Any other auction snipers out there?

jbtsax

jbtsax

Distinguished Member
Distinguished Member
On a whim, I signed up for a program called EZ sniper to bid on my behalf in an eBay auction for a very nice 1939 Buescher Aristocrat alto. I got the sax for only $279 plus $25 shipping.

This experience made me a real believer---especially since I have been the one on the other end who has been outbid at the last second on an item I really wanted. Has anyone else tried these programs before? I always seem to be way behind the curve on new programs and technologies so that when I discover them and get all exited, it is old hat for everyone else.
 
jbtsax said:
On a whim, I signed up for a program called EZ sniper to bid on my behalf in an eBay auction for a very nice 1939 Buescher Aristocrat alto. I got the sax for only $279 plus $25 shipping.

This experience made me a real believer---especially since I have been the one on the other end who has been outbid at the last second on an item I really wanted. Has anyone else tried these programs before? I always seem to be way behind the curve on new programs and technologies so that when I discover them and get all exited, it is old hat for everyone else.
Click to expand...

Really annoys me, cos it means you have to put a high cover bid in, otherwise someone sneaks your bargain away.

Still, all's fair, so no real gripes, but the Ebay bargains are getting rarer and rarer.
 
However, the purpose of an auction of any kind is to obtain the fairest price (buyer willing to pay, seller willing to accept) for any item. All that snipers are doing is getting a higher bid (better for the seller) in at the very last second. Nothing wrong with that, as long as the bid is a legitimate one - from the seller's standpoint.

The buyers who get beat out are not being "cheated" per se. It's just that the other buyer (the sniper) is using superior technology to get that one last bid in under the wire. In that, it's no less fair than my competition (back when I bought heavily on the eBay system) using a 28,800 baud dial up modem when everyone else on the planet was at a high speed setting.

The only way that I would win would be if no one else was interested in the item (rare, but it happened), or if I was able to "time" my final submission (using a stop watch) to get inside of the eBay refresh cycle, and thus have a fighting chance.

The real solution is to do what you have done, and upgrade your access technology to put your bidding on an equal footing. Or, not bid in the first place. In any event, if you "lose", you are only losing your time invested - you bid X, someone else bid X + 1%, they had to pay and you paid nothing.
 
I usually have a "hard" limit, and if I get overbid, well, be it.

I can't tell you how much money I've saved thanks to countless snipers. :)
 
one idea that i hold on to is a last minute ebay bidder. by not bidding earlier i keep the bid price artificially lower ... even though i may put an initial bid in just at the minimum to get it on my list.

but, the sniper stuff is good though I like to keep a watch on things anyways. This past month i picked up two Leblanc A clarinets, the LL and a L7 by last second bidding. Can't beat the price either way.
 
I'd think I'd use a "sniper" program if I found an instrument that had an insanely low price and I didn't expect it to sell for very much cash. That'd make it so no one is "seeing" my bid and counter-bidding accordingly (I believe this is why eBay now writes bidders' names in the form of "p**e").
 
they use more encrypted names than that.
I use that to see who is interested and a bidding history and their level (number of purchases, etc). though you don't know exactly who you are bidding against.

On the L7, the only other "serious" bidder happened to be someone with 0 purchases/sales. and that person was upping his/her bid by $10 at a time.

like this:

7***a( 0 )
k***q( 10350)
7***a( 0 )
e***4( 319)
n***l( 125)
7***a( 0 )
7***a( 0 )
n***l( 125)
e***e( 1686)
x***x( 1229)
 
SteveSklar said:
they use more encrypted names than that.
I use that to see who is interested and a bidding history and their level (number of purchases, etc). though you don't know exactly who you are bidding against.

On the L7, the only other "serious" bidder happened to be someone with 0 purchases/sales. and that person was upping his/her bid by $10 at a time.

like this:

7***a( 0 )
k***q( 10350)
7***a( 0 )
e***4( 319)
n***l( 125)
7***a( 0 )
7***a( 0 )
n***l( 125)
e***e( 1686)
x***x( 1229)
Click to expand...

Well, if the auction says "$10 bid increase" and I set my bid to say $500, then eBay will raise my bid automatically in $10 increments until I'm in front, or my limit is exceeded.
No black magic involved.
 
I have watched how the eBay "automatic bidding" by two or more people can really drive up the purchase price, which is great if you are the seller.

The advantage to the sniping program is that it doesn't keep topping the highest bid throughout the auction, just at the last second. Of course you have to set your limit, but the best part is that it bids only enough to win, not how much you are willing to pay.
 
I always use a snipe program.

I started to use one when the pound was strong against the dollar, and the bidding finished half way through my night.

But the discipline of deciding what is the most I would pay for an item, placing the snipe bid, and then leaving the bidding alone and not get tempted to just bump it up another £10, then another etc appealed greatly.

If I buy an item that way, I pay just a little bit more than somebody else thinks it is worth. Sometimes somebody beats me because they pay just a little bit more than I think it is worth. Sometimes it goes for an amount way more than I would be prepared to pay.

It makes sense to me. I had felt quite guilty by using a snipe as it is often frowned on in discussion on fora, as one is holding back driving an auction price until the last moment - so it is reassuring to hear that such practice can be seen as seller friendly in some respects

Chris
 
Remember, just because the thing sold for, say 50 cents more than your highest bid, doesn't mean you lost it by 50 cents. Their bid may have been substantially higher. The winning bid is only higher than the next highest bid.

Still, it sux to see it go for mere pennies higher than your highest bid sometimes.
 
I too have a hard limit. But I don't always bid that much, as like the others said, it tends to push the price up. Especially where you get the chisellers chipping away with slightly higher bids each time to see what you bid.

I think sniping is a good way to get things cheaper - doesn't help the seller, as there are often people willing to pay more than my limit. But if I snipe, there's a good chance they won't get in.

My frustration comes more from thinking I'd got a bargain, and losing out to the snipers - or seeing a bargain become a close to normal price due to sniping. I don't lose any sleep as a result of the bids that weren't successful. But it's disappointing - like being promised a new sax for your birthday, and getting nothing...
 
I use a sniping program when I bid because I really don't want to deal with getting caught up in the bidding frenzy and over paying. I know what I'm willing to pay and if I don't win it then another one will come around.
 
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