What's your go-to bidding strategy on eBay?

I'm always eager to learn a better way to bid on eBay, so as to minimize my price paid (as would most everyone else I'm sure!). If some of you want to get into a deeper analysis (e.g. say, using game theory justifying the Nash equilibrium choice...), be my guest! What's your go-to bidding strategy on eBay? Do you have a better idea, or a different strategy for a specific situation than what I do?

Mine's two-fold, listed below.

1) Bid your maximum once, at the very end seconds before the auction's end. This avoids feeding into or starting a bidding war on your part (since that's the part of the auction price you can control), and avoids hinting at your maximum price to other potential buyers so they can't one-up you. You could use a sniping software/program (helpful when you're away), or enter your bid within the last 10 seconds. Remember that you have to confirm your bid, so there will need to be time added for that, depending on your internet connection and other mishaps. You bid your max already, so there's no need to respond with a higher price in case there's an automatic bid by a different buyer. You also won't have time to "emotionally" bid past your rationalized maximum price.


2) This is used less often than #1 for me. Bid your maximum once, at the very beginning. Why? If the item's availability and price are relatively stable, you know what it will sell for, so it will almost never go higher than that price. Usually, you'll see a consistent buy it now (BIN) price, or you'll notice the history of what it will sell for at auction. Find the lowest BIN or auction price (advanced search, past sales price research; or by observation). Assuming your reservation price matches the lowest BIN or recent historical final auction price, set the auction at that price now. If everyone's trying to get a deal below the lowest competitive price, they likely won't set their bids equal to the lowest BIN or auction price.

Since this is a second price Chinese-style auction, you will likely end up paying less than the maximum bid you placed (you only pay for the second highest bid amount). At worst, you paid your maximum reservation price, or what it goes for at the lowest BIN price. If you lose the auction and want it immediately, you can buy the item now from a different listing at your reservation price. That means someone paid higher than what can be paid for anytime using BIN at a different listing (assuming the exact same item, condition, etc.). Also, eBay is first come first serve, so you will beat whoever matches your max bid.



The tricky part is when your maximum bid price is much lower than what it will usually go for... In that case, you may be better off finding deals by:

- Bidding on low traffic days/times.
- Looking for mis-categorized items.

 

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I bid my max when I see it and forget about it. By the same token, I really don't care if I could possibly have gotten it a few dollars cheaper by sniping. It's simply not worth the stress induced headache. This strategy obviously wouldn't work if I were trying to buy for resale. I'm not in the hobby to make money; I'm in the hobby because I enjoy collecting coins.

 

I bid on so many items that I just bid my max when I see it. I usually look through all listings ending that day, but on what I want, then check at the end of the day to see what I got. I do not have enough time to snipe every auction.

 

This is getting to be an expensive hobby... at least to me lol.

But yeah, valuing time over a few bucks changes the strategy a bit.

What if it was for, say, a gold coin with $50+ bid increments? Same?

 

See coin, place bid, go to bed. Life is short.

 

When I was bidding on 50-100 items a week, I didn't have time to keep track of all of them one-by-one. The sniping service was the best way to manage my bidding activity, and I would be informed whenever an item went over my initial bid so I had ample time to decide if I wanted to change it. As a rule, the snipe bids were entered 1-2 seconds before the close of the auction, and by the time it posted there was no way for anyone to outbid me unless their initial bid was higher in the first place.

Another thing that helped me to decide how much I wanted to bid is the "Watch Count". This is a convenient tool to let you know how many people were following an item whether they have bid or not.

http://www.watchcount.com/

If the count is high, it might be advisable to set your max bid higher (without going over the expected value). If the count is low, it's possible that you might win the item for less than your max.

Using the sniping service coupled with the Watch Count enabled me to win about 85% of the auctions I entered over a period of several years.

Chris

 

bid on it. wait until last minutes to rebid. if It is a rarer coin i will bid high and wait.

 

Thanks! I never even heard of watchcount until you posted about it. Interesting - I'll probably start using it. I'm assuming that watch count refers to the number of unique users that have that listing open and/or viewing, since the same number of eBay "watchers" doesn't show up on the listing I checked.

 

It can be very helpful. Suppose you find an item that has 10 bids entered, but when you check Watch Count, you learn that 50 people are watching that item. Now, let's suppose that the wholesale price (Grey Sheet) of the item is about $150. So, if 50 people are watching, it might be to your benefit to set your snipe bid higher than the wholesale price.

On the other hand, suppose that the Watch Count for an item is 5, and 5 bids have been recorded. This indicates that there isn't too much interest for it, so you might actually have a chance to win the item for less than the wholesale price.

Naturally, it is always a good idea to recheck the Watch Count sometime during the final day of the auction to make sure that the activity hasn't increased.

Chris

 

That makes sense - I'll definitely start using it. Bookmarked!

 

The Watch Count records every visitor to a listing whether they have placed a bid, put it on their eBay Watch List or simply did nothing.

Chris

 

I place my highest bid then forget it till I get a notice that I won.

 

You high roller!

 

one word. bidnapper

 

I place a low ball bid when i see it, then forget about it. If i win great, if i dont, oh well.

 

That is what I used. At that time, it was $43 a year for unlimited bids. I recall that my first year paid for itself from the savings I earned the first week.

Chris

 

Don't bid until until the end or else you may bid against your self. Set bidding limits so you do not over pay do not get caught up in the bidding. Do not bid until the last 4 or 5 seconds. Do not bid around such as exactly $100 bid $107.63. Bid abone the max bid by at least $3.

 

What do you mean you will bid against yourself if you don't wait until the end? Bid above the max by at least $3? What if the bid increments are $5 or $10?

 

Sorry typo. If you bid early on you are raising the price and you will probably get outbid so when you bid at the end and when you could have got it cheaper by not raising the price at the beginning. Also, I mean't bid above the m bid by 3. Sorry, I'm doing thus on my phone so my Grammar sucks.