Mlatch221 wrote:Snipe! Always....
Bidding early tends to be a major cause of bidding wars and driving the prices up. My intention is to pay as little as possible and sniping is usually the best way to achieve that. It isn't unethical, immoral or illegal and if you lose, oh well, that's life! (Yes, for the record, I do lose a fair amount.)
Best answer yet, IMHO. If I am interested in an item, I will decide first off how much I am willing to pay and I will get my snipe set up. If I win, cool. If I don't, oh well. There will be another sometime. No biggie.
But it is a protection for me to not get into the last minute excitement of a bidding war. I used to do that and I would wind up paying a lot more than I had planned on in the first place ("just a couple of dollars more won't make that much of a difference!!!! bid bid bid"). If I have a snipe set up, then I have already placed my personal set limit and I leave it alone.
Sometimes I win, sometimes I don't. But that is all part of Ebay. Same as it is with any buying outlet.
I kick myself all the time that I didn't see a for sale thread or post on a forum, board, Twitter or Facebook - wherever - earlier and something I REALLY wanted has already been snatched up. But again, that is the way the cookie crumbles. You cannot win them all.