A lot of people bid on things almost like gambling (bid the maximum+1, if that doesn't make them the highest bidders, then keep bidding). Then besides all these rational motives, you have the irrational ones. And, of course, a late sniper bid with only seconds remaining prevents your competition from responding to your bid. When the moment arrives it’s best to be front and centre and make yourself heard. You can programme the normal site and the mirror site to put in your bid a few seconds before the auction ends. They will happily answer questions and give direction well before the auction. It's free, but pay a small amount per year and you get a mirror site back-up from a different location, so if there is a glitch, you have a safety net.
Secondly, talk to agents and the auctioneers, particularly those selling your desired property. If your bid arrives in the final seconds of the auction, your User ID can not be used to find your auctions, and your bid can not help someone else value the item. Firstly, attend plenty of auctions before you bid so you can see how different scenarios play out. the quality is actually higher than what the auction description says). When you bid late in the auction you can change or delete your bid easily. Similarly, I might do some quick research and decide that a coin is valued at $10, but if I see bids at $100 that means that either my prior was wrong or the bidders are wrong, and thus I do a bit more research and try to see if there is anything special about the coin (e.g. I stop and say wait that's probably something interesting, and start doing a bit more research on the value of the coin. The reason is that for most goods (luxury goods, stuff with resale value, stuff where you might now all the details, etc.) you are actually dealing with a common value auction, so you DON'T want to reveal your cards before hand.įor instance, suppose I see an auction with 5 existing bids. When I bid on coins I NEVER bid the actual maximum on ebay I just use and place my actual willingness to pay there.