Only two things that you can do:

1. Put in the highest bid you would ever consider as maximum bid.
2. If you can't beat them, join them.

Otherwise Ebay should have had an "time extend" auction option if bids were coming in 5 min before the end, but we can only wish...

And of course, right now I found another interesting items, but I am hesitant to bid. One can only stomach a certain amount of dissapointment... 🙁

If you're not ready to shell out the money either wait or look for another hobby. On ebay there will always be some lunatics who are ready to pay crazy prices for stuff

@d1stortion
Money is not the problem here; I can afford what I am bidding on. FYI, the wireless card went for 1.24 UK pounds, and the Game Gear games and TV tuner for 1.04; around 5 to 8 pounds, postage included; hardly a large amount of money; My problem is, as I already said, the snipers who outbid me several seconds before the auction ends.

Sorry to hear that, indeed this is one of the reasons I stopped using this service along with all other auction sites.

I do not feel like playing these kinds of games, however, I also see where others really do enjoy these things.

fillosaurus wrote:

@d1stortion
Money is not the problem here; I can afford what I am bidding on. FYI, the wireless card went for 1.24 UK pounds, and the Game Gear games and TV tuner for 1.04; around 5 to 8 pounds, postage included; hardly a large amount of money; My problem is, as I already said, the snipers who outbid me several seconds before the auction ends.

Of course somebody will always place a bid shortly before the auction ends. There's nothing smart ass about that either. So try to be that person yourself or simply place a higher maximum bid

vetz wrote:

Only two things that you can do:

1. Put in the highest bid you would ever consider as maximum bid.
2. If you can't beat them, join them.

Yes, this. If you got sniped and would have paid more if you had the opportunity, why didn't you just put in that amount to begin with? I do not understand.

One strategy I like to employ is to put in a bid ending with something odd, like 37 cents, which is sometimes useful at discouraging snipers.

fillosaurus wrote:

I...FUCKIN...HATE...EBAY...SNIPERS!!! With deep, intense dark passion. I placed a bid on ebay uk on several Game Gear games and […]
Show full quote

I...FUCKIN...HATE...EBAY...SNIPERS!!!
With deep, intense dark passion.
I placed a bid on ebay uk on several Game Gear games and a TV tuner (same auction).
The auction was about to end around 3:15 PM, local time. My job schedule is from 7 to 3, and when I left I checked the auction; I was the only bidder.
I thought that maybe, this time, I will finally win a bid on flea bay.
But NOOOO, some ebay sniper smart guy had to place a bid 5 SECONDS! before the auction ended. And some 13 minutes after I went home.
This is not the first time it happends. And today I went ballistic over it, since is the second auction I lost in 2 days. The other one I lost recently was for a wireless 54 Mb card for my Thinkpad 600e. I already have a SMC EZ Connect 2632W, but is older, limited to 11 Mb/s and originally purchased for my Amiga 1200, where I intend to keep it.

I don't know exactly what I would do to the person who outbid me, but it involves extreme violence and slow, slow torture.
I hate those bastards... They trashed my hopes every time I tried to bid on interesting items. EVERY FUCKIN TIME!!!

Ftr, I've never sniped (except a few times manually).
But I can understand snipers as it prevents being scammed by the seller.
This happened to me once. Ever since, I placed my maximum bid in the last couple seconds (though I haven't even been on ebay for the last couple years, but this is what I did).

vetz wrote:

Only two things that you can do: […]
Show full quote

Only two things that you can do:

1. Put in the highest bid you would ever consider as maximum bid.
2. If you can't beat them, join them.

Otherwise Ebay should have had an "time extend" auction option if bids were coming in 5 min before the end, but we can only wish...

Agreed. Number 1 is susceptible to getting scammed by the seller though.

I would have payed more, of course. But I can't be around every time an auction ends. By the way, the one who outbid me on the wireless card placed his bid 3 seconds before end. Try to beat that... I think some people just do it for sport and in spite.
Not my game, is just like in the old American West, fastest gunslinger stuff.
I take it personally since I lost many auctions to those bastards... What do I say? Many? Not many, ALL!
My only succesful ebay aquisitions were those with fixed price. If I know the price is reasonable, I have the money and I want the item, I buy it and that's all.

When somebody outbids me in the last several seconds I feel like that person STEALS from me, this is why I get angry.
Is not fair...

It's perfectly fair. You decided on the maximum price you were willing to pay for the item. Someone else decided that he wanted to pay more than that. It's not really someone else's problem if you decide after the fact that you were willing to pay more after all.

"Would have paid more"? What? Make you bid higher if you had the time to put another bid on? 🤣. Why don't you save yourself the anguish and if an item is too cheap 10 minutes before the auction ends why not bid what you feel its worth or what you would be willing to pay?

The whole point of an auction - offering what you are willing to pay for an item - is undermined by the whole sniping metagame. Not much you can do about it though, people are greedy and it isn't going to stop soon.
In fact with the way ebay works at the moment you are actually better off not bidding at all until the last few seconds as otherwise you just drive the price up.

You can use a sniping service like auctionsniper.com to automate the process but you have to enter your ebay login to this site, so use at your own risk.

Well? how about if I bid 10 from the start? You think it would stop a sniper from outbidding me in the last few seconds, Jorpho?
I do not think so... I was outbidden in the last seconds even when I placed a 20-30-50 euro bid. With 5 cents, or something...
The amount does not matter, and I am not prepared yet to use auto-bidding. I know it can be done, but I do not like it.
Jorpho, I do not think you read or understood my previous post in this thread! I already said I was ready to pay more, if I had the chance. You say I should bid the max amount I am ready to pay? In the first bid? This is bullshit. Then I will have no room for error. No + money to bid more, in case I am outbidden.

My apologies... I am angry and frustrated.

The only way around it is to fight fire with fire - snipe or be sniped. ebay should have implemented a sliding end time to prevent this issue but for whatever reason they cannot see it as a problem.

fillosaurus wrote:

Well? how about if I bid 10 from the start? You think it would stop a sniper from outbidding me in the last few seconds, Jorpho?
I do not think so... I was outbidden in the last seconds even when I placed a 20-30-50 euro bid. With 5 cents, or something...

You do understand how the auction process works? If your the 2nd highest bidder your always going to loose by 5 or 10 cents or whatever it is, the bidding only gos as high as the 2nd highest bid, if you loose a $10 auction for $10.10 so be it.

What I dont understand is why you think you had a chance of winning the auction? How do you know you would beat the sniper if they put in their bids earlier? You might have been willing to pay $15 for the item but the sniper might have been prepared to pay $25, you dont know and you never will.

And that 50 Euro auction, you put in your 50 Euro max bet in the closing seconds the other bloke had the same idea but put in 60 Euro, so What?

It sounds like some people has this perceived idea that bidding earlier on might make an item more desirable or what not, if your stupid enough to let emotions get in the way and pay more than somethings worth(contradictory statement) its not people cheating the system, if you feel someone is shill bidding than it really cant be helped, you have to accept that with any online anonymous auction site, I dont think too much about personally I know what im willing to pay for something and If I win I win If I dont I dont, its only money at the end of the day,

I never place a bid on anything until the auction is nearly over... I always find that placing bids too early seems to attract more attention.

I recently got sniped on an STB Voodoo2 card (probably by someone here 🤣), but i could have sniped it back if the number keys didn't suddenly fail on my keyboard! It's weird as only numbers 5 & 6 would work (and it seems others have had this problem too with various keyboards).

I really see why you are frustrated but also don't 😉
An auction has a set ending time. If someone bids right at the end so be it. You can never make it perfect. If you don't allow bids in the last minute than effectively the auction ends a minute early. If you extend it then the whole auction thing doesn't work anymore.
And yes, I found too, that when you place your maximum amount right away, you will be scammed by the seller 😉
Otoh bid your maximum amount and never look back when someone overbids it.

Dominus wrote:

If you extend it then the whole auction thing doesn't work anymore..

Curious how you mean sites like Yahoo Auctions and local sites doesn't work on auto extension if bids come in really close to the original end time. A traditional auction ends when the last bidder stands left, which should be the case online too. I think auto extension is great for both buyer and seller. No more sniping and the bidding war can really commence.