Am I being scamed? (Dealer: Tonelli?)

[history-buff1944]

Sorry, but that is not sniping. If I understood his post, the auction of the photos is still up and running.

A sniper is someone who bids at the last few seconds of the auction. He does want to get the item. It just happens that he does not want others to discover his maximum bid, that is why he bids at the last few seconds. This way, the rest of the bidders do not have time to make a counter bid on the item.

I prefer to be sniped than to have a guy discover my maximum bid three days before the end of the auction by making multiple one dollar bids until they become the highest bidders again. That will only end up making the item artificially expensive.

After all, the sniper is only bidding for the maximum price he is willing to pay, so if my bid is higher, no matter if he bids at the last seconds, I will still be the winner of the auction. I have discovered that the best system to bid on Ebay and avoid these guys as well as bid wars is to be a sniper. There are nice tools to make sniping bids out there. Try it and you will see it is much more effective than the traditional bidding method.


Regards,


Gus the sniper



Gus

Hi Gus, thank you for reaffirming what I know about sniping and such. I also consider sniping to be a bit more expanded than just a last minute action. How and why I came to that belief is simple. I learned the "patterns" of participation with those I usually go up against as well as I learned their practices of posting bids at an exact certain amount everytime-against someone else. One guy I also have easily figured out his bidding habits very easily be watching what kinds of pics he goes for and such. Really no brainwork involved ;-)) I also know when certain bidders are always online and their Methods of Operation-against other bidders. You can almost set the exact time on your watch with some of these bidders.

Also, as I know exactly how much certain bidders over-bid on items-I know precisely when I can log on-and then start over-bidding those who overbid exact amounts. Also, I know that some of these guys wait till the last minute to log on and place a bid-and not bidding hours and or days earlier on certain items knowing that if there appears to be a lack of attention paid on a certain item-that usually makes the other guy (the first or most current bidder) get lapse in paying attention-therefore-he is easy to beat.

Shill bidders are easy to spot as well-partly as is like what you mentioned above-and partly in other ways. Also, sometime people bid as a "group" in order to make sure a particular item becomes theirs. These bidders are also easy to spot and many often have somewhat similar user-names.

With friendly greetings--C.