• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Recommend sniping software?

a2jacketpatches

Active Member
Yes, no different than leaving your best offer by telephone, on a piece of paper in a box at a sale, whatever. Highest bidder wins whether sitting there watching or not. Sniping is just good business if time and energy are best spent elsewhere. The free part of Gixen makes it even more attractive. Thanks
 

RC007

New Member
I used Auction Sniper for a while till I ran out of free snipes, but when I used it.....oh man most convenient thing ever. Its more of a timesaver than anything else. ebay has nothing against sniping, but some of its members may not appreciate it.
 

a2jacketpatches

Active Member
Yeah, but if you do this too early, it gives penny pinchers plently of time to beat your max in small increments. So like most have agreed, it makes perfect sense if you have no time to play around and do have the funds to put up a reasonable (and if you want it enough) high bid.
 

ButteMT61

Well-Known Member
FlyingYankee said:
Makes no sense to me. Just bid the highest you are willing to pay and let the chips fall where they may

It makes perfect sense. But I'm happy some here don't use it because that works in my favor :)
 

handworn

Active Member
I use a website called snip.pl (that's the whole address). The browser I mainly use, Opera, has an optional extension which adds a button on the browser itself. Click it while looking at an ebay auction, sign in, and it fills in the auction number automatically, and you put in your maximum bid, et cetera. It costs 19 cents US for every successful snipe, nothing for unsuccessful ones. Worth it to me.
 

Roughwear

Well-Known Member
a2jacketpatches said:
Yeah, but if you do this too early, it gives penny pinchers plently of time to beat your max in small increments. So like most have agreed, it makes perfect sense if you have no time to play around and do have the funds to put up a reasonable (and if you want it enough) high bid.

This is precisely why I use Auction Sniper.
 

Jeff M

New Member
Looking into using Auction Sniper.
Are there some auctions that don't allow sniping? I can't find the auction number on the listing to enter in the Auction Sniper window.
 

bretron

Member
For those iPhone guys, spend the $7 bucks and pick up the "Myibidder" app. works like a charm and is only a one time fee unlike others...
 

Persimmon

Well-Known Member
bretron said:
For those iPhone guys, spend the $7 bucks and pick up the "Myibidder" app. works like a charm and is only a one time fee unlike others...

What happens when several people are after the same item and they all have sniping software ??
 

a2jacketpatches

Active Member
I'm thinking the highest bidder wins. The speed of the software may have something to do with it, I really don't know. But ultimately the highest bid wins sniping or manual.
 

bretron

Member
Persimmon said:
bretron said:
For those iPhone guys, spend the $7 bucks and pick up the "Myibidder" app. works like a charm and is only a one time fee unlike others...

What happens when several people are after the same item and they all have sniping software ??

End of Days :lol:
 

Persimmon

Well-Known Member
a2jacketpatches said:
I'm thinking the highest bidder wins. The speed of the software may have something to do with it, I really don't know. But ultimately the highest bid wins sniping or manual.

Exactly my point.

Its all well having and paying for such an item -software sniping ....but if you have a budget and are prepared to sit by the computer and wait until the last few secopnds and then place your bid (best offer /what its worth to you/what you can afford to go up to and no more etc etc) before the listing finishes you either win manually or you don't.

If it goes for more in my case, hell I could not afford it or want to pay that much anyway so good luck to the winner.

However perhaps Platon and are are the exceptions to the rule.

So whats the point of paying for sniping software if most people have it then. Its all about whoever offers the highest top end offer after all, manually or sniping software instructions ?
 

bretron

Member
I'm convinced that buyers get less jumpy when there are fewer up front bids. Sniping drives down the emotion (and often but not always the sale price). So as a buyer I like it. As a seller, not so much. Harder to gauge where the auction will end up. I've had some that I thought for sure were going to go higher, and if sniping didn't exist (and thought the auction would run up higher) I probably would have pulled my auction. Not that anyone need feel sorry for me, but I think sniping works well for the buyer all in all.

On a side note: Anyone notice that eBay now identifies how many people are watching an auction in the listig info? (this used to just be provided to the seller)
 

a2jacketpatches

Active Member
Watcher count is provided to the seller.

"So whats the point of paying for sniping software if most people have it then"

When I started this thread, it was to find a free service because I simply wanted to win pieces of leather and material items for my shop. Low dollar stuff that I didn't want to dedicate any amount of time or effort to. But I imagine bidders with enough funds to bid on high dollar items feel the same way, and a couple of bucks on top of a high bid is worth saving the time sitting there til the last minute. I honestly think than sniping is for the buyer that simply wants to win as opposed to getting a good deal.
 

bretron

Member
Watch counter is now provided to the buyer as well, I swear. Check a full-site listing (not mobile or app version), no?
 

a2jacketpatches

Active Member
bretron said:
Watch counter is now provided to the buyer as well, I swear. Check a full-site listing (not mobile or app version), no?

Could be, I don't see it on any of my watch list. Would it be there if I simple go to my watch list? I am at a computer.
 

handworn

Active Member
No, sniping can result in a lower price. Earlier bids make a would-be bidder re-evaluate his or her estimate of what the thing is worth, and give up earlier hopes that it would sell for a song. And I like sniping, too, because it's a set-and-forget kind of thing. True, simply bidding is also set-and-forget, but apart from the lulling of other bidders, sniping allows you to cancel the snipe before the end of the sale, or modify your top price downward, which simply bidding doesn't.

And, too, it's possible to search by bidder, if you happen to know their username. That was much more significant before eBay started scrambling them.

a2jacketpatches said:
Watcher count is provided to the seller.

"So whats the point of paying for sniping software if most people have it then"

When I started this thread, it was to find a free service because I simply wanted to win pieces of leather and material items for my shop. Low dollar stuff that I didn't want to dedicate any amount of time or effort to. But I imagine bidders with enough funds to bid on high dollar items feel the same way, and a couple of bucks on top of a high bid is worth saving the time sitting there til the last minute. I honestly think than sniping is for the buyer that simply wants to win as opposed to getting a good deal.
 

a2jacketpatches

Active Member
No to what? can? Possible? I'm sure there's a lot of variables. I think the bottom line is sniping saves a guy from sitting there til the last minute. Nothing is for sure and everyone uses it in their own way. From my experience, the sniper wins, or at least A sniper wins if he's got the highest amount set. The manual wins if he puts in a higher amount before or at the last minute. How everything affects the behavior of the bidder is irrelevant. The highest bidder wins, period.
 
Top