How to place your bid smartly after searching it on eBay?
Written by Babar Beacon
⊂ Updated: 05/03/2019 ⊃
After finding a good deal, you need to place bid. It is equally trickier to make a bid for your searched item in the way that you won a good deal as a reward of all the searching hassle on eBay.
(words:1300 Pages:3 | 3-5 minutes reading, about Amazon Prime maximum utilization tips in detail)
Lower competition ends up low final price, so try to be in a small group of bidders for a specific item
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Bid Smartly: how to watch and bid sneakily to win a best deal?
In the process of eBay savvy shopping, after searching and finding 5 to 10 potential deals for a specific item of your wish list, the second task is to build a watch list.
Build the auction watch list
Watch list is used to record your good findings that you thought would be best for your requirements
You can do it manually by jotting down the items, IDs, sellers and other related information to track them later. Your watch list is very helping stuff when it comes to place bid. It is quite possible that you found more than one items potentially good for you but it is hard to watch all manually. The eBay provides a very useful tool to watch all your deals.
(no links) My eBay > Lists > Watch list
The eBay watch list is sorted as “time left: ending soonest” by default but you can sort it in any seven ways as per your convenience.
- You need to be login before adding items in your watch list
- Add those items in watch list which really suit your requirements and offer good deal.
- You can bookmark your wish list URL because you are coming back many times to view and use this page
- You can make your watch list your eBay home page by clicking text “Make watch list your My eBay home page” on top right of your watch list page
- You can add note to an auction about any of your plan for that item using Add Note button under the item.
- If you are looking for good deal then find and add 5 to 10 auctions in your watch list for a specific product.
- Remember here we are only talking about watching potential items, not actual bid placement which will come at very last moment
- Your watch list works just to record what auction ending when, you are coming back to place bid on some or all watch list auction in next step.
- Sellers are aware about how many buyers are watching their items
- Through this section, you can cancel an item, contact seller, purchase through Buy it Now if available, see seller store, view similar items etc.
- More watch lists holding a particular item, seller knows so he/she is more likely not in mood to relax price or whatever.
- Make your personal schedule to be around with a device to place bid near closing; PC, Tablet or cellphone.
- The eBay alerts you through email before the closing of an auction in your watch list.
- Tip: Typically I prefer to do search and build my watch list using my broad view laptop. The hassle is done, now it’s time to fun and place bids in last moments from anywhere through my cell phone, of course, using eBay App.
- Now we have come to crucial task of actually bidding for your watch list auctions.
Tip: Typically I prefer to do search and build my watch list using my broad view laptop. The hassle is done, now it’s time to fun and place bids in last moments from anywhere through my cell phone, of course, using eBay App
Now it’s time to place your bid
After having a potential items watch list, you need to place bids actually and wait to win. Here I curated some important points to follow in this process.
- Bid at the last moment
- Most buyers adopt the typical way to find an item and place bid early. Its fault because placing bids early will inflate the final price of the item. You, being a savvy shopper need to place your bid at very last moment of auction closing.
- You can make proxy bid before final bid in the last 5 minutes but try it with minimum possible value.
- If you are serious about winning a good deal then you must place your final bid before last second, because it will not leave a chance for your competitors to make counter bids.
- Making bids earlier will do two unfavorable affects; firstly it will contribute in the price and secondly it will make that item more visible to more people to enhance competition.
- Don’t be stupid to overbid the item, there are many others ready to bid higher, it will push the price. Be patient and wait for last moment
- If you make a bid but it doesn’t meet the reserve price set by seller, then again bid higher till the reserve limit and if luckily no any other overbids you then you need to pay just reserve price. Isn’t it a good rule?
Check Detail of Amazon Family
Steal deals through sniping tool
The strategy behind sniping is to place a killer overbid in last 5 to 10 seconds and not leaving chance for others to make counter bids and auctions completed
You can do it yourself but timing is everything. Otherwise you can use some special snipping tools to do it for you.
The Auction Snipping websites place bids on your behalf and try to win the deal for you in very last moment using automatic system. Do sign up, enter auction item number, closing time and maximum value you can afford, rest of work will be done automatically. No need to watch and worry about watch list. You can find free sniper sites, some offer free trials and some are paid.
Once you set your sniped tool then try to play with it, let it complete the task itself.
Go to | Free web-based auction sniper: Gixen | Free sniper software: JBidwatcher | Free trial: Auction Sniper | eSnipe | Free trial: Bidnapper
Warning:
Sniping biding tools are not effective if the listing is fixed price with buy it now option as many reputed sellers offer hot deals with fixed prices and this practice is increasing day by day.
The eBay offers its own system against snipers: eBay Proxy Biding, it helps the regular eBay bidders to win against snipers with a built-in system to make a 0-seconds proxy biding at the time of closing.
I don’t personally like to use third party sniping tools. The eBay has all tools and options to get the best if you are smart enough and know how to use them.
Biding Tips
- To avoid competition, do bid on public holidays or vacations because majority enjoy vacations away to their machines
- The auctions ending in the early morning or late night are more likely to attract less bidders
- Enter odd values just adding extra pence even $0.1 to round numbers, it will boost your chances. Set your maximum bid with some pence higher the round figure.
- Use sniper tools to make the whole process convenient, it will bring you best deals
- Examine whole week, people always behave in same pattern. So there are always cheaper days.
- Check for any PayPal discount codes over internet
- Set your “maximum bid” and let the eBay make bids automatically upto that limit for you.
- If there are multiple auctions of same item in your watch list, focus on later ones. Avoid human-nature earlier bidding war and increase chances of winning with lower competition on later entries.
Go to | late night auction finding tool: BayCrazy Night Time Bargain Search
What biding trick you like the most? And what we missed here, let us read yours in comments.
The author is co-founder and editor at Promolily. Has a practical knowledge and experience of e-commerce, online marketing and retailing.
*Disclosure: It may contain affiliate links that may earn an advertising fee for advertising & linking to the merchant / business. The logos are property of respected brands & stores.
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