very day, hapless bidders significantly if someone places a
get beaten to the punch by new bid in the last few seconds
auction snipers who jump in of the auction. Imagine if a real
at the last minute. I know how auction house worked that way,
annoying it can be, as I once had letting people shout "50 cents
it happen to me three times in a more!" at the last second and win
row on the same item! The thing an item. It would simply be
is that the only people who can unfair, and many buyers think
help the poor bidders are us, the it's unfair on eBay too.
sellers.
The Solutions.
The Problem.
Until eBay decide to fix the
Bidders will bid on an item and problem (and by now it's looking
then wait for days until it unlikely that they ever will),
finishes, only to have someone you're the only one who can do
else outbid them at the last anything for your buyers.
minute. In a traditional auction
at a real auction house, this First off, you can encourage your
isn't a problem at all, as the buyers to use eBay's proxy
auction keeps going until bidding system the way it was
everyone has bid as much as they intended. The idea of the system
want to, and the auctioneer is that they enter the maximum
double-checks with the classic they're willing to pay for an
phrase "going, going, gone". item and eBay places bids for
them automatically up to that
The problem on eBay is caused by maximum. They're not supposed to
the fixed length of time that come back and bid an extra dollar
eBay's auctions last, and the every time they get outbid.
fact that they aren't extended
If your bidders are bidding high sense anyway - most of the
enough, then no sniper will even bidding always takes place in the
come along and beat them - last few hours of an auction.
because they will have set the
maximum snipe level in their An easier way to thwart bid
sniping software to less than the snipers is to offer ‘Second
normal bidder's maximum. Changing Chance' sales to bidders who get
the way people use eBay is hard, outbid by a sniper at the last
though. minute. This is good for you, and
for them - they still get to buy
One alternative is to keep an eye the item they wanted, and you've
on who's bidding on your auction, just made two sales: one to the
and cancel bids from known sniper and one to them.
snipers - but this requires you
to be around right at the end of Once you've sold your items,
the auction to cancel their bids. though, you might be upset to
You might also want to set your find that one of them gets
auction to end sometime when returned for a refund. Our next
bidders will be around so that email will show you how to turn
they can outbid snipers these returns into profits!
themselves. This is good business
About the Author:
Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.auctionseller411.com/ for more great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online auctions.
Read more articles by:
Kirsten Hawkins
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
