Sniping - has anyone lost out?

nbt · 29 March 2005 at 1:27PM

Lots of people here at work boast about using auction snipers - either software or web-based - to "win" ebay auctions. Just last week I won an auction by placing a winning bid in the last couple of minutes. There's no doubt that you can win using snipers, although my win was manual.

The idea, for those unfamiliar with the term, is that the "sniping" service will place a bid on your behalf, mere seconds before the auction is due to finish. This bid, when placed, will be the winning bid, and the auction will then finish before other buyers have a chance to put in a higher bid

My question, then: has anyone lost an auction to a sniper depsite having set a maximum bid limit higher than the eventual sale price?

Real cases only please - no third hand tales of "mate of a mate", unless you can link to the item.

stavros_2 · 29 March 2005 at 1:33PM

nbt wrote:

My question, then: has anyone lost an auction to a sniper depsite having set a maximum bid limit higher than the eventual sale price?

How is that possible? Surely ebay's system will simply let you have it one "step" up from the sniper's bid??

Tojo_Ralph · 29 March 2005 at 1:35PM

nbt wrote:

My question, then: has anyone lost an auction to a sniper depsite having set a maximum bid limit higher than the eventual sale price?

The highest bid wins, (assuming highest bids are not equal) regardless of when the bid is placed, thus, if the proxy bid is higher than a bid received even 1 second before the auction end, the proxy bid wins.

stavros_2 · 29 March 2005 at 1:37PM

I think you've got the wrong idea about snipers: they don't guarantee a win! It's just like putting the bid in manually a few seconds before the end of the auction

nbt · 29 March 2005 at 1:41PM

so why not just bid when you fund the item? It's been explained to me that the sniper's bid is entered and the auction closes before the proxy bid has time to register. I'm of the opinion that this is sloppy coding if it's the case. If what you say is true, then sniping serves very little purpose?

stavros_2 · 29 March 2005 at 1:46PM

Just off the top of my head...

Not at a computer when the auction finishes
Harder to manually enter a late bid (?)
Laziness
etc...

Tojo_Ralph · 29 March 2005 at 1:47PM

nbt wrote:

so why not just bid when you fund the item? It's been explained to me that the sniper's bid is entered and the auction closes before the proxy bid has time to register. I'm of the opinion that this is sloppy coding if it's the case. If what you say is true, then sniping serves very little purpose?

The proxy bid is already registered, thus the snipe is matched to the proxy bid and taken from their.

Anyone who tells you they outbid a proxy bid by sniping is at best, winding you up.

Tojo_Ralph · 29 March 2005 at 1:53PM

nbt wrote:

If what you say is true, then sniping serves very little purpose?

Sniping prevents nibblers.... see below. (increments may not be correct and assumes you are the only sniper)

example one
Item stands @ £45 (person (a) with a proxy bid of £50)
You bid a proxy of £56
You are leading with £51
Auction is still live. Person (a) can place another bid, bumping up your proxy or outbidding you.

example two
Item stands @ £45 (person (a) with a proxy bid of £50)
You snipe with a bid of £56
You win the auction with £51
Auction is over. Person (a) cannot place another bid, bump up your proxy or outbid you.

stavros_2 · 29 March 2005 at 1:56PM

i think he meant sniping software over manually bidding late tojo ralph

Tojo_Ralph · 29 March 2005 at 1:57PM

Manual sniping can also be a helluva lot of fun if you have a side bet.

A good link...
http://www.geocities.com/footballboyisme3/index.html

Some awards...

(childish I know)

http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=supersniper

Tojo_Ralph · 29 March 2005 at 2:02PM

stavros wrote:

i think he meant sniping software over manually bidding late tojo ralph

Thats easy....

Manual sniping is down to timing (not easy against the EBay clock), and the need to get in as late as possible to prevent others seeing your bid and mannualy bidding. Placing a bid in the last "couple of minutes" is still too early. Sub 10 secs is good, sniping software is usually around 6 to 8 secs.

Sniping - has anyone lost out?

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