FriscoHare Posted August 28, 2012 Share #51 Posted August 28, 2012 Exactly, you have one shot at winning an auction; unless the top bidder is a deadbeat buyer and refuses to pay. You have a choice of trying to win it by bidding the most you can afford for that item, or be at peace with losing it. I think most of us here prefer to win the item, particularly if the piece 'speaks' to us. RC I completely agree. There are 2 reasons why I snipe: 1) Other snipers (I've learned my lesson countless of times) 2) Now that my collection has a focus, I only bid on things that "speak" to me. In my mind, each item I bid on is like a tree. Put all the trees together, you get a forest—and a bigger picture of their collective history. Otherwise, I'll settle for the low-res eBay image to fill the void, especially with patches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nkomo Posted August 28, 2012 Share #52 Posted August 28, 2012 I will admit I use a sniping program as well, especially when I will be away from my computer at the end of an auction. That being said, my wife LOVES to watch me bid at the last few seconds on the items she wants off of Ebay. She has also cheered me on more than a few times in the past when I get outbid in the last few minutes of an auction. :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thorin6 Posted August 30, 2012 Share #53 Posted August 30, 2012 I've tried not to get in on this discussion, but I've bid on ebay for at least the last 10 years and have "matured" a bit in my biddng ways. Orginally I used to wait till the last second to bid on something, and I was able to get my bid in with less than 5 seconds to go. I also learned the value of never bidding a round number, and won a $600 item by outbiding the next guy's bid of $150.00 by $.01 at the last second. Sniping never bothered me because that's just the way ebay works, but I sure hated to lose a bid by a really small amount. Several years ago I changed my tactics. Now I search for items I want up to a week ahead of time, looking for mis-identified items, poor descriptions, and the like. Once I find an item I figure out the maximum amount I'm willing to pay and generally place the bid anywhere from a day to a couple of hours ahead of time. Then I leave ebay alone and either win or lose. Even if I win at my max bid, it's still the price I was willing to pay so no harm no foul. What frosts my cookie is that so many sellers are now setting their opening bid so high that no one (including me) will bid; or they just set a Buy-it-Now price that is twice what the item is worth. I know of some items that have remained unsold for over a year; they just keep recycling and the seller will never realize his price. Maybe someone can explain that logic. As for the 15-minute rule like Gunbroker has, that is much better for the seller than the buyer. I've watched autions there go on for 3-4 hours past the end of the auction (and participated in one myself) driving up the price higher and higher. I figure the seller must be very pleased when that happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88thcollector Posted August 30, 2012 Share #54 Posted August 30, 2012 I remember the "good ol days" before ebay came online and the old days sucked compared to now. Most of us live in places that had few or no militaria shows and were stuck with what junk showed up at flea markets or yard sales. If you were lucky, you may have had a gun show within a 100 miles or so and could drive and wait in line and hope one one of the few dealers might have something you wanted. Of course, you often got "sniped" by those that lived closer or drove faster, or more annoying, knew a dealer and got in a side door early and picked the good buys The other option was mail order lists from dealers. Of course, some zip codes got the lists earlier and had a day or two head start. If you had a rotary phone, you could get sniped by some "techno geek" with a new fangled push button phone. And if you wanted to sell something, you had to shuffle up to a table and take what you could get. Now I can put it online in 5 minutes and reach thousands of buyers. There is nothing to miss about the old days. Ebay has made collecting fun and accessible for everyone and brought tons of stuff on the market that you never even saw in the old days. We have access to world wide markets that only the very rich could get to pre-internet. Last night I sniped and won some WW2 photos from Germany, won a Peruvian Adrian from CA, bid on Roman artifacts in Spain, bid on Medieval artifacts in Belgium, England and Holland, bid on Rus artifacts from Latvia and placed even more snipes that I don't even remember. A couple of months ago I bought a nice Mexican Adrian for nothing on eBay Mexico and a great unit marked and named rare Canadian Brodie for $75 on Ruby Lane. In the bad old days, I would have never even seen most of this stuff or would look years for it and pay huge prices. Sure, I sometimes get outbid on eBay but I also got outbid in 1980. Now I have the pleasure of getting outbid in the comfort of my home rather than sitting at an auction in a hot, smoke filled building for 10 hours waiting for a helmet to be sold and then getting outbid. Finally, in the old days, we had a handful of bad and expensive militaria books on a few subjects. Now you can identify anything and get a massive amount of information about it in minutes online. Y'all can have the old days, I will stick with the modern world. Rant over, got to go snipe a few dozen old school bidders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkdriver Posted August 30, 2012 Share #55 Posted August 30, 2012 What frosts my cookie is that so many sellers are now setting their opening bid so high that no one (including me) will bid; or they just set a Buy-it-Now price that is twice what the item is worth. I know of some items that have remained unsold for over a year; they just keep recycling and the seller will never realize his price. Maybe someone can explain that logic.As for the 15-minute rule like Gunbroker has, that is much better for the seller than the buyer. As I said in my post earlier, You put a high price on it and if you are willing to sit on it for awhile, odds are that it will sell. Of the over 450 some odd items I have sold on eBay, over half have been with BIN. Out of all those BIN, I have only had to pull about half dozen items that were sitting and not having any watchers, the rest has sold. I don't trust auctions starting at a low price anymore when I have anything of value. I just had a pair of cavalry boots worth at least $150. I started them at $59 and they sat there all week on an auction, but had a ton of viewers and even several questions. I'm planning on snipers to drive the final bid up at the end. At about 30 seconds the first and only bid dropped and I sadly had to box these great boots up and ship them off at a small loss. This economy sucks so much that the confidence of starting an item at $.99 and getting what it's worth just isn't there anymore. As for something recycling over and over, it is literally cheaper to BIN at $.20 to start and then each month. In a year, that is only $2.40 to list, that is cheaper than listing it once on an auction for an average priced item. As for Gunbroker being better for the seller than the buyer, I don't see what is wrong with that. I already take a helluva beating from eBay for being a seller, I would appreciate a sellers market for awhile. I am getting ready to stuff a $100 bill into eBay's pocket for the "privilege" of selling on their site, I might as well go get that invasion life preserver I have and just mail it to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack's Son Posted August 30, 2012 Share #56 Posted August 30, 2012 Sniping or not, if you want the item, you'll pay the price. Just like a bar-fight, don't expect "fair". :pinch: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Signor Posted August 30, 2012 Share #57 Posted August 30, 2012 I remember the "good ol days" before ebay came online and the old days sucked compared to now. Most of us live in places that had few or no militaria shows and were stuck with what junk showed up at flea markets or yard sales. If you were lucky, you may have had a gun show within a 100 miles or so and could drive and wait in line and hope one one of the few dealers might have something you wanted. Of course, you often got "sniped" by those that lived closer or drove faster, or more annoying, knew a dealer and got in a side door early and picked the good buysThe other option was mail order lists from dealers. Of course, some zip codes got the lists earlier and had a day or two head start. If you had a rotary phone, you could get sniped by some "techno geek" with a new fangled push button phone. And if you wanted to sell something, you had to shuffle up to a table and take what you could get. Now I can put it online in 5 minutes and reach thousands of buyers. There is nothing to miss about the old days. Ebay has made collecting fun and accessible for everyone and brought tons of stuff on the market that you never even saw in the old days. We have access to world wide markets that only the very rich could get to pre-internet. Last night I sniped and won some WW2 photos from Germany, won a Peruvian Adrian from CA, bid on Roman artifacts in Spain, bid on Medieval artifacts in Belgium, England and Holland, bid on Rus artifacts from Latvia and placed even more snipes that I don't even remember. A couple of months ago I bought a nice Mexican Adrian for nothing on eBay Mexico and a great unit marked and named rare Canadian Brodie for $75 on Ruby Lane. In the bad old days, I would have never even seen most of this stuff or would look years for it and pay huge prices. Sure, I sometimes get outbid on eBay but I also got outbid in 1980. Now I have the pleasure of getting outbid in the comfort of my home rather than sitting at an auction in a hot, smoke filled building for 10 hours waiting for a helmet to be sold and then getting outbid. Finally, in the old days, we had a handful of bad and expensive militaria books on a few subjects. Now you can identify anything and get a massive amount of information about it in minutes online. Y'all can have the old days, I will stick with the modern world. Rant over, got to go snipe a few dozen old school bidders. Yeah e bay has brought the world to your home PC , but it has also brought the "awareness" of things that are "collectable" to a lot of people that otherwise may not have known it was and that insured most of the time a Higher price being paid to get an item , and lots of overpriced "Junk" because some smuck doesn't knwo one itme form the next but seen it on "almighty e bay" sooo it's just gotta be worth big $$$$$$$$$$$$$$, it has a "few" good points but as I see a LOT more bad points .................................. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KASTAUFFER Posted August 30, 2012 Share #58 Posted August 30, 2012 I find PLENTY of good deals on Ebay and am glad it exists . Many of the items I show on this forum I bought on Ebay for much less than what dealers would have sold them for at shows or on lists. Its all about knowing how to follow up leads, looking for items with bad descriptions, and knowing what you are looking at. Relying on only finding items with good description when looking for things on Ebay is a trap into paying more. The best things I have found have often had the worst descriptions. I have bought entire trunk groups from dealers on Ebay just because they listed a single dogtag from the trunk . I asked the right question and a single crumb lead to a loaf of bread. My collection would not be close to what it is, had Ebay not existed, and I know what the world looked like before Ebay. I spent close to 20 years buying Militaria before Ebay existed. It took me 5 years to find my 1st POW dogtag from an American before Ebay. Now I find 5-10 a year because of Ebay. You had to work your butt off to find stuff and it was even harder to research it. Who ever dreamed in 1979, you could go on to a " computer" and see MACRS, KIA lists, Unit Diarys, Navy and Marine Corps Muster rolls ETC with just the click of a mouse. Heck... back then my Commodore computer had a casette tape drive and 64K of memory! I am glad the past is in the past, but I dont regret for a moment to have experienced it. It has made me appreciate what I can do today. Kurt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88thcollector Posted August 30, 2012 Share #59 Posted August 30, 2012 Yeah e bay has brought the world to your home PC , but it has also brought the "awareness" of things that are "collectable" to a lot of people that otherwise may not have known it was and that insured most of the time a Higher price being paid to get an item , and lots of overpriced "Junk" because some smuck doesn't knwo one itme form the next but seen it on "almighty e bay" sooo it's just gotta be worth big $$$$$$$$$$$$$$, it has a "few" good points but as I see a LOT more bad points .................................. I just don't subscribe to your opinion that the world is populated by "smuck" buying "junk" because they are ignorant. What seems to be a high price to you may be well within their budget for that item. As for fakes and cheaters, there is as much of that or more at most shows. Maybe not the big shows but certainly at small, local venues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brig Posted August 30, 2012 Share #60 Posted August 30, 2012 I just don't subscribe to your elitist attitude that the world is populated by "smuck" buying "junk" because they are ignorant. What seems to be a high price to you may be well within their budget for that item. As for fakes and cheaters, there is as much of that or more at most shows. Maybe not the big shows but certainly at small, local venues. from what I hear the SOS is chock full of TR junk every year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugme Posted August 30, 2012 Share #61 Posted August 30, 2012 from what I hear the SOS is chock full of TR junk every year You heard right! The SOS is awash with fake TR stuff and now we are seeing more faked US stuff showing up at shows like this. I saw a slew of fakes at a small 60 dealer show here in Wisconsin a few weeks back. Almost every antique store I go to has at least one booth with militaria, half of it is fake. I was at a rummage sale where a guy had some militaria, most of it fake medals. So, eBay is not the only place where fakes are being pedaled. Militaria fakes are becoming like rashes, you can find them spreading all over. Well, I guess I slipped off topic so, back to the beginning, I like my sniping software. I'm often much too busy to sit at a computer waiting for a countdown. The sniping service does the work for me. I get what I want at the price I'm willing to pay. If it goes above my set price, then I either didn't need it or I was being too cheap and didn't deserve it. Too me, this is still fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VMI88 Posted September 3, 2012 Share #62 Posted September 3, 2012 So why would anyone want show their "hand" early by bidding their max bid in advance so someone can bid them up $1 at a time until the auction closes ? I agree 100%, but it sure is fun watching that happen when I'm the seller! I remember listing a Vietnam rucksack on eBay and then watching as two bidders started raising the price in $1 increments an hour before the auction ended. If they had just sat back and bid a reasonable price at the last minute one of them would have probably gotten a great deal, but as it was, one of them paid top dollar. It's just human nature, and that's why sniping is a great tool. (Yes, I do it too.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack's Son Posted September 3, 2012 Share #63 Posted September 3, 2012 .......... that's why sniping is a great tool. (Yes, I do it too.) SHAME!.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SgtJim Posted September 9, 2012 Share #64 Posted September 9, 2012 I would rather save my money by not having my bids pecked up by some guy trying to max out my bid. I always email sellers and tell them not to close an auction early unless I get a chance to "bid offline" if need be. Kurt I sell on ebay your email Idea is a good one. I get many offers to close the auction for a flat price mostly on lots. But I have found that you always do better by letting the auction run its course. Then there are the criminals that ebay allows to operate because they sell alot. There is one from MA fallsriver somerset area. Buys under one name and sells under another. He stole from me 5 times on large lots of military items. He gets the lot takes the best out then declares Not as described and gets a full refund from paypal. I filed charges with the state police and ebay put sactions on him and they refunded me the full auction price out of his paypal. All of his ebay user names are on my blocked bidder list. Ebay is not a safe trading place because their bottom line is money. So he is out there stealing from others. As far as my bidding if it has value its worth paying for so I bid my max on the last day if I get out bid there will be another soon enough. I use to wait and snipe but the last second everything changes so its not worth my time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rr01 Posted September 10, 2012 Share #65 Posted September 10, 2012 And then there is counter sniping. This thread got me to thinking about what to do with an item that finally came up for auction that I had been keeping an eye for quite some time. Rare as chicken lips. I placed my own bid at the biginning but had the time today to keep watch over any additional bidding. The silence was deafening so with a few seconds remaining I increased my bid with the notion that a sniper was lurkng. Sure enough a bid popped in as the auction closed but I didn't see it until afterward. Thankfully I prevailed in no small part due to this particular topic. One shot, one kill {and I never dropped the dime off the front sight}. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkdriver Posted September 10, 2012 Share #66 Posted September 10, 2012 And then there is counter sniping. This thread got me to thinking about what to do with an item that finally came up for auction that I had been keeping an eye for quite some time. Rare as chicken lips. I placed my own bid at the biginning but had the time today to keep watch over any additional bidding. The silence was deafening so with a few seconds remaining I increased my bid with the notion that a sniper was lurkng. Sure enough a bid popped in as the auction closed but I didn't see it until afterward. Thankfully I prevailed in no small part due to this particular topic. One shot, one kill {and I never dropped the dime off the front sight}. Good job, but I don't have time to sit and watch and wait on everything I want, so sniping is my best shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rr01 Posted September 10, 2012 Share #67 Posted September 10, 2012 Good job, but I don't have time to sit and watch and wait on everything I want, so sniping is my best shot. Nor do I but today was a little different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkdriver Posted September 10, 2012 Share #68 Posted September 10, 2012 Just more proof that snipers don't really have anything on someone that is determined and is willing to do what is necessary to win what they want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack's Son Posted September 11, 2012 Share #69 Posted September 11, 2012 Just more proof that snipers don't really have anything on someone that is determined and is willing to do what is necessary to win what they want. Well Said............. :bravo: :packin heat: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
78CARg Posted September 11, 2012 Share #70 Posted September 11, 2012 I'm fairly new to eBay, I didn't know about sniping till I read this thread. It seems like it would come in handy. So I looked at a few sites, but I'm a little weary about giving my eBay password to a third party. What trustworthy sniping services do you guys recommend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugme Posted September 11, 2012 Share #71 Posted September 11, 2012 I'm fairly new to eBay, I didn't know about sniping till I read this thread. It seems like it would come in handy. So I looked at a few sites, but I'm a little weary about giving my eBay password to a third party. What trustworthy sniping services do you guys recommend? I've been using "myibidder" for years without a single problem. They have a web based as well as stand alone services: https://www.myibidder.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spathologist Posted September 11, 2012 Share #72 Posted September 11, 2012 I've used Esnipe since 2007 without any problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88thcollector Posted September 11, 2012 Share #73 Posted September 11, 2012 I have used auctionsniper for a long time. The fees are so low that I consider it to be free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintageproductions Posted September 11, 2012 Share #74 Posted September 11, 2012 I use auctionstealer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgtdorango Posted September 11, 2012 Share #75 Posted September 11, 2012 I usually do my sniping the old fashioned way but when im too busy or the auction ends in the middle of the night when im sleeping i use auctionsniper.com but have only had to use it a few times......mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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