Bid Sniping

[dokblues]

Anyone use one of these services and do you have an thoughts and input on them?:scratch2:

[madpioneer]

In the last few years I would not have won half of the items I really wanted without sniping service.
Really hate to do that to people but when I really want something and have been outbid time after time you have to do something or just give up.
Use it most on very hard to get or rare items like out of print CD's.
The thing I like about it is you do not tip your hand until the very last seconds. I find that I can get it cheaper that way than get into a bidding war.
Of course it does not always work, either someone does the same with a higher bid or your price is just to low in the end.
Lately I have had problems with it as some sellers want your PayPal account linked to your user ID and when the snipe service goes to bid it is just ignored.
Not sure how to remedy that. But it does still work for regular sellers without the link up.
I no longer have internet at home so I tend to use it more now.
It is a great tool but no guarantees.
Hope that helps?:scratch2:

[KingBubba]

JBidwatcher is free and quite useful.

[JosephH]

It is a commonly used, well established and generally available tool, so I have no issues using one. If someone wants something and is willing to pay more then fine, and if they use this tool, more power to them. If the seller restricts who and how you can bid on on the item, that's cool too.
It amazes me how mad some people get about this subject. I think the fun is in the hunt, so it doesn't make me crazy if I get outbid. Another one will come along.

[Madman007]

In the end one person has to be willing to pay more and bid higher than all others to win no matter how it's done. Although I will say it's frustrating to lose an item when it looks like you've only lost by a few dollars although in reality the winners higest offer may have been much more. I've never used one of these services though. Does it open up room for shenanigans, like where a seller could request the service to bid up their own item?

[bholio]

I place most/all of my bids with auctionsniper. I find it works very well. In addition to not tipping your hand until the last second, it is very easy to cancel bids with auctionsniper. You just delete the snipe before it is sent. Because the bid is not sent to ebay until the last moment, ebay's rules about bid retraction do not apply.

Some tools (auctionsniper) also allow you to bid on multiple similar items, cancelling them all when one of them wins. I think ebay might also have this feature now, but it does come in handy.

At the end of the day, the biggest number wins every time. Snipers simply remove the time where a competing bidder may decide to increase their number.

[outshined]

I never bid, only snipe. My bid is placed 3 seconds before the auction ends. If I see someone who has bid numerous times on an item, then I'm leary that he is a shill bidder, driving up the price, and may decide to not bid at all.

Most times, I win. I bid (snipe) with only what I'm willing to pay. Sometimes, I'll place a bid with the sniper for $100 for a cd, for example. That's how I know I'll get it, but you have to take a chance that another sniper has not bid, say, $90! But this rarely happens. This also can work in reverse, where the other sniper wins a CD for his max bid, which no one would ever pay. Then the wide-eyed seller sends me a second chance offer, which I decline.

If you're caught using another eBay account to up the bidding on your own auction, you will be banned, and all your feedbacks and stuff will be gone.

I use either E Snipe or HidBid. I think HidBid is totally free, while E Snipe charges a couple of bucks for "points" that you buy. And, anything under $25 is free. It's the only way to go...

http://www.esnipe.com/
http://hidbid.com/

[bgadow]

Most of the time the thing I'm bidding on isn't so big a deal so I'll just bid on ebay and let it go. Sometimes I think there is a benefit to that early bid showing up, for instance, when the starting bid is pretty much all the item is worth. I might be reading too much into the psychological aspects of it! I have used ensnipe several times, and have won with it. Works surprisingly well. I limit it to things I really, really want.

[Mark B]

When I don't snipe I usually end up paying more because someone else bids towards the end of the auction and if their bid doesn't beat my bid they bid again and again trying to outbid me. I'm sure sellers love that. When I snipe I use auctionsniper. The fees are when your bid wins are very reasonable.

[namahealani]

I also use eSnipe. I just won an LP today for $7 that I would have paid $20 for ($20 was my eSnipe bid)

[Madman007]

I've maunally 'sniped' before. How is that different?

[daleeper]

I've lost twice to $%^&*#$ snipers in the last month. If I have the highest bid showing with 3 or 4 seconds to go, then 99% of the time I should win. If a sniper has a higher bid price than me, then let him put it out there for me to evaluate. I may choose to fold; but don't sneak in the backdoor with a single, sole bid 50 cents or a dollar higher with nano seconds to go.

If you are using the ebay maximum bid process and enter more than the minimum bid accepted, and it does the bidding up to your maximum number, it is not a whole lot different than sniping, as far as your complaint. No-one at an auction is going to show you their maximum amount they are willing to spend on a particular item before the auction is at it's end anyway. The whole premise of an auction is selling to the highest bidder, not what true value is. Ebay rules allow bidding up to a certain point in time, and as long as a bid is placed before that time is up, it is a fair bid, regardless of how it is placed, in my opinion. If they want to change the rules, that is fine. I like to use snipe software, partially because of the stealth factor, I don't like people pecking away at my bid one bid at a time. I set my maximum price before the auction ends, it keeps emotion out of the equation. If it is something I really want, and no one has bid yet, I will place the first bid at minimum just to hopefully reduce the chance of the auction being pulled before it is over.

As a seller, last second bids are tougher to handle, as you really don't know if you have made a mistake and there is no one interested in your item unless there is an early bid made.

If you are not high bidder at the end of the auction, and you want the item, you are not bidding high enough. Simple as that. Doesn't matter how the bid was placed.

[Madman007]

Well daleeper, just to make conversation about this, your post kind of contradicts itself. You say that you set a personal maximum and stick to it, which is what eBay's own system allows so it's 'the same thing,' but that sniping still has some advantage in not tipping your hand. I understand that but if it's ultimately the same thing either way why use the sniping software?

[Fisherdude]

Gentlemen, this is one of those topics that has been beaten to death multiple times. In almost every instance the thread quickly deteriorates into a hatefest and gets locked. I'm going to be watching this thread closely, and at the first instance of any hostile comments it will be closed.

Keep in mind that the OP asked for input as to sniping services, NOT for thoughts about whether or not you believe in sniping. Let's keep the comments on topic.

[EastPoint]

I use AuctionSentry, which you download and then it works off your computer. It cost me I think $15 a few years back, and it has saved me thousands of dollars. Not only that, but it lets me grab things while I'm at work or asleep. It's also very easy to use. Highly recommended.

[Madman007]

I use AuctionSentry, which you download and then it works off your computer. It cost me I think $15 a few years back, and it has saved me thousands of dollars. Not only that, but it lets me grab things while I'm at work or asleep. It's also very easy to use. Highly recommended.

I'm curious how it's saved you thousands of dollars or let you grab things while at work or asleep as opposed to eBay's built-in max bid system?

[Njord Noatun]

Unless a BIN, I always use a snipe service - auctionsniper.com - and have done so for years. I don't know for certain that the prices I am getting are any better than I would have gotten manually, but it sure beats 1) having to be at your computer at a certain time to snipe manually, or 2) to disclose your interest in an item hours, or days, before it is necessary.

[NumbDiver]

I snipe. It is a two-edged sword though. The benefits are well documented in this thread so I won't comment on what the advantages are. Obviously it all rides on the max anyone is willing to pay for an item. They win no matter what.

Here are two examples of the downsides of sniping (one just happened to me):

-If you really want it and are willing to pay a reasonable market price, you may have an advantage of putting your high bid in early. Many buyers get frustrated by continually getting over-bid by your high proxy bid, and they move on.

-Someone was parting out some RS1Bs (sadly), and I wanted an extra EMIT. Seller had a bunch of them. I was going out of town, so I randomly picked one and placed a sniper bid of $300 for the last few seconds. I get home, and I WON! The problem was, someone else probably had a sniper bid on that same EMIT, and it cost me close to my max bid. ALL of the other EMITs sold for less than 1/2 of what mine did. Two snipers ended up going head to head and although I only spent what I was willing to spend, I could've saved $150 if I would've bid early (people would have moved on to the next EMIT listed).

If I think I'm going to 'steal' an auction due to a poorly listed item, I will always snipe. If I really really want it, I always snipe (that way I can't change my mind and spend more than I wanted to, by adding to my original bid). Very rarely comes a situation where the snipe backfires.

As a seller, I don't even look at auctions till they are over, knowing that a snipe will most likely take it, and I won't know till the last 3 seconds anyway.

[Dynacophil]

Anyone use one of these services and do you have an thoughts and input on them?:scratch2:

http://www.snip.pl/en/auction-sniper.php is the sniper service I use since plus 4 years now. Reliable, fast, nice to configure, good features.

[specialidiot]

Unless a BIN, I always use a snipe service - auctionsniper.com - and have done so for years.

Same, although I use esnipe.com.

I use the firefox plugin from esnipe. When I see an item I want, I simply have a button to click and enter my max amount. Then just wait. If I don't get it fine, if I do, then its time for the nanner dance.

To the whiners, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. ;)

[ponderbear]

In addition to not tipping your hand until the last second, it is very easy to cancel bids with auctionsniper. You just delete the snipe before it is sent. Because the bid is not sent to ebay until the last moment, ebay's rules about bid retraction do not apply.



Wow, thanks for that whack on the side of my head. I've always felt a little resentful of sniping but this aspect of it really makes sense, good sense.

[RickB]

JBidwatcher is free and quite useful.
I use it all the time, there are even versions for Linux and OS X...

[charliemcd]

I tried winning auctions without sniping for the first couple of weeks I used eBay. Someone always seemed to wait until the last 30 seconds or so and then jumped in to outbid me. So then I started putting my bids in at the end of the auction and I started to win some auctions. Being at the computer at the end of the auction wasn't always possible, and sometimes I just forgot, so I started looking around for a sniping program and found JBidwatcher.

I usually put in a somewhat low bid when I first see something I'm interested in. This lets the seller and other buyers know there is someone who wants the item. Later I'll put a higher amount to snipe using JBidwatcher. If someone doesn't bid more than me, they don't win the item, it's as simple as that.

JBidwatcher is free (but donations are encouraged by the developer), doesn't require using a server since it runs on your PC, and works pretty well considering that eBay always seems to be screwing around with how their system works. the only down side is that your computer has to be on at the time to send the snipe. No affiliation with the product or developer, just a happy user. http://www.jbidwatcher.com

[Madman007]

Could a mod please change the title of this thread to SNIPING instead of SNIPPING? I don't think anyone is talking about taking a pair of scissors to a bid :tongue: (sorry, it just tweeks me to see something like that which doesn't make sense.)

[pahtcenter77]

Gentlemen, this is one of those topics that has been beaten to death multiple times.

I did a quick search yesterday for the word "sniping" (not snipping), and associated derivatives of the word, and came up with 1880+ posts.

Breaks down in to two distinct categories:

Some like it.
Some don't.

Maybe the next post will solve the problem.:thmbsp:


P.S. A subsequent search for the word "beer" only came up with 973 hits.
Now THAT deserves some attention!:D

[Fisherdude]

Could a mod please change the title of this thread to SNIPING instead of SNIPPING? I don't think anyone is talking about taking a pair of scissors to a bid :tongue: (sorry, it just tweeks me to see something like that which doesn't make sense.)

Done.

[ccheath]

Sometimes I just bid and leave it alone. Other time when I REALLY want it, I snipe. Call me JERK if you want. :D

[NumbDiver]

P.S. A subsequent search for the word "beer" only came up with 973 hits.
Now THAT deserves some attention!:D


I think the beer analogy is more parallel than one thinks.

As much as I tell everyone that big, hoppy, US Imperial/Double IPAs are the bomb:beer:; there is always someone that tries to convince me that Mich Golden Light is a better beer. It just ain't gonna happen!

Just trust me. I am right.:D

Oh, and if I could save on the price of beer by going to the store 3 seconds before it closed, I can't imagine why I'd go earlier! :dunno:

[outshined]

I've maunally 'sniped' before. How is that different?

If you sniped manually with, say, 3 seconds before the auction ends, you have a good chance of winning, assuming that a proxy bid placed prior to your snipe is not higher.

Even if you manually snipe 3 seconds before, I will snipe with an insane amount 3/4 of a second before auctions end and out-bid you.

Putting in a proxy bid is, to me, a waste of time, because someone will invariably out-bid you, especially if he is a newbie, and just has to be high bidder at all times. I stay away from these auctions. Or, a bidding war is taking place during the last few minutes, driving up the price, much to the sellers delight.

I recently sold an engine. I had no bids with minutes to go and the offers were flying in. I said, "I'll wait 'till it ends to entertain offers" Sure enough, someone sniped for my asking price, much more than any offer I received.

I just sniped a double, OOP CD with $100, and got it for $12... $.50 above the last bid. I gotta admit, I love the rush when I snipe someone and win by a pittance...:D

[cornhulio]

I use a sniping service 100% of the time. I lose more than I win but I know I didn't prematurely run the bid up for no reason.

[titanstats]

I've never used one, but think it's a good idea if it's something that you really want. Me, I always forget about the end of the damned auctions that I'm watching...which is probably a good thing in the end. :)

[xoaphexox]

JBidwatcher is free and quite useful.

My favorite too!

[EastPoint]

I'm curious how it's saved you thousands of dollars or let you grab things while at work or asleep as opposed to eBay's built-in max bid system?

Because sniping gives me a much greater chance of winning something. If I just bid and let it alone, someone can walk my bid up bit by bit, then outbid me at their leisure. With a sniping program they don't even know that I'm interested until it's too late. I think sniping probably gives you a 50% better chance of winning, and it's been scientifically proven to win items significantly cheaper.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/2006-06-25-physics-of-ebay_x.htm

[Madman007]

If someone outbids you at their leisure then they are just willing to pay more. Walking up the bid might help them know what your max is but if they're willing to pay more it doesn't matter. I think you've got the study's results a bit wrong though, both the studies noted in that article showed statistically sniping may win more often but there was no explicit conclusion of lower prices.

A bunch of people sniping makes it less of an auction and more of a best offer. :dunno: Whatever...

[Cheese Grits]

I use esnipe, but I wasn't aware of the firefox plugin. I'll have to check that out.

[xoaphexox]

eSnipe charges money?? jbidwatcher is totally free...

[KeninDC]

Another satisfied JBidwatcher user here.

I sold a vintage Canon SLR lens and I received about ten bids in the last few seconds, bringing up the final price from about $300 to over $800. In this case, I don't think any snipers saved too much.

[xoaphexox]

The best is when two or more people use sniping programs with the "end all" bids - sometimes prices skyrocket to the sellers advantage. Good stuff!

[Fisherdude]

The best is when two or more people use sniping programs with the "end all" bids - sometimes prices skyrocket to the sellers advantage. Good stuff!

Nothing like watching the end of an auction, and realizing that there were two "nuke" bidders at the same time.

Seller's breakin' out the champagne!:yes:

[ChrisW6ATV]

I still do my last-second bidding the old-fashioned way, manually. It forces a sense of discipline in my bidding. I decide what I want to pay (which, realistically, must be at least twice what the current bid is for anything in high demand). I put in my bid in the last minute or less. If I am outbid, well, too bad, I had already decided what the item was worth to me. It is generally too late for me to decide to pay more just because someone else did.

Sometimes, I want something but not too badly, and I will make an ordinary random-time bid. I even win those auctions occasionally.

[donoghue]

snipestreet.com, it's free, been using it for a year or two and never had a problem

[terra1]

Because sniping gives me a much greater chance of winning something. If I just bid and let it alone, someone can walk my bid up bit by bit, then outbid me at their leisure. With a sniping program they don't even know that I'm interested until it's too late. I think sniping probably gives you a 50% better chance of winning, and it's been scientifically proven to win items significantly cheaper.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/2006-06-25-physics-of-ebay_x.htm

My experience supports what you and the article has said about sniping. Of course it always goes to one who makes the best offer. That's the whole premise of eBay. But it's also about observation. A little gamesmanship. A little cat and mouse. A little bit of poker. Positioning to win and at the same time get the best deal possible.

I have seen bidding wars push the price up and go way beyond previous winning bids.

I have also been on the losing side of many listings when I get in a nibbling bid war. And just when the bid ends, a sniper wins it -- getting a great deal.

The advantage of sniping is clear when the other nibblers are working from the bottom up and don't make the best offer and are just trying to get a steal or limited by their budget.

As the article says, "There is no reason to suppose that everybody always behaves in a rational and effective way." As a sniper, that's what your are banking on.

[whoaru99]

Because sniping gives me a much greater chance of winning something. If I just bid and let it alone, someone can walk my bid up bit by bit, then outbid me at their leisure. With a sniping program they don't even know that I'm interested until it's too late. I think sniping probably gives you a 50% better chance of winning, and it's been scientifically proven to win items significantly cheaper.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/2006-06-25-physics-of-ebay_x.htm

I think in the earlier days of sniping the advantage was probably greater (note article is from mid-2006). However, as more and more people become aware of it and use it, the advantage has gone down.

Afaik, at the end of the day, the first highest bid still wins, yes?

[Fisherdude]

...Afaik, at the end of the day, the first highest bid still wins, yes?

Well, the highest bid.:yes:

[Raiko]

I use Bidnip. Very cheap and they use their own servers so I don't have to worry about my computer getting screwed up at the last second. I also snipe not just for the obvious buying advantages but also because it requires me to determine what I will pay for something early on and not at the last second under emotional duress.:D

I just place the snipe early on and forget about it. No refreshing of the screen every 3 seconds for the 10 minutes prior to the auction ending watching the price go up and rationalizing why I should bid higher than I wanted.:nono:

As they say on late night TV commercials - Just set it and forget it!

[terra1]

I use Bidnip. Very cheap and they use their own servers so I don't have to worry about my computer getting screwed up at the last second. I also snipe not just for the obvious buying advantages but also because it requires me to determine what I will pay for something early on and not at the last second under emotional duress.:D

I just place the snipe early on and forget about it. No refreshing of the screen every 3 seconds for the 10 minutes prior to the auction ending watching the price go up and rationalizing why I should bid higher than I wanted.:nono:

As they say on late night TV commercials - Just set it and forget it!

Better bidding through automation. It's more convenient than manual sniping or getting locked out during the last few seconds because of system resources or whatever.

I just recently downloaded JBidwatcher since this thread started - thanks for the recommendation guys! And it's a fun little program.

Allows you to set the bid time. Review watched items in its own window with pop up pictures. Time countdown. Much more efficient than the My Ebay summary. Very impressed.

I used to look down on or be upset by snipers -- because I kept losing!

But if you can't beat em, join em, it's part of the game. It doesn't mean I won't bid early, doesn't mean I'll always win. It's just another tool of convenience.