e bay

[Imurg]

There's a starting price that has to be bid first. If the start price is £5 you can enter your highest bid, say £70. If nobody else bids you get it for £5. If others bid to £50 then you'll win at about £52. If someone else bids £70 then your bid stands as it was the first.

 

[clubchamp07]

I was told that, seems a bit unfair to me. So if I want something real bad I can put in a stupid amount and get it for button's.

 

[bobmac]

CC, try it and see.
Just hope no-one else does the same thing

 

[Region3]

I was told that, seems a bit unfair to me. So if I want something real bad I can put in a stupid amount and get it for button's.

Now matter how high a bid you put in, other bidders and the seller can only see the current high bid. Each time someone bids higher than the current high, ebay puts another bid in for you if it's still below your high bid.

 

[TWM]

V17

I've never heard of Snipe but as I have Firefox, how does it work?

This allows you to put in your maximum bid and Snipe will make the bid in the last few seconds. You can vary the actual time but default is 6 seconds.

 

[viscount17]

thanks, it could be useful but I suspect also a bit risky if Snipe becomes too popular. Put in a silly high bid to make sure of winning and then have to pay out.

 

[Smiffy]

thanks, it could be useful but I suspect also a bit risky if Snipe becomes too popular. Put in a silly high bid to make sure of winning and then have to pay out.

But you don't put in a "silly high bid" Steve. You put the absolute maximum you are prepared to pay.
Say you put in £100.00 and with 6 seconds to go the highest bid (other than your £100.00 which is held in "secret" by snipe) was £90.00, you would get it for £91.00.
If the item went to somebody else for £101.00 you've lost nothing apart from the item! It just means somebody wanted it a £1.00 more than you!

 

[ADB]

The danger of putting in a ridiculous to make sure you win the item i.e £500 for a £100 club, is that sometimes bidders get their mates to bid against you to up the selling price. You theoretically could end up paying the entire £500!

I have seen this before when I was bidding against someone and lost at the last minute - then lo and behold the seller sends me an email 5 minutes after the end of the auction offering me the item for the value of my final bid...told him to stick it!

Like most have said, stick to the most you want to pay and bid late.