Just curious.. how do people do this? My dh said use a program.. I thought you just sat at your computer watching the minutes tick away til the last possible second.. can you tell I'm clueless?

I've been trying to win an auction for this stinking Transformers Playstation game and I keep getting sniped at the last second. I'm getting really ticked off, I need it for fathers day. *lol*

Can someone please clue me in?? :)

~C

This is who I use http://www.auctionstealer.com/home.cfm

I use auctionstealer.com too. I haven't lost a bid yet and I do the free 3 auctions a week deal.

I don't usually bid on anything but hanna for Jason anyway.

Cool awesome thanks! I just won an auction FINALLY the old fashioned way though! *lol* I noticed one up for auction that only had 14 minutes left, so I sat and won it.. then I noticed it wasn't brand new. :rolleyes: Oh well.. as long as it works, I don't give a darn!!! I'm just ticked that I paid as much for a used one as they are going for new on Ebay. Duh. *lol* I was so excited that the price was so low. *lol* I am such an Ebay loser!!! :joker:

Hmph. Well, I for one HATE sniping!! Isn't fair!!! http://img56.photobucket.com/albums/v170/antonia14/angry/tantrum.gif

:D

Originally posted by ForeverGreen
Hmph. Well, I for one HATE sniping!! Isn't fair!!! http://img56.photobucket.com/albums/v170/antonia14/angry/tantrum.gif

:D

Tell me about it!!! However, if you can't beat em.. join em! I can't win an auction anymore without having to snipe it!!! Unless it's something not popular.. I just won 12 headbands for 4 cents. *lol*

what's not fair about it?

I hate it too. Mostly it feels unfair because a regular bidder (like me) is beat by pocket change. I've been beat by .01 before. Ticks me off. I guess I just feel that if it's not a full $1 or more then it's not a real bid & you'er just doing it to win. I'm trying to raise me kid to be non-compentitive & there is just to much compitition for my taste.

of course I'm not much of a buyer. I set my max & just see what happens. But it really ticks me off that I get beaten by change everytime. it just feels low to me. like there is someone following me around who wants me to loose.

Chole

http://esnipe.com

Originally posted by choleblack
I set my max & just see what happens. But it really ticks me off that I get beaten by change everytime. it just feels low to me. like there is someone following me around who wants me to loose.


That's good budgeting and it works for a regular online purchase. "I'm willing to pay $3 for a pack of Nemo underwear, but only if shipping is under $3.50." It's that kind of thinking.

But sniping isn't personal. It isn't someone following you around.

It is ENTIRELY about keeping the winning bid low. When YOU place your early bid with your maximum amount, you drive up the price. The more early bidders there are, the higher the final price. The sniper still has to beat the price that the early bidders took it to.

When you snipe, especially with a program, you STILL don't exceed your maximum price, but you also don't drive up the price before the end of the auction.

So that is why sniping is "fair." The auction is open until it is not. There's nothing unfair about bidding on an open auction. Sniping provides (on average) for a lower overall final price.

That said, I only snipe manually. Losing auctions helps keep my budget in line ;)

Those are the rules of the game, same for everybody, so why isn' it fair? When I was a kid, I never understood why some people would cry 'not fair' when I figured out a way to win at a game that they hadn't. Of course it is fair. It is a pita to sit and do it manually, or sign up for one of those things, but it is the same for everybody. That is like playing poker and saying 'it's not fair' when somebody wins by bluffing.

Hope I haven' hurt any feelings. That wasn't my intention. I just wanted to say 'Is so!' :P

Cary

When I snipe I still have to put my max in. If the max you put in is higher than the max I put in, then you'll win and I won't. I just choose to put my max bid in at the last possible second.

I guess I see it like this. If you're at an auction in person you bid in real time. The auctioneer doesn't say 'going once, twice..' then someone bids right then just over the last bid and the auctioneer continues 'SOLD' to the person who bid after he had already said 'going once, twice...'. The auctioneer would stop and ask again if anyone else wanted to bid. Then go through the 'once, twice, sold' again.

I just don't like it...my personal opinion :)

Well -- kind of related but not really related -- I saw a news story about how this woman makes her business from buying low auctions on e-bay and reselling. She gets the low auctions because people mis-spell (how to you spell mis-spell). Example: dimond instead of diamond. So she swoops in and bids because the bids are low as most people haven't seen the auctions. Pretty smart.

I didn't know that it was better to enter a max bid at the end of the auction. I figure I decide on the most I'm willing to pay and just bid -- but I will check out these auction things. AS IF I need to win more auctions/spend more money! :rolleyes:

I won't get into the fair, not fair arguement, because as a seller and a buyer I see both sides of the coin. What I use:

ESNIPE (http://www.esnipe.com) - I use them for bids under $25 because I am grandfathered into the system from when they first started and it is free for me to use.

VRANE (http://www.vrane.com) - I use for bids over $25, I can only put in one free one at a time.

Both have worked well for me.

HTH's. :D

I've seen both sides of sniping, as a buyer and as a seller. As a seller, I wish people would "bid early, bid often!" But I know that ain't gonna happen, so I set the opening bid at something I wouldn't mind getting for the item. One of my regular customers got sniped once by someone using software, by an amount of about $.26. She didn't know how the person could have won with such a small amount. I actually received an automatic email telling me this bidder had won using this software, sort of a sales pitch for it. :rolleyes:

As a buyer, I will snipe an auction manually if it's something I really want and don't want to overpay for it. I don't do much buying, though, so I can't be bothered with sniper software. As long as we all know the rules, I don't see that it's unfair. It's just part of doing business on ebay.

I just want to add that my feelings are towards the sniping programs, not towards people who actually are sitting in front of their computer at the end of an auction ;)

the old fashioned way last week -- just baby sat and out bid.

nak

I just sniped an auction the 'sit and wait' way the other night. I'm glad I have cable internet now or I would not have been able to do it. And it also helped that the kids were not hanging on me.