I'm wondering what kind of Ebay Alerts are out there that I don't know about.

I use saved searches that send me email whenever a new product is listed that matches the search.

Thats the only thing I know about that ebay offers. I'm sure there are other things like that which will do all sorts of cool stuff... I just don't know about em.


Oddest thing just happened to me. I've been watching an item with no bids for a couple of days... I put a bid in. First bid. Within 10 minutes of my bid I've got a notice that I was outbid. Sure enough, some dude is a 1.50 up on my original bid.
I just found it kind of odd that an item goes 3 days with no bids, then I make the first move and within minutes other people are making moves too.

Is it just coincidental Timing or is there some kind of ebay alert that will tell you when new bids come in on items you are interested in? How is that even useful in a world with Snipers?

Of course I'm not about to bid again....I'll let the sniper handle that.

I think you can put an item on a watch list, maybe ebay sends an email if so?

I get emails from eBay when an item I'm watching is nearing the end of auction, and when my highest bid has been outbid on an item. Also, if you have a smartphone, download the eBay app which expedites the process.

this must just be a case of weird timing or another buyer who just really wanted to be the top (or only) bidder.

I'm in the same boat. I clicked "watch item" and I get email alerts as things unfold. I'm outbid on something by 2.50 by a bidder w/ no feedback. Hhhmmm. I've never used a snipe option before and I have to work when the auction ends, so I'm thinking about doing that. Suggestions?

There is no way you can expect to compete with computer generated bids from utilities like eSnipe - You will be outbid every time, unless your "opponent" has set his maximum bid to be less than what you are willing to pay. - Even then, he receives a warning that his maximum bid has been bettered by someone else, so he can easily go in and raise it if he so desires.

- This is why you'll always be outbid by the marginal amount ( 1.50, 2.50 etc) required by eBay.

For the sniper - it's great. HE never spends any more than he is willing to bid, and most the time, less.
... I was an early adopter of the snipe bid.
I only had to lose once or twice by some minimal amount in the last seconds of an auction to get wise to it.

+1 Just go with a sniping program, or get used to losing out on auctions. Myself, I have been using esnipe for several years.

i'm an esniper as well. I actually only put a bid down early because there had been no activity and I didn't want the seller to get cold feet and yank the auction.

esniper.sourceforge.net - Doesn't run well in Windows (its difficult to set up) but its very easy in Linux.

99 out of 100 times, the sniper wins, but they can be beat and I've done it twice. The problem is you have to sit at the computer and time it perfectly so that your bid goes in with merely a few seconds left. The compurters are fast, but they have to recieve a signal and then generate one. The generation happens in a nano second, but the recieve notice to the computer that it's been out bid has to go through all the scanning crap. That may take a few seconds, even for a fast system. One other point, if you're in a fast moving bidding war you can't just up your bid by 1 or 2%, you've got to make a statement move, like more than 10%. In other words, you've got to REALLY want the item.

If the sniper wins it's ONLY because they are willing to pay more. If you put the max you are willing to spend at any time than there is only one way to beat you and that's by paying more not by placing a bid at the last second. The trouble is people try to nickel and dime these ebay auctions to get them at a lower price and it ends bad for them. Whether I put in a max bid of $400 at the beginning or into an eSnipe program my max bid is still $400.

I think I'm just going to put in a fat bid and see what happens. If I get it, great, if not, there is always something else.

bidding any time other than 10 seconds or less before the auction is over is basically a waist of time. Put in a snipe for what you're willing to spend for 6 or so seconds before the auction is over or prepare for vast amount of frustration.

HIGHEST BID WINS
Doesn't matter if it was a snipe or a long standing bid.

Almost correct! The FIRST HIGHEST BID WINS

I have twice won an item when I put in a bid early and the highest snipe bid was identical to mine. In such a case the first one to place the bid wins...

But to answer Zaphod's question... I think esnipe is actually the answer.

Let's say an auction ends five days from now and starting price is 99 cents. If I put in a esnipe for a dollar, and a little later you bid a dollar, I think esnipe will immediately send me an email saying my snipe --which won't be made for five days-- is too low. And then, of course, I would just raise my snipe, rather than outbidding you right away; so it's not quite the same scenario as you describe.

Is esnipe better than AuctionSniper? I've only used the latter. Is there reason to switch?

Dunno, I've only used esnipe. I rather doubt one is better than the other, but what do I know.

I have used both, now I use eSnipe. I can't remember for sure but I think I just bought a lot of 'snipe' for cheap, thus making it cost less.

oh wow, you guys PAY for your snipes??

how much?

esniper is free. (as in beer)

I've known all along that Sniping was the answer....that wasn't really the question though. Question was, are there any alert programs out there besides what Ebay gives you right out of the box? I really wasn't looking to re-hash, for the billionth time, the whole auction sniper thing...sorry!

Even so, I think your sniper program should be the answer; see my reply #15 above. Could be it doesn't alert you instantly, if your snipe is too low; we could test that.

To the original question, I think the alerts you are using are all that eBay offers. And they don't necessarily go out quickly...I have several standing alerts, and every day I get a bunch of them together. Occasionally there's an item in there that was a BIN which has already sold by the time I receive the alert.

Looking back my first eSnipe win was 11/17/2003 for a Looney Tunes VHS tape that had my wife's favorite cartoon on it. I paid $25 for 2500 bid points way back then. I still have 793 of those 2500 bid points left. I'm grandfathered in on the original program where I don't use any bid points on auction wins less than $25. That will run out when these 793 bid points runs out but given its taken me 8 years to use 1707 I think the 793 might last me a few more years.

Best $25 I've ever spent in my life.

EDIT: And that's a total of 41 auction wins with eSnipe. I can't begin to count how many auctions I've bid on with eSnipe.

I still snipe the old fashioned way, in person. I always do mine 3 seconds before the end of the auction. I still only snipe with the maximum I am willing to pay.

Agreed I have not have a lot of luck with alerts - both precision and timeliness.
For sniping I use AuctionWatch which has a fixed license cost and no "bid points" which appears to be an eSnipe thing.

I've had that happen a number of times too. Get an email alert with a BIN and its gone before I get the alert.
Of course I've been on the other end of that a few times where I was just randomly searching ebay late at night and snagged a killer deal on a BIN that had been up for like 5 minutes. Then the next morning I've got an alert in my email from ebay that says "Check this item out that was just listed!" ...sorry ebay, I beat ya to it

Ok I'm convinced my situation was a fluke...I just wanted to make sure there wasn't some kind of sneaky watching program out there (aside from a sniper) that I was clueless about...that's the way it was for sniper programs with me...I was clueless to their existence until I got beat by them a bunch of times...then I got hip.


A lot of these sniping services seem to have fancy features that I don't have on lowly esniper but then again esniper is free and free is for me.