Online Auction Expert Bidder Tips
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Expert Bidder Tip 1:
Incremental Bidding
When bidding in an online auction, it is best to place a
bid for a few cents higher than a regular dollar amount, and to avoid using
round numbers. This way, in cases
of a tie, you may be just pennies or dollars higher than the next bid out
there
Plus, when the bidding gets really big,
especially when it goes over that magical one hundred dollar mark, the
incremental bid amount is raised (see
ebay increments), meaning that peoples bid amounts have been raised by
several dollars, instead of the pennies you may have bid in the beginning of
the auction.
In other
words, your $102.99 bid will beat the $100 dollar tie bids, as well as the
$101.00 bid and all the $101.01 bids etc. Now, people who come in to
bid at the end (or who are setting their bid sniper maximums) know that the
bid increment is higher, so they may become discouraged.
You should
always place a bid slightly higher than the next incremental amount, as many
people psychologically use these as stop gaps for their high bids (even
though a bid that is a partial increment can still beat the next lowest one
out there).
For more
info & detailed chart
see:
More on ebay Bid Increments
Expert Bidder Tip 2: Bid Stealth
Run Silent, Run Deep
As a bidder, stealth is often the key to
winning auctions!
You do not want to broadcast your intentions
to the world as a buyer. To avoid a costly bidding war, place bids at
the very end of the auction either manually, or with a
bid sniper. When bidding on a very high demand item or
in an auction taking place during peak hours (like Sunday night) a bid sniper is definitely
recommended.
Don't be tempted to place those pesky
little 10 or 20 cent placeholder bids to keep track of the auction,
either. This is what your favorite auctions section in "My ebay" is for,
so take advantage of it. If your My ebay is full, consider using an
auction management system.
If your My ebay is full and you want to
track on auction, bookmark the web page instead.
If you are afraid you will forget the auction, send the bookmark to yourself
in an e-mail and 'keep as new' until the auction ends, so you will see the
e-mail message in your inbox whenever you log on.
If you would really prefer to just place a
tiny bid to track in My ebay, feel free- but we would advise doing this only
if other small bids have already been placed, and early on in the auction.
Even if others come in and bid over top of you, you'll still see the auction
in your My ebay section until well after it closes.
Its always a bad idea to bid in an auction
with no bids early on, especially for lower demand items, such as a book,
DVD or CD that has been out a couple years. Sometimes these items go
all the way to the end time with no bids, and you can snap them up at a
bargain... Placing a tiny bid of a few cents makes the auction listing stick
out when you are scrolling through item categories, and other parties might
be tempted to bid.
Conversely, that's why as a seller, it's
always a good idea to start auctions with an uneven price as well (read
seller tips). People who see a listing scrolling by for $2.27 are
far more likely to check it out then one going by for $2.00- it's just human
nature. By the time they get to the item and realize it has no bids,
it's too late. They may already be hooked on the description and
pictures.
Whatever method you use, the whole point
is to avoid a bidding war, which will cost you a lot more to win the item as
a bidder, and in rare cases may encourage shill bidding by a sleazy auction
seller.
Expert Bidder Tip 3:
Finding Buried Treasure
The secret to buying stuff on ebay is actually being able
to find stuff, with all the millions of listings. To do so, you have
to be a little bit of an auction detective.
One way for bidders to find hidden goodies on ebay, is to
do searches for Buy it Now combined
with newly listed auction items. This way, you might find rare deals
before anyone else does!
Also, you can try lurking on ebay during off peak
hours, like after midnight or early in the morning PST, when there is far
less bidding competition.
Here's the
specifics of how to do this on ebay: Search for auctions with the yellow
"Buy it Now" Tab selected, and sort your auctions by: "Time: Newly
Listed"... then type in your search query. Now you will be only
searching brand new auctions that can be immediately won.
Read more about
Auction Searches
See tips for Online Auction Sellers
More:
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