i hate ebay !

[vp002]

Dear retrobates,

Thursday night im bidding on a item (steel battallion xbox ) where it starts at £50 so i send a mail to the buyer , saying how bout he lets me buy it for £70 now , he writes back basically telling me to ssip off , so im there till the end and get gazumped at the last ten seconds by a fiver , The sale ended at £56.00 !

Is there any way i can stop this from happening in the future ?

Vp002

[jdanddiet]

I don't think the seller has done anything wrong.

[The Angry Jock]

Why didn't you put in a £70 bid?

[The Hardest of All Freds]

I always turn down requests for BINs on my auctions.

[The Angry Jock]

I've only asked once, and that was because I'd bought stuff of the fella before - and he went for it

[JetSetWilly]

If my auction has a buy it now, which has been cancelled by a bid and someone asks, I always refuse, as its unfair and, I believe, against ebay rules (can someone clarify this). If my item has no buy it now, I still don't accept offers. Did the item have a buy it now or best offer?

[levon2807]

The only way to avoid it really is to put your maximum bid in straight away or use a sniping service but I think you have to pay for sniping...

[RMLF]

The only way to avoid it really is to put your maximum bid in straight away

This is what i pretty much do now.. solves all the hassle of ebing sniped and crap , as you know youve put your max bid.. if it subsequently gets beaten then tough tee tees. Its much better than getting Sniped at the last possible second over and over and over

[vp002]

Dear all,

Well if i put £70 on wouldnt i just of got sniped at the last minute ?

Any1 got any details for a sniping service ?

vp002

[RMLF]

Dear all,

Well if i put £70 on wouldnt i just of got sniped at the last minute ?

Any1 got any details for a sniping service ?

vp002

Surely not, if it only went for 56 quid?

[The Angry Jock]

Dear all,

Well if i put £70 on wouldnt i just of got sniped at the last minute ?

Any1 got any details for a sniping service ?

vp002

Not if they were only sniping to an amount under £70, worth a shot, no??

[psj3809]

Schoolboy error ! Why not just put in your 70 quid bid as late as possible, good chance the guy who did win might not have gone that high.

I use a sniping service, dirt cheap, ideal for when i want to put in a bid at the end and i'm not around. No point putting a bid in until the final seconds. Sorry without sounding harsh you shouldnt hate ebay, you made a rookie mistake !

[Matt_B]

For sniping I use Jbidwatcher:
http://www.jbidwatcher.com/

It might not have all the features of the professional sniping services, but it's free and works well enough in practice.

Contrary to popular belief though, it won't help you win many more auctions than you would if you were always just putting in an early bid with your maximum price. Rather, what it does is compresses any bidding war that's likely to happen into the last few seconds where there's no chance to respond. That's great if you're putting in the highest maximum bid, but not so good if you're not.

[levon2807]

I have to stick with the maximum bid idea, as soon as you see the auction, bid what you're happy to pay and leave it. Too many times I've watched an auction until the final minutes and not lost it but bid more than I wanted to in the heat of the moment which is just silly...if something is worth £70 to you bid £70, if someone bids £71 then it's gone for more than you want to pay...simple

[Megamixer]

Always bid 1p above your maximum rounded figure. Saved my ass a few times on ebay where somebody else has put in a rounded bid at the last minute and been outbid by my single penny