yuppicide Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 oes anyone still use a sniping service for eBay? What do you use? Any free ones that are good? I was in the market for a new computer video card. I got busy at work and forgot to place a bid. A $200 video card ended up going for 99 cents + $17 shipping! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightglider1 Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 I don't. I simply decide the max I'm willing to pay, then place my bid. I win some, I lose some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2600 For Life Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 (edited) I don't. I simply decide the max I'm willing to pay, then place my bid. I win some, I lose some. I agree with that somewhat. Although, I still won't put in my bid/max bid until the auction is just about to end (mere seconds). Psychologically people want to "win" their auction, and I don't want to give people the option to increase *their* max bid all in the name of winning (and over-spending for something). I'm eventually going to post on the subject of eBay (here at atariage), but I really think that slight differences in how you list your auction can lead to wild differences in prices. For example, I think that buy it now can get you less (in some instances). People want to "win", not "buy", so they may avoid it entirely (even if it is a reasonable and/or cheap price). My buddy at work recently had a buy it now with a bidding process too. Apparently, once the first person puts in a bid, the buy it now goes away. Well, the "winner" ended up buying the item for double what the buy it now price was. All in the name of winning!!! (my apologies if I de-reail this thread) Edited September 16, 2010 by 2600 For Life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseboy Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 I don't. I simply decide the max I'm willing to pay, then place my bid. I win some, I lose some. Just placing one bid for the true maximum you are willing to pay is the only intelligent way to approach ebay. Do it any other way and you risk getting your emotions or competitive nature involved which is a recipe for disaster. However, the timing of your bid is just as important as placing a single max bid. This is where sniping is king. If you put your bid out there early you risk one of the dumb bidders chipping away at it and raising the price or even taking the lead. If you bid with 2 seconds left nobody has time to do anything in response. Let's look at this with a simple example. Item X has only you and bidder z interested in it. You are willing to pay $100. Bidder Z is willing to pay $140, but he will start at $50 and increase in $10 increments until he takes the lead. If you bid your $100 first then bidder z bids $50. He then bids in $10 higher increments and wins at $102.50. If he bids his $50 first then he sits there content until 2 seconds left in the auction when your $100 snipe hits and you win for $51. Is bidder Z an idiot? Yes, but there are a million bidder Z's on ebay. And there are a million other idiots that bid a million other idiotic ways. I am sure sometimes you win and sometimes you don't, but I assure you with sniping you would have won several more. You also would very likely have saved quite a bit on the auctions you did win. As far as sniping services go, I use auctionsniper. It isn't free, but I got $50 bucks worth of snipes a few years ago and still have some left on that. It has never failed me. I would be interested in hearing suggestion on free services too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 I'm not going to get into a debate about the good and bad about sniping. I personally use esnipe.com and have been using it for a long time. I have a grandfathered account and can use it for free on items ending under a certain dollar amount (don't recall what that is right now). Works very well!! ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseboy Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 I'm not going to get into a debate about the good and bad about sniping. I personally use esnipe.com and have been using it for a long time. I have a grandfathered account and can use it for free on items ending under a certain dollar amount (don't recall what that is right now). Works very well!! ..Al Hey Al, I have a really old esnipe account that hasn't been used in a long time. You have any idea where I can tell if I get free snipes under a certain $ too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGQuarterly Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 I use esnipe as well. Not free, but cheap. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitchSchaft Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 I always bid 10 seconds before the auction ends. You can usually beat the esnipers, too, if you do it manually like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightglider1 Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 I don't. I simply decide the max I'm willing to pay, then place my bid. I win some, I lose some. Just for the record, that wasn't a condemnation of sniping services -- I just choose not to use them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseboy Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 I always bid 10 seconds before the auction ends. You can usually beat the esnipers, too, if you do it manually like that. It is the same thing. It just that we don't have to be sitting at the PC when our snipe goes through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitchSchaft Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 lol, but you're missing the rush! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the-topdog Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 About 90% of the time I will place my maximum bid with 5-10 seconds left... this usually beats most snipers. I have about an 80% success rate unless my maximum bid was ridiculously low on purpose in the one in a million chance I can get the item cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseboy Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 About 90% of the time I will place my maximum bid with 5-10 seconds left... this usually beats most snipers. That IS sniping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the-topdog Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 About 90% of the time I will place my maximum bid with 5-10 seconds left... this usually beats most snipers. That IS sniping. Yup, sniping with a max. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amiman99 Posted September 17, 2010 Share Posted September 17, 2010 I decided to use sniping (place max bid +few $$ more) few seconds before auction ends. There were many auctions I lost few seconds before end. Looks like this is a new way of bidding now days. This form of bidding maybe beneficial to the sellers, because some people can overdo it placing higher bids then they should. For example, watch any auction for Amiga CD32, you will see that people bid over $200 to get that. IMO that's way too much, last year they were going for $99 NOS from China, now OMG. Even sniping does not work, too many people want it, same for Atari Falcon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemoncurry Posted September 17, 2010 Share Posted September 17, 2010 I'm not going to get into a debate about the good and bad about sniping. I personally use esnipe.com and have been using it for a long time. I have a grandfathered account and can use it for free on items ending under a certain dollar amount (don't recall what that is right now). Works very well!! ..Al Hey Al, I have a really old esnipe account that hasn't been used in a long time. You have any idea where I can tell if I get free snipes under a certain $ too? It's $25. I don't see anywhere on the site that tells you whether you are grandfathered in. If it's really old, it probably is. And yes, bidding late IS sniping. Highest bid wins, sniping or not. Sniping keeps others from reacting to being outbid with another bid, or from nibbling away at your proxy. Used to be people could search by bidder to see what you were bidding on, it was good for hiding that info too, but no longer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseboy Posted September 17, 2010 Share Posted September 17, 2010 This form of bidding maybe beneficial to the sellers, because some people can overdo it placing higher bids then they should. Nope. People have a much better chance of overdoing it getting wrapped up in a bidding war. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted September 17, 2010 Author Share Posted September 17, 2010 I think I used eSnipe many years ago, but only one time. I never really liked giving them my account info when they first came out, but I guess now they've been around awhile. Yah, I know a lot of people are against it, but I'm really kicking myself for missing out. No clue why others didn't see the card and bid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pangasinan Posted September 17, 2010 Share Posted September 17, 2010 I use a program called BayGenie,works great and places a bid about 2 secs before the auction ends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpendTooMuchOnAtari Posted September 20, 2010 Share Posted September 20, 2010 esnipe.com has treated me very well for quite a few years. It isn't free but cheap enough. And, you only pay if you win the auction, good stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldAtarian Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 (edited) Auto snipers are horrible. I don't see how anyone could use them. Most of the fun in sniping is actually being there and feeling your heart pounding and the rush you get as you put your bid in 5 seconds or less before the close. Even if you don't win, you made the other poor SOB pay a lot more than he thought he was going to and that feeling is better than any drug. Hmmm...maybe I need to spend less time on ebay. Nah! Edited October 17, 2010 by OldAtarian 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amiman99 Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 Auto snipers are horrible. I don't see how anyone could use them. Most of the fun in sniping is actually being there and feeling your heart pounding and the rush you get as you put your bid in 5 seconds or less before the close. Even if you don't win, you made the other poor SOB pay a lot more than he thought he was going to and that feeling is better than any drug. Hmmm...maybe I need to spend less time on ebay. Nah! Amen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 Auto snipers are horrible. I don't see how anyone could use them. Most of the fun in sniping is actually being there and feeling your heart pounding and the rush you get as you put your bid in 5 seconds or less before the close. Even if you don't win, you made the other poor SOB pay a lot more than he thought he was going to and that feeling is better than any drug. Hmmm...maybe I need to spend less time on ebay. Nah! This was true when eBay was young ten years ago and pretty much everyone was sniping by hand. These days I don't sit around the computer waiting for an auction to end, and I don't think I've manually bid on an auction at the end in at least five years. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hex65000 Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 I typically use a sniping tool for EBay, but I really have been avoiding EBay overall. I'm avoiding EBay for a few reasons. The first is that I have had too much success on EBay using a snipe tool. The second is I'm really getting strapped for cash, and that kind of links in with the previous point. I also prefer using GameGavel over EBay too, but there's no auto-sniper there, so for items I really want, I'll manually snipe those auctions. If I kind of want it, but won't lose sleep if I win or lose, I'll slap down a token bid and let it ride. Sometimes that is followed by a snipe, but that's not always the case. Hex. [ Got an Unreal Tournament 3 faceplate by just slapping a bid down... The REAL score was the Eternal Sonata faceplate set. ] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldAtarian Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 Auto snipers are horrible. I don't see how anyone could use them. Most of the fun in sniping is actually being there and feeling your heart pounding and the rush you get as you put your bid in 5 seconds or less before the close. Even if you don't win, you made the other poor SOB pay a lot more than he thought he was going to and that feeling is better than any drug. Hmmm...maybe I need to spend less time on ebay. Nah! This was true when eBay was young ten years ago and pretty much everyone was sniping by hand. These days I don't sit around the computer waiting for an auction to end, and I don't think I've manually bid on an auction at the end in at least five years. ..Al Did I mention the evil, maniacal, super villain laughter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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