid our interest.
My daughter is very happy with the Fuji, which she built for her summer project. ($154 frame purchase against several bidders, and I didn't attend the auction; also used auctionsniper for Ultegra derailleurs and Chorus brakes)


$171 frame purchase for my Moser using auctionsniper.
It was a "this could work" browsing, searching (24, 25, 62, 63, 64), placed a $190 snipe and went away.
The temporary insanity about this, I actually had instantaneous buyer's remorse when I got the auctionsniper winner e-mail.
I got over it when I received the frame.
Other components bought using auctionsniper bidgroups were crank, FD, Chorus brakes.

That's exactly what I said. The use of sniping assumes irrational market participants. If buyers were rational and online auction markets were efficient there would be no benefit to sniping.

it is the internet

.

No doubt there are plenty of irrational people out there and it only takes one.

But somebody can bid the minimal increment higher than your bid to see if you have "maxed out." A sniped bid happens in the last few seconds of the auction, minimizing the time available to respond.

A nice feature of the snipe program I use is that I can feed it a list of similar items, how much I'm willing to spend on each one, and how many units I need, and the program will work its way through the list until it wins the requested number of items or I've been out-bid on all of them.

on auctonsniper, those are called bidgroups

when you enter your bid on ebay, everyone watching the auction knows that you're bidding and they begin counter bidding to chew away at your bid - i.e. increase the price that you will pay if you win.
When you use a snipe program, no one else knows that you're bidding at all, you bid in the last few seconds and if you win, you got the best possible price.
this thing is never on

Historically, auctions are wholesale events. 90% or more of the people involved in auctions are looking for investment potential.
An acquaintance and friend of a very good friend owns a local auction house. He is a great boondoggler, and travels the world moving booty from estate sales to his San Antonio auction house.
The Great Texas Auction House - Vogt Auction Galleries
His Tuesday night auctions are attended by antique dealers from all over the state, and they quit bidding what they perceive as a reasonable wholesale price. It's a fantastic place to buy antique furniture, and I've scored a few great pieces there on Tuesday nights.

Likewise, ebay is supposed to be the nation's garage sale.
Everything I have ever purchased in ebay auction was at a price that I knew I could resale for greater.
Buying with a sniping program lets you stick to this philosophy. You won't win everything, but what you win will be at the price you Want to pay.

I think that's correct.

He should just keep doing what he's doing. It's working for him.

Haha, agreed, I do the same!

I use Bidnapper. So far, I've won every auction I've used it on, including the dual rail clamp Campy Nuovo Record 1044 seatpost I received two days ago.

https://www.bidnapper.com/

Exactly. Say that the auction starts $1, and you decided to bid (well in advance) $100. Another bidder could bid in even $1 increments until the $100 mark is reached. At $90, the bidding algorithm would require your competitor to bid $91, and so on. But on hitting $100, the bidding algorithm would reveal your high bid at $100, and that you are still the high bidder, since yours was first.

Now let's say that Bidder 2 was a shill. Say Cletis, the toothless cousin of the seller. I know, this is illegal, but so is speeding. I would say that Cletis just earned his cousin an extra $99.

I have bought hundreds of bike-related things off of Ebay. Still do. Here is my wisdom:

• Never bid with more than a few seconds left in the auction. Assume with every big ticket item, you are bidding against shills and irrational bidders. Always snipe.
• Never bid in even dollar increments. Never bid in predictable increments.
• Never accept 'second chance' offers. These are just cases where shill bots were used to reveal your highest bid, and extract a higher sale price from you. Never decline second chance offers. Let the seller wait it out while they expire...

Bottom line: the higher the final sale price, the greater the fees back to Ebay.

but the answer is no, I use a 1920 fly rod and reel, and DT friction shift Record 8sp

occasional exception to Second Chance offers - I bought a 1925 English fly reel for $115, fished it for years and sold it for $450 after the book on the maker was published.

It was already explained....I didn't see the point of explaining it for a 3rd time

no

Buying and Selling on Ebay is something that is not straight forward. Doing so can be fraught with pit holes, if you don't know what you are doing.

Perhaps having a look at Buying Bicycles on Ebay will prove to be a useful guide, and help you to avoid making mistakes.

This is the first bike I ever bought through Ebay, and was I surprised when it arrived...

Well good for you.

A young'un with a torque wrench, great pic! That's teaching 'em right!

we tapped it in with spanish cedar blocks before that.

I don't think it works this way. Cletis will not know he's hit your max till he has his bid accepted, at which point he's screwed his cousin out of a sale.

I wish eBay was more like a real auction if someone bids, then more time is given for other people to bid. It benefits the buyer mostly, but also prevents sniping. I hate bidding and discovering that I was outbid by $0.50. That really cheezes my whiz.

If there was no strict time close on auctions, then Ebay would be a ghost town in a month. This would open the auction process to unconstrained shill bidding. The trust in the system would be completely gone, and the users would flee. If these were the rules, I would never again bid on an auction.