ebay sniping

[chappys4life]

I figure this isn't the right area but its related to tools so I wasn't sure. Do you guys use any ebay sniping programs? I keep loosing ebay items at the last minute so I think I need to resort to it. Is there any good/cheap programs that work?

BTW thanks to you guys I have the snap-on ratchet fix

 

[T56 Impala]

I self snipe. If I really want something I will watch the item for the whole auction and bid with 3 seconds left. I win every time I do this. I haven't gotten that much stuff from ebay. maybe 50 things.

 

[1320stang]

I'm the same way as T56. But I only bid what I'd pay, sometimes I win and sometimes not, the thrill is sort of addicting though....

 

[buening]

I use www.biddingscheduler.com Type in your ebay username and password, then click on bidding scheduler, enter ebay item number with price and the amount of seconds before the auction ends and schedule the bid. Has never let me down after using it for about 3 years and I've never had any issues with my ebay account being compromised considering you use your ebay username and password to get into the site.

 

[buening]

by the way, it's free to use. There are times I can't be next to the computer and wait for the auction to end, so I just use that site to do the bidding for me.

 

[3/8"indestro]

sniping works with whats the most you will pay for a certain item.lets say a ratchet is at $25 with 10 seconds to go and you are willing to pay $35 for it.you keep losing to a sniper because you are bidding on the item and not adding an allowance to your bid.as an example,instead of putting $35,bid with odd increments.like $35.49,$35.79 and so on.also remember a lot of buyers factor in the shipping price and they like to round of the final price.so when they bid,they like to make their bid rounded off with the shipping.example is a $25.30 item and shipping of $8.00.so that makes it $33.30.bidders will bid with $26.70,$27.70 to round it off.

try it and hope it works for you.

 

[PAToyota]

Typically I'll snipe manually - but if I'm not going to be around when the auction ends I'll use AuctionSniper.

 

[Danglerb]

If you don't snipe, bid is $25, and you figure $35 is your max, trouble is if I get to think about your $35 bid for even a minute I may say screw it and try $36, $37 etc. Thats how Snapon auctions can go nuts, two people want an item and don't care about the exact price.

Thanks for the tip on http://www.biddingscheduler.com/ I will check it out.

 

[chappys4life]

If you don't snipe, bid is $25, and you figure $35 is your max, trouble is if I get to think about your $35 bid for even a minute I may say screw it and try $36, $37 etc. Thats how Snapon auctions can go nuts, two people want an item and don't care about the exact price.

Thanks for the tip on http://www.biddingscheduler.com/ I will check it out.

yeah I lost a snap on 1/2 ratchet by a $1

 

[tdkkart]

yeah I lost a snap on 1/2 ratchet by a $1

Somebody always looses by whatever the bid increment is. If the increment is $1, that's all anybody will lose by.
If your max bid is $40, and somebody else's is $50 you will only lose by $1 if that is the minimum increment.

I usually just throw in my max bid sometime in the last couple hrs, if I get it fine, if not so be it.
If I want someting no matter what the price I will throw in an obscene bid, $500 on an item that I know will not bring any more than $50.
Of course i've seen examples of how that metod has gone terrible wrong,($1500 for a 150M hard drive) so be careful.

 

[sneezer41]

hammersnipe

 

[tite681]

Win or lose, there's more of a rush bid sniping manually.

 

[dcjredline]

Sniping isnt your problem, your max bid IS. Lets say the item your inquiring about ended at $23. OK when you see it and sign up for sniping you put $20 as you max bid YOU WOULD HAVE STILL LOST. If you put in $25 for your max bid 2 days ago and someone tried to snipe you with $23 it would have been WORTHLESS!!!

If your going to use a sniper just to BEAT someone else and pay more than you should then thats a totally different situation. As others said BID YOUR MAX and live with the results. I have won some good deals and NOT won some others.

 

[chappys4life]

I set a maximum bid and will watch it closely. Hopefully I win bidding on some more snap-on ratchets. I have the crappy normal craftsman's and hate them.

 

[Vincent Vega]

I've always set a limit on what I would pay and bid that. If I lose it's OK because It would have cost more than I would have paid. That keeps me from buying **** I don't need. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. I don't have to snipe to win an auction.

 

[Moose-LandTran]

i don't "snipe" so to speak. most of the time, i decide how much i'd pay, then i wait until there's one minute to go and i place my bid. rarely do i bid with more than a couple hours left.

as for sniping, if i want something badly, and i've been outbid i'll keep adding to my maximum bid.

most of the time i win, occasionally i lose. that's life.

 

[T56 Impala]

Okay, funny eBay story here:

I was looking to buy something, I don't even remember what. It was about the last hour of the auction so I stayed signed on while I did other things. SOMEHOW.... my 4 year old daughter started looking at the "pretty rocks" on eBay. Saphires to be exact.

I guess she watched daddy too much and placed a bid on a set of 5 stones!!!!! Her max bid? $2456!!!!!!! Yes, I had heart failure when I saw it. Thankfully these were small (1/3kt) heat treated coloured stones. The final price WITH shipping.....$6.50! Man what a relief! Yes I paid for them.

A few weeks later the stones arrived. They were indeed very nice stones. Worth about what I paid for them. They are real but treated so not worth much. Last year for her birthday, I had them put into a necklace for her. I'm sure it will be some story in the future.

I don't think I ever got back to MY auction............

 

[chappys4life]

Okay, funny eBay story here:

I was looking to buy something, I don't even remember what. It was about the last hour of the auction so I stayed signed on while I did other things. SOMEHOW.... my 4 year old daughter started looking at the "pretty rocks" on eBay. Saphires to be exact.

I guess she watched daddy too much and placed a bid on a set of 5 stones!!!!! Her max bid? $2456!!!!!!! Yes, I had heart failure when I saw it. Thankfully these were small (1/3kt) heat treated coloured stones. The final price WITH shipping.....$6.50! Man what a relief! Yes I paid for them.

A few weeks later the stones arrived. They were indeed very nice stones. Worth about what I paid for them. They are real but treated so not worth much. Last year for her birthday, I had them put into a necklace for her. I'm sure it will be some story in the future.

I don't think I ever got back to MY auction............

LOL thats a great story.

 

[paramudduck]

To me sniping is a way to avoid the mine is bigger complex. Some people on ebay will bid outrageous amounts just to prove that no one dares to bid on the item they want.

Another thing you will see happen is where another bidder will push you to the edge of your max bid and then quit. You know that they know what your max is when they bid 24.99 and ebay tells them that 25 is the high bid. But they never go over the difference to get the item.

There are a lot of reasons to snipe just to stop this kind of activity.

 

[jay50]

Okay, funny eBay story here:

I was looking to buy something, I don't even remember what. It was about the last hour of the auction so I stayed signed on while I did other things. SOMEHOW.... my 4 year old daughter started looking at the "pretty rocks" on eBay. Saphires to be exact.

I guess she watched daddy too much and placed a bid on a set of 5 stones!!!!! Her max bid? $2456!!!!!!! Yes, I had heart failure when I saw it. Thankfully these were small (1/3kt) heat treated coloured stones. The final price WITH shipping.....$6.50! Man what a relief! Yes I paid for them.

A few weeks later the stones arrived. They were indeed very nice stones. Worth about what I paid for them. They are real but treated so not worth much. Last year for her birthday, I had them put into a necklace for her. I'm sure it will be some story in the future.

I don't think I ever got back to MY auction............

man, if the seller had seen that soon enough, he could have got a shill bidder to run it up to just under your max and then you would have been screwed...

 

[tanda4]

I self snipe. I bid my maximum... If I win, great... If I don't, I'll wait for the next time around.

 

[Merkava_4]

I tried sniping one time and ended up losing the auction anyway. Now I just don't bid at all until the last hour of the auction; I do this so I don't draw attention to the auction. The longer the auction can go with zero bids the better.

 

[Bud_Man]

esnipe.com You can adjust snipe time, bid progression, ect.

 

[CatfishXpress]

There is a reason that e-bay calls it "Winning" the auction, nobody likes to lose, its human nature.

Try not to think of it as winning or losing, think of it as a purchase. Enter the maximum amount you feel comfortable paying for the item, at your convenience (not necessarily during the last seconds). If you win then great, you got the item at a price you are comfortable with. If somebody out bids you, then don't sweat it, it went for more than you wanted to pay anyway.

 

[eschoendorff]

I self snipe. If I really want something I will watch the item for the whole auction and bid with 3 seconds left. I win every time I do this. I haven't gotten that much stuff from ebay. maybe 50 things.

Same here. but I have heard that if you do it too much, you can go blind.

 

[buening]

For those that argue that the max bid is the same regardless of sniping or bidding depends on when the max bid is entered. If you find a wrench that someone has put a bid on and say it has a few days left. If you enter your max bid now, the other bidder will see that he is no longer winning the auction so he ups his bid. If you wait to bid at the last second, the current high bidder thinks he has the auction won and leaves his current max bid in. For me, sniping ends bidding wars and keeps the price lower than if I were to bid with a few days left on the auction and create a bidding war. Manually bidding towards the end of the auction is a whole different situation.