Sorry to hear about the auction ElephantTalk. I've got some tips that may help you win your next auction though.
I agree with what some of you guys are saying that you really should be bidding your maximum amount to begin with, and that way you know you've put in your best bid and will have no regrets if you are outbid.
I first started buying stuff off Ebay a couple of years ago, and those damn snipers really got me in the beginning. It's easy to set yourself a max bid for an item a week before auction end, but if another bidder wins the item for your max bid plus 50cents, that can be annoying, especially in the heat of the final minutes of the auction. It's also easy to accept a lost auction if the final bid was a significant amount more than your max bid, but say if it's something like 50cents more, if you had known you would've definitely shelled out another 50cents or a dollar to win that item.
But, sniping works for different reasons when you're up against inexperienced bidders, or when you're wanting to win the item for the best possible price far below the actual maximum you would've been willing to pay for it. Some points:
1) Look at the bidding history of the item and you'll be able to see what kind of bidders you're up against. If they are inexperienced bidders they'll be raising their max bid in small increments against each other for a whole week before the end of the auction.
2) If you were to insert your max bid right into the middle of this little bidding war, you'll raise the stakes and inform the other bidders where you stand with your max bid and chances are that will bring the bidding war straight up to your level immediately. It's a bit like poker - you're potentially revealing your hand before the final call, you're giving away the element of surprise and the upper hand.
3) If you waited till the last minute to insert your max bid, you will catch them while they are still 'incrementing' their bids and not give them time to meet your max bid. They will not even know what your max bid is and would be too busy raising their max bid in incremental steps by which time the auction would've ended.
4) Sure, you could enter your max bid a whole week before end of auction but that will also give other bidders a taste of what they're up against and also give them time to gather their resources and think about whether they are willing to outbid your amount.
5) There may several snipers gunning for the item at the last possible second and you may still be outbid if there is someone out there willing to pay a whole lot more for the item, but in a situation like that if you've entered your max bid there will hopefully be no regrets if you've used good bidding strategy. Besides, even if you feel "could've" raised your max bid by another couple of dollars as a last ditch effort, there should be no regrets since there was no time left to raise it anyway.
6) I've won a couple of items on Ebay against other bidders and snipers this way and got the item for far less than my max bid.
..my 2cents. Take it how you will, I offer it as advice to improve your auction/bidding strategy.
- RiseOfTheWooten.
PS. ElephantTalk - no I wasn't the sniper that outbid you for that item!
