Anyone else having problems placing "last-minute" bids on Ebay lately?

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Posted By: Brian McQueen

I was trying to win the e90-3 Chance that was on Ebay just a bit ago. With about 25 seconds left in the auction, I entered my dollar amound into the "bid field" however, then when I clicked the "place bid" button the page just sat there and didn't move at all. I quickly refreshed and repeated the process, only this time around, I hit "enter" on my keyboard instead of clicking the "place bid" button. The result was the same though - no effect.

Very frustrating as that's the second time this week that's happened and the e90-3 Chance ended up going for about $110 less than the bid I was trying to place (sorry Scott). This is a process I've repeated hundreds of times and haven't had issues with until this week. Has anyone else experienced anything like this lately?

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Posted By: dennis

it has happened to me more than a few times (just last week) and i scream and holler and the card goes low and i wonder did it happen to more people than just me?
edited to add: and cry!

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I use a sniping service and just won an auction last second a few days ago. I don't trust myself to be able to put in a last second bid for fear of having the problem you describe.

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Posted By: dennis

if you knew how many times i missed an auction because i got caught up reading a thread on this site! at least 10x. but this is not the issue i hit confirm and it just freezes and then...the 2 dreaded words.... auction ended

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Posted By: joe brennan

justsnipe.com

In Rememberance of James W. Brennan Sr. 1924-1982. Dad, thanks for everything you did for me.

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Posted By: George Dreher

Maybe you were trying to outbid an eBay employee?

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Posted By: Joann

Strange. I've not had the problem on ebay, but haven't been bidding on much either. But I've had the same thing happen the past two or three days on another site I visit fairly regularly. Some common and often-used links seem to be just plain dead. I even type the url into the address box manually, and nothing. It's driving me nuts.

Joann

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Posted By: bigfish

you are not alone. I have had the same types of issues. Not sure what to do. Guess you can put in a ceiling bid that no one will beat to ensure you win the card. Then you run the chance of over paying. Its like playing pocket jacks.

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Posted By: Joe D.

you don't have to wait around for the last minute of an auction... just set your snipe and forget it.

I snipe just about everything.

And its not about winning the cards (for me). Its about the convenience of not having to do what Brian is talking about.


The day I wasted an afternoon (and missed my son's little league game) waiting for the last minute of an auction.... only to lose my internet connection for a few minutes and not even have the opportunity to bid... and then see that the item sold for less than what I would have bid... that was the day I signed up with a snipe service.

I love it now. Just set my snipe and if I win - great. If not, no big deal. Better than putting in a huge max bid on eBay because you can change your snipe up until a few minutes before the auction. You can't do that with an eBay bid.


Anyway - snipe.

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Posted By: Bob

I use a snipe service because I learned the hard way, continually having computer and ebay malfunctions trying to manually place last second bids 4 or 5 years ago. It's still fun trying to go wire to wire on a card but it is almost impossible these days...

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I had problems last week with ebay live during the Courtney-Hassenger auction. I was trying to bid live on at least 5 or 6 lots and it would not take my bid. I did win 3 lots...one I placed an early bid on and the other two I bid live. There was a nice composite cabinet photo from the 1890's of a team called the Maroons (no, not THOSE Maroons) that sold for $25....I was desperately hitting the Bid Now button and it wouldn't work. It also froze up on me twice and kicked me out...I had to close my browser and reopen twice in which time I missed another lot I wanted to bid on.

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Posted By: Herman

Guys, thats what you risk when you snipe. If you just put in a top all bid you want to spend for the card then there wont be any problems. I see too many people trying to snipe and they are real poor at it. Never win the cards they really want and most of the time get shutout then cry about it saying they would have paid more. Boo friggin hoo. Stop bottom feeding and place a healthy bid.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Thanks Herman - I always appreciate when someone calls me a fool and bottom feeder. Not sure what your experience has been on ebay, but I have had great success with sniping and I don't have to worry about the seller shilling an early "healthy" bid. I might add a sniping service is probably even a smarter choice now that ebay has made it harder to detect a shill.

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Posted By: Dave

Herman...some people don't have time to sit around at the computer at midnight or eight in the morning. Anytime I've manually placed a bid ahead of time, it almost always ends up being outbid by a single bidder at the end. Not understanding what your talking about...people should bid healthy upfront? For a $150 card I should put in a max of $250 to assure I get it? Doesn't make sense to me.

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Posted By: dennis

Sniping is for fools March 27 2007, 3:00 PM
herman says and i quote

"Guys, thats what you risk when you snipe. If you just put in a top all bid you want to spend for the card then there wont be any problems. I see too many people trying to snipe and they are real poor at it. Never win the cards they really want and most of the time get shutout then cry about it saying they would have paid more. Boo friggin hoo. Stop bottom feeding and place a healthy bid."
herman: you have no idea what we are even talking about and by your post and esp. top all bids statement,i don't think you even have a clue, as this feature does not even exist on ebay.

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Posted By: T206Collector

...the seller thanks you for placing a high proxy bid that underbidders can gnash away at until they decide not to outbid you.

You will save money and win more auctions for better prices if you use a sniping service.

Seller's want bidders to "bid early and often."

Bidders by definition should want the exact opposite -- bid late and once.

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Posted By: Dylan

thats happened to me several times, just another reason why i use snipe service

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Posted By: Brian McQueen

Since I didn't appreciate being called a fool either, let me go ahead and explain a couple of our forum rules to you. In the future, you need to have your full name next to each post you make that is either controversial or confrontational. Since your post above falls into both categories, this is a requirement. We went over this with you in the Verkman thread if I remember correctly.

Also, from what I've read, your posts thus far have been overly negative/condescending and in some cases, obscene. I would suggest changing how you interact with others on the board or you will not last much longer. Stating your opinion and getting your point across is fine, however it needs to be done in a more adult manner and one that is more respectful of others that frequent this forum.

Regards,
Brian
redmaccie@hotmail.com

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Posted By: Joann

Brian - you forgot antagonistic.

J

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Posted By: barrysloate

Thank you Brian.

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

eBay is having all sorts of problems lately. My watchlist disappeared for two hours on Sunday night and cards I was selling shoed up in duplicated listings. At points over the weekend I could not access the site at all. My father, who lives 15 miles away was also having the same problems. Frustrating.

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Posted By: quan

ur a smart guy, i'm also curious why u don't use a sniping service? although lately i've had a few of those impulse buys in the last minute...only a couple things in life beat that rush you get! luckily (or not) ebay hasn't crapped out on me in those instances.

good luck to you and barry on thursday!

q

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Posted By: Brian McQueen

Hi Quan,

I've always been strongly against using any sort of automated sniper. In my experience, they just plain don't work with enough consistency for me to trust. They'll work fine for you one day, then the next day, I'll access my account with the sniper service and I'll find that the sniper couldn't place a bid due to an "invalid entry" or some other goofy reason. They've been a large pain to me a few times in the past and I will not go back to them.

Up until very recently, just entering a snipe manually with about 20-30 seconds left has always worked. But perhaps Ebay really is having some sort of difficulty as several people have responded to this thread stating problems they've had with Ebay lately as well. Something weird is going on though. On that e90-3 Chance, when I clicked "Place bid" the page didn't even act as though it was trying to load a new page. It just sat there and did nothing.

I've tried a couple snipe services in the past. Sometimes they work, other times they don't. One was Snip at http://www.snip.pl/en/. I can't remember the name of the other one, Esnipe or something like that I believe.

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Posted By: leon

I use a snipe service almost 100% of the time...sometimes I try to do it manually for fun PLUS have the snipe set. On several of my best purchases my computer snagged and my snipe worked....ask Richard M about it .....