Sigh. Just venting my frustration. Some guy, “tomsquared of SC” just poached all of my birthday wine at the last moment. 16 bottles available and he could very easily have left a few for others but did not. No one to blame but myself for not following it til the last second, but a bit of a DB move still.
1977 Beaulieu Rutherford was the wine btw.
Anyone been auction poached by someone you knew?
Isn’t Winebid’s biz model competitive auctions? I don’t think it’s fair to blame someone for outbidding you. Certainly it’s reasonable to be annoyed though.
I’ve been honing my bidding skills on the auction sites, reminds me of the old days of eBay when I bought stuff there. My entire strategy is to not bid at all until the last minute or so, when I put in my real max bid. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose if someone else really wants to pay more. But usually bidding 20-30% above current bid is a winning strategy. And I don’t bid at all if the bidding has driven pricing up to a place I think is silly.
Another reaction I had to your post was – omg, it’s after 7 pm and I totally forgot to bid on stuff this week. Haha … mostly I’m glad, don’t need to buy any more wine this month (or even this year).
No, but I beat out John Gilman once because I didn’t recognize his bidder ID (when he mentioned, I think we agreed to drink the Riesling together). In general I don’t bid against anyone I know (but WB is only auction where you see other IDS that I know of). But we all are trying to buy something for lowest price we can. One strategy is to snipe at last minute. I don’t do that myself, but would never call someone a DB for doing so. Bid your highest price, and then win or lose.
I know, I know. Was lulled into a false sense of security. Who the hell else wants this crap that I’m buying? I blame Game of Thrones for distracting me!
Nobody was bidding for saxum this week, except me.
16 bottles, all went for around $25? Seriously, if you really wanted a bottle or two, next put in a $40 bid on a couple of them to make sure.
Just buy 1977 Ports; no competition.
If anyone is interested, I have 16 bottles available of 1977 Beaulieu Rutherford for only $100 per. 
You weren’t poached, you were sniped… And it’s the only way to bid. Not a douchebag move, just a smart move by the other guy.
I’ve had it happen to me, only in the sense that I was beat at my own game, I went to snipe someone and someone sniped for a higher price. Oh well, I had it comin…
+1
No one likes getting beat at the end of an auction, but that’s the deal. You want something, you need to bid accordingly. You want to get lucky with a low bid and hope no one snipes you at the end? You’re going to get burned sometimes. I speak from experience. There’s always another auction…
Bidding early is the wrong way to win. You ultimately end up bidding against yourself. Wait until the end and bid high if you really want it. Putting in an early bid is just a good way to lose or to pay a higher price.
Not sure I agree with this. I often bid early, set my top autobid that I’m willing to go and walk away for good. Early has the advantage of winning ties. Often my first bid is the last. If someone wants it more than I do, fine
That’s how I feel as well. Plus, I buy way too much wine, so those relatively few times I lose a lot, I’m usually more relieved than bummed. I got to have the fun of finding and buying, but don’t end up spending the money or ending up with another bottle I don’t have room for.
I also don’t have much sympathy for the “victim” of poaching. If you had a max bid of $40, and someone bid $45 with ten seconds left to go, and you’re pissed because you didn’t have a chance to go back and big $50 – well, you should have set your autobid at $50. If you don’t set your autobid as high as you were willing to pay, then whose fault is that? And if you weren’t willing to go to $50, then what difference does it make whether the higher bid came with ten seconds left or came on Thursday?
If two people want an item and you bid first, all the other person has to do it bid higher. If they bid higher, than you have to outbid them which requires at least one more bid to now win. You just bid against yourself. It does not always work that way of course, but after many years of bidding, my #1 rule is never bid first.
I agree 100%!! My friends all pre bid. I always snipe.
I agree with David and Chris on this. I do use sniping on Ebay when the collectable I’m interesting in is more-or-less a scarce item and I don’t want others to see there’s a lot of interest in it, bit my snipe there is always no more than I’m willing to pay.
With wine, unless it’s a really old bottling, there’s always going to be another one coming down the line, so I just bid what I’m comfortable and then walk away and whatever happens is going to happen. Like Chris, my wine buys these days are “want to have” instead of “must have”, so not winning isn’t that important.
That’s what I do as well. If someone wants to pay more than me I hope they enjoy the wine. And that way I don’t get caught up in bidding fever.
I do have sympathy for the OP since the winebid model doesn’t allow you to bid a higher amount on just a few bottles (e.g., $20 on 14 bottles and $80 on 2 bottles) which is what it sounds like he really would have wanted to do. That’s not a criticism of the sniper, just an observation on the limitation of the bidding system.
If I’m willing to pay $30 and the opening bid is $10, with $10 increments, if I open with $10 and put in a $30 auto bid, I win, unless someone is willing to go $40. MAYBE I could have gotten in for $20 IF there was one other bidder who would only bid $10, but that’s pretty unusual in my experience.
Also, I don’t hang at the computer to snipe or look for snipers (or use any sniping services). Bottom line, I’m willing to pay what I bid (which usually is below market), so I’m OK with it. Won one at the last Acker online auction (at my top autobid) and lost one - fine result for me. I guess I got used to this in the live auction market before on-line real time bidding.
No right answer, all depends on how much you want the wine. My opinion: If it’s something you wouldn’t mind having at a bargain price, put in a low bid early and keep your fingers crossed. If it’s something you absolutely want to own, put in a high bid early. There is no such thing as sniping a wine that is above market value. I personally always bid early, then hope someone outbids me 
You all miss my point. I said if you want to WIN, don’t bid first. I wasn’t commenting on setting a personal price limit which is what a lot of you are saying. The two are different.