Ebay Sniping

[sydally9367]

OK, I am curious... what is sniping?

Kimsuenew : I posted a Wikipedia entry on page 2 ( I think, it might be on page 1) with an explanation of what sniping is

 

[Anewman]

I guess I am odd since I dont think sniping helps get the best deal, it may help win the item but I set a price and wont go over it period.

EXAMPLE # 1
Item #200161251243
Last week I placed the winning bid on a tripod 48 minutes b4 the end of the auction with a max amount of $15 and then raised it to $20(which made no difference since no one outbid my first bid). I WON THE ITEM FOR $8.27

Item #200163621786
Exact same item from the exact same seller. A sniper bid with 18 seconds left and won. He/she paid $46.

I am sure he brags about how good a sniper he is.

Not saying it is always about getting the lowest price, but IMO sniping makes you pay more than you planned on paying. I rather set a limit and stick to it regardless of what the current bid is and the time left in the auction. And dont get me started on the guy that sniped me on a backdrop that sold for $44, which forced me to bid on another(same seller and design) which I won for $1.29 without sniping 2 days later.

I love how EBAY is now marketing that "winning is better than buying cheap" type attitude.

 

[LittleBlue22]

I guess I like the thrill of bidding by myself. Me and my two ebay windows.

 

[Aidensmom]

No, I don't. I do it the regular way...put in my max bid that I am willing to pay for an item, and if someone outbids me, then it was more than I was willing to pay anyways.

I have never been disappointed, for some reason have almost always won the auctions where I really wanted something anyways, and those I have lost I seriously would not want to spend that much on as the winning bid was.

 

[Aidensmom]

I snipe but I dont really buy all that much on ebay so I just do it myself.

From what I have seen if you bid early with your max bid people come along kick up the price then go on. So I will stick with sniping.

That is true about bidding early. I just put things in my watched items list and don't place bids until the latest that I am online before the auction, if I'm still willing to bid after what the price has jumped to. That is usually several hours before the auction, not seconds, and I still win many auctions.

 

[mickeysgal]

I guess I am odd since I dont think sniping helps get the best deal, it may help win the item but I set a price and wont go over it period.

EXAMPLE # 1
Item #200161251243
Last week I placed the winning bid on a tripod 48 minutes b4 the end of the auction with a max amount of $15 and then raised it to $20(which made no difference since no one outbid my first bid). I WON THE ITEM FOR $8.27

Item #200163621786
Exact same item from the exact same seller. A sniper bid with 18 seconds left and won. He/she paid $46.

I am sure he brags about how good a sniper he is.

Not saying it is always about getting the lowest price, but IMO sniping makes you pay more than you planned on paying. I rather set a limit and stick to it regardless of what the current bid is and the time left in the auction. And dont get me started on the guy that sniped me on a backdrop that sold for $44, which forced me to bid on another(same seller and design) which I won for $1.29 without sniping 2 days later.

I love how EBAY is now marketing that "winning is better than buying cheap" type attitude.

I respectfully disagree. Sniping does not make you pay anything more than what you were planning to pay. When you snipe, you set the limit of what you want to pay. Nothing makes you pay more than you are willing to pay. In fact, just the opposite - it takes the emotion out of that last minute, manual, I-will-win-at-any-cost bidding. It will place the bid you set earlier and ebay's bidding rules will take over. Sniping cannot increase your bids past what your limit was set at. What I've found is that with sniping, the price I've paid for an item is very often lower than if I bid early, tipping my hand to other bidders, causing the price to run up unnecessarily before the auction ends.

 

[crz4mm2]

I guess I am odd since I dont think sniping helps get the best deal, it may help win the item but I set a price and wont go over it period.

EXAMPLE # 1
Item #200161251243
Last week I placed the winning bid on a tripod 48 minutes b4 the end of the auction with a max amount of $15 and then raised it to $20(which made no difference since no one outbid my first bid). I WON THE ITEM FOR $8.27

Item #200163621786
Exact same item from the exact same seller. A sniper bid with 18 seconds left and won. He/she paid $46.

I am sure he brags about how good a sniper he is.

Not saying it is always about getting the lowest price, but IMO sniping makes you pay more than you planned on paying. I rather set a limit and stick to it regardless of what the current bid is and the time left in the auction. And dont get me started on the guy that sniped me on a backdrop that sold for $44, which forced me to bid on another(same seller and design) which I won for $1.29 without sniping 2 days later.

I love how EBAY is now marketing that "winning is better than buying cheap" type attitude.

I don't agree. I always put in my max on my snipe and that is what I am willing to pay. So not necessarily do I pay more on a snipe.

To each their own

 

[Towncrier]

I was looking for a particular photo editting program and saw one on Ebay. I decided that I was willing to pay $15, so I put in my bid. Early. As the end of the auction approached, I watched the price creep up past $15. Someone else got the CDROM for $16.

A couple of weeks later, another seller put the same item up for bid. This time, I waited until the last possible second and put in my bid for $15. I ended up paying less than $5 for the CD.

I will continue to believe that bidding on Ebay is like playing poker. You NEVER let the other players know how much you are willing to spend. Although I was not willing to join the bidding frenzy and pay more than the $15 I had decided was a fair price for the item, lots of Ebayers will. It's like a race. I've watched people go totally insane in the last few minutes of an auction and jack the price up into the stratosphere. I don't want to play in that pool.

Last night I watched the Auction channel on our cable system. They had $20 gold certificates up for bid. It was amazing to watch as bidders competed to pay the most for these items. As the bidding for the first item approached $300, the auctioneer said "I have another certificate and it's in better condition". He even showed it while the bidding for certificate #1 was still in progress. And yet the price went higher. They sold 3 or 4 more certificates. By the time they got to the last one, they could barely give it away. I only mention this because it is human nature to fall into the bidding escalation trap. And sniping lets you avoid this trap by setting your maximum bid without broadcasting the fact to the rest of the world that, for only a $1 more, they can have your item and "beat" you.

 

[Anewman]

I respectfully disagree. Sniping does not make you pay anything more than what you were planning to pay. When you snipe, you set the limit of what you want to pay.

The number one explanation for using snipers is that they always lose the item at the last second, like entering a max bid of $15 only to be sniped at $16 within the last 10 seconds and that if they saw that bid they would have been willing to up their bid.

Dont get me wrong I LOVE SNIPERS, on my wifes selling account there is a very clear pattern that sniped items sell for considerably more than those that had no bids in the last minutes(we are talking exact same items). Maybe it is not the sniping that makes them bid more, but as a buyer on two different accounts(one business) it is very obvious that to me that snipers are willing to pay more than me and that is the reason they won the auctions and not because of their use of sniping.

As for showing your "poker hand", well when I set my max bid it is typically not displayed until I am outbid... And with all the snipers that usually does not occur until the last few seconds anyways.

 

[sydally9367]

I respectfully disagree. Sniping does not make you pay anything more than what you were planning to pay. When you snipe, you set the limit of what you want to pay. Nothing makes you pay more than you are willing to pay. In fact, just the opposite - it takes the emotion out of that last minute, manual, I-will-win-at-any-cost bidding. It will place the bid you set earlier and ebay's bidding rules will take over. Sniping cannot increase your bids past what your limit was set at. What I've found is that with sniping, the price I've paid for an item is very often lower than if I bid early, tipping my hand to other bidders, causing the price to run up unnecessarily before the auction ends.

ITA. I hardly ever go over my max bid, unless it's something I really want..which would be the case whether I was sniping or bidding on my own. Just yesterday, I was watching a few lots of childrens clothing; I went to the sniping site I use, entered my max bids and when the bidding went over my max amount, I canceled my bids and that was that (not retracted a bid, just canceled the action through the sniping site so it wouldn't go through..even if it went through, I wouldn't have won so it didn't matter either way lol).

 

[Robinrs]

I started sniping 4 years ago when I started LOSING all of the crazy things my son wanted for Christmas on eBay.

I also use www.auctionstealer.com They allow 3 free bids a week and I rarely go over, during the 4th qtr I'm careful about not going over that amount.

I used it twice last week and got both auctions. I sell MUCH more than buy and have had many snipers win my auctions. I consider it a compliment!