Ebay Snipers

[Kevin003]

Please could you suggest some snipers for me - I have a bid I would like to make for an auction that ends tomorrow night, but I won't be near a computer at 7pm when it ends

Hidbid.com is a good sniping service. You get 5 free snipes per week.

Can someone explain the need for a specific sniping tool to me please? When I bid on an item, I decide on the maximum amount I am willing to pay, enter that in and let ebay bid automatically. What are the advantages of using a sniping service over the automatic ebay bidding tool?

Automated sniping is a convenience for people that want to avoid drawing early attention to an item, and 'nibbling' bidders (bidders who will bid the minimum increment over and over until they're the high bid), both of which normally result in a higher final price. If you have the time, you can do it manually.

It doesn't guarantee that you'll win, just that, if you do win, it's likely that the final price will be lower than if you bid early. You can't control other bidders however, so if there's already some early bidding on the item, the whole 'not attract attention to the item' goes out the window.

A couple more benefits of sniping:

1. You can just cancel a snipe with up to 2 or 3 minutes before the end of an auction, if you change your mind about bidding on an item, and your bid won't be placed. If you place a bid on ebay and then retract it (not a seller's or ebay's favorite thing), you can be blocked from bidding on other auctions after doing this a few times, not sure what that # is.

2. Sniping is actually a way of combating shill bidding - when the seller or his buddy bids on the item until they're the high bid, and know your max, then retract their bid, and use yet another account to bid on the item, bidding just below your max. You don't give the shiller time to retract their bid in order to leave you as the high bidder, close to your max. You can't do much about a shill bidder letting their bid ride to the end of the auction, if it just raises but doesn't exceed yours.

Anyone bidding on ebay should understand ebay's proxy bidding system (accepts your whole bid amount, but raises it only until it is the high bid, or it has been exceeded), and have an idea about their bid increments:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bid-increments.html

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/buy/bid-increments.html

http://pages.ebay.de/help/buy/bid-increments.html


The best plan for ebay bidding - bid once, late.