What's the key to WINNING an auction?
 

I've been on ebay and like everybody else I want to bid as low as possible
but win the auction. So I usually try to wait to the end of the auction
and battle it out. This doesn't always work if I'm worried about saving
money. So now I just figure the max I will pay and put that in near
the end of the auction and I win that way.

Of course putting in my max near the end is based on the thought that
other bidders will just run up the price if I put in my max early.

But it this flawed?

I'm starting to think that maybe if I make a higher bid early then people
will say no thanks, too high, and they will not compete and run up my bid
which could mean I get the item for less than if I battle it out at the end
when people start bidding for pride.
People hate to lose so they might pay say $200 at the end just to be the
winner but if they saw the bidding at $125 early they would pass on it.

I haven't tried that, but what you think?

snip at the last second and ignore hate mail.

That's what i do. I make a decent offer to begin with, and hope some people lose interest. If they see it at a higher price with a few days to go, they'll just look elsewhere.

If they see that it's still cheap with only a few hours to go, it keeps everyone interested, and the bidding lasts right up to the last seconds, pushing the price up past what it should be... :2 cents:

It really depends on the item and the rare/uniqueness of it. Without knowing that it's hard to work out a strategy. But here's a few ideas.....

- Don't bid on it until the last moment. Creating interest in the item may create a bidding war. It only takes 2 interested bidders to drive up the price
- Look for possible typos in listing. Many times there are listings where the seller improperly titles or spells the item they are trying to sell.
- Use sniping software to put in your bid at the last possible moment. That or be online at the end of the auction
- Avoid items with reserves
- Avoid shill bidders. There are people that have their friends artificially bid up an item so it doesn't sell too low
- Don't get suckered into bidding too high period. Chances are the same item will be made available again soon, unless it truly is a 1 of a kind item


There are also sellers that will have multiple items, and sell them to the runner up bidders as well.

I think there is a some software that auto-bids according to the rules you set...
That might give you some chance ;)

It's always one of a kind thing for me, like a domain name.
So, it doesn't matter about the reserve, I have to meet it or forget it.

But all the things you said above are basically the general strategy and I'm thinking that this is all about being the "cheapest" rather than being about
getting what you want.


I'm just thinking that if I saw something I needed and say bid $500 for it
right a way and that price showed than people are going to back off.
But if th price is like $5 in the last hour then everyone is hanging out
and then go into a frenzy and bid the thing up to $800.

Yep, that's exactly what happenes to me when I wait till the end.

I paid $100 for something at the end but I think if I could have run the bid
up to $60 with 3 days left I would have probably gotten it for $60-$75.

Running the bid up early gives people time to think if they want to spend
that much and plenty will say no. At the end they aren't thinking very clearly
because they've convinced themselves that they are going to win.

Auction Sniper.

http://www.auctionsniper.com

sniping works for me

http://www.ezsniper.com/ Im using

auctionstealer.com

Works very well.

I don't think it really matters what strategy you use, as long as you figure out what price you are willing to pay for it and stick to it... With domains you are dealing with pretty sophisticated buyers so they probably know all the tricks in the book... if the domains is worth $10k, face it, you will pay $10k for it, using some last minute sniper tool or some other trick won't let you pay $8k for it....

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
So in the case of the $10k domain you might as well just run the bid up
to $9k the first day and shoo off the timid.
So that way, if you lose the auction then make them pay out the ass for it.