I’d like to improve my odds at winning auctions on eBay, how can I do that?
I do get this question from time to time, though I can’t actually put a finger on who asked me last. Actually, the person who sticks in mind is Lenny, who I know if a big fan of buying used computers and used cisco equipment on eBay. But this is really a generic question and I’m sure lots of you will be interested in an answer.
Winning an auction on eBay can be exhilarating, yet it can also be pretty frustrating when someone outbids you at the last minute. Sure, you can always win by bidding really high, but that can also mean that you pay over the odds for a particular item. It’s always good to know what sort of prices previous items went for so that you can make sure you’re getting a good price.
One popular technique is sniping an auction. Sniping involves placing a bid in the last few seconds of the auction. This means, you get to place the highest bid and other bidders have little chance to outbid you. You can also get automated tools to do this for you that place a bid at precisely the last second. Obviously, if you maximum bid is less that that of other bidders, you will be automatically outbid*, but I feel that sniping really helps you get a better deal on winning the auction at a great price.
I use a website called JustSnipe for this. It has both a free and a paid-for more. They are both identical except for the fact that the free service only gives you a maximum of 5 snipes a week per account. I tend to bid infrequently, so the free service works fine for me. It also gives you an opportunity to try it out before you decide to shell out for the free service. Much recommended.
* While working on WpAuctions I did get a good insight into how the whole bidding process worked.
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