EBAY Bidding Strategies If You really Want The Item
EBAY bidding strategies that work do exist, there are things you can and must do once you find something you really want. They are pretty simple and they work.
Three Core eBay Bidding Strategies
First a bit about PROXY Bidding. Ebay is a PROXY bidding platform. What this simply means is, eBay will execute your bids competitively on your behalf as your PROXY. So lets say you want something and you're willing to pay $200 for it. Place your $200 bid and lets say the item is now at $25 after you put in the bid of $200. You are currently the winning bidder, if someone comes along and places any bid below your MAXIMUM bid of $200, eBay will bid again on your behalf. If the bidding goes above your $200, you then come back and place another if you wish. EBAY will not place your bid any higher than one increment above the highest current competitive bid or above the opening bid being asked by the seller.
Three Core eBay Bidding Strategies
- Always place a bid as soon as you find something you really want immediately. Do not use your "watch list" if you really want the item. Planning to come back in the closing minutes with a bid is often a mistake. Too often folks forget to check back or forget when it closes and miss the item all together. Put the item on your watch list first if you wish. THEN go back and place a bid right away. REMEMBER: Once you place a bid, you cannot add the item to your Watch List. So put it on first and then leave the bid immediately, even if it's just a small one.
- About Sniper Programs, if you use one, ALWAYS leave a small bid as well first. Then place your max bid on the Sniper afterwards. By leaving a small bid, eBay will remind you you've been outbid, it might just prompt you to up your Sniper bid. Remember SNIPERS Programs will not run up your own bid on your ebay account. It only places the bid over the winning bidder if it's not you.
- About BID Nibbling . Bid Nibbling aka Nudging is an annoying tactic you can use and is really effective. BID Nibbling tends to discourage non-serious bidders and folks who are strictly a waste of time. Every time you get outbid after your initial bid, place another bid or two until you are once again the winning bidder, then stop. If you get outbid again, do it again and keep doing it. This tactic can serve to discourage new bidders from coming in and and will grind down the hopes of your competition. Nibbling is among the best of all eBay bidding strategies for winning more auctions.
Chinese Silk With Inscription, $46
Bidder Psychology and the Impact of Nibbling
Making sure to keep outbidding you competiton prevents the from developing a sense of ownership of the piece. The other bidder begins to resent you and the piece itself for causing them a a hassle. The mind is a mysterious thing. Also, buyers who are the winning bidders or close to it for the entire auction period begin to feel they have already won the item. As a result they will often drops a VERY big fat bid at the end to make sure no one takes it away from them. they will often overpay. So just keep pushing...
A Little Dirty Trick To Win Auctions (but legal)
While what I'm going to say here doesn't violate any eBay rules, it comes close but does very often enable bidders to win auctions. Consider it a variation of the typical ebay bidding strategies which will enhance your chances.
The fact is, the higher a price is when a potential buyer finds an item on an auction site, the LESS likely he or she is to leave a bid or to chase it. A large percentage of auction buyers are almost genetically bargain minded hunters, it's a hard wired thing. So let's say for the sake of conversation you find a piece recently listed you think is worth $800 and you would pay that. (Assuming you know a bit about prices and values.) The faster that item gets up to lets say $350 to $450 the greater the chance you'll get it under the $800 figure. The reason is, a significant percentage of bidders naturally shy away from chasing on items already having strong bids early. Buyers assume often the item will POP to a very high price given the interest level early on.
Get by with a Little Help from your Friends!
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What you can do is pretty obvious. Quickly call four or five friends with eBay accounts after you place a bid of let's say $400. Send them all the item number and ask them each place bids for you. For example: $200, $300 and $350 and then $375. You will be the high bidder. If you use a Sniper program, place a bid on that for your absolute maximum.
Very often in this type of scenario bidders who come along will see the item and how much interest it got from the start. Many potential bidders will simply move on assuming too many already know about it to bother chasing.
About Sniper Programs we Recommend GIXEN, and we do use the PAID version, it's only $6.00 a year as opposed to the FREE version. The paid version is a bit more complex using multiple "Mirrors' to execute bids ensuring they won't be missed or late. Sniper's execute bids in the last 5 seconds, you do not want to be a few seconds late. The FREE version however ranks pretty much number one in the world of Sniper Programs, so try it. We've used them for years.
The Time to Place a BID is when you See it
A few thoughts, each week in our weekly Newsletter we have some rather good things featured being sold on ebay in the Chinese antiques category as well as other asian art. Every few weeks there are one or two items that sell for well under their value. I then hear from bidders kicking themselves for NOT placing a bid. They've explained to me they "didn't bother" as they assumed other buyer's would make sure it didn't go too cheaply.
Do not let this happen to you, ALWAYS leave a bid. Place a bid even if you think there's not a chance it will go for that amount. Often they do...(shame on me for not following my own advice)
The Chinese Transitional Bowl that went WAY Under the Money
In the past few weeks we've seen a few of these. The bowl shown here is a classic case.
Chinese Transitional Bowl Inscribed, $1,326
- Interior Chinese Transitional Bowl Inscribed,
A rather rare inscribed late Ming-Transitional period bowl loaded with inscriptions and in good shape and of a nice size. Selling for a very modest $1,326.
The winning bidder jumped in and bid repeatedly pushing aside opposing bidders until it was over $1,000 with a few days to go. This bidder whether knowing it or not was using among the best of the best ebay bidding strategies. A lot of folks lost interest "assuming" it would pop way up at the end. Instead it picked up just a couple hundred dollars and it was over.
Above is a really nicely done fram red silk with gilt thread inscriptions and a male figure that went for a paultry $49 . It went right under everyone's radar.
While there are many eBay bidding strategies of one type or another, the ones above are tried and true.
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