Ebay 7-Day Auctions Are Really All 10 Second Auctions

I've run a small number of auctions weekly for some time and it is clear from the bidding patterns that there are often no serious bidders until the last few seconds.

I've been auctioning a number of $1 Columbians. They all have sold for at least $100. But the bids go $1.05, $2.25, $5.15 ... By day 5 maybe you get $35, $37.50, $41. It is clear no one with the potential to buy it is leaving their "highest" bid. There are seldom, big jumps, just itsy bitsy ones.

Then the last ten seconds comes and it's all about who is the bravest and has the most reliable connection - They call it sniping, but if everyone is doing it, it's just really a ten second auction.

That is all.

Yes, I've seen this. It's amazing how much bidding can take place in the last couple of seconds and how the price can jump. And I've learned the hard way that something you really want can get snatched away pretty easily. Somewhere I've seen a debate about what the best strategy for winning an auction like this -- hold your last card until the last second and then play it (with the possibility you'll lose), or figure out your max bid and just put that in early and walk away.

From a buyer's perspective I think the smartest approach is to place your max bid and walk away until the auction closes. It takes away the emotional aspect that can enter into last minute (under pressure) bidding. That being said, one downside is that some sellers that employ shills will keep edging you up to feel where you are at.

Speaking of shill bidding I know from experience that it is rampant on ebay. If it looks and quacks like a duck.......

True, most of the serious bidding takes place in the last seconds, but one still needs several days of exposure for buyers to find you. The same is true of any auction, the longer the leadup time, the better chance you have to acquire bidders. They have in mind a price they can live with, and a bidding strategy.

For example, I have a lot on ebay right now with no bids, 13 views (two of the views mine!) and 10 watchers. Nobody wants to bid first because they all know the "other guy" is lurking.

I don't shill, it is a loser's game. If real bidders discover you are playing with them, they get smart and go silent.

Serious buyers have multiple saved searches, check daily for new "hits," pick what they like, enter a single bid at their maximum price OR set up a last-six-seconds snipe bid, and move on. With this approach, a seven day auction simply pushes out the seller's income because the buyer made their "buy" decision by the end of the first day. If you can set it for three days, do it. I predict you'll have the same income, only at higher velocity.

As a small seller it is unnerving, and very risky to use ebay low start price auctions, because if you don't have that "interest", you can end up with nothing or next to nothing (yes, I've had that happen too many times). I just quit trying. The "big name sellers" seem to have the following and everything catches enough interest, some even to the point of a frenzy resulting in better than expected prices.

As a buyer, I've tried putting in my highest bid up front, and that NEVER works on ebay or hip. For some reason people just poke and poke there way up so they're "on top", which just results in the price going even higher.

I'm finding winning anything worth having VERY difficult these days as well. The "price point" seems to have gone up VERY significantly from 3-4 years ago, but I still don't know what that price point is. There seem to be a few very deep pocket, aggressive buyers for the better, more expensive material. Just the other day an item had a bid of about $20 ten minutes before auction end. I had a snipe bid at about 30% of catalog which was 15 times the current bid, but was still outbid - only one other bidder bid more than $30! I'm seeing people bid 3-4x higher today for same items I'd buy for 1x 4 years ago!

This is good on one hand - I don't spend as much which pleases my wife, on the other hand it leaves me quite frustrated since what I'm after is more limited and specialized than ever and I never win anything! :-)