Snipe Bidding websites - no fee

[Brer Shay]

After losing a few ebay auctions for a Christmas gift item, I'm considering using a bidding site. Can anyone recommend one that doesn't charge a fee for use?

 

[allegoricduck]

I've used gixen (http://www.gixen.com/) several times for free and liked it.

 

[RitaE]

http://www.auctionstealer.com/home.cfm

3 free auctions a week

 

[okw19]

I have used Goofbay.com in the past. Sometimes the snipers do fail, but that is the case with any of these sites.

 

[crispychicky]

I've used gixen (http://www.gixen.com/) several times for free and liked it.

I use gixen too. Never had any problem with it.

 

[Brer Shay]

Thank you for the referrals. I know I may not win even with one of these, but when I look at the bid history for the items I've lost, I'm sure snipe sites were used. Never tried them before, but know I don't want to pay for it.

 

[BoogasMom]

A little off topic but.....what's a snipe site?

 

[Robinrs]

http://www.auctionstealer.com/home.cfm

3 free auctions a week

I've been using them for YEARS, works great!

 

[Robinrs]

A little off topic but.....what's a snipe site?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what+is+a+snipe+site?

 

[hopemax]

If someone bidding against you is using a snipe site, they can still only win by having a higher maximum bid than you do.

I don't use a snipe site, but I manually hit the "confirm bid," when it shows 3 seconds. But if my "max bid" is only $8 and someone else's is $15, I'm not going to win regardless of entering it manually or using a snipe site. So make sure your max bid REALLY is your max.

If you see the auction close for one increment higher than yours and that makes you upset, then your max bid wasn't really your max. But remember that just because it closed at one bid increment more, that it didn't mean that the other person's max wouldn't have been $5, $10, or $50 more than yours. You could have bid that extra $1 and still would have been outbid by one bid increment.

The snipe sites help so you don't have to "babysit" your auctions, especially if you have a couple closing within seconds of each other. But if you aren't willing to pay more than the other guy, sniping isn't going to get you much.

 

[Robinrs]

If someone bidding against you is using a snipe site, they can still only win by having a higher maximum bid than you do.

I don't use a snipe site, but I manually hit the "confirm bid," when it shows 3 seconds. But if my "max bid" is only $8 and someone else's is $15, I'm not going to win regardless of entering it manually or using a snipe site. So make sure your max bid REALLY is your max.

If you see the auction close for one increment higher than yours and that makes you upset, then your max bid wasn't really your max. But remember that just because it closed at one bid increment more, that it didn't mean that the other person's max wouldn't have been $5, $10, or $50 more than yours. You could have bid that extra $1 and still would have been outbid by one bid increment.

The snipe sites help so you don't have to "babysit" your auctions, especially if you have a couple closing within seconds of each other. But if you aren't willing to pay more than the other guy, sniping isn't going to get you much.

If you put in your max, the next person bidding is made aware of that so they can bid until they're over you. No one is aware of a snipe bid. You can have it bid 10 secs or 3 secs before the end and yes you can lose but at least your competition has no clue.

 

[hopemax]

If you put in your max, the next person bidding is made aware of that so they can bid until they're over you. No one is aware of a snipe bid. You can have it bid 10 secs or 3 secs before the end and yes you can lose but at least your competition has no clue.

But my point is there is no difference between using a 3rd party website and doing it yourself in the last 5 seconds. There is not enough time for someone to "bid until they are over you." The competition still has no clue that I'm sitting around my computer waiting to hit submit. And my bid would go in about the same time as the snipe services send the info to Ebay to enter those bids.

But I absolutely agree that it is not smart to enter your bids days, hours, or even minutes before the auction ends, because as I say, "You just give the competition the opportunity to outbid you."

I just want the OP to consider that it's not the timing of the bid that is making him/her lose, but that someone is just willing to pay more. Always assume that there is someone waiting until the last second. You need to make sure that your max bid will be higher than that guys. So no playing around with, "I really want it for $10, and it's only $1 now, so I'll just enter $10, but I'd really be willing to pay $20." If you'd pay $20, put in $20. It will only jump to that $20, because someone else put in $19. And don't assume that if you put in $20, and it went for $21 that if you had just bid $22 you would have won.

 

[thanks]

Thanks for the info.

 

[Brer Shay]

OP here - Thank you again. I won the first auction I tried using the gixen site! Didn't even go to my maximum bid amount - quite happy with it. I was willing to spend, just couldn't get the bid in I guess. Bottom line, I got the gift I couldn't find to purchase anywhere else.