ebay, how to bid?

[gasmansteve]

Hi folks
I`ve been using ebay for a while now but using the `buy it now` price for stuff I want. I recently bid £30 for an item with no `buy it now` figure which had reached £20. I thought my bidding would go up in increments of say a pound from £20 up to my maximum of £30 but for some reason it went straight to £30? what did I do wrong?. Ebay has something called Bid assistant but you have to have a group of items for that which is not what I want.
Cheers
Steve

 

[Woodmagnet]

It's because someone else had put a maximum bid in Steve and yours just outbid him/her. :wink:

 

[gasmansteve]

Cheers for that Kevin I did wonder that. If the other person bid say £29 and my bid was obviously higher why wasn`t his bid on show at £29 instead of the £20 which was?.
Steve

 

[DaveL]

Steve,

I think that you will find someone else had bid more than the £20 that was showing and your bid went straight to £30 to out bid their maximum bid. The system does work but it can be odd watching the figures.
See if this helps:
Bidder 1 puts £15 on for something that has a start price of £10. The displayed bid will show £10.

Bidder 2 bids £12, this is automatically out by bidder 1 at £13, the displayed bid is now £13.

Bidder 3 bids £16, this is now the winning bid and the displayed bid is now £16.

This assumes £1 increments, ebay increases the increment as the price goes up.

One thing, know how much the item is worth, lots of stuff sells for more than it would cost to by new.

 

[gasmansteve]

I see it now Dave thanks. Yes I recently saw a belt sander go for £20 more than it was selling for new at Screwfix !!
Cheers
Steve

 

[Big Fat Pig]

There is something i do which you might find useful. I decide how much i want to bid and then put my bid in a few seconds before the bidding ends. I also put my high bid a few pence over the nearest pound. ie if i`m going to bid up to £10 then i will put a maximum of say £10.03 . This way, if someone else has bid £10 before me then they will win if my bet was also £10. but being just 3 pence higher i win, and for only 3 pence over budget.
It`s worked for me on several occaisions now, give it a try.

Piggy

 

[Big Fat Pig]

Ps. My beloved, the Luscious Lizzie , has just pointed out that it was her ploy to put a few pence over the limit and not mine, i just borrowed it from her and she should get the credit, not me. She has just hit me with a rolling pin too.



Piggy ( in hospital)

 

[Scrums]

Try using a sniper - take a look at EZsniper, it costs you, but it's minimal. That way you can get your bid in at the very last seconds literally, and don't have to worry about your connection going down, forgetting to bid or even having to be there.

Chris

 

[boomer]

Hi folks
I`ve been using ebay for a while now but using the `buy it now` price for stuff I want. I recently bid £30 for an item with no `buy it now` figure which had reached £20. I thought my bidding would go up in increments of say a pound from £20 up to my maximum of £30 but for some reason it went straight to £30? what did I do wrong?. Ebay has something called Bid assistant but you have to have a group of items for that which is not what I want.
Cheers
Steve

On the item page i'll look at bidders history,once there click on "show automatic bids",it shows all bids.

 

[gasmansteve]

Thanks all for the helpful replies. Especially like the one from Piggy bidding a few pence more than your max.
Cheers
Steve

 

[Michael7]

Ive found with broadband I can wait 13-14 seconds until the end and then do what Piggy & Co do (bid as much as I want and a little over) which seems to do the trick