Red warning background color when editing

[sheriowen]

I have been trying to win several lots of cloisonne beads. I keep watch, and increase my bids when the current bid gets too close. When I edit, the background turns a bright red color. I know it's some kind of warning, as sometimes when I edit, I don't get it. What I want to know is, is it telling me that there are definitely other bidders who are sniping too, and I will definitely be outbid, or is it just a suggestion based on past history of this kind of item? I have won two of these lots, at $1.70 and $1.10, but lost several others.

Here are the items I am currently 'sniping':
311494957343 My bid - $3.59 Current bid - $2.59
381478735581 My bid - $3.50 Current bid - $2.24
311495162269 My bid - $3.50 Current bid - $0.40
191748764844 My bid - $5.25 Current bid - $0.94
141840682411 My bid - $3.50 Current bid - $0.35
191750931312 My bid - $3.50 Current bid - $0.01

Thank you for helping - I'm just trying to understand how this all works.

Sheri

[Cupid]

It is just an indication that you are editing it, nothing more.

If it is not turning red as you edit a snipe sometimes then that is a problem you should perhaps report here.

Please note that editing in the last few minutes of an auction is not recommended since most likely your original snipe will then get deleted but there would not be enough time to start another with the new value.

I always recommend that you do all your research well in advance so that you are confident that your snipe amount is the maximum that you are willing to pay (excluding the shipping cost), you are not disappointed and if you do not win you can feel that, at least, the winner paid too much for it.
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Mark

[Guest]

As a newbie, I am also trying to figure out this sniping stuff. It sure is fun!!! On Sunday I sniped something with my snipe bid of 104.01. It was $71.00 at the time I placed my snipe bid. At the last second, someone won with a bid of 104.37. I would guess that they obviously sniped it. But did they snipe before me? The reason that I am wondering is that at $100.00 Ebay uses $1.00 increments. Were they just lucky and they happened to have put the extra 36 cents when they placed their original snipe so their snipe won, or what? To lose by thirty six cents for an item of that value is a real bummer! It was an antique and I really wanted it. I thought my bid was very high at the time that I placed it. Can anyone offer suggestions of just how high I should put a snipe? I am really not sure exactly how to bid. I am willing to go over, so should I arrive at my highest snipe bid and then bid my own snipe up a bit higher? What I mean is, how do you really figure out how much to make your highest snipe? Because what I am thinking is that it would possibly seem logical just to put a snipe of a million dollars and let ebay ride it out until it hits your number as the highest, so that you know for sure you would win. But if other people are sniping too, they would do the same thing. So I guess what I am really asking is how do snipers beat other snipers? And if Gixen is bidding the snipes for both the bidders, does Gixen put them in at the same time? Or does Gixen just put the one that is the highest snipe?

[Cupid]

That is a lot of questions, so forgive me if I miss any.

Only you can decide how much something is worth to you... your story indicates that perhaps your snipe amount was not high enough on that one. I recommend doing a lot of research on the prices of similar items, that definitely helps you to decide what something is worth to yourself.

As you suggest it would not be a good idea to enter an amount that you would not be willing to pay, you only have to come across someone else doing the same and the result could be an horrendous drain on your resources.. or at least a non paying bidder strike on your Ebay account, if you were not able to convince the seller to agree to the cancellation of the sale.

I often compete with other snipers, on things wee, as far as I am concerned the value is quite well established, between us.. so we are all likely to be bidding about the same amount... That is why I use a higher offset (available when you have a Mirror subscription) so that my bid goes in before most other snipers.. that way the bid increment rule works in my favour... later bidders of similar amounts are more likely to be blocked even if the amount is slightly more than I am willing to pay because Ebay rejects any bid that is not at least one bid increment more than the current auction price (which is not the same as the current maximum bid, which often you do not know).

As for two snipes both hosted by Gixen... Gixen would place both bids at the offsets specified for those snipes, Ebay would determine the winner based on its rules... that is the only fair thing to do for both bidders, and for the seller... to do anything else would be regarded, by Ebay, as auction tampering.. and, certainly in some jurisdictions, would actually be illegal.
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Mark

[Gixen]