EBayers: Successful Sniping

[HejazSunKat]

It happened: Aaack!! I got SNIPED! :mad: :D 3 minutes before the end of the auction that I'd been the high bidder on for days somebody swooped in and outbid me. How did they find out my maximum bid? Is there a way to do that or did they just get lucky? I'm nothing more than a dabbler on ebay, buying the occasional nice thing, so educate me all you experienced ebay gurus on how to be a succesful sniper. :D

[Chefzhat]

There are websites that are "sniping services" that people use to drop in at the last minute and get merch.

Sux, doesn't it??? I HATE e-bay.

[Clover]

They didn't know your maximum price. They put in the maximum they were willing to pay, and it happened to be higher than yours. I don't think there is really any point in bidding before the end of the auction. You just drive the price up when you do that. I've only bought things occasionally, but I use the strategy that jmarie posted here on the BB. You enter your maximum bid, and ebay will bid for you in the required increment (like $1.50) over the existing high bid. If you win, you may pay less than your maximum. If you lose, well, you didn't want to pay that much for it anyway. So, below is jmarie's strategy, which you wait until a couple minutes before the end of the auction to do:
"Ok. Pull up the eBay screen. Make sure you are signed in by going to my eBay. Then, do the first step in making your bid. Bid the most that you want to spend for the product. Do not place bid in step two.

Pull up another eBay screen. Size the screens so that they are side by side and you can see the place bid button on one eBay page and the bid amounts that have been placed on the other page. Keep refreshing the second page until you get down to about 15 to 10 seconds, then hit place bid on other page. You should win it unless the initial bidders proxy bid was higher that the top bid you would have placed."

[blazedog]

There is software which enables you to successfully snipe merchandise.

You need to make peace with what YOU will pay as a maximum and the the software does the rest by bidding in when you specify. Generally it starts bidding about 60 seconds before the end of the auction and then will keep on going until the end the auction or it hits your maximum.

[HejazSunKat]

There is software which enables you to successfully snipe merchandise.

Wow, who knew? I just did a quick Google search on 'sniping software' (expecting some very interesting hits) and found a couple of sites that offered this. Does anybody out there actually use these and if so opinions on pros/cons/costs of the different softwares?

[jmarie]

I NEVER place a bid before the last minute and would encourage anyone to do the same, simply because of shill bidding.

Shill bidding... process where a seller or their agent bids up their own merchandise through the use of an alternate registration. A forbidden practice.

I caught a company doing this on eBay once and reported them and they were kicked off. They had a ton of stuff that I wanted, and I was furiously throwing in bids and losing most... When you clicked on the bidder emails, a lot of times it was so and so at so and so company, which was the company doing the auction through ebay. Really fair.

I decided then that I would only do last second bids. That way I know anything I want won't be bid up to the sellers satisfaction. Everyone had a fair chance and that was mine. People may not like it, but I just feel like i am protecting myself....didn't know there was software that would do it for me though...

[HejazSunKat]

Uh oh...I see we're leading you astray. :D Thank you for your experienced perspective Joyce. I don't see anything WRONG with sniping. You put your bid in at the first minute of the auction or the last minute - a bid's a bid and if it happens to be the highest one then it's fairly done. I must admit though that I imagined the person doing it was getting a bit of a jolly out of snatching the piece away from me at the last minute which was more annoying to me than actually LOSING the auction.

I don't know why schill bidding would be even necessary. I mean, why wouldn't they just put a reserve on it and be done with it? Unless, again, it's the cheap visceral thrill of watching people competing for an item.

[jmarie]

Adding a reserve equals to an extra fee the seller has to pay...as if eBay doesn't charge enough as it is. :rolleyes: And a lot of people won't pay a reserve price but will (if they want the item bad enough) engage in a bidding war and sometimes even pay more than what an item is worth. Human nature...go figure.

I have seen this a lot at live auctions....and got caught up once, bowing out at my husbands insistance, then later hearing the lady comment she paid way too much for the Fostoria that we were bidding on. That was one time I was glad that someone else had the high bid. :)

[eas11]

I use the free service at justsnipe (http://www.justsnipe.com). I'm sure there are other similar sites. I've always just used it free, although I think they have a premium service. It's worked for me and is easy to use. I don't have the time, or desire, to sit around and watch my auctions at the last minute and I don't think my boss would take too kindly to me saying "sorry, can't attend that meeting-my auction is ending at 2:00!" I put what I'm willing to pay in to the justsnipe page and leave it at that. It's helped me win many auctions- but- other people use sniping software as well, so it depends on who's got the last bid in, you can still lose :( I rarely have though.

[HejazSunKat]

I use the free service at justsnipe (http://www.justsnipe.com). I'm sure there are other similar sites. I've always just used it free, although I think they have a premium service. It's worked for me and is easy to use. I don't have the time, or desire, to sit around and watch my auctions at the last minute and I don't think my boss would take too kindly to me saying "sorry, can't attend that meeting-my auction is ending at 2:00!" I put what I'm willing to pay in to the justsnipe page and leave it at that. It's helped me win many auctions- but- other people use sniping software as well, so it depends on who's got the last bid in, you can still lose :( I rarely have though.

I just went and had a look at that site Ellyn and their registration process not only asks for name and address etc but, of course, ebay username and password. In these days of identity theft I try to give out personal info only where absolutely necessary and if they have my username and password which they would need to bid on auctions as my agent what's to prevent some nefarious individual making an unauthorized purchase and using my Paypal account? Kind of makes me nervous. Am I missing some safeguard to prevent that? If I decided to do electronic sniping I think I'd rather buy a piece of software that I own and control (does that exist or is it all web based services like this one?) and I'd have to see how much those were first before making that decision seeing as how I'm a very light ebay user at the moment.

Oh and Joyce, I can see why the Fostoria was so hotly contested. My MIL has some that I believe was a wedding present in 1948 and it's just lovely.

[leightx]

I just registered for JustSnipe.com and won my first auction - hooray! I was a bit leary at first too Linda, but I saw that they were recommended by PC Magazine, and I figure that they need to have your ebay user info in order to place a bid.

[eas11]

I just registered for JustSnipe.com and won my first auction - hooray! I was a bit leary at first too Linda, but I saw that they were recommended by PC Magazine, and I figure that they need to have your ebay user info in order to place a bid.

Pretty cool, huh?
Want to share what you got? :D

[Gecko]

Shill bidding... process where a seller or their agent bids up their own merchandise through the use of an alternate registration. A forbidden practice.

I think this happened to me the other day. I had marked a book "watch this item". I think the price was about $3.99. I got a reminder email but I had to work late and I didn't get to bid. There were no other bids so the item did not sell. A few days later I got an email stating that the item had been relisted. It was now listed for .99 so I thought I am not going to forget to bid this time, so I entered a maximum that I was willing to pay and waited. I guess the auction ended whilst I was at work but I looked up the history and just before the end of the item someone else outbid me and put the price up to $4.01. If it was the seller bidding on his/her own item I hope they are enjoying it :D

[ellielk]

I'm an infrequent bidder on eBay and very rarely buy anything that doesn't have a buy-it-now option at the price (including shipping) that I want to pay.

I've never heard of the shill bidding thing but only bid what I think I want to pay and, if I lose, c'est la vie.

For example, for the last 3 years, I wait until November to buy the 'latest' Cooking Light Annual Recipe book. I can usually get it for about $15 plus shipping (usually another $5 at the most). If I can't find it with a buy-it-now, I put in the $15. If I don't win that one, I try another. I know that won't work if you're looking for something for Xmas or a birthday, but it certainly spares me a lot of disappointment.

[Gracie]

Ellen - thanks for the link. I used to use BidNapper and they are only free for 30 days or something like that. I was hoping there was a service that was free.

I don't buy too much and try to concentrate on selling but there have been a few things lately that are not available IRL and I have forgotten to bid on a few of them.

I registered for JustSnipe and got a bottle of Creative Scentsations lotion that has been discontinued. I wrote to the seller and asked if she had any more and she had 3 others which she sold me! Now I am all set for awhile!

Merry Early Christmas to me! :D Thanks Ellen!

Loren

[blazedog]

I think this happened to me the other day. I had marked a book "watch this item". I think the price was about $3.99. I got a reminder email but I had to work late and I didn't get to bid. There were no other bids so the item did not sell. A few days later I got an email stating that the item had been relisted. It was now listed for .99 so I thought I am not going to forget to bid this time, so I entered a maximum that I was willing to pay and waited. I guess the auction ended whilst I was at work but I looked up the history and just before the end of the item someone else outbid me and put the price up to $4.01. If it was the seller bidding on his/her own item I hope they are enjoying it :D

This is sniping in action as someone was able to get the item for 2 cents more than your top bid -- rationally most people (if given the chance) would probably spend 3 cents more -- i.e. in your case $4.02 to get something they wanted. But in EBAY, even if you have sniping software, the best thing is to put down the maximum you want to pay and forget about it.

Shill bidding would have bid up the price considerably so that an $4.00 item would be run up to $30 for example.

In your case, I think it was more one of the charms of EBAY -- sometimes things sell and sometimes they don't.

[greysangel]

I do not use a service. I do however snipe when I can :D It's fun :)

[jmarie]

I do not use a service. I do however snipe when I can It's fun

Couldn't have said it better myself. I don't plan my schedule around eBay, but if the time is right, it is fun to sit for 5 or 6 minutes and wait and then BAM! It's MINE! Well, most of the time, anyway.

[foodfiend]

Sniping! I never knew there was a word for it. Well, it happened to me the other day. I was bidding on a Banana Republic dress, had the highest bid going (even checked half hour before bidding ended) then in the last minute someone placed a higher bid. It must have been a professional service because they first placed a bid that was too low, then revised it 20 seconds later.

[saserre]

I didn't realize there was a software for it, but I'm a last minute bidder too. Otherwise I'm just jacking up the price on myself. I pop whatever I want into my watch list, and then if I'm online when it's closing, I sit on it. If I won't be online, I just pick a decent price and throw the dice.

I also see if there's a similar item for sale at lower price, so set my limit accordingly, so I don't end up paying $15 for something now when same thing will go for $10 tomorrow.

Usually eBay asks you to increase in 50 cent or $1 increments, so when it's at the last little bit, I always do odd numbers. Like if it's currently at $7.50, I'll put in $8.87. Because someone else might bid $8 or $8.50, and then I'll still get it. It helps to be on high speed connection, my Mom tries on her dial-up and constantly loses.

[jmarie]

It must have been a professional service because they first placed a bid that was too low, then revised it 20 seconds later.

Didn't have to be a professional service. All you have to do is to have two pages up at the same time. Place your bid, all but confirming the bid on one page and then keep refreshing on another page until final 20 seconds, then hit confirm on the other page and if you aren't the top bidder just throw in another bid. It is very easy to do! And 20 seconds is plenty enough time to do it.