Originally Posted by Sammyboy
I always snipe manually - I use two tabs on Firefox, one with my bid entered and ready to go, the other, watching the clock. This way you can reliably hit the last 3-4 secs.
That's exactly the way I've been doing it. Trouble is, when I can't be around the screen at auction's end.
I now use the standalone Baygenie program. $15. Works great. Loads on my computer, so my passwords etc are secure. Good reliable reviews from Cnet.
When I was in college, I 'picked' antiques for wholesale resale to antique dealers. They taught me that when you go to an auction, you decide in advance what you will pay, if the bid goes higher, you let it go by.
That was good early training for eBay. No last second passions. Decide what you will bid, enter it into the sniping program, and go on with your life.
A very sane way to conduct business.
Two weeks ago I picked up a new Deore XT 8 spd cassette and a new HG70 8 spd cassette (both poorly described) for $20 US delivered. Yesterday I missed out on some Command shifters, which went for $9 more than my max last second bid.
If seized with a collector's frenzy, the sanity of this method quickly becomes irrelevant. Using a bidding program is a great tonic for this codependency.