Fearsome bidding strategies?

[theultimatebrucelee]

Got up early today to bid on an auction I really wanted, against someone who would repeatedly bid in low increments each time about 5 seconds before auction ends. Over half an hour into extension I decided to leave a bid that's times the usual average ending price of similar auctions and left the bidder against himself...only to find out late that I lost, after a 95 minute extension. The same bidder also won all the similar auctions I bookmarked.

Its quite frustrating bidding against someone whose superior to me in every way, on something I really like. Being crushed slowly and gradually while lingering hope saps out of your mind is like worse than being crushed upfront-_-" I mean, how do I win against someone whos obviously much more resourceful, is incredibly stoic and has time on their hand, and even timezone advantage? Like maybe take the day off and bid in tiny increments until the other party lose their cool? Anyone got any similar experience or solution?

Edit: ok so the solution turns out to be bidding a higher amount...apparently no single bidder is invincible after all, was actually able to win a few auctions this time, expensive though-_-

[Eric]

I've never bid on YJ or Mandarake before, so I'm not sure how this auto extension thing works. But for eBay I like to snipe bid, where I'll put my highest willing bid within the last few seconds of the auction and 4/5 times I will win.

[sensei]

Sniping doesn't work if there is a standing bid on YHJ: in such cases the end time for the auction advances 5 minutes whenever there is a second bid, whether it is a high bid or (as in tubl's case) just a nuisance minimum bid. Such bidders are called "nibblers" as they up their ante a little at a time until they arrive at the other bidder's high bid, maybe more than an hour after the auction's expiration. In the process, most high bidders don't stick around, and so it often ends up a successful strategy. The same thing can be done on Mandarake.

However, sniping does work on YHJ if there is no bid on the item as the clock winds down. In such cases, if a last-second bid goes unchallenged, the bidder gets the item and there's no autoextend. So at times the clock winds down to the last seconds, and then weird poop happens as several lurking bidders jump in, each hoping that he or she is the only one watching and will snag the item with a last-second minimum bid. If this happens, the auction extends, of course, and lots of interesting things can happen.

This no-bid snipe does not work on Mandarake (I tried it once): the auto-extend kicks in even if the last-second bid is the only one.

Now if the DS you use has internal bid-wars (like Rinkya and SMJ), then you can still be sniped by another user of that service. If there are more than one bidders for the same item using the same DS, that is, it goes to the one with the highest reserve bid at the moment of the auction's finish. So it is sometimes prudent to place a last-minute bid on an otherwise unbidden item, and then, even if no external bidder challenges you, "snipe yourself" at the last second with an overbid.

I think the only really fearsome strategy I ever used was I once bid against myself using my Rinkya account vs. my SMJ account to make two very persistent Japanside bidders think a nasty battle was developing between two foreigners. It did work, but I don't recommend it except in very special cases.