Last second (or minute) bidding or "sniping"

bms_boxer_twin

Hi Guys,
This is my first posting on this site and I hope I'm asking the question in the right place.

I have recently been outbid on a number of items because the ebay auction finishes during office hours. I am unable to get access to ebay during this period. As a result, I have had to place bids early and often miss out at the end by a few £s).

Does anybody have any experience, or alternatively, can recommend a trustworthy service provider that will allow me to automatically place bids on an ebay auction in the last few seconds. The techie lingo for this appears to "auction sniping".

If you do a google search on "bid sniping" or "ebay snipe" there appear to hundreds of services available - many web/online based, many where you have to download some software. The common theme with most of them is that they require some form of payment or subscription.

Being a sceptic of these types of service providers, I am worried that they aren't secure. What sort of details do you have to provide them in order for them to place bids by proxy? Do they need ebay usernames and passwords?

I guess, in summary, I am after a reliable, secure and free proxy biiding tool for ebay.

I hope somebody can help me

loafer_2

Check out my post on the referrers board about bidnip.

Search for it with this link: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.html?titleonly=0&starteronly=0&replyless=0&searchdate=0&beforeafter=after&sortby=lastpost&order=descending&forumchoice%5B%5D=42&saveprefs=1&s=&do=process&query=bidnip&searchuser=&exactname=1&replylimit=0&showposts=0&childforums=1&dosearch=Search+Now*

The only thing it doesn't do is group bidding, but it's unlikely you'll need that untill your a hardcore ebayer

All these things need your ebay user ID as they bid with your user account.

culpepper

dont ebay let you put up a maximum price your willing to pay and proxy bid?
It doesnt bid to the maximum if the bidding never reaches that amount but will bid to the next increment above the highest one if it is lower than yours.
I havent used this myself but my OH has.

Glad

culpepper wrote:

dont ebay let you put up a maximum price your willing to pay and proxy bid?
It doesnt bid to the maximum if the bidding never reaches that amount but will bid to the next increment above the highest one if it is lower than yours.
I havent used this myself but my OH has.

yes but someone who is online at the end of the auction can keep bidding until they pass your top offer so you may lose out by 50p,
whereas an auction sniper wont put in your highest offer until the last minute which doesn't leave enough time for someone to bid against you

robnye

i have successfully used https://www.auctionstealer.com

it lets you have 3 free uses in any one week

Altarf

robnye wrote:

https://www.auctionstealer.com

Seconded, good reliable service.

HairyHatMan

As culpepper says, if you always bid the maximum amount you are prepared to pay for an item at any time before it ends, you will never loose out to an auction sniper. You will either win the item, or force the auction sniper to pay more for it than you wanted to.

Altarf

The problem with bidding early is that you give the opposition time to think that they may be prepared to pay more for an item. If I bid my maximum amount in the final seconds, you have no chance to up your offer.

As a side effect, it also means that I cannot revise my offer and pay more than I intended. And it is file and forget, and come back later to see if I was successful.

Clareo

If you've got WAP on your mobile you can bid using that so you can bid last minute if you're out shopping or in the pub or something!

HairyHatMan

Altarf wrote:

it also means that I cannot revise my offer and pay more than I intended

Then you will have paid more than you wanted to for the item! You've just got to decide the maximum you want to pay for it. As with any auction, set your maximum bid, then ask yourself 'what if I loose it for the sake of 50p / £1 ? '. Then decide if you want to up your maximum bid by that 50p / £1 .

cafenervosa_2

HairyHatMan wrote:

Then you will have paid more than you wanted to for the item! You've just got to decide the maximum you want to pay for it. As with any auction, set your maximum bid, then ask yourself 'what if I loose it for the sake of 50p / £1 ? '. Then decide if you want to up your maximum bid by that 50p / £1 .

There is your answer, make sure you bid the absolute maximum that you would pay. At the end of the day you have to draw the line somewhere, if your involved in a bidding war you get caught out with impulse and will end up paying more than you need.