E Bay sniper for idiots....
Discussion
wildone63 said:
surveyor said:
I've used bidnapper for years. It works.
It only 'works' if you have submitted the highest bid,Any sniping software that bids in the last millisecond of the auction is not going to win any auction for you if a rival bidder has already submitted a higher maximum bid at anytime during the auction.
bidding in the last moments of an auction increases the chance of winning an item for less money. There are ways to combat 'snipers', but generally there will always be another item for sale.
It is a proven auction winning strategy, but all this sniper b
ks is just that....bks
It is a proven auction winning strategy, but all this sniper b
ks is just that....bksEdited by The Spruce goose on Sunday 16th June 21:18
Mustard said:
Well if it goes for more than I wanted to bid, they deserve to own it.... But Bidnapper has always worked well for me
In what way has bidnapper worked well for you?You have only won auctions because you have been prepared to pay more for the item than other bidders,and If an item sells for more than what you wanted to bid then what purpose could bidnapper ever have served for you?
as a previous poster said bidding in the last few seconds only increases your chances of getting the item cheaper,but if a rival bidder puts in a higher bid in the last few seconds then you lose.
Edited by wildone63 on Sunday 16th June 21:44
There are certain merits to using a sniper. I use one because I don't want to spend a lot of time on eBay itself. Anything I see I might like, I add it to the snipe site with my max bid. Since some auctions can take over a week to complete, I know that inevitably I will forget all about the item if I don't add it in! Even if I add it to my watch list, I can't guarantee that I'll be near a computer come the auction's end. Also, if you have several items finishing at the same time, then the snipe service can come in handy.
Also, for certain people it stops them getting into an auction frenzy when you're upping the price way past what the thing is worth. Finally, I think it does help to stop (some element of) shill bidding. If you whack in your max bid very early, it does give the opportunity for the seller to test the waters a bit. It goes on.
Also, for certain people it stops them getting into an auction frenzy when you're upping the price way past what the thing is worth. Finally, I think it does help to stop (some element of) shill bidding. If you whack in your max bid very early, it does give the opportunity for the seller to test the waters a bit. It goes on.
sniping online auctions is easy, sniping BIN auctions is a lot harder.
wiki ' Unlike auctions which can be reviewed at leisure and scheduled in an automated sniping program, new fixed price listings must be evaluated as quickly as possible and purchased as soon as possible in competitive categories.
BIN sniping focuses on speed of evaluation and purchase execution rather than timing the final bid.'
i buy 90% of ebay items this way esp higher ticket items. It is more time consuming than auction sniping.
wiki ' Unlike auctions which can be reviewed at leisure and scheduled in an automated sniping program, new fixed price listings must be evaluated as quickly as possible and purchased as soon as possible in competitive categories.
BIN sniping focuses on speed of evaluation and purchase execution rather than timing the final bid.'
i buy 90% of ebay items this way esp higher ticket items. It is more time consuming than auction sniping.
Edited by The Spruce goose on Sunday 16th June 22:36
Have a look through a few finished auctions, take a look at the bidding history and it will show the times too.
Automatic bids will be shown, and they'll all have the same bid time, but you'll often see one person upping their bids 2-3 times.
The sniping works by beating their first bid before they have a chance to react, "classical style" max bidding means you'll have to beat the last top bid that they bailed out on.
Automatic bids will be shown, and they'll all have the same bid time, but you'll often see one person upping their bids 2-3 times.
The sniping works by beating their first bid before they have a chance to react, "classical style" max bidding means you'll have to beat the last top bid that they bailed out on.
The trouble is some people will keep adding just enough to out bid others, loads of times, every time someone bids, so I used to wait until the last seconds, stick my highest bid in, and not leave time for those idiots. I win, because I put the highest bid in, nothing wrong or illegal or immoral.
I don't use it any more as Paypal monopoly power-mongers stiffed my account, and simply could not tell me why.
I don't use it any more as Paypal monopoly power-mongers stiffed my account, and simply could not tell me why.
wildone63 said:
surveyor said:
I've used bidnapper for years. It works.
It only 'works' if you have submitted the highest bid,Any sniping software that bids in the last millisecond of the auction is not going to win any auction for you if a rival bidder has already submitted a higher maximum bid at anytime during the auction.
King Herald said:
The trouble is some people will keep adding just enough to out bid others, loads of times, every time someone bids,
Is that not just that another person has put in a higher maximum bid than you already.E.g. Item £20, 1 bid in already, you put in a bid for £21, then next second the original bidder is back in the lead at £22. It's just that they may have put in £30 as their maximum bid when the made their first bid.
You need your maximum bid to be more than theirs to (obviously) win the auction. They will be in the lead till you bid more than £30.
Likewise I'm not sure how sniping would be a benefit in the same situation.
Why would you snipe a Buy It Now? Makes no sense, you see it, the price is ok for you, you buy it, why then set up a snipe for it at the same price?
JM said:
King Herald said:
The trouble is some people will keep adding just enough to out bid others, loads of times, every time someone bids,
Is that not just that another person has put in a higher maximum bid than you already.E.g. Item £20, 1 bid in already, you put in a bid for £21, then next second the original bidder is back in the lead at £22. It's just that they may have put in £30 as their maximum bid when the made their first bid.
You need your maximum bid to be more than theirs to (obviously) win the auction. They will be in the lead till you bid more than £30.
Likewise I'm not sure how sniping would be a benefit in the same situation.
Why would you snipe a Buy It Now? Makes no sense, you see it, the price is ok for you, you buy it, why then set up a snipe for it at the same price?
If everyone put their maximum in it wouldn't be needed, but they don't. You might, however the majority of people on ebay don't.
JM said:
King Herald said:
The trouble is some people will keep adding just enough to out bid others, loads of times, every time someone bids,
Is that not just that another person has put in a higher maximum bid than you already.E.g. Item £20, 1 bid in already, you put in a bid for £21, then next second the original bidder is back in the lead at £22. It's just that they may have put in £30 as their maximum bid when the made their first bid.
You need your maximum bid to be more than theirs to (obviously) win the auction. They will be in the lead till you bid more than £30.
Likewise I'm not sure how sniping would be a benefit in the same situation.
So, in your example, say you bid £35 and the the original bidder bid only £30. The price is now £31 and it's five days before the end of the auction.
The original bidder now reconsiders and thinks, "Well, I can stretch to £32 to see if that gets me the item" and he bids £32. Ebay automatically bids to your maximum, so the price is now £33 and you're winning. The original bidder backs out and you win the item at £33.
If you'd used a sniper however, you'd have got the item for £31, because the original bidder wouldn't have gotten a chance to up his bid.
It's not logical, but that's how eBay works. People don't like to lose and will often increase their maximum bid slightly to avoid it.
The other way it benefits you is that it avoids shill bidding (the seller bidding against early bids by small increments, hoping to up the final price).
There is a third way that snipers can benefit you - they can allow you to bid on multiple identical items and only win one. Let's say that you want to buy a blueprint car part that is offered on 3 separate auctions that finish 10 minutes apart. You can set the sniper up to bid up to £20 on the first, up to £25 on the second and up to £30 on the third, but only bidding on the later auctions if you don't win a prior one.
This can also mean you get the best price, as for each auction there is (presumably) one less bidder and so a lower ending price.
Edited by youngsyr on Monday 17th June 15:39
youngsyr said:
JM said:
King Herald said:
The trouble is some people will keep adding just enough to out bid others, loads of times, every time someone bids,
Is that not just that another person has put in a higher maximum bid than you already.E.g. Item £20, 1 bid in already, you put in a bid for £21, then next second the original bidder is back in the lead at £22. It's just that they may have put in £30 as their maximum bid when the made their first bid.
You need your maximum bid to be more than theirs to (obviously) win the auction. They will be in the lead till you bid more than £30.
Likewise I'm not sure how sniping would be a benefit in the same situation.
So, in your example, say you bid £35 and the the original bidder bid only £30. The price is now £31 and it's five days before the end of the auction.
The original bidder now reconsiders and thinks, "Well, I can stretch to £32 to see if that gets me the item" and he bids £32. Ebay automatically bids to your maximum, so the price is now £33 and you're winning. The original bidder backs out and you win the item at £33.
If you'd used a sniper however, you'd have got the item for £31, because the original bidder wouldn't have gotten a chance to up his bid.
It's not logical, but that's how eBay works. People don't like to lose and will often increase their maximum bid slightly to avoid it.
The other way it benefits you is that it avoids shill bidding (the seller bidding against early bids by small increments, hoping to up the final price).
There is a third way that snipers can benefit you - they can allow you to bid on multiple identical items and only win one. Let's say that you want to buy a blueprint car part that is offered on 3 separate auctions that finish 10 minutes apart. You can set the sniper up to bid up to £20 on the first, up to £25 on the second and up to £30 on the third, but only bidding on the later auctions if you don't win a prior one.
This can also mean you get the best price, as for each auction there is (presumably) one less bidder and so a lower ending price.
Edited by youngsyr on Monday 17th June 15:39
Makes some sense now.
If the auction has 10 days left or 1 minute, the most I want to pay is X amount, so that's what I bid. Have I lost out on hundreds of auctions due to snipe bidders in the past? Definitely. Do I care? No. My top bid was my top bid. If I couldn't afford more than my top bid, or want to pay more than it, then I won't bid it.
I recently bought my Alfa GTV for £923 on eBay. One minute to go and it was still at £600 or so. Did I for a minute think that was what it was going to go for? Not in a million years. But my top bid was a grand. I was the highest bidder. I won. Snipe bidding works sure, but can I be arsed to use it?
I recently bought my Alfa GTV for £923 on eBay. One minute to go and it was still at £600 or so. Did I for a minute think that was what it was going to go for? Not in a million years. But my top bid was a grand. I was the highest bidder. I won. Snipe bidding works sure, but can I be arsed to use it?
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