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.

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 sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt, but it usually does I dont need no stinking service 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.

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.