Hi everyone! My BF and I have finally arrived in Thailand after a super long flight, and as I mentioned, I’ll be posting some guest posts during the month of January while we’re off backpacking. Today I’ve got a post from one of my favourite bloggers, Anne over at Unique Gifter. Anne writes about gift ideas that are fun, unique, and personalized, including creative ways to give cash gifts. You can follow her on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. - Mo’ Houses

eBay Sniper

*Identity removed to protect the victim

The other day, I read a very tragic tweet.  In an effort to prevent widespread tragedy, I bring you this article, to ensure that you preserve your dollars and still get all the goods your heart desires. I present:

A Guide to eBay Winning

If you are a frequenter of eBay, you have probably watched the clock tick down, waiting to bid at the last second. If you are the poor soul I saw on twitter, you watched the clock tick down all week and then missed the real end of the auction! Never fear, there are websites and programs out there called “snipe” programs, to take away all of the stress for you. The best part? Some are free!

Strategy

If you do not use eBay too frequently, you may wonder why you would wait until the last second to bid. Doesn’t eBay let you put in your maximum bid and then only increase the price as other people bid against you? Yes, that is definitely an option. However, when lots of people do this, the prices are bid up throughout the time that the auction is live. Plus, that can also result in you going well above your maximum price, when you see that you are going to lose the item! Oh, it’s just me that gets caught up and makes foolish decisions? Oops.

How Snipe Works

A snipe bid is the equivalent of someone joining in when the auctioneer is calling “Going once, going twice.” They pounce in at the last second with a higher bid, hoping to win after everyone else has reached their limit. Now you too can be the victorious, silent type in the back row.

Personally, I have been using justsnipe.com for around a year and a half. You create an account with them which is linked to your eBay account. Every eBay auction has a number, so copy that number and insert it into the field. The website tracks the auction for you. You set your maximum price and the time that it will be submitted.  If you use the free version, the default is 8 seconds before the end of the auction. Your maximum bid is submitted, just like using the eBay Bid Butler, so the price will only go as high as necessary to win the auction. The most recent time that I won, I put in my maximum as $41.23 and won the auction for only $33.88. Here are some screen shots of a bid that I won and a bid that I lost.

This information is displayed while the auction is live as well, so you can log in and decide to increase your bid if you have already been outbid. There is even an option to create lists of bids, so you could put all of your Christmas gifts on one list and your designer clothing on another.

Costs

The free version of Just Snipe allows you to make up to 5 snipes per week, at 8 seconds before closing. There are also some more technical limitations and less frequent updates of “current auction price.” If you are going on a shopping spree, you can opt for the pay service for $5/month.

As you can almost tell from my screenshots, I buy a lot of silverware on eBay (it is INSANELY expensive otherwise.  I’m talking $1000/place setting expensive). Silverware is the main thing that we registered for at our wedding and we have been using the cash to purchase it at good prices ever since. Right after the wedding, there was a lot available and we had a bunch of cash, so I signed up and used the pay version of Just Snipe. I simply cancelled it later and have been quite content with the free version ever since.

Lastly, My Best eBay Tip

When setting your maximum price, I recommend using a random amount in cents, slightly more than your max bid. You can see in my images that I wanted to spend around $40. Most people would bid $40. Using the same theory as price triggers for stock sales (slightly below the round number), set your maximum slightly higher. Often you can win, simply by spending another $0.12. I recommend avoiding bids that end in 00, 25, 50 and 75, to give yourself a bit of an edge.

I hope that I have helped you on your way to being a more savvy consumer today!  Never miss out on those designer jeans again!

What do you buy on eBay?

(Image: Victor1558/flickr)