I Hate Snipers!

[Corpse Thrower]

OK.......I'm normally a very violent, Satanic, nasty brute of a bloke....but this made me want to crawl up into the foetal position and cry like a little baby!

Watching a couple of new motor and gear covers on Ebay, put my bid in nice and early, watched as the price climbs, I'm still in the lead, no action for a good 15 minutes or so, and then the countdown begins. I'm refreshing the page every couple of seconds, and I was absolutely convinced I'd nailed it.......then at 2 seconds to go someone bids $1 more than me and wins the item from under my nose!!!

I was absolutely crushed. Got up from the desk jumping around and stamping my feet like a little girl who wasn't allowed to have an ice cream.

Anyway, thats my rant for the day. I'm going to have a bit of a cry, then maybe someone will make me a nice cup of Milo to make me feel better, eh?

[Illacrew]

get a sniper, fight fire with fire!

[RichieRich]

get a sniper, fight fire with fire!

Amen! I'm a pretty mellow dude, but on ebay, I snipe like there's no tomorrow.

[monster_beetle]

I also always mis scorcher motor and gear covers, very frustrating.

[VagabondStarJXF]

Amen! I'm a pretty mellow dude, but on ebay, I snipe like there's no tomorrow.

I concur. Snipe 'em. Snipe 'em all!

[terry.sc]

Whether you snipe or put a bid in at the beginning whoever wins is the person who bids the highest, they only won by $1 because ebay bids up automatically in increments, the winner might have bid $20-30 more than you. The advantages with sniping are that it tries to keep the final price down, if you bid early there's usually someone who wants the goods who will bid against you, putting the price up especially if it's those who will bid $1-2 at a time until they reach their limit. By waiting until the end you also prevent any shill bidding going on.

If you were outbid with 5 minutes to go would you have bid again, spending more than you think the parts were worth? If you were prepared to bid more than your original bid you should have put that bid on in the first place, then you know someone was prepared to pay more than you.

[Rabiedmushroom]

Terry - you are the voice of sensibility on this forum!

However I empathise with Corpsey - I get a real kick out of winning a last minute bidding war, but its rotten when the tables get turned!

[WillyChang]

meh

probably better to have a i-hate-snipers sobstory to wail on TC about...

high chance someone will pipe up and offer "hey i got one of those you can have"

So what was it you were chasin' Corpsey?

[Corpse Thrower]

meh

probably better to have a i-hate-snipers sobstory to wail on TC about...

high chance someone will pipe up and offer "hey i got one of those you can have"

So what was it you were chasin' Corpsey?

I was chasin' a couple of new motor and gear covers for SRB's. I'm tryin' to get all new parts together for me new built Rough Rider.

Got a stash of these by any chance Willy?

[Tamiya1/10]

Got to go with Terry here. I would first check out the past transactions and put in my max. bit and wait for the out come. I am at the stage where I would pay for a well maintained model as I am not too keen on doing a mass strip down and sourcing the missing parts form ebay. I know to some that is the best part and slowly seeing the gem being polish with the shine coming through.

[gordb]

Whether you snipe or put a bid in at the beginning whoever wins is the person who bids the highest, they only won by $1 because ebay bids up automatically in increments, the winner might have bid $20-30 more than you. The advantages with sniping are that it tries to keep the final price down, if you bid early there's usually someone who wants the goods who will bid against you, putting the price up especially if it's those who will bid $1-2 at a time until they reach their limit. By waiting until the end you also prevent any shill bidding going on.

If you were outbid with 5 minutes to go would you have bid again, spending more than you think the parts were worth? If you were prepared to bid more than your original bid you should have put that bid on in the first place, then you know someone was prepared to pay more than you.

I have to totally agree as well.

I was outbid on a few auctions at the last minute when I first starting using eBay ... and initially, I was angry at the snipers for "unfairly" outbidding me. But the truth is, I'd only bid what I *hoped* to win the auction for, not what I was really prepared to pay. So now, I work out my bid by asking myself, at what price would I just say "Wow - for that much, you can have the darn thing!". That way, while I might be disappointed I didn't get something at a bargain/good price, I don't have regrets when I miss something.

The moral of the story for me was that sniping is only "unfair" when you haven't been honest with yourself about what you were really prepared to pay for something.

[WillyChang]

haha fleaBay is just one big game to keep one amused

Me... if there's ever something i really really wanted...

#1 estimate what it'll go for... double it

#2 work out what i'd consider is "crazy money" to pay for something like it

#3 if #1 < #2, wait for the closing minute and put my bid in at T-3s

Good fun!

I was chasin' a couple of new motor and gear covers for SRB's.

Got a stash of these by any chance Willy?

sorry corpsey, not a huge SRB fan... imho they're overrated

[Incredible_Serious]

sorry corpsey, not a huge SRB fan... imho they're overrated

That'll get you castrated, Willy my boy..... oh, wait...... that's already happened.......

Maybe you could ask for them back from your missus.... so the SRB Nazis can cut them off again.... lol....

Alex

[WillyChang]

she can keep 'em, they'll be beyond use-by anyway

Just like ancient SRBs... Kyosho Scorpion/Beetle would run rings around them when both were new.

[grizy]

Just like ancient SRBs... Kyosho Scorpion/Beetle would run rings around them when both were new.

They're all the same speed sitting on the shelf

And just remember "The older I get, the faster I was"

[prplehz]

What is even worse is the guy that snipes his own auction just to drive your price up, then he sends you a second chance offer pretending the "bidder" bailed on them offering to sell it to you for your max bid. I just say nope, lol.

[TWINSET]

What is even worse is the guy that snipes his own auction just to drive your price up, then he sends you a second chance offer pretending the "bidder" bailed on them offering to sell it to you for your max bid. I just say nope, lol.

Urm, why? If your max bid is what you were prepared to pay anyway, what did you lose?

Seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face;

You bid on something you want, are prepared to pay XX and yet when someone offers it to you for XX you decline? - not sure of the logic there chap

[prplehz]

Urm, why? If your max bid is what you were prepared to pay anyway, what did you lose?

Seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face;

You bid on something you want, are prepared to pay XX and yet when someone offers it to you for XX you decline? - not sure of the logic there chap

The logic is say nobody but me was bidding on it. I bid say 20.00 which lets say is a fair high price for the item. Lets say the auction stays at say 5.00 up until the last second when all of a sudden the seller bids on his own stuff raising the price because the 5.00 wasn't enough for them. There is no way I am going to pay someone that bids their own stuff up no matter how much I wanted to pay in the start. It is the principle of the matter. Plus then they get to pay the selling fees and stuff and never sell it unless they re-list it. To me doing the right thing is more important than paying for something I was willing to pay for if it was legitimate.

[TWINSET]

The logic is say nobody but me was bidding on it. I bid say 20.00 which lets say is a fair high price for the item. Lets say the auction stays at say 5.00 up until the last second when all of a sudden the seller bids on his own stuff raising the price because the 5.00 wasn't enough for them. There is no way I am going to pay someone that bids their own stuff up no matter how much I wanted to pay in the start. It is the principle of the matter. Plus then they get to pay the selling fees and stuff and never sell it unless they re-list it. To me doing the right thing is more important than paying for something I was willing to pay for if it was legitimate.

Not quite sure how you can know it's the seller bidding on their own stuff, but there ya go.

I've been outbid loads of times at the last minute in auctions where I been the only 'interested party', but I thought that was the idea of sniping?

[prplehz]

Not quite sure how you can know it's the seller bidding on their own stuff, but there ya go.

I've been outbid loads of times at the last minute in auctions where I been the only 'interested party', but I thought that was the idea of sniping?

Oh you can tell when they do this trust me. You can tell by looking at the winners details most of the time. And when you get a second chance offer within minutes of the auction ending it is pretty obvious.

[TWINSET]

ah, gotcha

[Illacrew]

They're all the same speed sitting on the shelf

that cracked me up bad!

[retroman]

Hi Chaps,

I'm quite phillosophical about ebay. One thing I have learnt is items on there are like buses........... if you miss one there will be another along soon enough!! I always check people with negatives before bidding, and the postage cost. Some scammers will use a buy it now of 0.99, and set postage at 100!

Poorly listed items, with poor photo's are another favourite hunting ground of mine. OK, it takes longer to go through huge lists of stuff, but it gets good results. I needed a motor and gear cover for my Super Champ, and stumbled across a job lot of SRB spares, with a poor picture. I won the lot for sensible money, and I wound up with enough bits to build 85% of a Sand Scorcher as well as getting the Champ on it's wheels! There were 2 sets of gear and motor covers, 2 radio boxes, transmission casings, arms, torsion bars, UJ's, etc.

I think the best advice is know what you are willing to pay, including postage, and stick to it. If you see what you want, and there are lots of bids on it, and quite a few days left, leave it! There will be another one on there soon enough.

[DavidKY502]

Know that feeling. I went nearly a year trying to score some brand new F PARTS for my 959. Place my bid of 30 or40 us bucks and wait. Keep eye on it and the like that last stinking minute or second I would loose it. It would sit there for couple days with me as the high bidder and too get my hopes crushed in the last few mins. Had some bidding on their own stuff too. Wind up loosing the auction then get that message hey man buyer bailed want to buy it now. Would always tell them no. I owned my stinking 959 good long time I can wait. Figure only way to fight back against some of these sellers that try to over inflate the price of their own items. I keep eye out for 959 stuff and that. Some of the people there have no clue and really try to rip off people. They see some pristine example go for several hundred bucks they figure every beat to badword runner is worht that much.

I dont even know how many time I lost auctions for them. Just sucked was the last part I needed to pretty much be done with the restore of my baby. Finally lasty auction I waited it ended at a good time kind knew this seller may not be playing games too. Got down to near the end of aution placed a bid set my max price at 500 bucks. Could always have said OPPPS meant 50bucks. In the heat of battle sort lost track of that extra ZERO. Pretty sure I didnt have pay 500 bucks too do that but was tired of loosing out on the F PARTS. Hope some other fool didnt bid few hundred bucks too LOL. Think wind up gettting them for 35 of 40 us dollars. Priced didnt matter to me really I finally got the parts I needed. Might been bad to do that 500 buck bid but got so sick of snipers and loosing for close to a year finally said that last set I saw was mine and didnt care what I need to do to win them. Last min the bid went from 20 ish us dollars to 45 or so.

[loaded]

I suspect you are referring to this auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=320277656873

Which I won, albeit a couple of weeks before the post you made. I only guess this as bidder 1 has the same feedback rating roughly as you and has been a member about as long, although ebay information is more scant than it used to be. I might be making assumptions and coming up with the wrong answer, however, the point stands, as I sniped that auction and won.

I appreciate that it is always annoying when someone gets something you don't (like the last sausage and egg McMuffin at 10.30am, or Cindy Crawford after her divorce) and in a market with limited supply we are bound to tread on one another's toes. I could say I am sorry and I would actually mean it, in the sense that I don't want to intentionally (and without good reason) hurt a fellow hobbyist, but hey, I will do it again, because I want the item in question.

Personally (I guess all opinions are personal) I think sniping is actually the most honest way of bidding and certainly with items closing day and night and people watching certain buyers auctions just to scupper them, sniping is also safer for prolific buyers and collectors (no I am not saying me, just that this does go on also) and is better on my stress levels if I just receive an email later with the good or bad news rather than miss an item with seconds out.

Don't forget, sniping has a downside too, with the inability to rectify a low (losing) bid, as well as other reasons. ebay auctions are not true auctions, in real auctions for big money items, like houses and paintings, totally unique items command a lot of demand. The auctioneer will go on as long as people are making bids, which can be hours into the night. In this way they make the most money possible for the seller, which is after all, what they are paid to do. By sticking a time limit on it, they do let everyone down in this respect. In a real auction, someone can never blame the other person for anything except having a larger wallet or pair than them, as they have an equal opportunity to buy the item.

I am never sad when I lose a sniped auction, as I know I bid what I wanted to pay, but incremental bidding takes too much time and I think all it does is help keep the final price down for the sniper and risk losing the item for the bidder.

The arguments for and against sniping go on and on, but it is here to stay and I say fight fire with fire, pun intended.

Snipe away, I say and if I lose one to you, I won't be upset!

Paul.