bidding

Shop Like a Ninja on eBay

Kentin Waits — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:48:13 +0000

In June, I wrote an article for current and would-be eBay sellers, entitled How I Still Make Money with eBay. Well, fair is fair, and it’s time to explore a few strategies for scoring the best deals as a buyer. In a tight economy with gas prices hovering somewhere between crazy and obscene, it’s more important than ever to score bargains when and where we can.

Over the past 12 years as an active eBayer, I’ve learned a few tricks of the trade for selling effectively and for the highest price. But inexperienced or rushed sellers make mistakes — and mistakes create opportunities for buyers who are willing to shop like a ninja.

Misspell what you’re looking for.

Most searches on eBay are driven by keywords either within or outside of a product category. If you want a Calvin Klein queen sized bedspread, you type in a combination of relevant terms, right? Well, try misspelling a few of those key terms. Variations like Calvin Klien or Cavlin Klein will produce far fewer search results, but they will also produce fewer potential buyers that you then have to compete with. A seller who’s managing dozens or even hundreds of items at a time can’t list everything perfectly — think of logical spelling mistakes and capitalize on the reduced customer base the seller is reaching. Then pounce.

One note on this method: eBay has introduced a spell correct feature on the site that corrects the most obvious errors, but it’s not always consistent and doesn’t catch every mistake or mistakes that still produce valid terms (think “pie safe” vs. “pie sale”).

Bid last minute.

Auction psychology is a fascinating topic. Inexperienced bidders get excited and start bidding on an item immediately. Experienced bidders take a more measured and stealthy approach, not letting their intentions be known until the last few minutes — or even seconds — of an auction. This lulls the other potential buyers into a false sense of comfort and sometimes leaves them clicking in vain and cursing the keyboard as an item slips through their virtual fingers.

Look for auctions ending at inopportune times.

Each time a seller initiates an auction, an end time is scheduled automatically (typically, three, five, seven, or ten days in the future). Inexperienced sellers fail to realize that an auction starting at 5:30pm will also end at 5:30pm days later — during most people’s busy commute. Even worse, any auction ending at 3am on a Monday will probably be a ‘sleeper.’ As buyers, we can use this ‘scheduling fail’ to our advantage — set the alarm clock for 2:55am and let’s score a great deal while the rest of the world hits the snooze button.

Buy off-season.

There’s no nice way to put it — most buyers are fickle, highly prone to suggestion, and don’t plan very well. We buy summer clothes when the weather gets hot, we buy winter coats when the leaves start to fall, and we never start shopping for holiday gifts before October. Sidestep the high-prices by avoiding high demand. Buy off-season! When the mercury hits 110 degrees, check the eBay listings for wool suits and flannel sheets. Predictably, most of your competition will be shopping for margarita glasses, flip-flops, and patio furniture.

Experiment with alternate keywords.

Just like misspelled keywords, incorrect or incomplete keywords can reveal a treasure-trove of little-noticed items. This approach takes a bit of practice and creative thinking, but can pay off. You may know that specific pattern of expensive dinnerware is called Intaglio, but a novice might simply describe it as “blue flowers.” Break down the description of an item into its most basic elements, then massage the results and see what bargains you find.

Shopping in the rarefied atmosphere of eBay takes patience and skill — but there are amazing bargains to be had if you think creatively, do your research, and — when the time is right — channel your inner ninja.

This article is from Kentin Waits of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Will Guns Change the Way eBay Auctions Operate?

Paul Michael — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:16:29 +0000

The more I talk to people about eBay, the more they are annoyed by one simple fact; the auctions are not, well, auctions any more. Auction sniping and the ensuing last-second bidding frenzies have turned the auctions into something many people deem unfair. But, an auction site for firearms may just change all that.

If you know eBay, you know there are several ways to get your hands on the good. There are the usual auctions, which give you several days to bid on an item, the winner being the highest bidder. There is the Buy It Now button, which is a time-saver; bid a lower price and hope you don’t get outbid or see the price go higher, or But It Now for speed. And there’s the Make An Offer button, which is a hybrid of the two.

The trouble is, regular auctions have been hijacked by sniping (I should know, I have used sniping a lot in the past). This method, when first introduced, was designed to stop a bidding war. There was speculation that some sellers were even raising the price of the item artificially by bidding on their own items, and sniping put an end to that.

But now sniping has taken such a hold on eBay that people are just getting sick of being outbid at the last second. It’s not worth their time, and trouble, to bid on a regular auction. Instead, they are resorting to the more favorable But It Now button, which basically turns eBay into a giant storefront. No bidding, no fun, right? Like their own ads say, it’s more fun when you win something, especially when you know you got the item at a great price.

Well, a site called Gunbroker.com has found a way around that sniping issue with something called “the 15 minute rule;” and it could breathe new life back into eBay auctions.

A friend of mine recently told me of “the 15 minute” rule after he purchased a replica gun from the site, and I was fascinated. To sum it up, it basically puts no hard stop on the auction. If there is a frenzy of bids in the last 15 minutes (something that happens often on eBay auctions) then the end time of the auction is postponed until all the bids have been taken. In effect, the “going, going, gone” aspect of live auctions is reintroduced on the web. Here’s the write-up from Gun Broker explaining it:

All of our auctions use something known as the '15 minute rule'.
In a typical auction setting, there is always a called out counting that happens to allow buyers time to decide to place higher bids. This 'final call' is reset each time someone places a bid. "Going Once, Going Twice, Going Three times" - someone places a bid - "Going Once, Going twice" - another bid placed - "Going once, going twice".. and on and on until the auctioneer completes the entire phrase "Going Once, Going Twice, Going Three times, SOLD to the highest bidder"

So this rule is no different, but because of delay caused by the internet and other possible technological speed bumps, we have a 15 minute final call time.

When the seller lists an item, he specifies the number of days the auction will run. The auction listings display the scheduled closing time for the auction. If there is bidding activity on the auction within fifteen (15) minutes of when the auction is scheduled to close, the auction automatically switches into a special mode analogous to the 'going, going, gone' period of a live auction. In this mode, the auction is automatically extended until there have been no bids placed within fifteen (15) minutes. When fifteen (15) minutes have passed with no bidding activity, the auction closes.

The 15 minute rule makes auctions more fair, by allowing all bidders an equal opportunity to place their best bid. In other online auctions where an auction ends exactly at a given time, some bidders will hold their bids until the last minute or so, in the hope of winning an item on the cheap. This is referred to as 'sniping'. The 15 minute rule gives all bidders an equal opportunity to place their best bid on an item before the item closes. This way, no bidder loses an item to sniping, and the seller can be assured that he has gotten maximum value for the item.

Our auctions are more like a live auction. In a live auction, bidding continues until no one wishes to place another bid. The auctioneer does the 'going once, going twice' routine, and if someone places a bid the bidding resumes. Since all persons bidding on an auction are connected by the Internet, which can be slow and cranky at times, we picked 15 minutes as a reasonable amount of time to overcome any slowness or technical problems.

In a 'live' auction, the person who is willing to pay the most wins the item. Why should it be different on the Web? We certainly don't hide the fact we do this - you will find the 15 minute rule described in our Help Center, User Agreement, etc. It is also why our auction listings say "Ends On or After".

In a recent survey, a feature similar to our '15 minute rule' was the #1 most-requested feature addition that eBay users would like to see added to the eBay site.

So what does this mean to you? Well, if eBay redesigned the auctions to have a 15-minute rule (or something similar), sniping would disappear completely, at least in its current form. There’s not much point in putting a bid in at the last three seconds if it then extends the end time of the auction and opens it up to more bidding.

It may mean prices will go up in the auctions, which is much better for sellers but not so good for buyers. Now, the possibility of getting into a real bidding war is back on the table. Hopefully, the ability for sellers to artificially inflate prices and then ‘drop out’ of the auction can be combated.

Conversely, it could sometimes mean better deals. The auction snipers looking for last-minute deals won’t be as interested in getting into the bidding wars, so they may just forget the whole process and opt for the Buy It Now or Make An Offer features when they’re available. Less people in the fray for products means more chance that you’ll get it a little cheaper.

Either way, this could invigorate eBay auctions, which have been sadly declining over recent years. Will I miss sniping if this happens? You bet, I have got some killer deals through auction snipers. But everything must run its course, and a small part of me does relish the idea of seeing the real auctions return. There’s nothing quite like winning an item and getting a deal at the same time.

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Snipe an Ebay auction, save a fortune.

Paul Michael — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 16:34:48 +0000

eBay is a fabulous resource for so many people. Not only can you find almost anything, but you can usually get it a whole lot cheaper. Usually.
There are, of course, many ways for the savvy shopper to turn that "usually" into an "always" and in the case of eBay, it’s sniping an auction using BidNip.

So, what is sniping? Well, it’s a nasty word but the explanation is simple. In a regular eBay auction you place a bid (up to your max) and eBay will bid on your behalf up to that amount. If other parties are interested in that item, you get into something called a bidding war. And for the frugal shopper, that’s your basic nightmare. The price rockets, and before you know it, you’re almost paying the cost of retail. Ouch.

With sniping, you place a bid on a proxy client, like BidNip, stating the maximum amount you want to pay and the time you’d like the bid to be placed. I usually choose three seconds before the close of the auction. Then, you sit back and relax. As far as eBay is concerned, you haven’t yet placed a bid. You bid doesn’t appear in the system. Thus, no bidding war. And three seconds before the close of the auction, your bid sneaks in at the last second and you pay a whole lot less for it than on a regular eBay auction. The opposing bidder has no time to place a new bid on the item and bingo, it’s all yours.

Sneaky? Well, yes. But this technology is out there for everyone, so I’m certainly not the only one using it. I recently won an auction for 99 cents, on an item that usually goes for $20–$25. How much does it cost to snipe an auction? Just 25 cents per snipe, and ONLY if you win the auction. If you lose (and it can happen, but it’s very rare) then you don’t use a snipe credit. And on average, you’ll save around 25–35% on every auction.

BidNip gives everyone five free snipes when they open an account, and it’s free to sign up and use. No credit card details, none of that hassle at the start. Once you’re happy with the service, you just buy extra snipes and add them to your account. Easy.

Do yourself a big favor, and learn the art of sniping. It’ll save you a ton of money, and you can avoid the bidding wars forever. Happy sniping.

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: