How Can You Defeat Ebay Snipers?
Posted: Sunday, November 27, 2005
by ronking
If you're bidding for items on eBay, sooner or later you'll end up having your bid beaten at the very last second by a "sniper". This can be a frustrating experience. In theory sniping is against the rules and you can report it to eBay. In practice, however, they never do anything about it.
The best way to beat the sniper is to become the sniper. Once you understand the process of sniping, you can use it to win more auctions, more often, and at a lower price than you would otherwise pay.
If you have a lot of time to spare and a reasonably fast Internet connection, sniping manually is not all that difficult. Make a note of the time when the auction you are bidding on will end. Then make sure you're sitting in front of the page at that vital last minute. Then just outbid the current winning bidder, or defend your own winning bid.
Here's a valuable tip to remember for manual sniping: make sure you set your maximum bid quite high. Otherwise you risk being automatically outbid, and the auction will have ended before you can bid again.
It's not worth your time to compete against someone who is using an automated sniping service. If their service is any good, they will always manage to outbid you. In the sniping arms race, you need to find a sniper on full auto.
Sniping In The Age Of Automation
If you enter "ebay sniping" into your favorite search engine, you'll find a long list of online services that will snipe on your behalf for a small fee. They usually offer a free trial, so give it a go.
If you don't want to pay each time for an online service, then you can buy sniping software outright -- for example, SnipeRight or ISnipeIt (just add a ".com" to the name to find them on the internet). You pay once and use them as much as you want.
After you've installed the software on your computer, you tell it which auctions you want sniped and the maximum amount you're willing to pay. The software then places your bid in the last few seconds of bidding. One drawback to this method is that you need to be able to leave your computer on nearly all the time, or you might miss the end of some auctions.
An Alternative To Sniping
If you're reluctant to lower yourself to "playing dirty," then there is another, more low-tech way to get around sniping. You can just email the seller and say that you were sniped at the last minute, but would really like the item. If they have another unit to sell, chances are they'll agree to sell it to you for the price at which the auction closed.
Good luck, good sniping, and good shopping.
Visit http://www.shop-ebay-now.com to learn more. Ron King is a full-time researcher, writer, and web developer, visit his website at http://www.ronxking.com
Copyright 2005 Ron King. This article may be reprinted if the resource box is left intact and the links live.
This Article has been viewed 9,381 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
More commentsSniping is the only logical way to bid on an item. Who in their right mind would give other people a lot of time to out-bid them? I don't use a program, I just do it myself. If people are smart, they will just bid their maximum at the last seconds, and whoever is willing to pay the most will win the auction. It's that simple. I find it more annoying when I see an item I'm watching go up slowly, like a dollar at a time, when everyone knows it is going to end at a much higher price. Sniping or not, only bid your maximum, never bid some ridiculously low amount.
This is the whole reason we have the "Watch This Item" feature! It is foolish to bid on any item days before it ends - as a buyer you are actually setting the price higher for yourself in the long run. If you are smart, you'll check in with your item over time until it's close to ending - and then put in your max bid. I'll do the same. I've been "out-sniped" many times because I wasn't willing to pay more, and someone else was. Oh well, that's bidding. And it's ridiculous to say that it's not fair or that snipers are scaming the seller. EVERYONE's trying to get something on the cheap - otherwise you'd just go to a retail store on-line and pay full-price. And if the item was really worth it to you, you'd be just a diligent as a sniper and being PAYING ATTENTION in the final minutes.
What's the big deal? Just put the maximum you are prepared to pay.The whole point is that it is the MAXIMUM you are prepared to pay. If that is 50 dollars and 50 cents, then that is what you should be putting and no more than that!
How interesting all these replies are anonymous?Meanwhile nothing wrong with bidding at last minute, normal auction behavior as far as I can tell.
Encouraging more sniping to fight sniping is not cool. Everyone who complains here and everywhere else needs to complain to Ebay! Ebay should care about their sellers! They slant everything to the buyers benefit. Sellers expect to get a respectable price for their item. Snipers keep the prices down and that only makes Ebay less money too! Snipers don't put in bids while the auction is going on for a week, they only wait until the last second and don't play the auction game at all. I'm sick of watching 4 bidders place bids over the week and try to one up each other trying to be the highest and win, and then some jerk who hasn't put in a bid yet comes in at the last second and wins my item. I don't want my item to go to a jerk sniper. I want one of the other guys who put in bids to get it. Ebay sure as hell jumped on people for doing "shill bidding" (having a friend put in a bid to get your item to a respectable FAIR price) to fight the snippers. They will punish you in a second for that, but they don't care about snippers. They don't care about sellers and I can't wait for one of these other auction sites to take over the market.you should re think your comments. if you want the most for an item, leave the snipers alone and let them set the market price- which is what we do. if i win the auction, i was the highest bidder and thats that. after all, it is the second highest bidder that sets the price. if they weren't trying to get such a cheap deal and proxy what they are willing to pay, the final price goes up! i take the time to research the items, get an idea of what i am willing to pay, and place my bid. If i loose, i didn't bid enough. either way, the seller gets one more bid increment and thus more money. if you want to be fair to your bidders, put a fair price for a buy it now and just let them have it. if you are trying to give an experience to your customers, give them cash for free...but whatever you do, think about what sets the highest price for a seller-bids no matter what time they are entered. it sounds to me that you have low balling bidders that are timid and cant just enter a proxy. This is keeping your selling prices down, not snipers. snipers are pushing up your selling prices. if the sniper wasn't there, your item would sell for less because of cheapskates. of course they complain that they are losing auctions- because they are too cheap to proxy bid accordingly. final thought, a sniper does not show up at the last minute and place a one increment bid, we enter a proxy bid up to the amount we are willing to pay. if the low ballers entered a proxy at any stage of the auction, the outcome would be determined at auction win, and the final price set. Think about it, i mean think!!Um, shill bidding is fraud. Illegal. It is moronic to defend that and attack sniping. If you 'play the auction game' you will never get a good deal. It is a mistake to view auctions as something to be won or lost. Value the item before you bid, and bid at that valuation. If you do that, you will always get the deals you want, and you will lose the items that become bad value. Perfect, surely?Kristi,
So you're saying a bidder that gave the highest price for your item is a jerk and you would rather see your item go to a bidder who bid less?? Does that make sense? I want my item to go to the highest bidder period.
--Victor
Hi to all. I am a sniper. I snipe because that's the way the game is set up. It's Ebay's site. It's Ebay's rules. Every single seller who decides to sell on Ebay should understand this, because they have to agree to the rules before they place an item for sale. The same is true for buyers.I'm not exactly sure when we became a nation of whiners, but we sure are. Read the agreement you signed. It authorizes me to come in at the last minute and outbid you. It authorizes you to do the same thing. I would hate to play poker against some of you whiners. You'd complain about me bluffing, too. No doubt!
1) Sniping avoid bidding wars. So the price doesn't run up.2) Sniping lets you beat all the stupid whiners.How does this work? Well, many (stupid) people that are going to whine about losing to snipers are really just trying to find others to fault their own loss.All you need to do is put in a higher bid and you will beat a sniper. Snipers shouldn't effect you at all. Let's there's an item you want. YOU decide on your own, this is worth maybe $50, and $50 only. If it's anymore, you will not pay for it. Not even at $50.25. Then, once you have decided that, you enter $50. So even if a sniper comes along, they enter $30 at the last second, you will beat him anyway. So how does a sniper effect you?If, let's say, a sniper comes and bids $50.25, wellA) You wouldn't have paid more than $50 exactly anywayB) If you were willing to pay $50.50 to beat that sniper, then why didn't you put $50.50 to begin with?See how this is a stupid logic to complain and whine about snipers, trying to make them as scapegoats for your own loss for not bidding high enough.You are correct, but mots whiners only realize they were willing to bid more only AFTER they have lost. Anybody willing to put in their highest price is a fool and wants to overpay. There are bidders called recreational bidders that simply bid on an item just to see how high a price some fool has actually put in. It is my opinion that anyone who bids 49.99, 54.99, 56.99,..... and continues up the ladder is just bidding to pass the time. That is the major reason I only snipe.
--Victor
It never fails to shock me how little people know, yet are willing to share this lack of, or 'disinformation' with others. Muppets!
There are a good on-line multi-site sniper for eBay and Delcampe auctions called Snippy's.
You do not need any software, just connect on snippys.net
And of course it is possible to try it free !
This article is fraudulently misrepresented. I am a full-time office worker & intensely study as well. My day start at 5.00am (morning running) to 10pm. I do not have time to sit in front of the laptop to place HIGHER bid before the time end, which is variable.
I have been using a service bidnip, which I called an agent to place the MAXIMUM bid I am prepared to pay for the item on my behalf. And I am happy to pay for this service as well, 50p for a successful bid. What is the difference between the HIGHER and the MAXIMUM? You answer this yourself.
Let me keep it short, no one in their right mind who comes to an auction and let the seller and others know their maximum bid. I found out that all the losing bidders, who lost the auctions, did not put a fair price for the item.
More comments
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.