Dec
8
I’ve been sniping auctions for a few years now, and have come up with some real bargains. I’ve also lost auctions to proxy bidders who actually wanted the item more than I did and bid a higher maximum amount.
The truth is, sniping an auction RAISES the amount the seller receives for his item considerably! I snipe at 20 seconds before the end of the auction and I always bid the highest amount I can stand to pay for the item (taking shipping and handling into consideration, of course).
If an uneducated bidder has placed a single, non-proxy bid, I can easily take him out, but the seller still gets that much more money.
If the high bidder has proxy bid, however, my bid will drive the auction up until one of us reaches their proxy maximum, which could be double or triple what the auction would have closed for! Snipers are actually doing the seller a favor by getting them MORE money than they would have received, and that’s why eBay and other auction sites allow it.
The only situation that could cost the seller money would be one where there are NO bids before the snipe, in which case the sniper gets the item at beginning price and instead of getting to relist the item, the seller has to let it go at a loss. But such is the gamble with auctioning.
When I sell items on eBay I like to see early bidding because I know that drives my final price upward. But I still want to see sniping in the last seconds… preferably multiple snipers duelling it out!
Read AuctionInsights’s eBay Sniping Tutorial
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