OK now I'm confused help please

[1dilemma]

OK I want to bid on something (first time.)
If I bid on e bay say I put my max in as 50 pounds and someone else has a 40 pound max, am I right in thinking e bay will just bid us off against each other and I will end up paying 42 pounds, and as long as I'm still in with a high max it will keep doing this right up until the last second and I stand a good chance of winning?
Or I can use auctionsniper, bidnapper whatever and they will just place a bid of 50 pounds in the last 5 secs and I will prob win (unless some e bay person has a max of 60 pounds in which case it will be whoever gets there last!)
But if I snipe don't I end up paying more surely if I put an 80 pound max in to e bay I'll win anyway?
I just don't seem to get itThanks

I've never quite got it either.

To my mind I have x amount I can spend - I put that in as my total and then forget about it until I get a win/lose email

I don't think I have the whole excitement idea though

I think we're all supposed to get carried away with the bidding frenzy and just keep upping them but I don't quite see how to win at the cheapest cost, seems like sniping is expensive (I want a programme that will put in the last bid but make sure it's only the required minimum over the most recent one rather than the max I would pay) ad I'm worried that if I tell ebay it will just keep upping the amount, lots of things I look at have the same bidder seemingly bidding against himself!I just feel I'm missing the point somehow or everyone knows the rules of the game but me

Agree with flamesparrow. I used to get all worked up bidding at the last minute or sweating about whether my putting a max bid in before the last minute would 'push the price up'. Just put your max amount on then go away and wait for the win/lose email. If you lose then honestly on ebay there will be another along in a minute. Things find their own value, there is no such thing as 'winning at the cheapest cost', you win at the market value for the item and if someone wants the thing and is prepared to pay more than you then they will get it. If you snipe at less than you are prepared to pay then you won't get the items as someone else will probably have put a higher max bid in - a snipe only works if your max bid IS actually the highest.
Just find all the similar items, put them in your watched items, then bid on them as they come up until you get one. If however you never win any then you will need to up your max bid.
I never ever sit and watch bids anymore. I decide what I want to pay and put that in as max when I see the item. Some i win, some i lose.

ebay works on a proxy bidding system, therefor if you bid max £50 and someone bids £42, the proxy bid will place a bid for you for eg £44 and this creates a bidding war so to speak.

The way bid sniping works is- your bid is placed in the last few seconds of the auction, this way there is no bidding war so unless the competiter bids more, you will in at the last minute, leaving them no time to bid against your higher bid.

I use "snip" and I have loads of things last minute and the price for snipes is very good, recommended

have *won

ps on "snip" if you dont win the item, you dont pay for the snipe

I win in much the same way as snipe bids work.

I have my max in mind and then in the last 3 secs place my bid. I sometimes have 3 tabs open with the listing in and bid 30 secs, 10 secs and 3 secs before bidding ends in each. I put a lesser amount in each bid and with the last I put my max so that hopefully nobody can bid above that.

Of course, if someone has already started bidding with a higher maximum bid than me I won't win anyway.

I always make my max bids odd numbers like £57 or £33, etc.

I think sniping will only work if there isn't someone who is willing to pay more than an item is worth paying to you personally anyway.

As newlifenewname mentions, I tend to put most of my bids in near the end of the auction, if I'm not in a position to do that eg out of the house at the time, not likely to win anyway.

Thanks guys I get it a bit more now. When I looked at one thing the bids were coming thick and fast in the last couple of minutes much quicker than my computer could keep up with. I had to hit back and forwards everytime to get updated.
SO the 'problem' with e bay is you get a bidding war
the 'problem' with snipes is that you end up paying your max price so could be 10% above next nearest rather than 2 pounds?
If you snipe how do you judge what to pay, round about what all similar things went for on e -bay?

"the 'problem' with snipes is that you end up paying your max price"

sorry, not true, ebay will bid in increments, ie 50p, £1 etc etc, whereas bid sniper will bid a penny above the last bid, so you will win the tiem at the cheapest possible price.

"If you snipe how do you judge what to pay, round about what all similar things went for on e -bay?"

how much you want the item andhow much is usually goes for in ebay- type the ite into advanced search and click on "completed listings only" to see what that item has sold for before

revised due to spelling errors

"the 'problem' with snipes is that you end up paying your max price"

sorry, not true, ebay will bid in increments, ie 50p, £1 etc etc, whereas bid sniper will bid a penny above the last bid, so you will win the item at the cheapest possible price.

"If you snipe how do you judge what to pay, round about what all similar things went for on e -bay?"

how much you want the item and how much it usually goes for on ebay- type the item into advanced search and click on "completed listings only" to see what that item has sold for before

What's something worth to you? You need to think what you can afford. If you're looking to buy from ebay to save money on the cost of something which may be available elsewhere, do use relevant shopping price comparison engines to make sure that you're not bidding over the odds. I tend to buy/sell small light and lowish priced items - mostly cds or dvds - on ebay - but some people will bid more than I think it makes sense to pay. If something isn't easily available elsewhere, it depends on how much I want it too.

Thanks guys I'm making such a fuss I know.

Oh I quite like the fact that bidding sometimes goes completely hatstand on Ebay. But then I'm a seller - of things that only have as much value as someone is prepared to pay for them (old comics and magazines). If you want normal stuff (furniture, clothes, pizzas) then don't bid more than you'd pay for it down the local market. End of/.