Sniped!
 

I've been looking for a set of Simplex SLJ-2615 Retrofriction bar end shifters for a long time. They're my holy grail. A NOS set finally showed up on eBay. I wanted them badly, so I bid $80 to make sure I won. I got sniped in the last few seconds and they sold for $88. I guess my PX10 will have to suffer the indignity of wearing Japanese shifters for a while longer. Dammit!

I feel better now that I've vented. Thank you.

Sorry, but I really thought they'd look great on my Varsity.

The same thing has happened to me several times on Ebay. You come up with a fair price, and if you really want it, you bump up the bid just to make sure you'll win. Your the highest bidder all the way through as you watch the time expire and find out you were outbid by a GD nickel by someone who hadn't been bidding the whole time. Is it possible that someone has figured out how to see your top amount and is able to zip in a bid at the last second? I think this is a problem for Ebay. Are you listening Ebay?

I'm not really sure how to do it, but it is my understanding that you can somehow program in a sniper bid without even being present..........I have been sniped quite a few times myself any many times where I coulda, woulda, shoulda bid more.

I use www.esnipe.com. Bidding early on an ebay auction just reveals your interest and helps other bidders. I only snipe bid. Then if someone beats me, its because they valued the item for more than me, rather than raising their bid in response to my bid. Lots of snipe options out there.

No. It only seems like you were outbid by a nickel. The winning bidder might have bid twice what you bid, but he'll only pay what the runner up's bid was plus the bid increment. If you want the best chance at winning on eBay, snipe the auction. If you think there's a reasonable chance the seller will pull the auction early, bid until you meet his reserve (if there is one) so he'll think twice about it; then snipe it.

ebay is great, isn't it?

It all depends on one's mind set... figure out the most you are willing to pay for something and place a bid at that amount. If someone is willing to pay more, let it be. Think of it as that someone saved you from a costly mistake, potentially. It's all good, less than spilled milk, nothing to cry about (and last time I checked, that highly touted - in another thread - "rare" '55 Paramount frame restored by Jesus himself (or something like this), still has no bids; that should be a decent replacement of a really holy grail)....

esnipe has only miffed ONE snipe for me, not bad.

Auctions on ebay are really just down to the last two bidders, unfortunately one can win or lose by just a bit even if one places a heavy snipe bid, others can play that game too. They just might be feeling more flush than you.

You stated that you had been reviewing ebay often as the shifters have reaely come up, That is the danger sign, when they do, demand often spikes, a few folk might have been looking. A high price does often bring out other sellers who wish to cash in on the high demand, so often the 2nd or 3rd listing of a similar item in a reasonalb etime brings prices down, Sometimes.

It is I who am the sniper, not this time though, not for months have I even bid.
Sniping is the only way, in one fashion or another but I feel for ya, I do but he who knows not or chooses not to snipe, gets sniped. Like poker, one can't show one's hand nor one's emotions (a good poker player, I'm not) if this is consoling.

I've been sniped several times, and I found it frustrating, too. Before the sniping software was available, you could watch the bid and try to outbid the other people at the end of the auction. Sometimes I would end up bidding higher than I really had intended at the start.

Now you have to make sure that the maximum bid you place is really the most you are willing to pay for the item. Even if another bidder is using sniping software, you will win if your maximum bid is higher.

So, your the one!:crash:

I use justsnipe.com Its free but you can only bid on 5 items per week, which is plenty for me.
I like it because it really does help set limits. Just enter a snipe and walk away. No worries about getting in a bidding war.
I think sniping is the only way to go. It seems a little unfair, but everyone could do it...

WjV

I don't even look at it as sniping.

Every auction boils down to the last minute. Anybody truly interested in the item will be sitting at their computer waiting for the countdown and will be ready to put their top bid in.

I rarely bid on an item before the last few minutes because it gets others to get the silly competitiveness thing going. That raises the price up early which only helps the seller. When it becomes a pissing contest early, it goes out of the realm of commerce and into the realm of "Oh yeah...!"

I only bid early when I am worried the seller will pull the auction, or I put a high bid in very early to discourage other bidders when they don't see the ceiling after a few bids.

My biggest pet peeve is when the high bidder follows his high bid with 2 or 3 more bides to "stake his claim" on the item. I view that as poor form. And I punish him by methodically bidding in small increments until I am a penny under his highest bid. Sometimes he puts 3 more bids in to re-establish dominence... so I bid him up to his highest bid again. He ends up artificially paying an insane amount for the item that he wouldn't have had to if he was a "gentleman bidder"

I get more entertainment out of that... I can always find a bidding formula that keeps me from unintentionally becoming the high bidder. If somebody has to put all their bullets in the chamber... I am going to make them pull the trigger. I am a bad, bad, man!

I snipe all my ebay auction bids. If I want something that bad, it is worth the effort to personally make sure that I win the auction. I win most of the ones I snipe.

When I sell, I love bidding wars, especially between two inexperienced ebayers.

When i bid, i "snipe" it out manually. the 3 second scramble is way more fun that way IMO.

Dirtdrop, would you be content with just one Simplex bar end shifter? I have what appears to be the same SLJ-2615 as in the auction. Rubber end tore off long ago, though it may still be kicking about.

-Kurt

Those SLJ-2615 are ratcheting, not retrofriction, right?

I think I have one too, that makes it a set. Mine has the rubber, but has some tool marks on the side. Has been sitting in a box for too long, I don't think I will have any use for it.

I concur-- I've gone the same route for the past couple of years. Sniping is a little bit gutter if you ask me, but it's a necessity these days.

Ding, ding, ding.

Now aren't you happy you got sniped, Dirtdrop?

-Kurt

There's something that feels very wrong about this snipe business. What you are doing is removing the clock and competitive bidding. What's the trend? If everybody ends up using a snipe app, what will an EB "auction" look like. Absolutely no bids until the last nanosecond. How would your mindset be for such an "auction"? "I really want/need this item. I would pay X amount for it. But, I don't want to be beaten by 1 cent so I'll bid X + a nickel. Or, maybe that would be X + a quarter, or maybe X + a dollar." EB was at one time a way for seller to unload items for less than wholesale prices. Sniping turning EB into a marketplace for sellers to extract the last nickel out of your pocket IMHO.

I have to say I've never understood the emotion over sniping.

Usually when I bid on eBay, I enter a bid for the maximum amount I'm willing to pay for something, and walk away. If someone bids more than me, or snipes me, it's because they're willing to pay more for something than I am.

That's why they call it in auction.

If someone beats you by a nickel, you have no idea what they were really valuing the item at -- might have been considerably more. The point is, they offered more, you offered less, you lost.

If you want to play the snipe game, just use esnipe. I did it for awhile and got tired of it - one more account to manage; one more fee to pay.

I see your point and kinda agree. I just feel that there is something being lost here that I can't express properly that doesn't favor the buyer.

On the contrary, sniping very much favors the buyer. A lot of the eBay price inflation is due to auction psychology: once a buyer enters a bidding war, he does not want to lose even if he ends up paying more than the item is worth, thinking the other buyer's bid justifies his own overbid. Many noob buyers make several bids, until they bid more than the current winner. As a seller, I am happy when two such buyers show up at my auction. Sniping removes this emotional part, so favors the buyers.

They use the same mechanisn as the Retrofriction downtube shifters, with a spring that counteracts the pull of the derailer spring. I hate ratcheting shifters like the Suntour Barcons I want to replace.

http://inlinethumb29.webshots.com/46...600x600Q85.jpg

I either use the buy-it-now function, or I snipe.

The most surprising thing to me is that when I snipe, I almost always pay a lot less than I was willing to pay, or I don't get the item. Typically I'll enter a snipe amount around $75 and the item will sell for $40 (to me) or $140 (not to me). Either way I'm happy.

If EVERYONE sniped at the last minute (well, 7 seconds before end of auction) nothing would change. The person who entered the highest bid would win the item, and the price would be pretty much the same as otherwise expected.

Sniping is the correct strategy for ebay. Keeps the bidder from getting caught up in the action and over bidding. I come up with the maximum I'm willing to pay for something, then bid with less than 5 seconds left. I can't make a second bid, no auction fever possible. I never regret losing because I am convinced the winner overpaid :)

Frankly, I don't understand all this bruhaha about online auction tactics, methods and psychology. I have a simple rule that I apply to determine how much I am willing to bid and never stray from it. Namely, I never pay more than it would cost me to find it elsewhere, be it some other online store or Buy it Now (BIN) or Craigslist or whatever. And if it is some rare item that is only to be found infrequently on eBay, then I simply establish in advance an absolute maximum amount that it is worth to ME and let the chips fall where they may. No complicated bidding tactics, sniping software or voodoo. Just like most things in life, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, and I don't lose any sleep over it.

+1 wrk101 turned me on to esniper earlier this year and its proven very useful and helped me win some auctions that I was unable to be near the computer for the end of.

I don't snipe, but it is kind of fun when you win that way. I think we all kind of like the feeling of victory, and sniping makes it more so.

If I really want the item, I put my max price in and forget it. If someone wants it more, fine, even by a penny.
If I'm interested in a bargain, I follow it and see where it seems to be going, then make a decision on what I'll spend and stick to it.

I'd say I'm about 50% successful getting either what I want or a good buy.

CL here is getting a lot more parts out there than it used to. It has it's own problems, but I like meeting bike people, and that's a plus.