Everyone snipes one time or another, and with the auto bid up to your max allowance, everyone can be a successful "sniper"..
If it was an item I really wanted, I always check the actual value of the item (if it's hard to find, what are people willing to pay) plus the shipping, if any. Then do an average from the highest priced sold and the lowest in a bid with shipping, find an active auction for the item, set an alarm for the last 5 minutes of an auction item, if it's above what your willing to pay, move along, if not, you wait until the last minute, fill in what you would pay (max) on a second tab.
When the last 20 or 10 seconds roll around, hit enter. If you win, congratulations. ..
If not, find another similar auction for the item you're looking for and start over.
If selecting a seller is tough for you, here's what I do.
Select sellers from your country only. This helps to avoid confusion on a lot of usual problems. The most common being the long shipping times and items being lost in international transit. Epacket is notorious for that..
If it's a common item, search their user ratings for similar items sold and what people had to say about the item and their service.
What is the seller return policy? If it's always an as-Is, I usually stay away from them.
Does that seller have a huge gap in ttime frame of their ratings?
Because ratings are figured from good/neutral/Bad over a certain period (12months), some sellers will have two accounts and use one for a while, then switch. I won't buy from those sellers because that is usually done to try to keep the main red flags from showing up during a quick search. I'm usually thorough when I search so it's not a problem.
Does the seller have 0 sales ratings? I never buy from those since people will often make a bs account to sell a high ticket item, then you'll never hear from them again once the money is sent. Scammers do that.
If it's a serious item like a cellphone, I will make sure to buy only from those with 99%+ positive that have sold cells with no serious issues. If I find there were a lot of DOA shipments, return difficulties, or other quality problems, I'll pass on buying from them.
Always check neutral feedback too. A seller who is worth what they are selling will always try to correct a problem so If you see a few negatives, but a lot of neutrals with no follow ups for reasonable complaints, it's good to steer clear.
And in some cases you'll find a seller that has a lot of great feedback, good return policy, and an item not of the norm from what they are used to selling.
Well here is my experience with that.
I bought a video game off of a woman who sold antiques. She sold about 15 games in total and had over 300k total sales with 100% rating.. I knew that she would be an honest seller because she wouldn't want to screw up her reputation over something she's doesn't normally sell, so I asked her what shape she thought the game was in using her own words.
She told me she would rate the game at about between mint and near mint.
Now anyone who bids on stuff on eBay should know that what one considers "Mint", another may find as "satisfactory".. Well a person who is worried about their ratings will try to think of it in terms of what the buyer is thinking, so you'll likely get a more accurate description on the item.
Well to get to the end of that transaction, the game arrived in perfect condition, and was exactly as she described it. She even gave me good feedback before she shipped the item, so I couldn't say enough good things about her accuracy, shipment speed, and friendliness.
Next time she had a few games available that I wanted, I messaged her again about them and she actually offered me a $5 discount on both items with no extra shipping.
Best experience I have had on there.
