eBay Auction Sniper Software?
- Thread starter Wamsutta
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reader2580
Well-known member
I use a site called auctionstealer.com to do Ebay sniping. It has been quite a while since I used it since I mostly do buy it now these days.
PelicanPines
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I manually Snipe... it's the thrill of the mouse click... I ONLY SNIPE with what my actual absolute TOP price... if someone snipes it from me... I'm good with it.
I would say I'm 75% successful ... I use an alarm app to give me the 5 minutes to set myself up and get ready.
Old school... yea...
I would say I'm 75% successful ... I use an alarm app to give me the 5 minutes to set myself up and get ready.
Old school... yea...
bushmechanic
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It's a waste of time.
People try that all the time on my auctions, and I just sit back and watch them pay the same amount they would have anyway. Right at the end, you get tons of bids from the snipers.
Just figure out what you're willing to pay and put that number in...
People try that all the time on my auctions, and I just sit back and watch them pay the same amount they would have anyway. Right at the end, you get tons of bids from the snipers.
Just figure out what you're willing to pay and put that number in...
Toothaker
Well-known member
http://www.esnipe.com is what I use - when I snipe. But I rarely snipe any more - I do as other said above, I use buy it now, or I put my (personal) top dollar in my bid and leave it at that.
If it sells for more than what I'm willing to pay, then that's what it's worth to that person, but not me.
If it sells for more than what I'm willing to pay, then that's what it's worth to that person, but not me.
General Geoff
Well-known member
That works for rational people, but auctions bring out irrationality in many folks who will bid higher than they originally wanted to pay for an item, just to "win" it. By sniping, they eliminate the possibility of being tempted to bid more than their budget allows.
bushmechanic
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True.
jakemac
Well-known member
Yup, old school. Ditto with the alarm app.
Occasionally I'll snipe a crazy bid. But that's only on a hard to find item that I MUST have. Otherwise, it's my ultimate price and spin the wheel.
Dirtydan69
Well-known member
Power snipe. Works well. I put my max bid in and sometimes I get it. Usually anyway
Roberts210
Well-known member
I'm a sniper with many confirmed "kills". Best I've done is gotten my item with 2 seconds left. A few times I've been out-sniped in the last few seconds but not often. I like the excitement of the hunt... those last 90 seconds are a gas.
Ditto, Roberts210
I snipe frequently, but only manually. I consider using software to do it, if not cheating, certainly not sporting.
Yeah, I like the thrill of the chase. I sniped my latest acquisition, the super-rare Penncraft 6" adjustable wrench, which completed my collection. First I'd seen for sale in the 5 years I'd been looking!.. I paid probably 4 times what it should have been worth, but to beat me, someone would have had to bid twice that! You don't make a bid like that without taking some time to consider it, and my 3-second snipe didn't allow it.
There were no other bids, but had I bid earlier, someone might have decided it was worth more than they originally thought and jumped in, jacking my final price up.
I snipe frequently, but only manually. I consider using software to do it, if not cheating, certainly not sporting.
Yeah, I like the thrill of the chase. I sniped my latest acquisition, the super-rare Penncraft 6" adjustable wrench, which completed my collection. First I'd seen for sale in the 5 years I'd been looking!.. I paid probably 4 times what it should have been worth, but to beat me, someone would have had to bid twice that! You don't make a bid like that without taking some time to consider it, and my 3-second snipe didn't allow it.
There were no other bids, but had I bid earlier, someone might have decided it was worth more than they originally thought and jumped in, jacking my final price up.
rlitman
Well-known member
I use gixen.com
VintageOkieDriver
Well-known member
Never heard of this
Thanks!
Thanks!
not-required
Well-known member
Yeah it's like fishing with bait
That said sniping manually isn't what it was back in the dial up days either. No skill in clicking bid when the auction timer hits 3 seconds.bushmechanic said:
It works very well against some bidders/sellers. The ones that like to peck away at early bids. Makes no difference against bidders who enter their max bid and walk away. And occasionally works against you when your snipe max is the same as an earlier bid.
Beware, lately Ebay has occassionally required a Catcha prior to submitting a bid. They can do this at any time and for any reason. That will make any 3rd party automated bid system fail. (I think it's because Ebay doesn't recognize the system doing the snipping if it's from the 3rd party).
If you really want the item, submit at least one bid manually and make sure it goes thru before depending on any automated snipping.
If you really want the item, submit at least one bid manually and make sure it goes thru before depending on any automated snipping.
MUD DAWG
Well-known member
Is eBay still around? Man I can't remember the last time I used it.
mbshop
Well-known member
Sniping and other reasons made me stop using ebay.
been about 18 years since I used ebay.
been about 18 years since I used ebay.
kythri
Well-known member
I don't understand the animosity towards sniping - you decide what you're willing to spend - if you lose, it's because you weren't willing to spend enough.
Yes, but they are really struggling.
They only have about 1 billion listings, on any given day.
That's too bad, since there are many good deals on eBay, just like there are bad ones.
Not much different, than any other marketplace.
4xdog
Well-known member
I've used esnipe.com for many years. No complaints.
Roberts210
Well-known member
Can we brag on this Thread? I needed a bathroom sink for my house, and on ebay I saw a $1,500.00 St. Thomas Creations sink... big, wide, fancy sucker being sold by a place that specialized in freight returns. So I sat down a few minutes before the auction ended and I waited... waited... waited until 4 seconds and I fired off my bid of $375. Several people were bidding on that sink, but I got it for $42.
chrisnazzy
Well-known member
I have always manually sniped. I like the thrill plus I learned long ago that there really isn't any good reason to enter a bid on an item until the final moments of an auction..... all you're doing is driving up the final price and giving others time to outbid you. I do however decide early on what my max bid is and then just watch it in my watch list. Unfortunately right now my pockets don't seem to be as deep as some others who are interested in the same items as me.
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VintageOkieDriver
Well-known member
+1 on the pockets not being so deep anymore!
MUD DAWG
Well-known member
Yes, but they are really struggling.
They only have about 1 billion listings, on any given day.
Unless you're looking for something rare, what is the point of eBay? Amazon and Alibaba have better prices, and you don't have to wait a week only to find out you were outbid by 3 cents.
chrisnazzy
Well-known member
I find the "Buy It Now" prices on Ebay to be the best price on the web quite a bit.....not everytime but enough that I purchase items off Ebay frequently. As long as you deal with a reputable seller it isn't any different than any other online marketplace.
As far as waiting for auctions to end.....this is almost always to potentially buy an item that is used, no longer in production or NOS. I can't buy barely used Snap-on tools on Amazon @ less than 1/2 new retail.
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kythri
Well-known member
I've purchased a fair amount of stuff on eBay cheaper than Amazon.
jacob_coulter
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It's definitely worthwhile to use sniping type services and you can find completely free ones on the web. Unless you have some sort of business that needs a lot of features, the free ones like Gixen work great.
I rarely use Ebay anymore, just an all around crappy company in my opinion, and most of the time places like Amazon have it cheaper and can get it to me quicker.
By placing your bids at the last second, it not only stop an irrational bidding war with other users, it also stops the person or company that offers the auction from having his buddies or a dummie account shill bid to inflate your offer. And this happens far more than people realize.
I rarely use Ebay anymore, just an all around crappy company in my opinion, and most of the time places like Amazon have it cheaper and can get it to me quicker.
By placing your bids at the last second, it not only stop an irrational bidding war with other users, it also stops the person or company that offers the auction from having his buddies or a dummie account shill bid to inflate your offer. And this happens far more than people realize.
Ole Slewfoot
Well-known member
Manual sniper here too. I've saved so much money over the years by forgetting to bid its hard to justify a software solution.
If you do use a bot, be sure it doesn't have your financial info, or you are taking a double gamble that they are on the up&up, and that they have the skills and ability to keep your info from bad actors.
If you do use a bot, be sure it doesn't have your financial info, or you are taking a double gamble that they are on the up&up, and that they have the skills and ability to keep your info from bad actors.
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chrisnazzy
Well-known member
I agree with the last part about shill bidding. I have all of my favorite searches saved and each day or whenever I can I view only the new listings. The other day I saw a seller that had 3 listings for rare discontinued sets but the listings had only been active for a day or less and had a ridiculous amount of bidding activity already. It sure seemed to me like 15 to 20 bids in the 1st day was uncharacteristic.
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mbshop
Well-known member
The other reason is when they completely changed from anyone selling general stuff to just basically businesses using paypal only. To me it no longer is ebay. Its just another online store.
That's too bad, since there are many good deals on eBay, just like there are bad ones.
Not much different, than any other marketplace.
PowderKeg
Well-known member
Ditto Gixen - always free until/unless you want to upgrade. I've never had any issues/failures with the free option for quite a few years now.
Reasons to use include multiple auctions ending at the same second, ending at all hours of the day/night, unreliable connections, not wanting to get caught up in auction fever. The clueless @-holes that bid multiple times to find your max because they don't know what it's worth to them have always ticked me off too.
firebox40dash5
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I very rarely bid on auctions on ebay anymore... but as much as I really never much cared for them, I've actually used them way more the last few years than I had at least since the old days of actual auctions.
When it comes to oddball stuff (that Amazon either doesn't have at all, or not on Prime) or stuff I don't mind used (but is uncommon enough I'm not scouring dozens of CLs for months to find one) it often works pretty OK.
I snipe manually on the rare occasion I'm actually interested in waiting on an auction. Figure out the max I'm willing to go total, subtract the shipping, and bid it at the last second. If I win it, OK, if someone else wanted to go higher, at least I made sure he paid more than I was willing to pay, period.
My last actual auction I decided to switch it up and it worked out... it was an 870 Wingmaster trigger group for my shotgun. There were a bunch of really similar ones all sitting around ~$40 shipped, I saw one that was on the low side and looked nice, and tossed an early bid for $5 over opening, figuring if someone else saw it they'd just as soon pick another with no bids, and if they tried to go a buck over opening I'd still be the high bidder and they'd hopefully move on. Dunno if that was the cause, but I won uncontested.
pamike
Well-known member
I snipe all the time expensive project machines....think construction equipment. Snipping saves a lot of money because I am bidding against a lot of hobbyist types.price stays low for the entire auction and hobbyist thinks he is going to get a deal. I snip at the 5 sec mark and hobbyist doesn't have time to reevaluate the worth. i have gotten way better deals on eBay compared to sites that extend the bidding until there aren't any bids for a set period of time.
boosteddsm92
Well-known member
I use JBidwatcher. There's a windows, mac, and linux version of it. No need to sign up anywhere, just need your ebay login. No limits and completely free. Been using it for over 10 years. Most of the stuff I buy is BIN but sometimes there's that one thing you've been waiting for that is auction style.
bushmechanic
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Yes, but they are really struggling.
They only have about 1 billion listings, on any given day.
...and 900,000,000 of them are Chinese cheaters and automotive dealerships paying Ebay off.
The "real" Ebay is dead.
yjWrangler
Well-known member
Sniped twice today, oh well. I just place my max bid and wait. Guess they saved me money
Same here. It used to be that if you were shopping for a new item that Amazon was the cheapest route. But over the last 4 or 5 years the price on new items are cheaper on eBay. Most of the time sellers sell on both eBay and Amazon. I just bought a new starter for my generator on eBay, the same seller had the same part listed on Amazon but at a higher price.
Jay
junkyardwarrior
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Me too! That, and the way ebay and paypal favor the buyer so heavily that buyers take advantage. GF was a 10k item/year seller for a while but buyers were taking single items from the "lot" of about 50, and returning the rest; and she got to pay return shipping in a lot of cases. Total garbage the way they handled it. They won't get another dime from me; nor will I EVER buy from eBay again.
And that wasn't the only occasion. I gave them the benefit of the doubt many times and every time get screwed over on a "rule" technicality.
The real ebay has been dead for many years now. It's a store; and nothing more. To me this opens up an opportunity for another online auction site that works similarly; and I'm surprised nobody has taken advantage.