[carpetguy]

I have been totally p....d off when attempting to buy on e'bay, having, on several occasions, been shown as the highest bidder, right at the end of auctions, only to be informed that another bidder had won, even although I was still bidding.

I will not be wasting my time on there, in future.

[russ_clark]

That is what it is all about mate
It is an auction that sells to the highest bidder.
You should just bid the best price you want to pay for an item and be prepared to walk away.
It does work and ebay are worth ££££££££££££££££££'s

[steve k]

what happens is a mnute or so before the auction ends, someone wil see the price at, say £80, and think it is worth £150. With a minute to go at £80, they know it will not get to £150 so they put that bid in..£150...that s their MAXIMUM bid but it does not show as £150, just as the next bid up.probably £85...Ebay now automatically keeps bidding up by increments for the £150 bidder until his maximum bid is reached.
With 30 seconds to go, you see the bid has gone up so put in £90 with seconds to go and think you will win. Unfortunately, Ebay ups the bid to £95 and gives the item to the person who was prepared to bid up to £150. They only pay the winning bid...not the maximum they were prepared to buy for.

If you seen a Ninja for example on ebay and knew it was probably going to go for in the region of £1000 give or take a £100 or so and you felt £1100 was a reasonable price to pay..put your bid in at £1100 from the start and every time someone bids,  they will see they are not the highest bidder because ebay keep uping the bids on your behalf.
The majority of people get fed up with this and bin the auction for this item leaving you as the winner at whatever price it was left at.
If someone thinks the same as you and has bid up to £1150, you will will be told by ebay that you have been outbid and ask you to bid again. This is when you decide whether to up the bid or leave it.

[KINGAKNAA]

Try auctionstealer, auctionsniper or something like that. You put in how much you're prepared to pay for item (maximum bid) then just let it run. It will put in your bid with seconds to go, have won a few auctions like this before. Bare in mind other people are onto this too thoough but not widely used. You dont even have to watch the auction, its all done for you.

http://www.auctionstealer.com/home.cfm

[carpetguy]

Thanks for your input gents..........I think it's easier to be a seller.........amazed to see items regularly selling above retail !!!!!!!!!

[Ian Gourlay]

Is there any protection on Ebay if you buy a piece of  equipment and it breaks down on first job for instance.

Or is it buyer beware.

[ianharper]

you must keep refreshing your screen

[Liahona]

Rob, I dont know if what is being used is legal or not but there are companies that use a "sniper" programme.  From what I can gather which I know is dangerous the sniper will out bid your bid with nano seconds to go leaving you out of luck.  I dont know the technicalities of how it works but it does. Kind of a bummer though isn't it?  Best, Dave.

[rp cleaning services]

i use a sniper programme on ebay,you put down the price you are willing to bid and then the sniper will put your bid in for you with ten seconds to go,so if you are bidding without a sniper programme you will always get outbid,it cost $40 a year to buy a sniper programme,well worth the money

[steve cardy]

if you bid normally and put your maximium bid onto ebay and a sniper matches your maximum bid you still win it because you bid first, so you can still beat the sniper i know this because i did last night.

[Bob Robertson]

Rob

I won an auction that night  : .  I have also lost out at the last minute for this item before so know how you feel. I put a max bid in with 2mins to go and was suprised it didnt go for more. No sniper was used.

tihson

p.s. I picked it up from Manchester yesterday, nice bit of kit for £185

[ROY 2]

I think the best thing to do is decide the highest  price that you would be willing to pay, then wait till about 10 minutes before the end of the auction and put in your bid.

If it go's for more than your best bid then so be it, you wouldn't of payed anymore for it anyway.