The trouble is that many eBay users don't really understand proxy bidding or don't have a clear idea of what they are prepared to spend. Bidding early may encourage those people to outbid you when they otherwise would not. So bidding late can save you money or let you win items you otherwise wouldn't. The two disadvantages of bidding late are (1) if there are two equal maximum bids, the earlier bidder wins (2) if there's a technical problem at the last minute, you can fail to bid at all.
That too. This auction (http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws3/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=5302528769)'s bid history is very informative - vkc2000 is me, I took one look and thought "Ah. We're dealing with a lunatic nibble bidder. Snipe, and snipe high." It's very often new or low-feedback users who use the "nibble" style of bidding - those of us who've learnt how to get what we want seem to learn better :)
Sniping at the genuine max you're willing to pay can work too, especially for items that don't have heated bidding wars going on.
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Date: 2004-06-17 09:27 am (UTC)Second attempt
Date: 2004-06-17 10:53 am (UTC)Sniping at the genuine max you're willing to pay can work too, especially for items that don't have heated bidding wars going on.