Alan Lloyd wrote:
"I'm missing something here: why does a sniping service do much more for you than eBay's own bidding mechanism, except submit your bid(s) at the last moment?
Your maximum is your maximum, unless you increase it, either you win - or somebody else has a higher maximum!"
I have been second high bidder more times than I care to count (probably a good thing, though, or I'd be that much poorer). It almost always happens on an item I want, but not badly. I'll put in my highest reserve near the start of the auction, and I will be the high bidder for most of the time. Towards the end of the auciton someone will start "probing" for my maximum bid - entering higher bids until they get one increment higher. That usually wins it for them.
If I really want an item, I wait until the last possible moment to submit my highest possible bid. Call it non-automated sniping. I've gotten pretty good, and can usually get that bid in with less than 10 seconds to go, which will beat most sniping programs. I'm convinced that if I used this tactic all of the time it would eliminate "probing" and I would win more auctions. But then I would need a bigger warehouse. And I would have to quit my day job to spend more time on the 'bay.
Dave "I've got $90, who will give me $95" Ross Portola Valley, CA