Vendors, repair vendors, and other lessons learnned.

[emmadog]

@Rival
From what I have been learning the idea of sniping is to make it look like there is no interest in the item so you don't show your real interest in the item until the last few seconds.
This keeps the interest level down on hot items.
There are many items that don't require sniping. I've bought many things from ebay and just set my bid and that's it. They aren't super hot items or the seller has a bunch of them.
However to buy a Pachinko machine on ebay pretty much requires that you use a sniping program unless it has a Buy it Now price.
I have to sign up because it's likely the only way I will ever get a Julie or a Cutey Honey they just aren't available and they sell fast when they are.

@emmadog
I almost posted your secret but wisely thought better of it, since I am going to be using it myself. Bidding is competitive.

Well it's really no secret and is evident to anyone with an understanding of how sniping works. But there's plenty that don't judging by posts on here for the last few years. It took me a few auctions and some research before I had a clue.

[Steve Cebu]

Well I'm doing as much reading on it as I can. I really prefer to deal with guys like Frank at CustomPachinko. But for older stuff I have to go out there and find it. Rare stuff doesn't stay listed for very long.
I guess more peopel are buying than selling at the moment at least as far as moderns are concerned.
I really prefer a proper auction but those are few and far between and in my area they don't have many Pachinko's to begin with.
I still don't understand a lot but I'm trying.

[candyflip]

I use esnipe, and have for more years than I care to remember. My non-secret nuts&bolts strategy runs like this:

Let's say the item is currently at $100 - and I think it'll go for around $250 or thereabouts based on my past experience, and I'm prepared to pay up to $250. There's one day left of the auction to go, and minimal interest (so far). I don't hold the current high bid.

To find out what the current high bidder might be holding, I'll low ball the auction now. So an initial bid of $125 should find out where he is sitting. I make the bid. Let's say he has a higher max bid than $125 in there now, and still holds. OK - I'll try again at $150 - I'm feeling for the bottom, that's all. Usually, but not always of course, this will get me the high bid. Let's say it is now at $145.50 and I'm holding. MANY of your opposition bidders put in one big bid and sit - that's how they play the game. They won't come back now until the very end (with a $10 raise), or, they will try and win it again now.

Now I go dark on the item regardless of what they do - disappear from bidding permanently on the auction, as far as the other bidders are concerned. I keep watching the auction from a distance of course and see where the next bidders (if any) get to. The guy I just beat out might come back in and up it $25 - you don't really know. But he can hold that bid now - happy for him to keep fighting off $10 and $20 bids from here. If my $145.50 bid remains until 30 mins before the auction, I'm going to be fairly confident of my max $250 bid though. I can now skip over to eSnipe (I could have done this 24 hours before of course) and place my max $250 snipe bid with them and go to sleep/work/wife/kids/sport etc.

If the other bidder(s) bump the auction to around the $200 mark over that 24 hours, I'm still confident. My snipe will kick in and should get a result. If there is suddenly LOTS of action up to half an hour before, tiny incremental bids, and from new players I haven't seen before and they approach the $250 mark, then clearly I'm not as confident. Obviously there is some hardcore interest in this item and perhaps, as well, I have misjudged what the item might actually be worth. Nevermind - I NEVER change my snipe maximum bid in response - there is always another machine around the corner. But I rarely miss auction wins in this way.

If you were bidding for an Arrangeball that was rare, and you really wanted badly, the same method applies though. Your max snipe bid would be the same (ie. the maximum you would be prepared to pay before you lost out), but you use the above method to feel for the bottom and sound out early tire-kickers. You want to get rid of the tire-kickers and bargain hunters, and sound out the true opposition and get them to a reasonable level (say 50% of true estimated worth) so that you can come in late and trump everyone.

What you hope to gain by this is to scare off potential bargain hunters, and get a 10%+ discount on what you would have paid had you got into a last 10 minute bidding war with the other bidders already assembled against you. Sometimes it is MUCH more than 10% - depends.

Works for me on bigger ticket eBay items.

[emmadog]

very well said.

[Microbus99]

"there is always another machine around the corner"

Thats the key phrase here. Otherwise Emmadog and Candyflip described my technique as well. However I used Powersnipe for a couple years. It would kick in at 1.5 seconds. It cost me $15 a year though and easy to use. Never lost a sniped auction that wasnt outrageously priced and way over my final bid amount, but sometimes someone likes something more than you do. In that case let them have it!

[emmadog]

Also well said.

[mxfaiman]

"there is always another machine around the corner"

Very well said.

I just bought a few more. Total of machines I have owned: 83 wait now thinking about it there are a few I have yet to inventory. Lets just put that total near 87.