Do you snipe?

[Jeltz]

Having been out bid in the final seconds of several Ebay auctions, I decided to install a sniping add-on, after all if you can't beat them......

Well I won, but with a twinge of guilt, small but there :lol:.

So do you snipe?

 

[hunnymonster]

Yes, always snipe - no guilt at all. When I have more time later I'll post my "amusing German sniping story".

edit: apparently I've been allowed to post it now....

About 5-6 years ago I was after an extra battery for the DSLR camera - looked all over and found a German seller selling them starting his auctions at €0.99 - so I watched one and there were 5 or 6 bidders chipping away at €0.20 increments and by the time it was due to end, it was at €3.85 inc post... so I thought, worth a fiver to me - so put in a snipe of €5.34 and won.

Back then eBay let everyone see who was bidding and who won and I got a shitstorm of messages from all the other bidders, complaining that I'd somehow jumped the queue and that it really wasn't on. I mean anyone that's ever been to Germany will know how the queuing works over there. I just ignored it all and moved on. Later that day, I spotted that another battery had been listed by the same seller at the same starting price... so I watched it and these same 5-6 bidders were chipping away at it all week, so I buzzed in again with seconds to go same top bid and won again.... The seller listed another one later that day so I watched it for a couple of days and then put in my €5.34 bid with 5 days to go...

The chippers went into overdrive - chipping away at this "massive bid" - until one of them finally managed to get past it with about 12 hours to go. So I put in another slightly higher bid and left it at that, went out for the day wondering if I'd been lucky again...

Sadly I wasn't - well actually I was but in a different way - the chippers went into auction frenzy and bid it up to about €15, I had a mountain of messages "ha ha we won" kind of style. Thought nothing more of it, until I went into my paypal account and found a €3 tip from the seller - it was the most he'd ever sold one for and was pissed off with the chippers. Thanked me for my help in making them pay

 

[antdad]

Always. No guilt.

Auctions are really about bidding more than you should, at least with sniping software no additional emotion is involved.
Make a judgement on what you are willing to spend and leave it, if your'e lucky it comes in under if not you haven't over spent.

 

[Fido]

I have a very simple Ebay strategy for securing items that matter. Unless it's higher than my intended bid, I completely ignore the current bid price. I decide the absolute maximum I would pay then I put that bid in with 5 second left. I don't often miss out.

 

[Pig Cat]

OK I'm not too up on eBay (tend to go for Buy It Now to save hassle) so what's the difference between waiting until the last minute and putting in a 'maximum bid' if you have a figure you are happy to go up to? Sorry I am so dim on this subject but I've never really got the point of auctions. :? Oh, and how does 'sniping' actually work??

 

[Fido]

Sniping is simply bidding in the last few seconds so nobody can come back at you. You either do it yourself or use an online service to do it for you.

If you place your maximum bid too early you leave yourself open to people nibbling away and driving the price higher. By leaving it late you give yourself the chance of keeping the final price as low as possible.

 

[Pig Cat]

Thanks Fido! So if you use an online service do you decide your maximum bid a few seconds before the item ends and it automatically bids for you? What happens if there are other snipers bidding too??

 

[AJP]

bloody hell, i didn't even realise there were online things to do that!

 

[Fido]

You give the sniping service your maximum bid at any time after the auction has started. They use it on your behalf in the last few seconds as if you had done it yourself.

It could be that with 5 seconds left there are the following "sniper" bids: £30, £45, £50 and yours of £70. You get it for about £52.

 

[Swivel]

What happens if two or three bidders are using the Snipe thingy?

Whoops i think that question has just been answered :lol:

 

[Pig Cat]

OK thanks again! Yes, I think I'd heard mention of sniping but never really gave much thought as to what it was.

 

[hunnymonster]

Sniping stops chippers from finding out what your bid is (it's simple enough if you 'chip' - because eventually the winning bid will be less than a whole bid increment more than your last 'chip'). Chippers annoy me more than snipers. :ugeek:

 

[antdad]

I hate those 99p chance bidders.

 

[Urban Hermit]

Any recommended software add-on easy enough for 'non-techie-types that might be mathematically/technologically challenged' to be able to readily use?

... I thought auctions were about 'sniping' and I dislike the 'anti-sniping' option that I've seen in games, but not in real life.

 

[moodymick]

must admit i have not 'sniped' for a couple of years, but having lost a few recently, i think i may have to start again!

 

[hunnymonster]

What happens if two or three bidders are using the Snipe thingy?

The snipe services often have caveats like not using a snipe time of less than 10 seconds. That seems like "getting off at Haymarket" to me - I always stay on all the way to Waverley and bid in the last second.