Ebay sniper tool?

I was just wondering if anyone out there used a auction sniper tool on Ebay? I've heard of Auction Sniper and Bidnapper . Any feedback on these or others? Thanks

-Mike

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Xrunner said:
I was just wondering if anyone out there used a auction sniper tool on Ebay? I've heard of Auction Sniper and Bidnapper . Any feedback on these or others? Thanks
-Mike

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AuctionStealer works great, and is free-(<10 auctions per month), but the free service bidding engine only goes down to 10 seconds (vs. the 3 seconds).

-It worked 5 out of 8 times for me.

I like Auction Sentry. It's updated often and is free on download.com. If you want to pay, I think that it costs $10.

Marty

I use Bidnapper.

It's not cheap but has worked well for me so I've stuck with it.

Bidnapper places the bid between 4 and 7 seconds before the end of the auction. Some programs let you choose when you want your bid placed. That only matters if you and another sniper bid the same amount. Someone sitting at his or her computer probably won't beat your bid that was place 5 seconds before the auction end.

Sniping is good for buyers because it keeps the final price low. How many times have you seen two bidders driving up the price six days before the end of the auction? I steer away from those auctions. I'd rather keep my final bid secret until the end and pay less.

Sellers don't like snipers because they want people to be outbidding each other before the end of the auction and drive the price up. Sniping is perfectly acceptable on eBay.

The first couple of times I was sniped pissed me off. I'd be watching an auction until the end, thinking I had it because no one else bid, and there was the snipe at the very end. I learned fast; now I ALWAYS snipe.

When you place a snipe bid use an 'odd' number. If you want to spend $50, bid $51 or $50.01, something slightly higher than the 'round' number. I have won several auctions against other snipers by just pennies.

Keith has the right idea... I just got another Tekna light off eBay last night. I usually snipe, but I have 3 windows open to boost the bid amount right away if necessary. It takes patience more than anything else.

I use
http://esnipe.com/

Okay--second time in a week I was outbid by less than a dollar. Two days ago someone used that odd number (as did I) and he sniped my snipe in the last seconds. Missed it by $0.79 cents.

Just now I lost a watch in great condition by $0.58!!! Sitting here hitting page reload the last 30 seconds and the bid was put in during the last 5 seconds. By the time I jumped to re-bid it was over...
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rant.gif

The only thing I can hope is that it was too good to be true and the @#*&% gets screwed!

Okay, I'm going to have to figure out one of these programs for any other goodies I want...

*GERRRRR*
-Jason

It just happened again! By $0.48 in under 5 seconds! Is there some program out there that can tell other people's bids or is it just my bad luck this week?

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

-Jason

A month or so back, I won a computer by $0.01 because my maximum bid placed the night before had that extra penny in it. (The listing ended at like 4am Pacific, so I couldn't stay up to snipe that one.) So the sniper who bid at the last second on that computer got screwed. And just a short time ago, I put that extra penny in a Digimon listing, so if somebody bids $xx.00, I'll beat them by a penny. But that listing ends at like 7:30 in the evening, so I can babysit it until it's finished, in case a sniper bids $xx.02. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

I don't use any sniping software, but I've been screwed out of a few things at the last second, presumably by somebody who had sniping software running. But I've gotten most of what I've bid on, and I'm happy with things the way they are.

isnt sniping wrong?

I think it depends on the person and what they think of it. The reason I ask is I seem to be losing more and more auctions by 2 or 3 cents 5 seconds before it end. IMO sniping is just starting to go hand in hand with ebay.

-Mike

What's the problem? ebay is an auction, everyone has an equal chance. Just because you don't win an auction don't think something went wrong at ebay. Try again instead of complaining. ebay wasn't created just for your benefit.

I'm not complain and I'm not trying to start anything. It just seems to me that more and more people are using sniping on online auctions. The purpose of my original post was to get more information. I edited my above post to be a little more clear, my apologies if it came across in the wrong way.

-Mike

My personal feeling is that if people want to snipe that's fine with me. If someone wants to bid more than me, then that's fine as well. When I'm home, I'll babysit the auction and bid near the end and I feel that a lot of others do as well.
What I don't like is loosing an item by such a tiny ammount (when looking through the bid history afterwards) that I should have been smart enough to bid much higher than that to begin with. I'm always left to wonder if I'm just a good guess at the market value on odd items or I'm paranoid that someone knows something I don't.

-Jason

'Sniping' is a double edged sword, and essentially converts an open auction into a closed bid auction. You can still lose to someone who bids higher than you, and you also run the risk of paying more than you should in order to 'win' an item.

Say you want an item, and it is worth $100 to you, but only $35 to everyone else. You bid the $100, and the bid value goes up to $36. Now someone comes in at the last second and tries to snipe the auction. Either they offer less than $100, in which case they lose because they didn't outbid you, or they bid more than $100, in which case they are willing to pay more than you for the item, and _should_ win it.

Remember that Ebay is a proxy bid system, so you will _always_ lose by just a little bit if you place the second highest bid. In the above example, if you place a $100 max bid and I place a $150 max bid, then I will win the auction with an actual bid of $101 (or $105, or whatever the bid increment is)...you will never know that I typed in $150; the bid history will just show $101.

I use sniping so that I don't get caught up in a bidding war. I decide how much an item is worth to me, ahead of time, and I bid just that amount at the last second, manually. If the bid goes higher, then I just walk away from the item.

I try to scan through completed auctions, to see how much an item goes for, and if it comes up regularly. If something comes up regularly, then I will set my maximum price, and just keep trying until I get the item at the price that I want.

-Jon

-Jon

Jon, good post. Figure out what the item is worth to you, including shipping. Then bid. That's it, win or lose. After you have played with ebay for a while you'll see there just isn't a "once of a lifetime" item very often. Whatever you miss will be back on shortly from someone else.

I *hate* all those automated programs and hope Ebay someday blocks their use. I don`t hate sniping in principle, and will do it myself manually for items I`m very keen to obtain, but those systems and programs make it so easy and often lead to the item ending far higher than it`s worth.
The way I see it, if someone uses one of those programs and always enters a maximum amount that`s more than the item`s worth, more often than not they`ll win their item and usually pay a fair price. Depending on the other interest, sometimes they`ll get bargains and sometimes they`ll have to pay more, but averaged out they win loads of stuff and don`t pay excessively for it. The fair few familiar names I see sniping auctions I`m also interested in always seem to use this tactic, because no matter what I try I can never beat them, and only end up pushing the end price beyond sensible.

If you`re going to snipe a bid, do it manually and do it sensibly. But ideally, use the Proxy system as it`s meant to be used, and bid what you think the item is worth and no more.



Boxes of 1960s Pifco festive lights are *not* worth over £100....

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

Those automated sniping programs may lead to an item selling for more than it's worth to you, Chris M, but apparently not to the person who placed the bid.

As I have stated, I always use Bidnapper. When I find something I want to bid on I place my max bid and forget about it. I usually don't go back to that auction until I have received notification that the auction has ended. I don't like to sit and watch an auction's final minutes to try and outbid someone.

My goal is to buy the item at the cheapest cost to me. I am not interested in the 'thrill of the hunt' nor ensuring that the seller gets the highest price.

The eBay proxy system just alerts someone to what my final bid will be and gives him or her ample chance to outbid me.

eBay Germany doesn't allow sniping programs.

I was doing a search on Google of 'eBay snipe' and found this . I thought it was amusing.

Sniping doesn't permit a true auction. It's actually a breed of something can only be done by computer. It's advantageous to the neither the seller, wanting top dollar, nor the bidder willing to pay more. It's little more than a silent bid auction, with a bit more hands-on activity as if it's a game. A true competitive bidding, live-activity type auction always has the "going, going, gone" aspects which allows people to bid until no one is willing to pay a higher price.

Ebay could fix their whole screw-up by simply not permitting any auction to cease until ten minutes after the last bid. If your closing time is Octember 32nd, at 12:00 in the evening, and someone gets a last minute bid in, then the auction is extended another ten minutes until 12:10, unless someone else bids. Ten minutes after the last bid is the virtual "going, going, gone", no games, no special software, just bidding. The disheartening aspect of it is that every other auction on the internet seems to think ebay's arrangement is the tried and tested method.

Sniping irritates me to no end!

If I ain't gonna be there for the end, I bid proxy the Max I'm willing to pay +.05.