How To Win An Ebay Auction, For Doubters Of Snipe Eficacy

[JonSzanto]

So, sniping is a strategy that relies on naive bidders?

 

No, not primarily. Naive or uneducated participants in auctions can be unsuccessful for many reasons, losing a bid to a last-minute snipe would be just one, and not the most common.

 

 

Sounds like a form of class warfare. The savvy vs the naive. Perhaps that's why some feel there is a degree of "unfairness" about sniping.

 

Oh, please. I am using the tool right in front of me - the computer - to assist me in a computer-hosted and driven online auction. It isn't naivete if someone doesn't want to either use or even understand that tool, it is simply a lack of interest in educating themselves. And not using a snipe does not mean you are guaranteed to lose: if you hit that "Enter" key a couple seconds before close and you have the highest bid, you'll win - snipes or no snipes.

 

What seems naive to me is willfully turning away from a legal and ethical manner of bidding that automates those elements that can be automated. All it can do is place the bid you want to make at the time you want to make it.

 

I think I need to stop this. It seems like I type the same thing every 6 months or so.

[mhosea]

So, sniping is a strategy that relies on naive bidders? If everyone used a snipe program no bids would be seen until the last few minutes, depriving snipers of valuable information.

 

If everyone sniped, snipers would be deprived of nothing information-wise. I don't pay any attention to what the current price of the auction is before it sells. I check the history of similar sold items! The people who would be deprived of information are the naive bidders who were expecting better informed bidders to provide them with an indication of how much the item is worth. Sniping is a strategy that exposes the bidder to the least risk and holds his cards closest to the chest. You are under no obligation to help out your auction opponents. When you have an early bid "probed", you'll see the error of your ways, and feel it. You'll probably feel like they did something "wrong", but in fact, they're just doing their thing, you're doing your thing, and snipers are doing their thing, and all of it is part of the game. Anybody can win on eBay with any reasonable strategy, most likely, but with different average success rates and different average final auction prices. What I think naive bidders don't realize is that experienced bidders lose a lot of auctions by bidding more or less what they think the item ought to sell for. I lose a lot more than I win. If you approach eBay thinking you should be able just to win at a bargain price, well, that is naive. Bargains abound, but you can't just expect them to happen every time. When they happen, they happen. But that probably won't be your experience most of the time, no matter how you bid.

Edited November 19, 2014 by mhosea

[mirosc]

 

So you don't bid the maximum you're willing to pay?

 

--Daniel

 

 

No. Because then I would pay more than it's actually worth

 

The fun part is that Ebay is different in each country. While Ebay-US tolerates snipers, here in Germany Ebay had forbidden sniping programs in its terms of service and even taken lots of legal steps against selling and distributing sniping programs, including several court proceedings. Only this year in March they changed the terms of service and there's no word about sniping agents anymore.

The times they are a changin'

[KBeezie]

I use website based Auctionsniper.com. It should work fine on a Mac. (They have an app but I don't use it.)

 

Your first 3 successful (winning) snipes are free. If you join for the 3 free and use my nickname Connieldr, I get 3 free too.

 

I've used them for a few years now, never a glitch, and, I actually pay their 1% of the close price (up to a dollar paid or something like that) IF I

run out of free snipes.

 

I will normally hand fire my shots but sometimes middle of the night closes or a wonky wifi has me use AS.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

How long ago did eBay allow such apps?

[MarcShiman]

Suppose a pen is listed on Ebay on a 7 day auction has 6 hours remaining. 27 bids have brought the price to $134. Digging deeper, you find that there were actually 9 unique bidders, several of them with feedback of more than 1000. What does this tell you about what you should bid?

 

Absolutely nothing. Zero. Zilch. Its totally useless, and I love bidding against people who think they can "read" this information. They are lambs.

 

There was a time when Ebay showed your full handle, and people definitely jumped on when they recognized names that were important dealers. THAT strikes me as unfair, and if for no other reason justifies sniping.

 

For the life of me, I can't understand what someone gains from raising a bid, "feeling out the high bid", "probing" $5 at a time. The last time I put in an early high bid (several years ago), was when I put in a $120 bid on a pen that was at $20. On the last day I watched it go $25...$30....$35....$40 (all the same bidder). I won it at $110. If I had sniped that same pen, I would have probably won it for $25.

 

The idea that you can't make a last second adjustment to a snipe bid is false too - you can't lower it or cancel it, but if you put in a $250 snipe, and with 35 seconds left the bid is $240, just manually put in a $300 bid if you've changed your mind - the snipe won't override that.

 

You think snipers are unfair? You want to beat a sniper? Bid more. Rocket science, I suppose.

[gwyneddd]

I had bid on the following pen, because I need a new Laureat section. Note the bids and how closely the auction was sniped and won, by someone else.

 

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=141463880355&_trksid=p2060778.m1431.l2765

 

The item :

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Old-Stock-Waterman-Laureat-Black-Gold-Trim-Fountain-Pen-/141463880355?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20efe782a3#ht_723wt_728

 

I couldn't get to the "original listing" on this, probably because I was looking at it from my "didn't win" topic.

 

I wonder that everyone doesn't at least bid near the end. Bidding it up during a week makes little sense to me. It's not going at that price, and it insures you'll all pay more.

[OcalaFlGuy]

 

I wonder that everyone doesn't at least bid near the end. Bidding it up during a week makes little sense to me. It's not going at that price, and it insures you'll all pay more.

 

Bingeux!

 

Perhaps the most befuddling point is that there is so much confusion and argument over what is Really Such A Simple concept...

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[Chrissy]

Goofbid snipes are always free....

[gweimer1]

For some, it's the thrill of the chase. That's part of what I have been alluding to - we, as a whole, are not interested in doing our own legwork. We willingly turn over the menial tasks to automated agents, removing us from any real involvement. It's not just eBay bidding, but a lot of things, in general.

[kirchh]

For some, it's the thrill of the chase. That's part of what I have been alluding to - we, as a whole, are not interested in doing our own legwork. We willingly turn over the menial tasks to automated agents, removing us from any real involvement. It's not just eBay bidding, but a lot of things, in general.

 

I don't understand. More sophisticated collectors tend to use the sniping technique, and they tend to do a good deal of legwork in preparation for ascertaining the amount of their bid. Arranging to be in front of a computer at a specific second in time to press a button isn't "legwork." Do you rely on an alarm clock for the menial task of waking you in the morning?

 

--Daniel

[Quantum]

It seems that this argument is more about price and not about actually losing in the last second. If you put in the price you are willing to pay and it doesn't change then if you win you win, if not then you wouldn't have no matter what someone did at the last second. Honestly if someone is willing to risk putting 100x the value of the item in a bid just to win no matter what then they certainly want the item far more than I do. You won't ever see me paying say $1000 for a pen on eBay that I can go to a restoration site and buy for $300, which I have seen similar situations develop on eBay. In fact that's generally how I gauge my bids.

 

If it really boils down to feeling like you would win an item for cheaper than it actually auctions for if sniping were not allowed I think that is a mistaken assumption. The only thing they could do would be to end bidding before the end of the auction, in which the timing of the snipe would simply change, or the auction would keep going and the price would continue to rise, either way if your max bid is lower you will still lose.

[MarcShiman]

My sense is that these are two groups with different purposes talking across each other. On the one hand, we have people, like me, who go to Ebay to get pens to either collect or resell. Then you have people who go up on Ebay to have fun (the "thrill"). Sniping tends to kill the fun.

 

So, yeah - if you are accusing me and others that snipe of killing off your fun.. probably yes. But its not dirty or underhanded or whatever else you call it.

[kirchh]

My sense is that these are two groups with different purposes talking across each other. On the one hand, we have people, like me, who go to Ebay to get pens to either collect or resell. Then you have people who go up on Ebay to have fun (the "thrill"). Sniping tends to kill the fun.

 

So, yeah - if you are accusing me and others that snipe of killing off your fun.. probably yes. But its not dirty or underhanded or whatever else you call it.

 

I'm not sure I agree. The argument hasn't been made that snipers take the fun out of eBay; it's that they somehow win items unfairly. Furthermore, I don't agree that the two purposes are mutually exclusive -- far from it, in fact. I go to eBay to have a fun way to attempt to acquire items for my collection. I enjoy both the process and the occasional positive outcome.

 

--Daniel

[MarcShiman]

What I'm hypothesizing here is that some people are trying to replicate the excitement and anxiety of a live auction - which are fun, admittedly. The idea of trying to gain some sort of psychological edge, or get a "read" of the room is not something that's replicated in an Ebay auction that has a clock.

 

I think the claims of "unfairness" are just a redirection of frustration that people like me aren't willing to play the game that way. Its a wish that we would play the game their way despite their admission that sniping lends an obvious advantage over trying to guess what the highest bidder might bid and bidding $5 more. I could be very wrong - nothing new for me.

[mhosea]

I have fun, too. Often I'll watch the end of an auction even though my sniping program will take care of my bid. Sometimes I even re-think my maximum. But if my son asks me a math question, or if I start responding to some topic on a forum, I don't miss out entirely. If I had a lackey, he could handle it for me, but I don't, so I employ an electronic lackey.

 

I think the claims of "unfairness" are just a redirection of frustration that people like me aren't willing to play the game that way. Its a wish that we would play the game their way despite their admission that sniping lends an obvious advantage over trying to guess what the highest bidder might bid and bidding $5 more. I could be very wrong - nothing new for me.

You're not wrong.

Edited November 20, 2014 by mhosea

[Cryptos]

I have a couple of thoughts. If I go to the 'Bay looking to get a fantastic bargain then the only real factors involved are desirability and luck. Desirability because I hope I'm looking at something that nobody else wants but I do. Luck in that the item has somehow flown under the radar of everyone else.

 

On the other hand, assuming money wasn't a real big issue for me then I would be tempted to plunk $1000 (random high number) as a snipe on every pen that I wanted to buy just to almost guarantee I will beat the next highest bidder - actually I wonder how many collectors do just that?

 

The biggest thrill for me was finding something that nobody had noticed, keeping it quiet and snaffling away a bargain. In these days of easy access to information the chances of doing that are greatly reduced. In a way it's a shame for the junk show trawler that so many sellers are educating-up, so to speak. Remember those antique shows where someone bought a small pot at a 2nd hand store and it turned out to be a Ming vase? Nowadays the seller has probably googled the product to death before pricing it accordingly (if they haven't then they are fools IMO).

 

Anywho, that's just how I see it. I have abstained from eBay for more than 3 months now, but that was because of a growing distrust of sellers - some of them are just out and out crooks. It's no place for a newcomer to the secondary market, though not bad for those looking for current models.

 

My 2 cents. Worth as much too!

Edited November 20, 2014 by Cryptos

[JonSzanto]

Case in point:

 

I set a snipe for a pen today, as the auction would be closing somewhere within the first hour of my rehearsal, and conductors frown on too much cell phone activity when they are trying to create magic. Go figure.

 

I wanted this pen, but only if I could get it reasonable. I didn't need it to be a steal, but it wasn't important enough to put in a really high sum. I didn't win it, although the snipe program performed flawlessly. Someone simply had a higher maximum bid, and they got it for $1 more than my max. There was no unfairness, I didn't win simply because I placed a snipe (as some people seem to think every snipe wins), and the world has continued to turn.

Edited November 21, 2014 by JonSzanto

[lisadan]

...

 

I wanted this pen, but only if I could get it reasonable. I didn't need it to be a steal, but it wasn't important enough to put in a really high sum. I didn't win it, although the snipe program performed flawlessly. Someone simply had a higher maximum bid, and they got it for $1 more than my max. There was no unfairness, I didn't win simply because I placed a snipe (as some people seem to think every snipe wins), and the world has continued to turn.

 

I like that approach. I put the highest amount I am willing to pay, and don't get upset if someone else won it because they were willing to pay more for it, snipe or not. Of course I would love it to be a steal, who wouldn't, and there is always the competition element and the excitement, but at the end, for me an auction (any type) is just a means to purchase something that I don't have but want/need, for the price I am willing to pay.

[pajaro]

Now I will be the one disagreeing. I put a lot of thought into what I'm willing to pay for an item, but I also watch the patterns of bidding leading up to the close, and always have a very small price window to fudge with. I've pulled in a couple items that way by outbidding someone by a dime in the last second, and having my bid hit a couple seconds before the snipe. Yeah, I can do the same thing by sniping, but the snipe commits you with no option to adjust in the last couple minutes. I have let far more things go than anything else, because they went past my limit, even if the item eventually went for a fair price.

 

So...what's the "1-click bid" option? Is that simply a blind bid to become the top bidder?

 

You can adjust the snipe in the last few minutes. Just re-snipe.

[pajaro]

In my last analysis I will bid and snipe as I choose. For those of you whose reality is different, better luck next time.