September 2011 Members Acquisitions

[hunnymonster]

Surely if all people bidding use sniping programs then nothing's changed. You just keep sniping until the first maximum is reached. I've never really had any problem getting what I want off ebay without having to use sniping programs. I'm sure if you're a collector and rely on ebay as a main source it would be a pretty valuable tool.

Given most sniping happens in the last 10 seconds, there's no chance for a re-snipe... and the best bit, it really really annoys the Germans.

edit: forgot this one - if you spot something that you fancy having a go at in say a week, but will be out on the lash. You can set your snipe to happen and then when your smartphone buzzes to let you know you won the desirable object and your better half can give you "the look".

 

[Mark1966]

Sniping is done is the last few seconds, there's only one chance. Nobody 'keeps sniping', you have one shot to bid the max you are willing to pay, and everyone does it at the same time. Whoever is willing to pay the most wins, and we don't get to see their 'hand' first.
It's highest hand wins, without newbie or shill bidders calling bluffs.
Sniping is necessary because there's idiots out there that need to be 'winning ' the auction even if there's days left.
ie you bid $30 max, current bid $5
newbie1 $6
newbie1 $7
newbie1 $8
newbie1 $9
newbie1 $10
newbie1 $11
newbie2 $12
newbie2 $13
newbie2 $14
newbie2 $15
newbie1 $16
newbie3 $18
etc etc

the same few idiots fighting it out trying to be the top bidder and catch up to whathever your maximum is, days before the auction is due to end, but doing it in the minimum increments because they want to beat you by the bare minimum, not just chuck down $40 or something.

There's days left, but they are probing and probing, keeping upping the bid be the smallest increments to try be "winning". Add more insistent newbies and a higher number of them, your $30 is worthless,. It just decided the minimum price this item will sell for, that's all.
If you didn't set a bid for $30 in the beginning, these other people might be sitting on $15-20, then you'd snipe their arses and get it for $21. Edit unless someone sniped higher. But fair enough, they were just willing to pay more than you,* they didn't play silly games beating you by 10c, or in slow motion bit by bit trying to take it for as little as possible.

* I differentiate willing to pay more than you (ie. sniping) to willing to beat you in small bids (ie idiots with a competitive streak that will pay whatever it takes slowly but surely just to 'win' something, not matter what it costs, they get lost in the bidding war - not to mention it leave you open to shill bidders). They can retract their bid after they know what your max bid was as well after working it out when they start 'winning'.

Yep - what he said!

If I set my snipe at $100 and somebody else sets theirs at $101 then good luck to them, they were will to pay more than me. Each night I set my snipes for the next day at the price I'm prepared to pay then forget about the auction and get on with life.

BTW - the other thing that makes me laugh is people saying 'I missed out on [insert name of item] by only $1' - Ummm, maybe not. The way eBay works is that it will bid up by the minimum bid increments to your maximum bid.

So If I set my snipe for $190, somebody else sets theirs at $100 and the minium bid increment is $1 then I will win at $101 - even though I would have paid up to $190.

I wanted a L-O-N-G thread on another site where they went on and on about this. The funny thing for me was that I was the winner of the auction the OP was referring to. I can tell you now that the price I paid was around half my maximum bid. The lesson being, if you are a cheapskate sometimes you lose

 

[JugV2]

I've never used sniping programs.

Before becoming a DE tragic, I held such programs in the same disdain I reserved for hackers in PC shooters.

I mean, why cheat?

But I now see the value of using such a program in eBay to get the razor before gthomas or Mark1966 snaffles it up.

And if I miss out on a double ring to an "unknown bidder", I'm driving over to Canberra.

edit:

I just set my maximum price I am prepared to pay for something then I leave it. If I get an alert on my phone that I have won it, great. If not, I don't care. I never buy anything on eBay that I HAVE to have.

 

[Mark1966]

I've never used sniping programs.

Before becoming a DE tragic, I held such programs in the same disdain I reserved for hackers in PC shooters.

I mean, why cheat?

I really don't understand the 'cheating' accusation against a sniping program. Sure I get that using hacks in PC games gives you an unfair advantage but all a sniping program does is allow you to do what you would do anyway whilst not at the PC.

But I now see the value of using such a program in eBay to get the razor before gthomas or Mark1966 snaffles it up.

And if I miss out on a double ring to an "unknown bidder", I'm driving over to Canberra.

I just added another trailing '0' to all my present snipes - just in case you are bidding

I just set my maximum price I am prepared to pay for something then I leave it. If I get an alert on my phone that I have won it, great. If not, I don't care. I never buy anything on eBay that I HAVE to have.

That is what I do too, but there are some things on eBay that I HAVE to have !!!!!:embarrest:

 

[Pjotr]

....... there are lots of things on eBay that I HAVE to have

Fixed that one.

 

[Mark1966]

Fixed that one.

No, only some things now :cheesy:

 

[JugV2]

That's because you own everything else on ebay.

 

[Mark1966]

That's because you own everything else on ebay.

Me? :embarrest:

 

[Mark1966]

To get this thread back on track....

Some more September acquisitions - not yet received though:

Gillette #22 cased set
Gilllette Coronation Tech Set with shipper

 

[pablo_h]

I've never used sniping programs.

Before becoming a DE tragic, I held such programs in the same disdain I reserved for hackers in PC shooters.

I mean, why cheat?

It's not cheating, it's avoiding the idiots, and ebay is full of them.
Sniping doesn't get you the item, the current high bidder who did it the old fashioned way and fought off the idiots could still have a higher bid than the sniper is willing to pay. It's all about not showing your cards early, and is only necessary because of the newbie or shill bidder plugging away like I mentioned before.
If none bid like I gave an example of, ie get into a bidding war and not even stop and think about what their true maximum price was and just bid that, then sniping wouldn't be necessary.

 

[JugV2]

Yeah I do understand now. I admit I was hasty to call it cheating.

 

[Pjotr]

It's not cheating, it's avoiding the idiots, and ebay is full of them.........

In defence of the idiots, it's easy to get caught up in a bidding war. Particularly given that it's all anonomous and you can use just a few buttons on your computer to actually give you the feeling that you're winning a war. It's the "suck on that you bastard" bids that get you undone. I've done it once or twice and immediately afterwards I was just hoping that somebody outbid me. Thankfully in my case they did. It's quite exciting to watch the end of an auction you've been involved with and it's tempting to extend that by putting in a bid, conveniently forgetting that it's above the value and your bid limit. Always stick to your limit is the MO. In wet shaving land it's not as if you're bidding on a Stradivarius. There'll always be another razor/brush around the corner.

If I was a collector I'd use every sniping software you can get. There's really no difference to instructing somebody to bid on your behalf in a live auction and he/she will always put the final bid in just before the hammer comes down. If you're living here in GMT +7 Australia you've generally got no chance doing the "snipe" yourself unless you're willing to suffer permanent sleep deprivation.

 

[Mark1966]

Yeah I do understand now. I admit I was hasty to call it cheating.

Wasn't trying to have a go BTW - I just didn't understand the logic of the common suggestion that it was.

If you're living here in GMT +7 Australia you've generally got no chance doing the "snipe" yourself unless you're willing to suffer permanent sleep deprivation.

Worse in GMT +10 Canberra :sad2:

 

[JugV2]

That's cool Mark, I didn't take it that way at all.

 

[Mark1966]

That's cool Mark, I didn't take it that way at all.

Cool, probably spending too much time on B&B with sensitive Yanks!

 

[hunnymonster]

BTW - the other thing that makes me laugh is people saying 'I missed out on [insert name of item] by only $1' - Ummm, maybe not. The way eBay works is that it will bid up by the minimum bid increments to your maximum bid.

I always bid "odd" amounts so I can see usually if I was outbid by a whole increment or less than that - so if I bid $100.62 and the winning bid is less than the $2? bid increment, I get hacked off. But I do a special dance if I win by the odd $0.62 :embarrest:

 

[hunnymonster]

In defence of the idiots, it's easy to get caught up in a bidding war.

Auction frenzy! It's great as a seller though :laugh:

 

[Monsta_AU]

There's a bottom-dial Fatboy on the 'Bay now Mark..... bit rich for me at over $300 with 5 days to run :blink:

 

[Drubbing]

Well, due to rather important family reasons, the London jaunt is off.

So I ordered T&H cream, balm and cologne sample pack for $25. Anything I'm not keen on will be offered up here, there's a Spanish Leather and Mark's already had my nearly full bottle of that so I won't be keeping that. I'm keen on checking out the Sandalwood trio, the Grafton and 1805.

I'll give this to T&H, I ordered 3 hours ago, get an email saying I won't be charged til they're posted, and 3 hours later... they're posted. Course now, they'll take 3 weeks to get here.

 

[Mark1966]

There's a bottom-dial Fatboy on the 'Bay now Mark..... bit rich for me at over $300 with 5 days to run :blink:

Are we allowed to mention or in any way identify live auctions on this forum? Oh, that's right, your the boss, you make the rules.

I have noticed that one and am wondering what I can sell to afford it. Anybody know the going price for a kidney? I think that this one might be out of my league :sad2:

There was a VERY nice US Executive that went recently for $565 that was also out of my league, I have one but not with the blades etc

Maybe we should run a competition to guess the price of the Bottom Dial. Closest guess wins something!

Well, due to rather important family reasons, the London jaunt is off.

Hopefully GOOD important family reasons not bad ones mate!

Nice stuff with the T&H