Anyone who has used ebay or any other auction sites a couple of times and lost their bids on items they are after will know the frustration of not winning. That is why you need to get a strategy in place before you bid and you need to work out a strategy that is right for you and the type of person you are. There are millions of people who use auction sites every year and everybody will have their own way of doing things but fundamentally there are three ways of approaching bidding and bidding successfully:
The first method is to bid highly on your item from the get-go. This method works if you know an exact amount you are willing to spend on your item and you can set this as a limit in your mind. It is also the method most used by people who do not have the kind of free time required to be able to sit down next to the computer and constantly check on the state of the auction and each upward bid until the end of the bidding process. By doing it this way you set a high price from the start and hopefully put people off from bidding on your item, because it will not look like a bargain. Often this tactic will not work as anyone can come along and put a bid for $1 over yours while you are not watching the auction but at least you will have the knowledge that you bid as much as you could for your item.
The second way to go about it is the most popular and that is to bid in incremental amounts and time slots. This operates like a normal real world auction and is when you choose to ‘watch item’ and get updates on every new bid on the item you are watching. Each and every time the bid price is raised, you will get an email notification and you will be able to decide whether you wish to up your bid to compete. This is the best way of bidding, but you will need to exercise self-control otherwise you’ll end up spending too much money.
Finally there is bidding at the last minute, also known as sniping. A lot of people grumble about sniping, thinking it an impolite way of auction bidding, but this is absolute rubbish. There is nothing wrong with waiting until the last minute and jumping in quickly to place a winning bid. All you do is wait until the last couple of minutes of your auction, then with a price in your head get ready to bid. Once the auction is about 20 to 25 sections from finishing, simply jump in with a bid about $10 over the current bid. This should be enough to secure a win, and make sure you get your item. It is also close enough that other people wont have the time to put in their own fresh bids.
Alex is a journalist and blogger. He writes on everything from fashion to design and writes a consumer blog for Coupon Croc . |
