I don't understand what strategy that is? Do you mean I should've not bidded a day early and just wait as late as i can?
Ok - I'll preface this by saying it's a controversial practice that it loathed by some while loved by others.
Having said that...
The practice I speak of is called sniping. Some would tell you that sniping means waiting until the final 10 seconds of an
eBay listing before placing your bid. I hold a more general view of it and say that it is simply waiting until the latest that you are comfortable with before bidding. (though I never bid with more than 10 seconds on the clock anymore)
It's actually pretty simple and for the sake of this conversation I will assume that you know more or less how
eBay's proxy bidding system works? (
eBay only spends as much of your bid as is necessary to outbid any competitors but no more?)
You make a decision in your head what the most amount of $$$ you'd be willing to spend on an item would be (be sure to include any applicable shipping fees in that amount so you can adjust your bid accordingly) and then wait.
If you place your bid in the last 10 seconds of an auction it virtually eliminates the possibility of another eBayer placing a reactionary bid trying to get just a little bit over your bid to beat you. The only real drawback is that it removes the possibility of
you placing a reactionary bid to a competing bidder as well. However - when going through the initial in-your-head conversation deciding what the item is worth to you - if you're honest and you place a bid for the absolute most you'd have willingly spent on any given item then being outbid by an earlier proxy bid isn't that big of a deal because the other bidder either (A) found the item to be worth more than you did or (B) simply had deeper pockets. In either condition it's really nothing to get mad about as you'd likely have lost no matter when you placed your bid.
Outside of having your early proxy bid whittled away by someone hoping they can just overcome your top bid the other real advantage to sniping is ridding yourself of the possibility of getting into a bidding war with another eBayer where you and someone else (or multiple someone elses) bid, re-bid, and re-bid again trying to get back to having the highest bid and ultimately spending alot more $$$ than you intended to. (I've seen people pay hundreds of dollars for a low-budget item because they let their emotions get the better of them when time was at a premium)
Like I stated previously: This is a very controversial practice that is looked upon with decided disfavor by some. There's nothing at all illegal about it - that I can promise. But some would try to convince you that it is...and others just reckon it's a slimy way to
eBay.
It's resulted in some really outstanding deals for me, however, and when it's MY money in question?? I'm going to do whatever I can to keep as much of it for myself as I can.
Edit: I'll put it this way...the KAC-PS500F four-channel amp[75wX4@4ohms/150wX4@2ohms/300wX2@4ohms bridged] I have running my two component sets? I paid $5 less (shipping included) for it than you just paid for that MTX amp. I always pay for my won auctions immediately after the listing ends as I reckon the quicker a seller gets paid the quicker I get whatever I won...so within a couple of minutes after the listing ended I was PayPal-ing the $$$ to the seller and the closest underbidder that I beat out with my sniped bid sent me an email offering me $200 for the amp. I reckon if he felt it was worth $200 he should have bid that much to begin with. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif