Time Conscious Proxy Bidding
By sir_snipes_alot

Welcome, to my help page on Time Conscious Proxy Bidding (aka ‘sniping’). The fact that you are reading my page means one that you have recently lost an auction to a last minute or second bid, and have probably raised a question or complaint because of this.

I too had the same experience as you. My very first auction on eBay resulted in me losing an auction item at the last possible second. My first reaction was probably very much the same as yours - I was surprised, angry, and confused on how this could happen. I felt like the item was taken from me, and certainly felt that this could not be legal, and to make things worse, they only beat me by ONE increment more than my bid!

After pouting for a few minutes, I decided to explore the rules and bidding recommendations. What I found changed my entire view on eBay bidding strategy. I’ll walk through a few of the rules and recommendations I found, then I’ll try and review the three most popular bidding strategies I have found on eBay.

Is Time Conscious Proxy Bidding Legal?
The short answer is simply - yes.
You can read eBay’s official position on the bidding strategy Here.

Is Time Conscious Proxy Bidding Fair?
The short answer again is simply - yes.

You may read otherwise from some posters on the message boards, these few individuals will often proclaim the unfairness of the bidding strategy - but are never willing to provide any factual reason or reference to back up their claim.

I’ll list for you the reasons I believe the bidding strategy is fair - feel free to contrast my position with the position of the other eBay users I mentioned above.

1.) Every auction has a stated beginning and ending time - this ending time is fixed and available to all bidders.

2.) A bid may be placed by any registered eBay user at any point in the auction - there are no rules which prohibit bidding during any portion of the open auction period. All bidders have exactly the same access.

3.) eBAy provides each and every bidder the exact same ability to bid as little or as much on an item as they would like.

4.) Every bidder is free to determine for them selves when they would like to bid, how much they would like to bid, and how often they would like to bid.

5.) Information and help pages regarding bidding rules, proxy bidding, etcetera are available on the site map for all users who wish to learn the finer points of bidding. No user is excluded from learning as much about bidding as they would like.

6.) eBay always delcares the winner to be the bidder who has entered the highest bid amount - regardless of when the bid was placed.

Can I beat a Time Conscious Proxy Bid?

Again the short answer is - yes.

The single most critical point to remember regarding any bidding strategy on eBay is that the highest bid always wins. A last second bid can not beat a higher bid which was placed earlier in the auction. High bid wins EVERY time.

The primary bidding strategy recommended by eBay is proxy bidding. You are encouraged to bid only once and bid for the absolute maximum you are willing to pay for an auction item - eBay will bid on your behalf and only use the absolute minimum of your bid that is required to keep you in the lead. If you follow this recommendation, the only auctions you lose will be those where another bidder was simply willing to pay more than you were.

The only difference between proxy bidding (which is highly recommended by eBay) and a ‘time conscious proxy bid’ is the timing of the bid - a proxy bid is placed at any time in the auction, while a Time Conscious Proxy Bid is placed late in the auction.

Can an auction be extended if a time conscious proxy bid is placed?

The short answer here is - no.

This is an often suggested idea by many new users who have lost auctions in the last minute. While I could write a long page on why this is not a good solution - I will only point out that this solution would require ALL bidders to be present and place their bids in the final minute of an auction.

Luckily, eBay has a position page on auction extensions. As you can see this has been considered and rejected as a solution to a problem that does not exist.

Incremental Bidding

Incremental bidding is placing a bid for the minimum amount possible on an auction item. This bid may or may not place the bidder in the lead - depending on the proxy amount place by the previous high bidder.

Advantages:

1.) You always know that any bid placed after yours will outbid you.

Disadvantages:

1.) You may have to bid many times one increment at a time in order to overcome a previously placed proxy bid.

2.) Any bid placed following yours will outbid you.

3.) Your bid history will be readily available to anyone doing a search by bidder.

4.) You must constantly watch the auction item to make sure you are still in the lead.

5.) You will have to be present, watching, and refreshing the auction page every few seconds during the last minutes of an auction to make sure you are not outbid.

6.) You may find yourself outbid, and not have time to place another bid before the auction closes.

7.) If you are bidding early in the auction - you are tied to this one auction item, and can not bid on another item like it until the auction ends (even if it's a better item at a better price). If you bid on more than one auction item - you may win both and have to pay for both.

Proxy Bidding

Proxy bidding is the backbone that eBay is built upon. You determine the absolute maximum amount you are willing to pay for the item and enter one single bid - eBay does all the bidding for you, they will use just enough of your bid to keep you in the lead - letting you win the item for as low a price as possible.

Disadvantages:

1.) Your bidding history is available to anyone doing a search by bidder. You may be used as a search engine for competing bidders.

2.) Your bid may be artificially raised by a less than honest seller bidding on their own auction item, in order to expose your maximum bid.

3.) You may be exposed to 'enemy' bidders whose only goal is to run up your bid.

4.) Your bid may be run up by an incremental bidders in a bidding war.

5.) You are committed to this single auction item for the remainder of the auction - you are not free to move on to bid on another item even if you are outbid (you may be re-instated as high bidder).

Advantages:

1.) You only have to bid once.

2.) eBay does all of the bidding for you

3.) The only auctions you will lose are those where another bidder was willing to pay more than the item was worth to you.

4.) You do not need to be present at the end of the auction and be ready to bid again.

5.) You do not have to constantly keep track of the auctions progress.

6.) You do not have to worry about being outbid at the end of the auction - because any bid that outbids you was placed for more than you were willing to spend.

Time Conscious Proxy Bidding

Time Conscious Proxy Bidding (sniping) is placing your maximum proxy bid in the very last seconds of the auction.

Disadvantages:

1.) You cannot bid again - you must live with the amount of your bid. If you place a bid that is not of sufficient amount to win the auction, you will lose. You cannot reconsider bidding more as the auction has already ended.

2.) A PC problem may prevent the bid from being recorded prior to the end of the auction.

3.) Internet slow downs and congestion may prevent the bid from being recorded prior to the end of the auction - you will not have time to bid again.

4.) An eBay server outage may prevent the bid from being recorded - you will not have time to bid again.

5.) An eBay software glitch may prevent the bid from being recorded - you will not have time to bid again.

6.) A mistyped password or user ID may prevent the bid from being recorded.

7.) You cannot retract their bid for an incorrect bid amount - they must live with any typographical error that is entered - even if it means bidding $2000.00 on a $20.00 item.

8.) A bidder must be very diligent in maintaining a watched item list - they may 'forget' the ending time of an auction - and fail to bid.

9.) You must be present or make arrangements for placing your bid at the end of the auction - sometimes these are at very unreasonable hours.

Advantages:

1.) You do not need to commit to a single auction item. You can watch many different items without having your money tied up into a single item for days on end. You may abandon an item at any time to bid on another item, or use a BIN.

2.) You can avoid 'bid shielding' - since a bid shielding scheme would require a retraction of the shielding bid prior to the last 12 hours of an auction - you can be sure that the proxy bids are the valid amounts for the bidders in the auction, and are not artificially inflated.

3.) You can avoid 'shilling' of the auction by the seller - you have almost the entire length of an auction to evaluate the full bidding pattern of the auction - and can identify any possible bidding irregularities.

4.) You can remain anonymous. You can avoid competing bidders researching their prior bidding habits and proxy amounts - and using this knowledge against you.

5.) You can avoid bid stalkers, enemy bidders, incremental bidders, and sport bidders.

6.) You will know almost immediately the result of your bid and whether or not you won the auction.