sniping programs for ebay

[Melora]

Originally posted by one_cat
I guess I'm totally lost as to what the point is... Ebay already gives you the ability to place a bid up to a maximum amount. I figure out how much I am willing to spend - the very top amount, place that bid then see how it turns out. If I get outbid or sniped I already know I wouldn't have paid that much anyway and it's not a big deal.

It is true that you can place your maximum bid amount and have ebay bid for you.. BUT if I want an auciton that starts at say $10 and I'm willing to pay $50 for it and I enter $50 as my max bid someone else may come along and place a bid for say $35 and find that they are not the highest bidder, so they KEEP bidding until they pass my max bid ($50). Now I will have to bid higher and then he will come back and bid again etc.... If we are the only 2 to want this item and I don't bid until the last second he may only put in a max bid of $25 and then when my snipe or last second bid comes in for $50 I will get it for just above his bid because he hasnt felt the need to bid any higher. Its better for me than getting into a bidding war.

Of course I LOVE it when people do this to my auctions.... I watch people bid and bid and bid trying to outbid the each other and I know for a fact that if they werent doing that the price of my auction would never go so high.

 

[one_cat]

I guess I get it. The idea being that not everyone is doing what I do and putting their max bid in right at the start. They are trying not to, shall we say, show their hand at the start. Hmmm. I'll have to think about that one...

 

[poohandwendy]

BUT if I want an auciton that starts at say $10 and I'm willing to pay $50 for it and I enter $50 as my max bid someone else may come along and place a bid for say $35 and find that they are not the highest bidder, so they KEEP bidding until they pass my max bid ($50). Now I will have to bid higher and then he will come back and bid again etc.... If we are the only 2 to want this item and I don't bid until the last second he may only put in a max bid of $25 and then when my snipe or last second bid comes in for $50 I will get it for just above his bid because he hasnt felt the need to bid any higher. Its better for me than getting into a bidding war.

Yes, BUT...it really won't matter if someone else really wants the item, they can (and often DO) have the same idea. What you are talking about is gambling that the other person isn't all that Ebay savvy, sometimes you win sometimes you lose doing this. Auctions only really go as high as the people watching are willing to pay.


If someone doesn't have the time to snipe, they will put their highest bid in. If they DO have the time, you are taking a gamble that you will have the last and highest number before the clock runs out. It really doesn't always work out. As a seller, I really don't care either way.

As a buyer, I only place the highest dollar amount I am willing to pay. If someone is going to try to snipe me, they take the risk because they really do not know what my highest bid is (and there is only so much time to bid at the last minute). If they want to pay more than I am willing to pay...all the more power to them. The only way the price is going to go up is because someone else wants it more than I do.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

I admit it, I snipe. Only on things I know will result in a bidding war if I place a max. bet. I have won things by not sniping. But some of the popular things, I WANT to win, I'll snipe it!