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Do you use sniping on Ebay or what is your bidding strategy?

rnoldh

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I thought of this on the B & S forum. Many of us here on SF are buyers and sellers on Ebay. I saw that someone on the B & S forum had entered a bid on an Ebay auction with 5 days left. I use www.gixen.com and I asked the bidder why he didn't use sniping. He replied that he would start doing so. Note that someone on SF had told me about gixen(and that's when I started using it) and it's one of dozens of sniping services (some of which are free). I'm not endorsing any over any other. I use gixen because I don't bid on many items and it's free, dependable, and works when you are off line. How many of you out there use sniping on Ebay? Who do you use and why? If you don't use sniping, why not? I don't see a downside to sniping, and I think there is a definite upside. Does anyone see any downside to sniping? Also, to you Ebay sellers. What do you think of sniping? It seems like it's here to stay. And many times it seems like an auction doesn't really get going till the last 60 seconds. If anyone has any Ebay bidding secrets, share them here.
 

amerikajinda

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I appreciate learning about gixen.com because it works when you're offline... I had tried Buyer Tools Reminder (www.buyertools.com) in the past but missed a few snipes because I was offline...
Prior to learning about gixen from rnoldh, my strategy was to place a low bid on an item of interest -- then it would show up on my eBay page and I would track my bids from there. Hopefully I'd be in front of a computer when the auction was about to end, but with this strategy too I missed out on a few last minute manual sniping opportunities.
So looks like gixen is the answer for me!
smile.gif
 

NoVaguy

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Originally Posted by cpmac7
can someone please tell the newb (me) what sniping is?
confused.gif


bidding at the last moment.
 

robin

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then it would show up on my eBay page and I would track my bids from there
You've always been able to do that just by using the "watch this item" feature, without having to make a bid.

I don't bother with sniping personally, and I've ever lost an auction against a sniper either. It just seems like an extra hassle to maintain, and I don't feel comfortable giving a third party my ebay security credentials.
 

robin

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Originally Posted by NoVaguy
bidding at the last moment.
More specifically in this case, it's using automated software to make bids for you within the last few seconds of an auction.
 

alliswell

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And the justification is that bidding early

a) indicates that you're interested
b) establishes a new reference price for the item.

These two really only affect the price if you're bidding against someone who has two values of what the item is worth - a low value if there's no-one else interested, and a higher value if there's someone else interested AND your value is constant and in between the two. In this case, your bid causes the other bidder to increase his bid above yours. If you're bidding against someone who's prepared to stick to their maximum value, sniping has no effect: you can bid once and let the bids fall where they may.

Of course, if you don't have a maximum value, then you are going to keep bidding until everyone else drops out or until the auction ends. That's where the software comes in. Though it takes stones to put in a $500 maximum value for a shirt
smile.gif


Originally Posted by cpmac7
can someone please tell the newb (me) what sniping is?
confused.gif
 

rnoldh

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Originally Posted by cpmac7
can someone please tell the newb (me) what sniping is?
confused.gif


Originally Posted by NoVaguy
bidding at the last moment.

Well, it is bidding at the last moment. But it is set up remotely with a sniping service as opposed to sitting in front of your computer and making a bid at the last moment. The bid is made by the sniping service (by their server) and not by the individual.
 

moonman

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How is this better than simply using the eBay autobid function?
 

Joel_Cairo

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I se auctionsniper, but its just 3 free until you have to py. Luckily I buy infrequently enough, and have friends I can hoodwink into signing up (which gets me 3 free snipes w/ each referral) that I've been using it free for about a year. I'll do gixen once I'm outta free snipes and see something I want.
 

yfyf

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There really needs to be only one bidding strategy. The price you bid reflects how badly you want a particular good. In your mind, you know exactly how much you are willing to pay for it, so bid that much and leave it alone!

If you got outbid, even by 25 cents, you shouldn't feel bad about it because you set out with a certain amount of money to buy something and in the end, it could not be bought at that price.

In any case, eBay automagically only increments your bid to outbid the next lowest bidder. Just because at closing time your bid is 500 and the second person's bid is 50, doesn't mean you have to pay 500, you still get the best deal of 51.
 

rnoldh

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Originally Posted by moonman
How is this better than simply using the eBay autobid function?

By the "Ebay autobid system", do you mean proxy bidding? There is a difference in that with the Ebay proxy system (autobid system), your lowest bid will show uo with your highest held in reserve (proxy). With a sniping service your highest bid is not entered till the last 10 seconds of the auction.

So let's say that there is a pair of shoes that you want to bid on. The start price is $49.00. You want to bid a maximum of $150. If you are the first bidder, your bid will show as $49.00 and you will have the $150 bid held in proxy. If someone wants to bid $75, you will show as the first bidder of v$75, and that bidder would have to bid higher.

If you've set up a snipe of $155, nothing will happen till the last 10 seconds of the auction. At that time your maximum bid will be entered, but just like with Ebays proxy bidding system, your lowest winning bid will win. In the example above the standard Ebay proxy bidder would have his bid of $150 entered, but you would win )in the last 10 seconds), with your bid of $155. Of course, if he had set up a proxy of $155, and you had set up a snipe of $150, he would be the winner.

I guess the advantage of sniping is that you are holding your cards close to the vest and your bid is not entered till the last 10 seconds. Also, many times it appears like there will be no bidders in an auction, and people will bid just the start price, thinking that will win, and not knowing about the snipers out there.

Another possible advantage is that if you set up a snipe, I believe you are less likely to get involved in a bidding war at the end of an auction, than some one watching the end of the auction while they are bidding.
 

rxcats

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I never bid on an item until the last minute. I find that it often just sets up a bidding war which is great for the seller, but not for me. I decide what I am willing to pay and bid that amount about 30 seconds or so before the bidding ends. If someone has outbid me, it just wasn't ment to be.
 

VMan

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If I kind of want an item, I'll put a low snipe in, and hope that it flies under the radar. I do this w/ about 30-40 items per week, win 10% of those at bargain prices.

If I really want an item, then I'll snipe it for the maximum I'm willing to pay (sometimes slightly over, which is #1 on the do-not-do rules list for Ebay)

I recently subscribed to a sniping program, only about $10/mo for unlimited snipes, and it's pretty addicting to load that thing up with auctions and forget about them until they appear in 'Items Won'.
 

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