Does anyone snipe on ebay?
 

I'm curious if any of you snipe when you make purchases on ebay and, if so, what service you use.

I'm more than a little wary of giving out my account info. I imagine this is how those shady 1 day auctions end up on there.

I snipe by bidding the maximum I am willing to pay on eBay directly. If someone wants to snipe me, they have to outbid my maximum or I win anyway.

Once, while watching my proxy bid, I got an angry message from another bidder asking me to stop out-bidding them. :D

I've done my share of sniping on eBay, all manually, in the early eBay days (1999 or so) and on a 33.6 modem. I could consistently cut a 3 second snipe, my best was a one second snipe. My house mate got one with zero seconds left. :)

PM me if you want details.

Yeah, thats what I do, I just wait till the last few seconds then bid my highest bid :D sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt, but it usually does :D I dont need no stinking service :eek: LOL!

I think most people who try to buy on ebay snipe in some way or another. There are sophisticated people who use computer programs to fire off bids as the seconds wind down. If I want an item, I prefer to be there to watch the final minutes and adjust the bids accordingly. Ebay is definitely an addiction in that regard. You get a rush as the minutes and seconds wind down.

Oh yeah!

Those are usually the only times I win. It seems that whenever I can't be there and bid my maximum, someone will top it. I have a fairly good success ratio when I snipe. I have a DSL connection and don't use an automatic sniping program.

Sometimes I am outbid before I submit my snipe bid. Usually I just shrug my shoulders and wait for the next one-there is no time to submit another bid.

www.auctionstealer.com

All the time. I use their free service. 3 snipes a week - works beautifully.

-Kurt

i use jbidwatcher. its a freeware program, works great.

I ride the bike to accelerate my heart rate. Sniping services allow one to plan and forget. No outbidding what you think the item is worth, and no getting up at 3am to place a bid at the last second.

There is an ebay transition I am concerned about, this bidder numbering scheme, bidder 1, 2 etc, this has already shown to hid shill bidding. Bad news.

I use auctionsniper.com. Costs about 25 cents for each successful snipe; no charge for getting outbid.

Neal

I find this new 'feature' to be quite disconcerting as well. I have noticed some 'bidders' have over 75% of their activity with one buyer.

I usually decide what I am willing to pay, and snipe that amount in the last few seconds. That way another bidder doesn't have time to change their bid.

I bid much the same way, my maximum bid (+10% just in case) in the very last seconds. Seems to work better for me than setting my maximum and waiting...

john

I only snipe, with no software. I don't want to get caught up in a bidding frenzy.

How do you determine your highest bid? I first go with what an item is worth to me (tends to be on the low end, I am a cheap SOB) and then I add 20% to get my maximum bid. For an example, if I think it is worth $50, I figure the extra $10 is very little in the grand scheme of life and I won't be disappointed if I get outbid. Yeah, my thought process may be a little strange, but it works for me.

All the time, get some good deals.
Bought my bike that way.

slag

+1, works great. Stand alone program, no sign up or service required. Just uses your ebay log-in info to sign in an almost act like your browser. Also works good for when you are away and want to bid.

Sniping.........
 

Before this thread I had never heard of 'Sniping'. Naturally, 'Google' answered all my questions, and does so at a good time, since I'm considering buying something on E-Bay.

I only snipe (except for Buy-it-Nows). My last ISP was so bad I was missing so many auction closings that I had to resort to a sniping service, eSnipe. Been using them for probably 5 years now and they have been flawless.

Not free but only 1% of winning bids. You buy chunks of credits in advance, 1000 credits for $10 for instance, and if you happen to run out before a bid that wins it's no big deal. They'll still place the bid and you can buy more credits later. And they take Paypal btw.

And don't forget to allow for shipping in your total price!

All the time. I use www.auctionsniper.com. It's dough well spent.
Top

hammersnipe.com

gives you three free snipes per week. you only pay to upgrade the service.

I'm curious. How are sniping services superior to the ebay proxy bidding feature? Minimizes price inflation? Or is it all psychological?

The free accounts only let you snipe 10s before the end of the auction. That's plenty of time for someone to out snipe you.

I think it's mostly psychological in that both allow you to set a maximum bid and go from there. I set up snipes for lots of auctions that I don't win in that the price eventually gets to be more than my maximum, and before I used a sniping service, I got tired of getting outbid at the last moment, even after my proxy bid was the highest so far. And I like not having to hover over my computer when an auction is ending.

Neal

I think sniping is soon going to be mandatory to avoid being scammed. Right now it appears that items going over $100 or sometimes $200. convert to bidder by number, if you are lucky and make notes of who bid, prior to the conversion it gives you some information. What I have seen is as stated earlier, sellers who have "customers" who bid an item up, soon under the cloak of a number only. With this modification, soon planned to be used more extensively, sniping is the only tool to assist in being scammed.

With a proxy bid ebay style, your bid is auto ratcheded up to your max, as others bid against you. I see no advantage in placing a bid early, it actually seems to invite a bidding frenzy.

Some Nobel prize in the future will be awarded to the guy who writes the economic formula explaining it.

The ebay proxy bidding feature rewards shill bidders (the seller or a "helper" bidding on his own item to drive up price). Shill bidding is rampant on ebay, and ebay does next to nothing to prevent it, since they benefit from both a sell and a higher end price. An amazing number of people actually think these shills are sincere, legit bidders. Watch enough auctions and you will have the mildly entertaining experience of seeing the same "sold" widget coming right back to auction days or weeks later. I have seen some sellers "sell" the same item 2-3 times, claiming buyer backed out of deal (gets em out of paying ebay plus covers as&).

Some confused folks do get caught up in auctions, like its a fun little game - so this also makes the proxy bidding process not really helpful to buyers.

You can snipe bid manually within 5 secs to end, no problem, by just watching the clock. The main benefit to snipe programs is they can enter a bid in your absence. Also, some of these snipe programs lets the buyer watch auctions without the seller knowing you're watching (the std ebay watch list tells sellers how many folks are watching their auction, which may affect their shilling actions).

If you're an informed, careful, frugal shopper you will find most auctions reach an unacceptably high bid point in the end, ending your interest in the auction and rendering your snipe bid strategy moot.

My advice to buyers is wait till the last moment to bid, then enter a bid that represents the max you're willing to pay - then win or lose, you're happy.

Anyone who complains about "losing to a sniper" either a. simply and rightfully lost to a higher bidder or b. lost to a shill bidder, in which case they are doubly better off for not winning.

The majority of ebay sellers are fair, decent folks - however, just like riding in traffic, you'd be foolish to not treat the situation with due respect for known hazards.

This works and it's free (deluxe is trialware, basic freeware works fine).

http://www.auction-sentry.com/

:roflmao:

Every day, new evidence about the intelligence of some of eBay's denizens... :lol:

+1

Me too, ain't that a real hoot?. I never bid on these sellers' auctions again, as a matter of principle.

Lately ebay has started the anonymous "private bidder" bids listing, making it impossible to use search features to try and sniff out a shiller. Ebay claims it's a security feature - well it is, for ebay and their customers, the sellers. "Private bidder" adds a negligible amount of security for buyers. I'm probably 100 times more likely to be defrauded by shillers than an nigerian prince, or whatever the scam du jour is.