Why am I so cheap...

[Shorthair]

I too suffer from terminal cheapness. I have many times put in 3 bids in the last minute, all a few bucks higher than I intended to go and still get shut out.

[em9sredbeam]

Remember there are sniping services that will enter a bunch of numbers right before the auction ends.

[someR1]

well you should just use the buy it now button

Little more money, but hey, if you REALLY want it ....

[keenkeen]

I have done lots of internet selling and buying on ebay. I have never figured out why people bid so early in the auction and then bid again if someone gets ahead of them a few days later. I only bid early if its something that I can live with missing out on. If its important I set an alarm or have my wife bid it for me in the last minute. Nothing like sliding in and sniping the guy who was the high bidder for 6 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 45 seconds. One of lifes simpler pleasures.

Until someone using a sniping program slides in and snipes you 12 seconds later...and they are sleeping soundly at the time.

[noob_tube]

Until someone using a sniping program slides in and snipes you 12 seconds later...and they are sleeping soundly at the time.

Yep. Sniper battles are fun! I've sniped people with 3 seconds left. Been sniped at the last second. Good fun.

[FourTenJaeger]

Spend money! Paper is worthless anyways! Guns are better!

[Lead Waster]

Well if you enter your true max bid (plus 50 cents maybe) then even if you are sniped, your will still auto-bid up to your max bid, right?

I mean, if I'm willing to pay $25 on something and I'm winning at $12. If a sniper program shows up one second later and bids $13, won't eBay auto-bid me up to $14 due to my max bid?


Even worse than not winning something you want is to win, but then realize you overbid.

[a1c]

Know how much you are willing to spend on a given item - how much it is worth to you. Pad it by 10%, and never go over that +10%.

[GOEX FFF]

Wait, you can't snipe on Gunbroker. It has the 15 minute rule. There is no losing at the last second on that site. When a bid is placed anytime under the last 15 minutes, it kicks the time back up to 15 minutes again.
I personally love the 15 minute rule. For sellers, it gives them a chance to get the maximum value amount. And for buyers, it takes the sniping programs and getting beaten out at the last nano second, out of the equation.
I wouldn't even say that one can "lose" on Gunbroker, but rather you choose not to put in anymore money and you let the other guy's 15 minutes tick down and let him have it. It's more or less like a forfeit.

The only draw-backs with the 15 rule I've had before is that a guy I was bidding against, kept waiting until the last seconds to put a bid in.
He kept doing this 3 or 4 times waiting until the last 10 seconds then it would kick the auction to 15 minutes again. Uhhg! I was on his heels keeping my re-bids as close to the 15 minute mark as I could. But he still extended the auction to more than an hour past the original closing time, which in turn, can expose it to other bidders or someone who has forgotten to bid earlier will now have their chance. Though, that's a somewhat rare occurrence in all the years I've used GB. But regardless, I still like the 15 minute rule.

If you were willing to pay an extra $30-40 bucks, the 15 minute rule should have given you an ample amount of time to do so.

[zhyla]

A different take on this... I have plenty of guns. I don't "need" another one. If something comes along that I like at a advantageous price then I generally hop on it. If it goes higher than I would like I don't mind passing. There's always another interesting gun around the corner.

[Mr.Sandman]

If you were willing to pay an extra $30-40 bucks, the 15 minute rule should have given you an ample amount of time to do so.

Most of the time I just enter my bid and then check up on it later, I forgot to check up on this one till it was over. So yea it was totally my fault for both reasons: didn't bid higher, and didn't check on it before it closed.

[GOEX FFF]

Most of the time I just enter my bid and then check up on it later, I forgot to check up on this one till it was over. So yea it was totally my fault for both reasons: didn't bid higher, and didn't check on it before it closed.

Gotcha. And trust me, you're not alone with that happening.
The worst is when I set my alarm to remind me to check an auction, but I had my alarm set for PM rather than AM. 12 hours too late. lol

[Powerkraut]

Gotcha. And trust me, you're not alone with that happening.
The worst is when I set my alarm to remind me to check an auction, but I had my alarm set for PM rather than AM. 12 hours too late. lol

24hr clock, learn it, love it.

[Low Light]

If it was on Gunbroker the same gun/auction will be re-listed in about a week, anyway. Just bid on it then.