Snipers beware!
 

I am a fan of sniping on Ebay, for a lot of reasons that have been discussed on other threads. It's become my habit to bid through Auctionsniper, no matter how big or small the item. I just find it easier and more effective.

Yesterday I had a new experience (I don't do a whole lot of Ebay-ing), although judging by some web-discussion I've found, this has been going on for at least a few months: I had entered a snipe bid on an item, and that bid was not accepted by Ebay. Apparently in an attempt to curtail hijacking of accounts, Ebay occasionally (I assume randomly) displays a verification window when a bid is placed. Because my bid was being placed by a third party system, I wasn't there to verify the bid, and it didn't go through. Of course I don't know if I would have won the auction, but I do know that my bid was more than double the lone bid that won the item.

I only use Auctionsniper, so I don't know if this problem is plaguing other sniping programs, but I don't see why it wouldn't.

Just a word of warning. In my case this was a small item of no real consequence, but if it had been an item I really wanted or needed, I'd be pretty bummed.

You can snipe manually and it's only slightly less effective...

But you gotta be online at the exact moment, and you lose the convenience of auto-sniping

iphone.

If it is something I have been following closely, I'll set an alarm on the phone.

John

Having a phone alarm doesn't mean you're not busy doing something else at the exact time.

I don't have an iPhone, I have a Droid, but I do the same thing haha, and I've found that it is rarely impossible to make sure I am available if the item is important to me

I didn't mean to start a prolonged debate over whether there are alternatives to sniping programs - clearly there are. I just meant for it to be a PSA for others who use programs and might be unaware of this risk.

Also - a site like auction sniper removes the temptation to get into a war last second.

Thanks for the heads up....

Haven't seen that yet, but will probably run into it eventually. Bummer.

I will check the service I use, esnipe.

This action does not really help eBay and its sellers though.
If eBay is hoping I will get caught up emotionally and bid in real time (manual sniping) or place a big proxy bid... Good luck with that.
Although it does move toward the way eBay I think would prefer to run the show, buy it now, no bidding.

I've had it in the past where E-Bay would force me to log in EVERY DAY.

5 minutes before the end of the auction, it would take the bid amount, but then when I hit the "verify" button a few seconds before the end of the auction, it popped up with a password verification page. :(

The system seems to be less belligerent about repeatedly logging in now. :thumb:

However, when it was doing the lots of logins earlier, the best thing to do was to log out, and log back in shortly before the end of the auction.

I don't use any auto-bid programs. If I miss a bid, then it probably wasn't that important anyway :P

Snipes are the lowest of the lows.
They're not called snipes for nothing.

Just bid the maximum you're willing to pay, and let it go.

But isn't that the purpose of the sniper? Lay low and stealthy, do the dirty whatever it takes. Sniper vs. sniper. Just sayn'.

As this article (from last Oct.) points out, it can be a negative for both buyers -the ones who snipe, anyway - and sellers. Also, perversely, for Ebay, since they are missing out on the marginal percentage on higher bids.

You can call it what you want.
To win the auction, be online at the end.

Otherwise, expect someone to either come in and repeatedly bid you up, or snag the auction. (or perhaps you'll get lucky and a last minute bidder will miss it).

I see nothing wrong with it. Plenty of people place manual last-second bids. Is that evil as well?

The sniping programs charge a very nominal fee, so there's really no economic barrier to using them. As long as anyone can do it, I don't see a problem.

+1 this. Sniping is a "fire and forget" operation for me. If I win the item for the price I was willing to pay, great; if not, there's always next time.

N.B. Since I'm loathe to share my passwords with third parties, I use "esniper" hosted on my own computer. You do need a computer connected to the internet 24x7 for this to work, though. But as I host my own web site and mail server, it's not an issue here.

But what is the appeal?
You'll still only bid the max that you're willing to pay?

You might want to read this FAQ: http://esniper.sourceforge.net/

Exactly right, but at the end of the auction, and automatically so I don't have to be logged on to bid, which isn't always convenient.

Also, one of the best features, in my opinion, is the ability to set up bid groups. Let's say I want a B17 saddle and there are 10 on Ebay that I could bid on. With a sniping program, I can set up snipes on all of them, and as soon as I win one (or the number I specify) the program will cancel the other snipes so I don't bid on something I no longer need. Note it's cancelling only a snipe within the program; there has been no bid placed with Ebay so there's nothing to cancel there.

I know it's just me,
but I think it violates "Wheaton's Law".

As far as manual sniping, E-Bay at least tolerates the practice, and added a countdown timer a few years ago (inaccurate at first, but functional now) so one didn't have to reload the pages a thousand times.

One of the government auction sites resets the countdown timer whenever bids are received in the last few minutes, effectively eliminating snipes, although still allowing last minute bids.

Other auctions use sealed bids... (effectively all bids are snipes)... which I find to be very annoying.

The "buy-it-now" options can be good for both buyers and sellers if the prices are set right.

I can accept that you feel that way, but I don't really understand why. I can't see who is hurt by it.

As a seller, I don't care a lick how someone submits their bid, and assume that one way or the other, serious bidding often takes place in the final seconds of a week-long auction.

Ditto on the buying side. I accept that my bid will likely have competition, either from other snipers or from people tapping their phones. In fact, it was a seller who first told me about sniping when I was new to Ebay, and told me that's what I should do if I want to win his auction.

Lost a lot of auctions?

John

Added... Sorry, I couldn't resist. I have no issues how anyone bids.