I'm the worst sniper ever.

I agree with others. NO point sniping unless you are going to use the software. Its really cheap, I get like 40 successful snipes for $10. I guarantee I save that $10 all of the time by sniping.

I just wished sniping guaranteed success. A group of auctions just ended, and I only won 2 of 15 snipes I had set up. Oh well.

 

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Oh I hate that...

 

Put in the max amount you are willing to spend on the item and you win every time, even if you don't win the item you still win since you didn't overpay.

 

Just do it in the last 30 seconds, and log out and back in a few minutes before the auction ends.

 

No, use sniping software.

 

Yeah...I'm looking into them.

 

Or just find the coins you want to buy that might end in minutes, days or weeks, put in your max amount, no software necessary. Go relax and do something else, you win either way. :thumb:

 

Doing that promotes bidding wars and will cost you more money. Sniping software is the only way to go.

 

No, actually it doesn't cost you more money when you factor in that you're only putting in the amount you're willing to spend. If I'm willing to spend say $20 on a coin and I get it for $20 or less, how's that costing more money? It's all a matter of perception I suppose.

 

Biggest benefits of sniping software is:

1. You can have a life and not give a crud when an auction ends, and
2. You do not tip your hand and let others see you are interested in the lot.

I look to see who is bidding, how serious they appear to be. I simply do not wish to give the competition the same look at me. THerefor, I prefer to bid at the very last second, that way they will never know I was interested until its too late.

Chris

 

Like Paul said, use a sniping program like Bidnapper or whatever. There is very little chance that a manual snipe can beat it since the program usually enters your bid with 1-2 seconds left. By the time it is recorded in the auction, it is too late for you to enter a counteroffer even if you are hovering over the "Submit" button.

When I was using Bidnapper, I paid $43 a year for unlimited snipes, and I was placing as many as 50 bids a week. Naturally, if you're trying to win on a low-ball bid, the odds are much greater that you may lose anyway. Another thing I used to do was check "Watch Count" which tells you how many people have viewed a particular auction, and it also tells you how many people have put it on their "Watch List". Obviously, if only a small handful of people have placed bids, but there are 10x, 20x or more people who have put it on their Watch List, then the odds are much higher that someone else is trying to snipe it.

Chris

 

I like entering my highest bid. Then I get it at or under what I want to pay. If not, I save money!

 

Sniping Will, On The Average, Reduce Cost!!

I beg to differ, but as a strong eBay buyer (i.e. high 5 to low 6 figure annual dollar purchases) who constantly studies buyer/seller efforts, I must agree with LeHigh. Since there are sellers who will place multiple identical bulk PM auctions using the same images/verbage/time-slot, etc. it affords me opportunities for a virtual double blind study of this auction facet. These common auctions allow evaluation of both standard progressive bid and snipe bid efforts on virtually identical auctions when placing identical bids.

I will place alternating conventional and snipe bids in the same final amount on all of the identical auctions, and can virtually guarantee odds in my favor that I will win the auctions having been sniped at a lower average cost than when I place a conventional maximum.

Often, because I can generally predict the average high bid on many commodities/auctions, placing my slightly greater amount bid in both types, I wont win the conventional bid auction, but will win on the same dollar amount snipe bid.

This is just my experience over more than a decade of eBay dealings, but it may just pertain to the diverse selection of common-place auctions that pique my interest. :thumb:

 

By entering your max bid early, you entice the current high bidder to raise his bid accordingly. This will drive up the price unnecessarily and will often cause you to lose the auction all together. Sniping software allows your high bid to be executed without anyone having a chance to react to your bid. In essence, it allows you to bid against the current high bidder's max bid and that of all the other snipers. It doesn't ensure you will win, but it eliminates the ability for anyone else to react to your bid. If you don't understand how that saves you money, then I really can't help you.

 

Another reason the sniping program is better.

Another reason, I don't have to worry about being there when the auction ends or is close to ending. I don't have to worry about remembering there is an auction I'm interested in.

 

ive felt like doing that to a few bids before.

 

Lol, yeah, the remembering part is the hardest.

Sometimes I check my email and I am like "cool, I forgot I even was going to bid on that coin, and I won it". Nice little present every once in a while.

 

I don't think I've ever put a bid with less than 6 seconds left. Ill have to check out that software though. Watchers don't mean anything. I had 21 watchers on a coin I just sold, only 2 bidders in the last minute.