eBay

snoopwiz · ‎12-19-2017

Hiya

I have used eSnipe in the past, not in the last year or two. I may want to place snipe bids on about 150-200 auction listings, Canadian Seller (Canuck Bucks) all relatively low ticket items but, when I just checked their rate chart, it seems eSnipe is now charging $1 per winning bid regardless of the auction item value. Anyone use eSnipe lately and could please confirm or deny this? I have tried writing them but, as the listings will begin ending this evening, I can't count on hearing back in time. Speaking of time, thanks for yours.

Winning BidYour Cost Non-U.S. currency auction wins of any quantity$1.00

femmefan1946 · ‎12-20-2017

EBay is not an outcry auction-- which is what you are probably most used to.

It is more like a mail auction-- where the time of closing is announced in advance and at that time all the mail bids are opened, with the highest bidder winning.

ricarmic is probably the expert on those.

Our own auction-- Sparks-- uses a mixture of both.

Our current catalogue is up now, for a January 30-31 auction. We already have opening bids on many of the 1400+ lots.

We take 'mail' bids- usually emailed these days, but also snail mail, faxed, and by hand, up to the opening of the auction.

Then while the auction is being called we have floor bidding from attendees and telephone bidding from bidders who can't attend.

And of course the new twist, live internet bidding.

The auctioneer has the task of keeping the 'book' bid (the high bid from mail bidders) the floor bidding, the online bidding and still the occasional telephone bidder*, straight.

And some of the people on the floor will be agents, handling bids for others, perhaps just one wealthy bidder or perhaps half a dozen. Agents are also used for their expertise, giving their clients advice on which lots are worth going after, and helping with situations where for example the bidder might want one of three similar stamps, but will take any one. The agent can drop out of bidding when any one is bought. (That's not very clear. Sorry.)

There are several different kinds of auctions, but the 'outcry' is the one that most people know.

And our auctioneers don't do any of the auctioneer's babble. Their purpose is to have buyers who understand what they bought and at what price. Not to entertain the non-buying masses.

*notoriously the slowest and least decisive bidders

femmefan1946 · ‎12-20-2017

or in waiting until, say, an hour before the close and placing the highest bid you're willing to pay.

DH used sniping for two reasons.

Most of the material he was after was sold in Australian eBay auctions and closed at 3am EST. He had work in the morning so staying up to bid was impractical.

And the items he wall bidding on had a very small following. At that time, bidders names were not masked and he found some other collectors were looking at his bids and using him as their 'expertiser', then bidding against him. Which was annoying whether it meant he won at a higher price or lost completely.

snoopwiz · ‎12-20-2017

I contacted Mario at Gixen and he told me that it would not be a problem for Gixen to handle that many simultaneous snipes.

Gixen is free but I would suggest you pay the $6.00 per year for the mirror service to use multiple servers.

Sign up and give it a chance to see what happens.

"Update" I took this advice (thanks again dutchman48) signed up, bid on the 105 items that had not already been bid up beyond what I was willing to pay and now that the auctions are over, I am more than happy to report I won 64 of the auctions (on my buying i.d. of course).

And yes, I did contact the seller the other day to be sure he was cool with combining shipping of winning auctions.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions, comments. Much appreciated.

dutchman48 · ‎12-20-2017

@snoopwiz wrote:
I contacted Mario at Gixen and he told me that it would not be a problem for Gixen to handle that many simultaneous snipes.

Gixen is free but I would suggest you pay the $6.00 per year for the mirror service to use multiple servers.

Sign up and give it a chance to see what happens.

"Update" I took this advice (thanks again dutchman48) signed up, bid on the 105 items that had not already been bid up beyond what I was willing to pay and now that the auctions are over, I am more than happy to report I won 64 of the auctions (on my buying i.d. of course).

And yes, I did contact the seller the other day to be sure he was cool with combining shipping of winning auctions.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions, comments. Much appreciated.

Glad it worked for you and you were pleased with the results.

mcrlmn · ‎12-22-2017

"You can snipe yourself... That's what I always do. Never used a sniping service in my life. I like the rush of sniping myself

Unless they end in the middle of the night? If that is the case, just enter your max bid as late as you can. If you win, the item was meant for you. If not, another deal will come along. At least, that's how I see it."

Ditto for me.

Exactly how I go about my bidding.

More often than not I win.

I can't do anything about those so determined to buy items that they'll bid up to 3 times their value.

Some really need to take a look around or do some homework before throwing their money away.

rose-dee · ‎12-22-2017

@dutchman48 wrote:
Live auctions also take proxy bids.

Yes, they do of course (I've done this myself), but those proxy bids don't necessarily close the auction. The auctioneer will call for any further bids from the floor, giving live bidders the chance to outbid the proxies. There isn't any way to replicate that experience in an online auction unless there is a live auctioneer in charge (which would be impossible on eBay).

I just think this may have been a major factor in turning a lot of buyers off auctions. Of course, these days it's a buyer's market, so there is likely to be less competition in auctions anyway. Still, for myself, I've given up on auctions. If I want a particular item, I look for a seller listing it at BIN (which is most of them now).

reallynicestamps · ‎12-22-2017

I disagree.

I think what is killing auctions is Immediate Gratification.

This has lead to last moment bidding.

Notice that one Search is Time: Ending Soonest. In fact it is the first choice after the default Best Match.

Why wait seven days to find out you lost?

Another is growing trust in online shopping.

Just as we are seeing less and less feedback every year.

In 1995, FB was a way of gauging the trustworthiness of that stranger on the internet.

Now it is irrelevant because people have their own experiences of safe, successful online shopping.

So when we see a price, we are willing to go for it. No need to compete with others.

And the simpler the buying experience the better.

With an auction, I don't know the final price and usually I don't know the shipping cost either, because it's on another page and somewhat hidden.

With Fixed Price and Flat Rate shipping I see the item , I see the price, I buy (or not).

And with Flat Rate shipping comes the possiblity of Free Shipping (which isn't of course).

dutchman48 · ‎12-22-2017

In my opinion and my reason I snipe are as follows:

If you bid in advance, the game players will overbid to find out your max and then retract the bid and then bid just below. So will the shills.

If no one bid in advance, and only bid at the end, it may save you some money as people that bid and are outbid, don't have time to bid again.

If everyone bid at the end, sellers may get higher prices as max bids would be in play.Many items go up hugely in the last 10 seconds due to snipes.

Snipes also protect you if your internet goes down or there is a power failure, the listings end in the middle of the night, or you get sick, etc.

Many people do their listings to end at the same time instead of leaving 2 or 3 minutes in between and it would be impossible to bid on a lot at once due to time constraints.

And finally, put in a snipe and not get into bidding wars which can get expensive, and what happens, happens.

Very little on Ebay is so rare you can't find another one and if they are, they are out of my price range or items I have no interest in.

femmefan1946 · ‎12-25-2017

If you bid in advance, the game players will overbid to find out your max and then retract the bid and then bid just below. So will the shills.

I suspect this is another reason why experienced buyers stopped bothering with auctions, although in my opinion, it was less that it happens occasionally, than that many suspected it happened a lot.

The dearth of bids on auctions says to me that not many members were bidding in the first place, never mind playing games.

lady.stark · ‎12-26-2017

@rose-dee wrote:
There isn't any way to replicate that experience in an online auction unless there is a live auctioneer in charge (which would be impossible on eBay).

Some auction sites have a "5 minutes" rule. If no one bids in the last 5 minutes, the high bidder wins. If a bid is entered in those 5 minutes, then the auction is extended another 5 minutes. These sites look more like the real auction houses. But... as a buyer - and only as a buyer - I don't like them a lot, because of the bidding wars that can happen. As a buyer, I prefer eBay's way of running auctions. 😉

reallynicestamps · ‎12-30-2017

That was Yahoo auctions.

They went out of business.

See "immediate gratification" above.

Also-- international bidders.

Also-- snipe bidding.

These sites look more like the real auction houses.

I've worked for a 'real auction house'.

If a bidder is taking too long to make a bid, the hammer comes down.

The actual bidders want to get home for supper tonight,not sometime next week.

It isn't the guy bidding in $100 increments who is slowing things down. It's the $5 bidder.

If he persists, the auctioneer doesn't see him anymore.

lady.stark · ‎01-01-2018

@reallynicestamps wrote:
That was Yahoo auctions.

Nope. The websites I'm talking about are still in business (Everything but the house, Screenused, Propstore, etc.).

lady.stark · ‎01-01-2018

@reallynicestamps wrote:

These sites look more like the real auction houses.

I've worked for a 'real auction house'.
If a bidder is taking too long to make a bid, the hammer comes down.
The actual bidders want to get home for supper tonight,not sometime next week.

I did not say they were exactly the same. I wrote they are similar (look more like), because there is no snipe bids.