[regken]

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I've lost a few lenses lately to snipers and am wondering if it is worth it to become a sniper. Last night I lost by $.11! There seems to be a lot of these snipping programs out there. Is there one that is better than the others? Is it worth doing? Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Ken

[JasonS]

I've played around with sniping. Back when Ebay was smaller and it was still a buyers market - it made sense. Now those deals where only 2 bidders exist are much rarer. Its a sellers market now. Especially for desirable lenses.

IMHO, bid exactly what the max amount is you'd be happy to spend. If someone gets it for 11 cents more and you are unhappy - you didn't realistically bid what is was worth to you.

[regken]

That is a very good answer! Thanks, it puts it in a realistic light.

Thanks,

Ken

[ericc]

I've used AuctionSniper a few times to win eBay bids. In truth, I prefer to set a value in my mind what I'm willing to spend and then enter it some time in the last 15 minutes. After that, I wait to see if my bid was sufficient. If not, I'm not distraught. If I really wanted it, I would've set my bid higher. Case in point, I really wanted mousehills "extra" FA*80-200, but not as bad as James, who I hope is enjoying it.

Look at eBays latest ads which blather on about "it's better when you *win* it". That's a load of bollocks. eBay wants you to get into a bidding war because it makes them more profitable on their fees.

[Mr Hyde]

I'm not sure that it would really make any diference. Please bear with me for a moment....

When you bid on ebay you're supposed to put the maximum amount that you would spend on an item. if you win, great. If you lose, so be it. Losing by 11 cents sucks but it happens. Since you lost by 11 cents it would make me believe that the winning bidder entered a higher amount than you even before you entered your bid. 11 cents is not a normal ebay increment. Ebay will proxy bid for you if you enter a bid that is higher than is needed to be the current high bidder. a simple example of this would be if I bid $10 on something that currently has a bid of $1, ebay will make my bid $2, just enough to be the high bidder. If someone else bids $3, ebay will proxy bid for me and make me the high bidder at $4. This will keep going until someone bids more than my max bid of $10. In your case, the person that won must have entered a bid something like $10.11. So when you bid $10, his max bid of $10.11 became the highest bid and he won. I know this is proxy bidding and you asked about sniping programs so read on.

I actually love the so called sniping programs. Two reasons I like the sniping programs, first I enter my max bid and forget about it. The program bids for me. If I win I won and if I lose I lost. that's the way it goes. Since the program I use bids in the last seconds of the auction I cant be tempted to pay more for something because I got caught up in a bidding war. I either win or I dont. Secondly, since I like to bid near the end of the auction anyway, the program does it for me so I dont need to be near a computer constantly waiting.

So I guess the bottom line is if you have a tendancy to get caught up in bidding wars because you want to "win" then maybe the sniping programs will help you since you can set it to bid so you dont have time to make another bid. But if someone is willing to pay more than you are for any item you will still lose the auction. The only true way to guarantee that you will win an auction is to bid more than anyone else.

[Confused]

Hi Mr Hyde

I have only purchased a few relatively inexpensive items from Ebay over the past year, but have never heard about
'proxy bidding' before !

Ebay will proxy bid for you if you enter a bid that is higher than is needed to be the current high bidder.

I hope you don't mind me asking, but how do you go about doing so and is the process complicated ?

Best regards
Richard

[George Lama]

Ebay automatically bids for you. It's a built in function.

If an item is currently going to $5.55 and you want to bid a maximum of $55.55, all you have to do is enter that maximum amount. Ebay will then bid up to the next minimum amount (let's say in 0.55 increments). If someone enters a higher amount, it will instantly bid up to the next highest amount (until it reaches your max amount.)

My recommendation overall is to just wait until the last possible moment, 2-3 minutes, and bid to your maximum amount. If you really want the item, never bid a few hours or days before. Before you know it, the price will skyrocket beyond your budget.

And best of all, look for auctions ending during times when most normal people would be sleeping It really does reduce the chances of getting out-bid, particularly by slick dealers trying to jack up the price by bidding on their own items.

[JCSullivan]

Yes I use a sniper once in a blue moon - HarvEx is good for me but takes a little time to get used to. Why snipe!!! Well, because there are so many people waiting for the last minute to bid. Plenty of watchers too. I snipe with MY highest bid. Another good thing is because there are plenty of Auctions which end in strange hours compared to my Eastern Standard Time.

Info about Bid Assistant is here Using Bid Assistant

I think you can also use the ebay toolbar.

[Confused]

Hi Frogroast

Thanks for the info and re your comment:

look for auctions ending during times when most normal people would be sleeping

Well, we are all supposed to live in a 24/7 world nowadays, so I expect one person's 'normal' will automatically become another's 'annoyance', depending upon your exact geographical location !

Best regards
Richard

(We Brit's naturally invented GMT, in order to inconvenience the rest of you.......LOL !!)

[philmorley]

hi,

occassionally I use auctionstealer, it can keep your final price down at times but I have also seen auctions where 20+ people have bid in the last minute, so it still comes down to whether you have put a high enough bid into auctionstealer.

when there is a multiple items available, things finishing in the morning are cheaper than nights, weekdays are cheaper than weekends. (so tues & wed morning is good

phil

[George Lama]

Confused,

Very true regarding the 24/7 world. That's where the postal service comes in. Many people will bid for items in their general vicinity, at least as far as political boundaries are concerned. So I figure, if I wait to bid on a Sunday night, oh, say, around 12:00 AM to 1:00 AM, most people will either

a) be in bed early in preparation for back to work Monday
b)Watching sports on the tele
c) their kids have the computer tied up

In the EU, most people will be just waking up, still groggy while they try to brew the coffee. Last thing on their minds is bidding

[lapeen]

I used to use Auctionsniper successfully a couple years ago, but Ebay just isn't the same anymore... either that or I lost my patience. It's definitely worth a try the first 5 (I think) are free, so what do you have to lose?

[rvannatta]

I used to use Auctionsniper successfully a couple years ago, but Ebay just isn't the same anymore... either that or I lost my patience. It's definitely worth a try the first 5 (I think) are free, so what do you have to lose?

It depends on what the item is whether a sniper works. I often use
Auction Sniper. It is most effective when there are few bidders.

benefits I see:

1) keeps the fact that you are interested a secret until the last moment.
This may alter the behavior of others.
2) You don't need to be sitting at your computer the last 15 minutes of the sale.
3) IF you change your mind before the end of the sale you can cancel
the snipe without penalty. several times I have set up a snipe only to find later something 'better' ---- because it was a snipe and not a bid I could retract it.
4) it discourages you from overbidding. because you decide where you are willing to go some days ahead of time and stick it in.

[Mr Hyde]

Hi Mr Hyde

I have only purchased a few relatively inexpensive items from Ebay over the past year, but have never heard about
'proxy bidding' before !



I hope you don't mind me asking, but how do you go about doing so and is the process complicated ?

Best regards
Richard

Hi Richard. I think Frogroast already answered your question before I could. All you need to do to have ebay proxy bid for you is to enter your absolute highest amount that you're willing to pay. ebay will increment your bid to the next higher bid until the bidding has reached your maximum. If the current bid is $5 you can enter any amount over the next minimum bid amount but ebay will only proxy bid for you enough to make you the high bidder. once you are the high bidder you will remain the high bidder as long as no one bids over your maximum. ebay will proxy bid for you so your bid is only enough to beat the current bid up to the point where the current bid is higher than your max.

I had an interesting thing happen the other night. I waited till the end of an auction and bid on a lens with less than a minute left. At 30 secs I was high bidder. Then bid a 1.01 more than me. When I went to rebid I was somehow logged off of ebay. By the time I logged back in the bidding had ended. It had never happened before... I did not log out. And I still had the active bidding page up on my computer until I bid...
Is there some program that people have that can do that? Log someone out to block bidding?
It was just very strange.
gus