Avoiding Bidding Wars

It's two minutes before the end of the auction. I've spent an hour and a half searching for the item and more than three days watching it to make sure I win. It's almost the end, it's almost mine! One minute, 30 seconds. I'm still in the lead. One minute, 20 seconds, I've been outbid!

I up my bid, one minute left. I press refresh, nothing. Hit refresh again, I've been outbid! I have to win! 45 seconds left, I bid again. Hit refresh, the idiot has outbid me again.

Now it's personal. I bid up to £10 more on auto bid. I will not lose this auction.

20 seconds to go. Hit refresh, I'm still the highest bidder although I'm way over my original maximum budget for the item. Who cares, the item will be mine! Refresh the page again, still the highest bidder. 5 seconds to go. I'm going to win, I know it. I hit refresh, the auction has ended and I'm not the winner!

How could this happen? It's not fair. This is not the way it was supposed to end.

So what went wrong?

• I did not stick to my maximum bid, the golden rule of online auction bidding!
• I took it personally. It is shopping, remember, not winning! Very important difference. You may "win" the auction but you are still paying for it. The competitive element is who is willing to pay the most!
• I did not research other sellers to find the same or similar items being sold elsewhere. If I had I might not have been so bothered about losing this one.
• I did not use a bid sniper so I ended up getting embroiled in the gamble, addicted to the thought of winning regardless of the costs.

Online auctions can be addictive and bidding wars, whilst great for the seller, can end up costing the buyer much more than they originally planned to spend. You have to remember that you are buying an item, end of story. You are not partaking in a competitive sport and you are not at the races, you are simply trying to buy something. So act like it.

The golden rule is: Decide your maximum price and stick to it. Using a bid sniper may help as it removes the personal element from the equation and makes it less of a gambling scenario.

Whatever technique you use, remember that you are paying for the item if you win so take care how much you bid. It might be better to gracefully admit defeat than be stuck with a huge bill for something that isn't worth anywhere near what you ended up bidding.