Anyone use an eBay sniping tool?

andyt8

Paragon1 wrote: »

.. i prefer bidbag uk - its cheap, fast and very secure.

Most of the site seems to be in German - despite being a co.uk domain name. Can't read the terms & conditions unless I get them translated.


OKAY partially decoded the T&C and signed up for an account. Now I have logged in I get the T&C in English and the Pricing in English too.

comfymark

Anyone had any contact with Bidbullet over the last couple of months?
I can't seem to get any response out of them and their snipes never get made any more...... (7 failed in last few weeks).

porto_bello

On MSE, I was recommended http://www.justsnipe.com/ and so far, have found it 100% reliable. If you bid 5 times a week or less, this is an excellent FREE option.

I would advise bidders never to bid early, as this opens the door to shill bidding. I put me top price into the sniper and leave it at that. I have seen some shockingly obvious examples of shill bidding, with trails covering 100+ items in multiple categories and feedback going back years. Worst of all, somehow eBay doesn't seem to want to recognise what's going on ... wonder why? £££? :think:

In any case, a shill bidder can try to cover their trail by using 'private auctions', so you don't have any idea who you're bidding against. For this reason, I avoid private auctions, as any seller that hides bidder IDs and has a problem with transparent bidding is a seller I would wish to avoid.

Del_Astra

StaffsSW wrote: »

http://www.auction-sentry.com/ is generally recognised as one of the best, and has recently won an industry award Source

Goofbay offers a free sniper, but judging by the forum it's not the most reliable.

From personal experience, I have never had a problem with http://www.snipestation.com/ - it's free, easy to use, pretty accurate with good useability. And its Free. Which is always a bonus, but normally Free things do not perform that well, or have limits, but this works very well for the money!

It is reliable if you understand bid increments, those shouting about it are usually made to look a bit silly, when it transpires it was the amount they bid that lost out, i.e. Auction is won for 200.11 but they bid 200.57 yes it higher but the bid wouldn't be accepted as the bid increment is not high enough. I've had many success with goofbay, the ones that failed were down to bidding to low or the increment being higher than my bid.

George68

Hidbid.com is a good sniping service to use.

Just remember that regardless of when your bid is placed, it still has to be the highest to win. EXCEPT, when 2 bids are the same or there isn't enough difference between them to meet ebay's minimum bid increment. In that case, the 1st one in wins.

Most of this has been covered, but to put it in 1 post:

(Automated) sniping is a convenience for people that want to avoid drawing early attention to an auction item, 'nibbling' bidders (bidders who have no max in mind, bid the minimun increment over and over until they're the high bid), and competitive emotional bidders and bidding wars that come with them, all of which normally result in a higher final price. If you have the time, you can do it manually.

Make sure you're eligible to bid on an item before scheduling a snipe (or doing it manually), so that your bid will be accepted. As long as you live in a country that the seller ships to, you don't have many unpaid strikes lately, and you have enough positive feedback, you should be ok. If you have a problem with one of those things, you could contact the seller and ask them to accept your bid, as long as you know early enough.

A couple more benefits of sniping:

1. Sniping is actually a way of combatting shill bidding - when the seller or his buddy bids on the item until they're the high bid, and know your max, then retract their bid, and use yet another account to bid on the item, bidding just below your max. You don't give the shiller time to retract their bid in order to leave you as the high bidder, close to your max. You can't do much about a shill bidder letting their bid ride to the end of the auction, if it just raises but doesn't exceed yours.

Also, look out for 2nd chance offers, as they would be a reason for the shiller to let their shill bid ride, you may want to decline any and look for a different seller with the same item. Unless of course, the price seems ok with you, even though possible artificially jacked up.

2. You can just cancel a snipe with up to 2 or 3 minutes before the end of an auction, if you change your mind about bidding on an item, and your bid won't be placed. If you place a bid on ebay and then retract it (not a seller's or ebay's favorite thing), you can be blocked from bidding on other auctions after doing this a few times, not sure what that # is.

Anyone bidding on ebay should understand ebay's proxy bidding system (increases your bid only until it is the high, or it has been exceeded), and have an idea about their bid increments:

pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bid-increments.html

pages.ebay.co.uk/help/buy/bid-increments.html

pages.ebay.de/help/buy/bid-increments.html


A study on sniping:

usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2006-06-25-ebay-physics_x.htm