[Archive]

Posted By: S Gross

In my experience as an ebay buyer -- one word ------> SNIPE

I snipe everything. One day I had a snipe in on one card for $1200, and the next for $12.

You set your price, snipe it, and forget about all the other factors (like those late night convection oven commercials: "Set it, and Forget it"). If you win, you win, if you lose, you lose.....

I also find sniping results help in your knowledge of market price determination. Say I see a card I value at 100, so I put in a snipe at 100. I win it at 95, and the other bid I beat were 85 and 90. So I not only won, but realize my 100 market estimate was pretty good. Even If I lost the card to someone at 105, I come away with the same market knowledge.

On the other hand, If I put in a snipe at 100, and win the card at 50, I'm happy in two ways: I won the card at a much lower price than I figured, AND I realize my estimate was off. Same thing if I put in a 100 snipe and the card sells for 200, I learn a better market value.

I'm not saying this is fool proof and you'll become a card financial counselor in an auction or two, but over time it has worked well for me.