Ebay wins...

[doxiechic16]

I tend to wait until the last day of the auction, ideally the last 10 or 20 seconds, and bid the maximum amount that I'm comfortable spending.  (I've let myself get sucked into bidding wars in the past and majorly over-paid for some of my ponies in the heat of the moment.)  I still feel like I'm losing a lot more auctions than I'm winning, but I guess I am mostly after ponies that are harder to find/sought after, too.   

I used to win auctions with lots that had rare/HTF ponies in them that weren't clearly labeled, but I feel like features such as "Popular on ebay," "See what other people are watching," and  "People who viewed this also viewed" make it difficult to snag bargains since auctions don't fly under the radar like they used to.  I'm honestly afraid to watch auctions that I really hope to win because I'm afraid that my watching the auction will draw the attention of others to it......

[Pythia]

I auto-bid and then ignore the auction until it's over. It's too frustrating and upsetting to watch yourself get outbid ALL THE TIME in the last second of bidding.

[hathorcat]

Sniping tool I am down to a very few remaining items and I am too old to cope with the stress of bidding to the last minute. So giving a sniping tool my max and then winning, if my bid is high enough, or loosing, if I havent been willing to go that high, is the best method for me

[Nightbow]

I usually use local Finnish auction/selling site called Huutonet, where sniping cannot happen, because the way site is set. On Ebay, I prefer Buy It Now -listings. Even though I hate sniping and some other things on Ebay, my biggest reason for not usually using it, is international shipping costs.

Seriously, how does the site prevent sniping? I'm genuinely interested!

On the Swedish equivalent Tradera (now owned by eBay) I think auto-bidding is programmed on the site. You put in you highest amount and it rises when others bid below it.

[Okiedokieloki]

I usually use local Finnish auction/selling site called Huutonet, where sniping cannot happen, because the way site is set. On Ebay, I prefer Buy It Now -listings. Even though I hate sniping and some other things on Ebay, my biggest reason for not usually using it, is international shipping costs.

Seriously, how does the site prevent sniping? I'm genuinely interested!

On the Swedish equivalent Tradera (now owned by eBay) I think auto-bidding is programmed on the site. You put in you highest amount and it rises when others bid below it.

Usually the way it's done is that when there are bids made in the last few (lets say 5 for example) minutes, the auction time gets bumped back up. There's no way for anyone to bid in the last few seconds since the auction time goes back to 5 minutes, therefore, no sniping.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I just put in the highest I'm willing to spend

If it goes past that... I know that I wouldn't have been able to afford her anyway

eta: Just to clarify one thing about eBay that some people may or may not know

You always have the option of putting in a maximum bid.  It can be something simple or you can go whole hog and up it by quite an amount (ie there was a Dutch pony that I had a 150$ maximum on)

The danger of putting maximum bids in is that there's a chance that you'll get a shill bidder with 0 rating that's pretty much only there to push the price up as much as possible

I've only had that happen once or twice but it's possible

A lot of times when people think they're getting last-minute snipe'd they aren't so much as someone has already set up a maximum bid and is letting the clock run down.  At least that's my experience.

Yep, this is how I feel! 

[Eurocoin]

I usually use local Finnish auction/selling site called Huutonet, where sniping cannot happen, because the way site is set. On Ebay, I prefer Buy It Now -listings. Even though I hate sniping and some other things on Ebay, my biggest reason for not usually using it, is international shipping costs.

Seriously, how does the site prevent sniping? I'm genuinely interested!

On the Swedish equivalent Tradera (now owned by eBay) I think auto-bidding is programmed on the site. You put in you highest amount and it rises when others bid below it.

Usually the way it's done is that when there are bids made in the last few (lets say 5 for example) minutes, the auction time gets bumped back up. There's no way for anyone to bid in the last few seconds since the auction time goes back to 5 minutes, therefore, no sniping.

Yep, that's exactly how it works.

[Jupiter]

My ebay method is to assume i will be outbid at the last second. I don't take being sniped very well so I void getting excited until the auction has actually ended. I bid on my phone a lot so it's slow and sometimes doesn't update last second bids.  I set a max bid and don't go over it so I don't get in bidding wars.

[Nightbow]

I usually use local Finnish auction/selling site called Huutonet, where sniping cannot happen, because the way site is set. On Ebay, I prefer Buy It Now -listings. Even though I hate sniping and some other things on Ebay, my biggest reason for not usually using it, is international shipping costs.

Seriously, how does the site prevent sniping? I'm genuinely interested!

On the Swedish equivalent Tradera (now owned by eBay) I think auto-bidding is programmed on the site. You put in you highest amount and it rises when others bid below it.

Usually the way it's done is that when there are bids made in the last few (lets say 5 for example) minutes, the auction time gets bumped back up. There's no way for anyone to bid in the last few seconds since the auction time goes back to 5 minutes, therefore, no sniping.

Yep, that's exactly how it works.

That doesn't sound as weird as I thought it would. That's how real-life aucton work - if you're outbid, you get a chance to bid again.

Personally I don't get excited over an auction I haven't won yet. More like ... worked up. But that may be because I guard the auction until it has ended. And I usually enter a max bid.

[Stormness_1]

It depends on what the item is for me. Some items I'm not totally *needing* I'll just put in a decent max bid, and let it run, if I don't win, meh. For the important auctions, I'll usually pop in a small bid, so it comes up on my ebay app as 'bidding on' then put my max bid into my sniper program, and let it run. I like to watch, but I almost always get outbid and end up getting crazy with bidding if I do, so to prevent over-spending, I use the sniper program, so I don't overspend, but still *usually* get my items. It bids about 2-4 seconds out.

[plushroo]

I snipe if it's something I REALLY want. But sometimes if I'm at my computer when the auction is about to end, I'll wait a few seconds and put in my own bid. It usually works, but the other night ebay was being ridiculously slow or something and would not refresh in the last 16 seconds for my bid to go through and I ended up losing the auction for a dollar or so under what I was planning to bid ><. I was so furious!! It went more than I was hoping anyway, but still... I make sure to just have a sniper program in place for cases like that for now on!

[Eternia]

I always lose. Ebay just depresses me unless its a bin

[shimmlight]

When I bid on eBay, I wait until the last few seconds and then put a maxi bid on of the highest price I'm willing to pay. I've won every single auction I've bid on so far this way. I know sniping is always annoying for others but the way I see it it's snipe or be sniped!