How to win eBay auctions at the LOWEST price - like a Pro?

Some people may think buying on auctions is for old/used stuff.

eBay has a ton of brand new/never used stuff listed and I always buy new.

Verify seller reputation from buyer feedback comments and ratings.

If you receive the product not as per the description, eBay will cover it and get you a refund on retuning the item as part of their Money Back Guarantee. For this, eBay holds funds from sellers for 3 weeks so seller can ship the item, buyer can receive it, use it and report any issues.

COMMUNICATE WITH THE SELLER

Often times, just communicating with the seller by sending a message through Contact Seller link on the listing page prior to bidding and asking questions about the condition of the item is a good start. Shy away from sellers who do not communicate enough. You can even negotiate a lower price with the seller, ask him to amend the listing so you can bid on it quickly and win it. I won countless auctions this way as the first bidder before other bidders got to even bid on the item.

DO NOT WATCH THE ITEM

Clicking on Add to Watchlist will show to the seller how many people are watching the item in their Dashboard and creates a sense of demand for it in seller’s mind who doesn’t budge or negotiate. Instead, just bookmark the item or save the link in a notepad or email draft, if necessary.

BIDDING, MAX AMOUNT AND PROXY BIDDING

If you don’t know how eBay auctions work, you should learn it first. You can bid any amount on an auction but eBay will only bid for you the next increment value and making you the highest bidder. When someone tries to outbid you, eBay will automatically keep proxy bidding on your behalf to the next increment if you already bid on it with a higher price and keep you as the highest bidder (until your max amount is reached). If not, you will get outbid.

BIDDING AND WINNING AUCTIONS AT THE LOWEST PRICE

Most users new to auctions keep bidding on items repeatedly to beat other bidders (that’s what they learned from elevated movies, right?). This will jack up the item’s price unnecessarily and early on. The tip is to bid JUST ONCE - in the last 4-5 seconds of closing - so other bidders won't have a chance to outbid you. This way, you get the item for the lowest price. Now, how do you do that unless you are tracking the item, sit in front of the computer or have it open on your device in the last minute to outbid others? Most of the time, you would forget to bid or fail to bid in the last few seconds and lose it. Even if you manage to bid manually by yourself, you would most probably get outbid by others due to eBay’s proxy bidding or other bidders outbidding you with their max bidding.

Use AuctionSniper.com - they charge a nominal fee like pennies and I never lost an auction in over a decade. AuctionSniper gives each new user 3 free snipe credits. Each free snipe credit is good for one winning snipe. After these are used up, they charge a modest fee of 1.75% of the final auction price, starting as low as 35¢ a snipe. You can also refer your friends and neighbors to sign up with them. Each sign-up will net you 3 free snipes and of course they get 3 free snipes for trying them too. Compared to how much you save in winning the items at the lowest prices, their fee is peanuts.

You just sign up, link your eBay account, add some funds like $5 or $10 through PayPal towards your balance (a running balance that you can use for future biddings too), add the item with your max price you are willing to pay and the timing to bid (like last 5 seconds) and... you go to bed - set it and forget it - no need to be near your computer or be logged into eBay or AuctionSniper accounts. AuctionSniper takes care of everything by bidding server-to-server (using the speed of API calls) in those last few seconds - leaving other confident high bidders in shock and baffled how it happened and how they lost it and also leaving a smile on your face! Even if they are refreshing the page in those last few seconds and trying to outbid others, they see they got outbid and no time to place another bid to beat you because by then, the auction has closed already! When you wake up, you see winner notification emails from eBay and AuctionSniper and that’s a good way to start the day knowing that you beat other bidders who are entirely clueless how to bid (just once) on an auction using technology and also got the item for the lowest possible price. What could be more satisfying than that? 😀 AuctionSniper also sends out email notifications if you get outbid and plays an audible "YESSSS!!" default notification sound in addition to a variety of configurable sounds like Congratulations, Fireworks, Drumroll, etc. when you win - to meet your satisfaction.

You can specify up to 6 bid increments to use in case you get outbid in those last few seconds. Even though you specified a max price in AuctionSniper, eBay will still take the next increment and keep bidding on your behalf and keep you as the highest bidder - not your max amount - so no need to worry about the bid amount.

In addition, AuctionSniper has Bid Groups feature where you can add multiple similar items of which you are interested in winning only one of them and they will keep bidding on them until you win one of them. As soon as you win one auction at the price you want, they'll automatically cancel the rest of your bids in the Bid Group. It can't get any better than this.

You can set up searches to search eBay for items of interest automatically. They keep a history of all your previous snipes (won, lost, etc.) to view at any time.

Here is their tutorial, many tips and FAQ. They have mobile app too on AppStore and Google Play.

BONUS TIP

Even though bidding happens in increments, there is a loophole in eBay - it will sell to the highest bidder even if the bid amount is just by a penny over the highest bidder (not necessarily the next bid increment value). If the highest bid is $100 and you are the last bidder with $100.01 even though the next increment should be like $102.50 cents, eBay will declare you as the winner at $100.01! Use this loophole - always use a max amount + 1 cent or 51 cents and you may win the auction for just a few cents over the highest bidder than the next increment value. I won auctions countless times by just a cent over the highest bidder. You can use this same bidding/pricing technique in AuctionSniper too.

Happy bidding!

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