Well, I almost won an ebay auction

I was trying to keep it quiet, I had found a XJ 750 battery cover on ebay that wasn't being bid on, I had the only bid up til 48 minutes left in the auction, then the highest bid with 20 seconds left...then, new bidder, faster than I could outbid him he got it for $46.

Here's a screen shot of me almost getting it for $32
http://www.flickr.com/photos/p0gar/5042062607/lightbox/

Arrrrrgh!

 

Ouch, could have been a shill bid, but they didn't leave you enough time to go over.

They should have a "Going Once, Going Twice, Gone" kind of thing for last minute bidders. But I suppose that would create more shill bidding.

 

Sniping at it's best

 

I have pretty much given up trying to outbid someone at the last minute.

I place my highest bid a little bit before the end (if I have time to watch it) and if I get outbid then so be it.
There are "sniping" programs out there to place a bid automatically at the last minute so it's too easy to get screwed at the end.
http://esnipe.com/

 

i have used the snipe things and they are good. but a bit like cheating

we dont have ebay here we have trademe. and it has a stupid auto extend. so if you try and last moment bid it auto extends by two minute. good if you are selling but you end up paying heeps more if some one elso is also keen on it. many time is have ended up paying a whole chunk more that what it was with one minute to go. and you spend more than planned as you have that i must win in your head!!

 

If you want something and know how high your willing to go, just wait until the last 10 sec and make that your bid. If you don't get it, wasn't meant to be. This way you don't drive the price up until YOU have to.

 

Same thing happened to me yesterday- was trying to get the "5 Valve" carb covers for my 86 Maxim X. The guy was selling them separately with roughly $10 each for shipping (a little steep), and I put in my bid near the end. I think I got sniped for a little over hoping to bump me... ended up losing it. We'll see if they end up back out there again really soon...

If anyone has a pair of those and the two chrome pieces for the airbox, feel free to shoot me a PM. Should drop a note in the FS/Wanted section too, I guess.

 

There are two schools of thought to the snipe, and a couple of good programs out there for this. Personally I'll use two browsers, or I'll
just submit my highest and best a couple of hours before the end, this
method oftentimes disappoints even the savvy sniper.

 

If you need them PM me i have a stock bike im modding. So there wont be used

 

If you were talking about the side covers there, quik, I've got a deal going with another member here, so that's covered, but I appreciate it, those things are hard to come by.

Just today there was a line of bikes parked at school and I was sitting on a bench nearby. This couple was looking at them, the guy says, "which one would you want?" She goes, "I like the black one" (my bike) I was like "good choice" But they couldn't see the missing damn battery cover. (really I just have the shiniest paint but still, it's nice to know it's not a total POS)