Virtually everyone you talk to about eBay will tell you that the way to win great deals is by sniping. As we all know, sniping means waiting until the last possible moment to place a bid with the intention of beating out anyone else's high bid at the last moment. And one of the best programs to do that with is by using the BAM software tool for winning on eBay.
Letting your bid ride
But sniping isn't always the answer. A lot of people snipe and win, but conversely, a lot of people snipe and lose. Although there is no doubt that you will greatly increase your chances of winning when you use the BAM software, there are some times when it is better to place a bid early and let it ride.
Here is how that works
Let's say you see an item that you want, and you know what you want to pay. After all, if you have been doing a little research, you will have gotten the general idea about how much the item is going for and how much you'll expect to pay for a winning bid.
So, at the beginning of the auction, punch in your top bid and walk away. That's it. Just by doing that, you'll be surprised how often you'll be winning instead of losing, and there isn't a lot of stress to this method at all.
Set Prices and Sniping
The reason why this works is because most people, like you, have a set price that they are willing to pay. Because most people win by sniping, they are counting on their one and only last and final bid to win the item. Since they punch in their bid at the last moment, there is generally no time left for another bid. If that last bid is less than your original bid, they don't have enough time to bid again and...you win!
This technique works best if there are several of the same items listed. The first few will be gobbled up quickly by high bidding snipers, but after that, the winning price will stabilize and an original first bid may be very likely to hold up through to the end.
Bid Increments
Many people employ bidding by increments to see how high the price may be. Ebay allows you to bid a minimum each time you bid, but won't show you the highest first bid—yours--until it is reached. This works in your favor if someone decides they only want to pay a set amount for an item. They will bid in increments until their set price is reached, and they will give up at this point if they haven't reached their set price. Granted, if they bid higher than you they will win anyway, but for those bidders looking for deals, they will either be hesitant to bid a higher increment, or they will give up and wait for the next listing.
Think Out of the Box
Sometimes doing something that is not of the norm is the way to winning items on eBay for the best price possible. That's called thinking out of the box. And in this day and age when sniping is considered the best way to go, bidding early might be the difference between winning and losing. So take a shot, bid early with your highest possible bid and see what happens. And when you win you'll be smiling all the way to the check out button. Hey, you heard it here first, because as always, knowledge is the key and BAM's got your back!