eBay bidders, bidding immediately, why?

[coansha]

I have been lusting after something for a while but they are pretty pricey £360-£500 and already another of said item but different model.
It will make my life much easier and found one , nearly new on eBay , oh I was very excited and happy with myself and my bargain "buy" anyways some bugger has bollocking well put a bid on it 6 days 22 hrs to go, followed by 2 other bids an hour later!!! Bastards have discovered it, but why bid soooooooo early?
This is not over, this might get ugly....

Eh? But if they bid towards the end wouldn't they have "snatched it from you"?

If I see something I like and I'm not in a massive rush, I don't always check the end time before bidding. I might forget to go back to it otherwise!

Ah but I still think I'm in with a chance.....if they don't bid.
And I use auction sniper!

I generally dont bid till the end of the auction but if say i was going away i would put in max bid whenever i needed to with however long it had left on it.

I think people sometimes get a bit bid happy.

I agree, it just drives the price up. Why can't people bid at the end?

I bid early as then I get an alert to my phone 15 mins before the end, I forget otherwise.

I bid because then I get push notifications on my iphone if I'm outbid. If I just watch it I only get a notification 15 minutes before it ends, so if I'm driving or whatever, I'm sort of screwed and miss things.

I would recommend auction sniper, you can set it and leave it, or I forget too.
I had already " spent" the money I had " saved" on new boots !

I find generally inexperienced eBayers bid early thus pushing the price up, and experienced buyers bid in the last 10 seconds or under.

The advice is always bid late, bid once and bid your highest.

I often bid early, but a lowish amount, so that it goes into my bidding list (different from my watch list, which I use differently). And then I get an email that says "You've been outbid!" which reminds me that I was interested.

A have an adversion to snipers.

The other reason to bid early is because it flushes out other bidders, I find, I don't know why, but bidding early leads to more bids quickly. Since I can't know how many other people are interested (or can I? Is there a way to know how many other watchers there are?), it gives me an indication whether I'm wasting time to keep looking at that item or I should find another that looks likely to go for lower price.

Ok well you can't get cross with people for being inexperienced ebayer or whatever. I use eBay as a convenient alternative to other online shopping - no minimum spend and almost always delivered by royal mail not yodel etc! Tbf, I don't think I've ever bought anything more than £20 or so therefore it's not me messing up the OP's tactics!

having missed out on so many things by planning in bidding near the end, then forgetting, then seen it sold for less than i would have happily paid, i now just bid when i see something i want

Sometimes if nobody has bid then I do one small bid very early, just to make sure the seller doesn't remove it from the auction and sell it elsewhere.

I'm not sure if that works, but I tell myself it does. I only do it on low value things.

I bid when I want, didn't know there was an ediqute

If I really want it and there are no bids I will ask for a buy it now price which most do. Mostly the sellers have priced it quite reasonably. I think people bid early and I know I sometopimes do, it's about ownership, and it's taken mentality, though someone could pip you to the post at the last miniute

Oh FGS why shouldn't people bid whenever they like? That;s the nature of ebay, If you want to pay a fixed price then find one for sale at a fixed price. TBH it doesn't matter if others have seen your coveted item now or 5 minutes before the end - if it's a popular item it will sell at a certain price no matter what. The days of ridiculous bargains on ebay are past.

Ps I hate snipers far more than I hate early bidders. In fact when you are a seller it's nice to get an early bid as a sign you might get a good price for what you are selling.

My weak spot is designer handbags, think Dior, Prada etc

No etiquette in my book, I use the sniper as I forget( pre menopausal) just pissed off my item has been found!

I remember a 6 year old titchy Dior bag going for 350 pounds, quite recently. People like myself geta bit carried away, then faint on seeing the bank statement

I bid my maximum price as soon as I see something and leave it. If I get it great if not oh well.

What pisses me off is when I bid on an item which has been running for days without a single bid and then within hours I am outbid. As is happening right now on a sofa. It's the second time this item had been listed and tbh I suspect the seller of ghost budding to drive up the price. Sorry but I'm not daft.

Ummm, is the answer that eBayers tend to bid around what they think is acceptable rather than worrying about whether they're treading on someone else's toe who might want the item?

Agree! Silly people! If we all just bid at the end with what we're happy to pay, the highest bidder wins!

I am one of those that wait till there is 5 minutes left put a bid in to see how many people are after the item i want and then put in a much higher bid with odd numbers like £4.29 in the very last 6 seconds.

I get very irate when i.lose out on bidding..funny story though..

I once asked dh to bid on something for me as i was going out, he had never done it before so i explained it all carefully being the very competitive man he is he ended up in a massive bidding war and spending £35 on something that is £15 brand new!

When I sell items I like early bidders. It may not go for much more but at least I know its going to sell.

When I buy I don't tend to until there's about 3 days left max. Purely because I'm too impatient to wait much longer for an item. If its an item I'd struggle to find however, I'd lodge a bid straight away. Far easier to keep a track on than the watch area.

I hate sniping.

Unfortunately, sometimes it's the sellers trying to get the maximum price for something. They use an alternative account or a friend to place bids. If I remember correctly it's called "shill-bidding".