Power Bidding Secrets for eBay

If you'd like to read about my first experiences with eBay, check it out here - My first contact with eBay.

Some would consider bidding to be some sort of haphazard process, where you bid willy-nilly on something until the end of an auction, hoping to be able to bid higher than anyone else so you can be the winner. Bidding is actually an art, even a science. You have to know when to bid and when not to bid. You must have your emotions in check at all times. If you do not it is easy to get caught up in the wild frenzy that an online auction can inspire and end up paying too much for what you are bidding on.

This manual was written to help you overcome the randomness of bidding and turn it into a science, where the guess-work is more certain and you are more in control of what you will pay for an item. The main goal of online bidding is to get something, whatever the something may be, at the absolute lowest price. There are no guarantees on the best price being available, but you can always control whether or not you will pay too much.

There are certain rules you must follow in order to achieve this simple goal. When reading the rules it may be easy to discard or discredit them, or even to think they are common knowledge. If this was true then everyone would be doing them and there would never be an auction where the bidder, or buyer, paid too much, or lost a bid that they should have won. It continues to happen, so obviously there are people who don't understand the rules of bidding and how it can help them avoid certain pitfalls that surround any high energy, high spirit, adrenaline pumping endeavor.

I will first list out the rules in condensed form so you can see exactly what they are. Then I will go into more detail and explain each one. This will help you understand the reasoning behind each rule. Most of the rules exist for the specific reason of paying as little as possible for the item in question. This will never change.

Here are the rules:

Bidding Rules:

1. Value Rule - Know the monetary value of the auction item and never pay more than that.

2. Highest Bid Rule - Know the highest bid (top dollar) that you will place on the auction, usually less than the true value.

3. Last Second Rule - If a bid is already placed do not bid until there are only seconds(the closer you can cut this the better) left in the auction, and bid the absolute highest amount (Rule 2) you will pay. (This rule and the next are the most important rules in this manual.)

4. Initial Bid Rule - If the item has no bids, you can place one bid for the minimum amount, as long as the minimum amount is far below the highest you will bid.

5. Bargain Rule - Watch "Buy It Now" under "Recently Listed Items" for bargains.

6. Lost it Smosht it Rule - Never worry about losing an auction.

*Note: Bidding rules are the hard and fast rules, the rules you must live by in order to succeed. The following rules should be followed just for safety sake.

Check out the seller rules:

7. Feeback Rule - Always check the sellers feedback before bidding.

8. Postage Rule - Always check the postage costs before bidding.

9. Question Rule - Always email any questions you have 24 hours before end of auction before bidding where possible.

10. Keep Cool Rule - Never lose your cool with a seller no matter what you think he might have done.

11. Work It Out Rule - Never leave negative feedback until you have tried to work out any problems with the seller.

Auction Watching rulers. (These are more hints than rules)

12. Monitor Auctions Rule- Use your watch list, not favorites, to keep an eye on auctions. In other words, use the auction tools available. (Tool bars, favorites, watch lists, etc).

13. Search Rule - Add searches to your favorites as well, so you can get emails concerning new items.

14. Odd Hour Rule - Watch for auctions that expire during off hours.

The Initial Bid Rule and the Final Bid Rule are the most important rules. If you do not get anything else out of these rules at least get those two. These two rules will save you more money, and win you more auctions, than any of the other rules. Well, this is obvious because they concern the actual bidding and they are based on sound experience. If you use these two rules consistently you will come to understand how powerful they really are.

I have a friend I recently introduced to ebay. He had no idea about how it worked, etc. I started introducing him to some of the rules. The ones I stressed to him the most were the Initial Bid Rule and Final Bid Rules. At the time I told them to him I believe he may well have scratched his head and wondered what I was talking about, but, fortunately for him, he decided to listen. He has to date bid on 5 auctions. He won 4 of them. The 5th one he lost because someone was willing to pay more for the auction than his highest bid (which was under the actual value, but the absolute most he would pay). He put in his absolute highest amount he would pay (High Bid Rule) at the last possible second(Last Second Rule) and was beat out by a higher bidder. He didn't feel bad about it, since he did not want to match the price. The point here is that he won 4 of them and ended up paying less than if he had bid willy-nilly. Had he done things the old way the probability of him winning even one of these auctions was very low.

When I first started bidding on ebay I remember losing most of the auctions I bid on. Because I tended to get in bidding wars, or tried to win an auction before the very end. Since I have been applying these rules I come to win most of the auctions I bid on. Not all of them. But the ones I lose I don't mind because there was someone out there willing to pay more for the item than I was, and, in my opinion, more than the auction was worth. Basically, someone with "more money than brains". Hence, I can console myself by saying I let them have it, instead of saying I lost the auction. That way it doesn't turn it into a win or lose situation. I was gracious enough to let them have it, so to speak. Ok, I don't stroke my ego quite so much, but I hope you get my point.

Now let me go into greater detail about each rule:

Value Rule - If you do not know the actual value of an item, or an auction, then how do you know how much to bid? Do some investigating if you are not sure. I usually do searches on the internet, or look at specialty sites where the item is sold. Find out the retail value of the item you want to bid on. This is not the value you want to bid. This is merely to measure against so you can decide how high to bid.

Highest Bid Rule - The whole idea behind online auctions is to never pay full value for anything. Once you have the value of the item (Value Rule), decide how much of the actual value you are willing to pay. Make it less than the actual value, or you might as well go buy it at a retail store and forget about getting it at a steal. Deciding on how much you will pay can be difficult, but once decided it will save you money on the item. Why? Because if you bought the item before you decided on this highest price you will pay you would have paid too much. You are forcing yourself to pay less by deciding on a lower price.

Last Second Rule - Why do you do this? Well, the biggest reason is that you want to avoid a bidding war. In other words you don't want to give the competition time to bid against you. You want to be able to put your bid in, and the auction to end. Usually when you put in the greatest amount you will pay (Highest bid rule) you will most likely win the auction for much less.

Most bidders will try to beat the current bid by a couple of bucks, then someone else will come along and then bid a few dollars more, etc. All this does is raise the cost of the item. Basically, these bidders are just making the seller happy. Well, we are not bidding to please the seller, we are bidding to win the auction for the best possible price. Waiting until the last minute will usually guarantee this price.

What if some bid happy person had already bid the price of an item over your highest bid? Forget it, there will be another one out there soon that you can bid on. You don't have to have the latest and greatest for anything. In other words, if you buy something when it first comes out you will pay too much. Video games are a big example of this. If you wait a couple of months you can usually pick up the same game, still brand new, for a much lower price. Be patient. Wait until the last possible second to bid, then snatch your item up.

When applying the Last Second Rule I usually open up 2 browser windows. One with the auction and one with a bid window, where I am already logged in. I will refresh the 1st window, displaying the auction, over and over until I get down to the last few seconds. This time will depend a lot on the speed of your connection. I have a cable connection and can usually wait until just over 5 seconds to bid. This way I'm ready to bid, with my absolute highest bid already typed in the edit box and ready to send the bid home. But only when the time is right.

This one rule will probably win you more auctions than any other tool you will have.

What if you can not wait until the last second. For example, let's say you are going out of town and will not be available when the auction ends. You may decide to go ahead and put in your Highest bid (Highest Bid Rule) and let it ride. This is fine, but your chances of winning are diminished. But, you can always tell yourself, should you lose, that you would not have paid any more for it, so it's ok that you did not win the auction.

This rule will not guarantee a win, but your chances of winning will go up tremendously. Why does this rule work? Well, usually when people bid they look at the current price and think, "I can beat that price by a few bucks," and so they bid it up a few bucks. If they lose, in other words, if the current bidder has an escalating bid in place, then this person will continue to try to beat the bid by a couple of bucks, until he finally is the highest bidder. This is the kind of behavior that drives prices up on auctions. The sellers love these kind of people. They help drive the price up. Also, these people usually have no idea as to how much the item is actually worth, and will sometimes end up paying more than retail. Ouch! Don't ever do this.

Once you have your highest value set in your mind, this is the price you stick with, no second thoughts. Working these rules together will save you money, time and headaches. I say headaches because these rules will help you avoid problem sellers (Feedback Rule and Postage Rule) and help you stick with up front and honest sellers.

Another thing you are doing by waiting until the last second is not giving away your position on the current auction. In other words, the current bidders have no idea you are about to bid on the item, and will probably not even see your bid coming, hence, will not be able to match it. Bid the highest amount you are willing to pay. Usually you will end up paying much less.

There is one more option that I failed to mention as far as the last second rule and that is using sniping software to bid. If you don't know what sniping is, it's exactly what I'm talking about in this rule. Waiting until the last second to bid is sniping. Sniping software is nice because you can place you bid and tell the software to wait until the last 10 seconds to place the bid. This software is extremely handy. This is especially nice for those auction that end at 3:00 am when you're sleeping. It's nice to wake up in the morning and see that you won an auction in the middle of the night. If you would like a recommendation for software, the name of the software I use for every aution, please drop me an email and I'll be glad to tell you what I use and what I recommend. This software is invaluable, and well worth the price. I saved more money using sniping software in the first couple of auction that more than paid for the software purchase.

Initial Bid Rule - As long as the initial bid is below your highest amount you will pay (Highest Bid Rule) you can place a bid. You might say, "Hey! Doesn't this contradict the Last Second Rule? It might be easy to think so, but let me explain. You are doing a couple of things by placing an initial bid. Firstly you are staking a claim on the auction. There are some bidders that will look at the item and see that it has a bid, and not want to get into a bidding war and will pass it up, or they might say, "Well I would have paid the initial amount, but an extra 50 cents is just too much!". Secondly, if no one else bids on the item, which sometimes happens, then you are the automatic high bidder. Use this rule in conjunction with the Last Second Rule. In other words, if you do the Initial Bid Rule and and place an initial low bid on an item, then wait until the last few seconds and go ahead and put your Highest Bid (Highest Bid Rule). You might think that you will be bidding against yourself, but most online auctions will accept the bid, but not raise the price, since you are already the highest bidder. It will add another bid to the auction, but you will still retain the initial value, as long as there are no other bidders.

If someone else is lurking in the background waiting to bid then you will stop them from taking the item away from you.

Bargain Rule - Often sellers will want to get rid of an item fast (too much inventory?), or may not even know what an item is worth. They will put items for auction with a "Buy It Now" which is ridiculously low. Watch for these items and snatch them up when you see them. This rule should be used with the Highest Bid Rule. Know what the value of the item really is, so you can know it is an absolute bargain. Be careful not to bid so fast that you ignore the other rules, of course.

Lost it Smosht it Rule - Worrying about a lost auction is just a waste of energy. If you have followed all the rules and bid your highest amount and end up losing - forget about it. You didn't lose, you gave it to someone who either did not know what the item was really worth, or was willing to pay too much for it. Either way, they deserve what they got and you can move on. Do not worry, the item will show up again, eventually, and probably at a lower price. Be patient.

Feeback Rule - If the sellers has a lot of positive and a few negative then read the negative comments. If the comments are, "Never received item" or "No response to emails" or something very negative, then think twice about bidding on this persons items. If the response by the seller is professional and caring, then you are probably ok. For example: Someone could have gave them a negative feedback and said, "Never received item", and if the seller responds with, "You should tell me, I have a 100% money back guarantee," or something where the seller is trying to help, then the seller is ok. It usually means the bidder never told the seller there was a problem and just left the negative, hence beyond the sellers control. If the seller is abusive or negative in his responses, then avoid this seller, no matter how many positives he has. For all you know you could be one of these unlucky future negative feedbacks where this seller vents his frustrations on you. Best to avoid.

If the seller has a lot of negative feedback, like 40 out of 400, then avoid this seller at all costs. You do not want to bid on an item where there is a chance of being burned. Usually negative feedbacks are given with reason. If the negatives are low, 1 or 2, then it is best to read them, so you can get an idea of how the seller handles problems. If he appears to handle them well, then you will most likely be ok bidding on their items.

Postage Rule - If the postage is not stated, then send an email and ask the seller what the postage amount is to your Zip Code. Some sellers try to make money on Postage and sell their items and an unreasonable low price. Be careful of these sellers. They usually have a lot of negative comments and are not honest in their dealings. Paying for postage is right, but we do not want to be ripped off. Always check it out.

Question Rule - If there is any question on the quality or quantity of the item then ask the seller. Or, if you do not want to ask, then do not bid. It is usually better to err on the side of caution, than to bid on a questionable item. Always be wary of fuzzy pictures and unclear descriptions. Usually the seller is trying to cover something up. Asking can clear this up. If the seller does not respond to your query, then do not bid. By ignoring your email you know that the service you get from this seller will be very bad. Do not bid if you do not get a response within 24 hours. If the seller is too busy to respond he is probably too busy to care about customer service.

Keep Cool Rule - There is no reason to ever get mad at a seller. Just relax and try to work it out. If he will not be reasonable after you have given it a valiant effort. By valiant I mean at least 3 emails. It's usually safe to follow the Auction site's outlines procedures when dealing in these maters. I had a seller that would not answer my questions on an item. I would ask and he would say, "Is there something wrong with the item", instead of answering my question. So, I searched the item description again and found a vague answer to my question. I sent it to him and asked, using his own text. He responded with an affirmative and answered my question. I then responded with ok, I thought you were trying to avoid the question by not answering, obviously the true meaning was lost in the impersonal way of email. So we worked it out and gave each other glowing positive feedback.

Work It Out Rule - See rule 6. As a buyer the only time I give negative feedback is if I get a defective item, or badly described item and try to work it out with the seller, and they ignore my pleas to work it out with them. I have sellers refund money(usually a portion of the auction price), or have me return the item, or do something to make me happy. If they ignore me, then they get a negative. Every seller that has worked things out with me has gotten a positive feedback. This is the way to do it, because you do not want to receive negative feedback, so you should not give it. That's my philosophy.

Monitor Auctions Rule - Using the built in auction searches and watches (and even toolbars) will help because it will notify you when an auction is about to expire. This can be a good thing if you are sitting at your computer and you forget about the auction you are watching. The tool bar will notify you of the auction expiring and you can give it your full attention.

Search Rule - Never bid on the first item you find that matches what you are looking for. Always do a search to see if there is a cheaper item being sold, or one that is expiring sooner. It is sometimes painful to bid on an item, then find the same item in another auction that is cheaper, and that will expire sooner. You may not be able to retract the bid. I recommend retracting the bid because you broke the rules by bidding too early. As long as you do not retract bids too often you can get away with it a few times. If the auction has less than 12 hours until it expires then you may not be able to retract the bid. Basically, don't bid on anything until you've exhausted your searching and found the best value. This search should also include general internet searches and even local retail searches. I've found things on auction before that were selling for more than I could buy it from an online retailer. It shows that a lot of people do not do their homework, do not find out the actual value of an item before bidding. This can be fatal to your pocketbook. Be careful about bidding until you have done your homework on Searches and researched the best price (Value Rule) and decided on the highest amount you will pay (Highest Bid Rule).

Odd Hour Rule - This can be late at night, during the day, when most people are working, or even in the early morning hours when people are sleeping. Remember also that it is not the same time everywhere, so an odd hour to you may not be an odd hour everywhere in the country, or the world, where people are bidding. This does not mean you should be afraid to bid if it is not an odd hour. It just means that if you can bid at an odd hour then you will have less competition in bidding for an auction.

Some other hints.

· Watch for things expiring at odd hours. Evenings and weekends will probably be more difficult to win bids that at 1:00 in the morning. Bidding at odd hours means you will have less competition. The problem is you can't control when an item will expire, so there is no rule for this.

· When people usually bid they often look at the current bid and think, I can beat that price by a few bucks, and they bid appropriately. They someone comes along and bids against them. This can go on for some time. Then at the end of the auction our original bidder loses the bid by 2 dollars. He thinks, "Well, I would have bought it for more than that!". All they did was succeed in driving the price up and then losing the auction. If they would have waited until the last 20 seconds, then bid the absolute top dollar that they would pay, they may well have found themselves on the winning side for less money.

· After you win an auction, send payment out as soon as possible. If using an online pay service you can send payment immediately. If paying with check or money order send it out the next day, or as quickly as possible. Sending cash is usually a bad idea, but it happens. You take your chances when you send cash.

· Make your password something you can type quickly, just in case you need to do a quick logon in the middle of bidding.

· Some sellers prefer to make extra money on the postage for an item. $10.00 for shipping on a $2.00 watch would seem a little high to me. So always look and add this amount to your total price. Avoid sellers who never mention shipping. These sellers have a tendency to overcharge on shipping after you're already committed to purchasing the item. Basically, you're stuck. It is better that you avoid these sellers for more open and communicative sellers. Usually I'm looking for a reasonable shipping cost that would also cover handling (Packaging, etc). Like I said, add it into your bid price to get the whole picture of what an item will cost. It can be disconcerting to find out after the end of a winning auction that shipping is going to be very expensive. It can really sour a winning auction for you when you are unaware of postage costs. Basically, you want to make sure there are no hidden costs in the auction. I know this very well because I bid on a sewing machine once that was very cheap, $10.00, then came to find out that shipping was going to be $40.00. On top of that the machine was broken when I got it. Don't duplicate this error, stay away from people who aren't, or won't be, clear about shipping.

· Be very careful with this trick. You should only use it on auctions that have more than 12 hours left. Since you can not retract a bid on an auction that has less than 12 hours until it expires. Let's say you find an auction that has a bid on it, and you want to find out what the bidder's high bid is; or there is an auction that has a reserve and you want to know what the reserve is. (Sometimes sellers will not give you this information, for some reason). Make an outrageous bid on the item. See where the winning bid lies, then go retract your bid, then place a more reasonable bid. Whether you win or not on your second bid is up to you. Follow the rules. What this does is tells you exactly what the hidden price is. It also adds a bid retraction to your name, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I would not recommend getting a lot of these. Most sellers don't look at bid retractions, but if you get a lot you could have the auction site investigating your actions, which could be bad (could being the operative word). Use with caution. For some reason people don't like giving up their secrets, even when it will help them sell the item.

Sometimes it may be difficult to actually know how to use these rules. It is easy to look at them and see them in a list, but it can be hard to know how to apply them. Let's go through the actual steps so that you can have a better idea as to how the whole process actually works.

- Firstly, you have to find something to bid on (Search Rule). A little obvious. This can be a chore all by itself. There are several methods you can use for this. Searching. One thing that is overlooking in searches is the ability to search in the title as well as in the description. Sometimes you can find an item where the seller did not write the title very well, but the description has what you are looking for. Sometimes you can even misspell the words you are looking for and will match items where the seller actually spelled the title that way. It's interesting to find items that are not getting the bids they would if the title had been spelled correctly. These are usually very nice to find because most people aren't finding them in their searches.
If you find something you want to bid on, make sure you always do a search on it to see if there are similar items being sold. Do not bid on the first item you find. This can be a nightmare, especially when you bid and then find the same item in another auction for cheaper than the one you already placed a bid on, and that might be expiring sooner.

- Make sure you know what the item is worth(Value Rule) and the most that you will pay (Highest Bid Rule).

- After you have decided exactly how much you will bid, check out the seller. (Feedback Rule) Does the seller have any negatives? If so what do they say? Was he nice about how he handled the negative feedback? What is the feedback like for the person who left the negative feedback, sometimes this person will be prone to leave negative to everyone, and so, in turn, receive a lot of negatives. It's good to make sure you are dealing with someone who will play it straight with you. The only gauge you have is how they treated bidders before you. If they have a lot of negative go back to searching. You don't want to deal with someone who has a lot of negative feedback, no matter how good the deal is.

- Check out postage costs (Postage Rule) and add this into the price of the item. Make sure it is still worth the price.

- If it all checks out, feedback is good, postage is good, price is right, and if the item has no bids (Initial Bid Rule), then go ahead and bid. If there are already bids, then add it to your Watch List (Monitor Auctions Rule) and come back to it when it is about to expire, or better yet, add it to your sniping program.

- Monitoring the watch list is very important. Also use of toolbars and other tools to help you to be notified when the auction is about to expire.

- If the auction has a few minutes left, then open two browser windows, side by side, on your screen. One of the browser windows will be ready to place a bid and the other browser window will be refreshing every few seconds to check the time. When the auction has a few seconds left(Last Second Rule) , press the button to place the highest amount you wish to pay (Highest Bid Rule). The better method, of course, is to set your sniping software and forget about it.

- That's about it. After that you will be a winner, or someone else will be willing to pay more for the item than it is worth. No big deal. You are still a winner because you controlled yourself and bid like a professional and with grace. Winning is not the object of bidding, getting stuff for the best price is the object. Remembering this will save you money for more bidding on other things that you need.

HAPPY BIDDING!

If you have any questions or concerns about what you have read please feel free to email me here (info@allinfoisfree.com) and I'll be glad to answer your questions or help you to understand the rules of bidding. Thank you!

More tips ahead!

Thank you!!!

Have you ever had this happen? You win an auction, exciting all by itself, but when you get the item it doesn't match what you thought you bought?
Well, I bought a large trading book once. The seller said it was in great condition. The picture was out of focus and small, so I decided to take his word for it. When I got the book it was in very poor condition. It looked like the previous reader had even abused it a little.
I wrote the seller and he told me to be happy with the book, it's a great book. I wasn't happy, so I disputed it on paypal. Luckily paypal will accept disputes, I believe it's up to 6 weeks, but you may want to check on this if you have a question about an item yourself.
Anyway, to make a long story short, the seller decided I could return the book, since I complained, if I paid for return shipping (which I would have to do anyway) and also paid him $12.00 for the trouble of shipping it to me originally. :(
Needless to say I refused.
I escalated the dispute. The final result was that I shipped the book back to the sell and paypal refunded my money, all of it. Make sure you get a delivery confirmation number so you can know it was delivered!
So, moral of the story, don't ever assume you have to accept poor service from a seller who doesn't know how to sell. With paypal in the middle it wasn't difficult to dispute at all.
Normally, you want to work it out with the seller, but in this case where the seller just says, "live with it", there is always another alternative.
Also, side note, there's no reason to ever get mad about it. :)
Hope this helps!

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