Warning To Ebay Users ! Sniping

[Guest]

If most people did not know about this you should !!! because this has happened to myself always near the last second to winning a bid...

I know someone was using a snipe tool (auto bidding robot which bids in the last min) and ebay checked into this and said no but you can tell because :

time - 20:04:25

[LuvsGurl]

E-bay is all about knowing how to play the game. "Sniping" on e-bay has been fair play since day 1. I purchase from e-bay regularly and rarely ever lose. I don't even begin bidding on an item until the last minute of the auction and then I always bid in odd amounts.

Never bid a round number or a number that works out easily.

[Mischa]

congratulations, after YEARS of ebay being around, you finally figured out people use bots to get their bids??

[beallucanb]

I had the same problem bidding on e bay, I would rather strike a deal with the seller than bid on any item I want.

Then you know how much you are going to pay.

I sold something on e bay last year,, I adjusted the price to fit the sellers needs after talking to him, after he got the items he decided he didn't want to do the refinishing and launched an action against me freezing both my ebay and my pay pal accounts until he got what he wanted.

I would rather not sell on e bay,I buy only items that are fairly priced, instead of playing e bay scamming games, sorry you got caught up in there games.

[AutieAB]

So what you did wasn't sniping but what somebody else did 2 seconds earlier was? I don't get it. Nor do I see any evidence of using a bot.

When you bid on eBay, you should enter the maximum amount you're prepared to pay. eBay's system then places bids on your behalf up to the maximum you specified. This is called automatic bidding (or proxy bidding if you like). They have a lengthy explanation of how it works here:

http://pages.ebay.co...ic-bidding.html

Knowing how automatic bidding works, we can work out what happened.

• 20:04:25 - The high bid is

[belinda_sue_fox]

In other world breaking news, other people may bid on items you want.

[bbgirlmichelle]

http://www.esnipe.com/ <--- it's been allowing users to snipe eBay auctions since 1999. Nothing new here.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

If I get involved in auction items, I submit my max bid and let the Ebay system do it form me

I saw the price of an 1890 estate tiara that I would like to have had go up by a factor of 3+ in the last two minutes of bidding and not by large or midsize amounts, either. When the maniacs come out; duck and cover because it is going to be FLYING and fun to watch

[willnotwill]

You didn't lose because you sniped. You lost because you DIDN'T BID HIGH ENOUGH. If you bid high enough, it matters not when the final bid is placed. The point of sniping is to keep random idiots who don't bid their max, from running up your proxy bid. What you gain is the ability to out bid their lowball bid without tipping your hand to them as to what you might be willing to pay.

[Guest]

brand new tool is now being used to find your highest bid placed on Ebay !!!

all week i placed a bid on ebay and upto the last 2 seconds i was outbid and I was the only person who bidded on it and what was strange because i placed loads of maxmuim bids the username who won the item that during the day when i logged out of ebay my username was replaced with there name and not mine !!!

so it seemed no matter what i put in for the highest amount the person who used this new tool know my highest bid no matter what

[AutieAB]

so it seemed no matter what i put in for the highest amount the person who used this new tool know my highest bid no matter what

Somebody bid higher than you. That's how auctions work. Many people bid, one person wins - the odds are not in your favour unless you bid very high and pay up.

You're complaining that people are sniping you but in the example you gave above, you were sniping too! You came into the auction with a few seconds left and entered a bid that was three times more than the current high bid in an attempt to blow everybody else out of the water, leaving them no time to bid again. That's the very definition of sniping. It failed (because somebody sniped higher) and you didn't get the item. Move on!

[BabyLock]

Ebay Hints:

I participate in the sniping but do it on my terms. If my terms are not high enough then I lose. Fair enough.

What I do is bid on the item and then in the closing minutes of the auction I open another window on ebay to the item.

Now I see two windows for the item on my CRT. In the second window I place the maximum bid I would consider for

bidding on the item and click on "Place Bid" when the next window appears asking me to click and confirm my bid I

look at the first screen to watch the count down timer. I watch the timer and the bids as others knock themselves

out to out bid mine. Now I just wait until about 7-10 seconds before the bidding is up and return to the second window

and click on the "Confirm Bid" button if I feel I need to bid more to win.

Most of the time I win. By watching the count down timer and the bids being placed

I am able to determine if I am bidding enough for the item. If not then my maximum bid is not going to win.

One of the above posters said not to bid in round or even numbers i.e. $7.00 or $4.50. Bid at least over $0.50 and make it

an odd number i.e. for $7.00 make it $7.51 or $7.59 or $7.63. For the bid of $4.50 bid something like $5.07 or $5.09 or $5.13.

I have won bids at the last moment by 1 second and the exact same bid placed by someone else. First bid wins!

I have also lost bids that were close being beaten by a few odd cents.

Ebay bids less than a $1.00 require a bid increase of $0.05 or more to be acceptable

Bids more than $1.00 but less than $10.00 it is I believe $0.25

For $25.00 it is $2.50

For $100 it is $5.00

And so on and on.

Another factor to consider if the seller uses it is the counter that logs the number of visits to the auction item.

The higher the count - you should consider a rather high bid to succeed in getting the item. A lot of bidders

are looking at and may bid on the item. Watch this in the closing minutes by refreshing your screen. It will

jump one number every time you refresh the screen. But if it jumps more than 2 or more then you have

others looking (lurking) in the background as possible bidders.

Beware of bidders that nit-pick you with nickle and dime bids. Bid once and then come back at then end

with a final high bid. Those nit-pickers may be in calhoots with the seller to drive the auction bids up leaving

you with an overpriced (overbid) item.

Watch to see that the seller may have more than one item - wait and bid lower the next go around.

Check the sellers feedback (history) to see if he sold or did not sell the same item previously and for what amount.

If he did not sell and did not relist email the seller with an offer - sometimes this is successful.

The best bet is with the "BUY IT NOW" auctions. No competing bidding. Just simply you bought the item - pay for

it and it is yours no hasselling !

Another type of auction is the "MAKE OFFER" - bid somewhere between 50% up to the starting bid. You might be

a winner. Check for the sellers history on previous offers and bids for the item - clues as to what might be offered

for the sale. You can make ONLY -3- offers on an item then if you really want it then you must pony up the BID Price.

And lastly sometimes you win by losing. If the seller has more than one item up for auction and you don't win the

auction the seller may offer you a "SECOND CHANCE" auction to get the item at the highest bid that you placed.

You don't have to take the offer but you do have a chance to get it if you want it. You may even be able to negotiate

a lower price than what you bid - email the seller.

Hope this muddies things up and pulls the Wizards Curtin on things that you really should know about ebay !

I will probably never win an auction for diaper related goods now.

BabyLock

[willnotwill]

Do you understand how ebay proxy bidding works? Bid the maximum that you are willing. The only amount that will actually be shown is enough to beat out the next highest bidder. The reason people appear to just barely top your bid is that they really bid MUCH more than you but ebay only actually shows their bid to the point necessary to outbid you.

[hidden]

I was watching an auction last night that got too rich for my blood and wanted to see how it played out. Jumped $50 in the last 10 seconds! And that was from several bidders!

Looks like the auto bidding system and not a bot.

[Bettypooh]

You win a few and you lose a few but in the end Ebay always makes a profit- and a lot of it. I now only ebay items I can't find elsewhere, items that are being sold at a fixed price which I like, or items which will get here faster for a similar price than what others offer when time counts. I once got tangled up with collecting from a specific category and paid what I thought was a fair price for most of those items I won. Today half their value or more is gone and looking back I wish I'd never done that. Look at Ebay as a game to play instead of a store to shop at and you'll avoid problems.

Bettypooh

[Diapers4Me]

I love EBAY...bought tons of diapers on there ....and sold some too. Works just fine for me. Snipers are a fact of life....I snipe all the time...it is just how it works!

[Nat]

I have done some sniping on ebay but the problem is, I tend to forget about the auction so I forget to bid and the item is gone for good. I have had items sniped from me several times. But I don't get upset about it, I see it as I have my spending money still so i can get something else instead.

[willnotwill]

You don't lose because you were sniped, again you lose because you DIDN'T BID HIGH ENOUGH.

It's a fact of life that people have ALWAYS tended to bid at auction close. It doesn't matter if they are using snipe software or just sitting at their computer, it's a fact of life. Ebay isn't a "live" auction where you just keep bidding one increment over the opposing bidder until he gives up. You bid the maximum you are willing to pay. You are only on the hook for one bid increment over the the next highest bidder. All sniping does is keep you from tipping your hand to people who want to keep throwing small incremental bids in.

[WBDaddy]

If most people did not know about this you should !!! because this has happened to myself always near the last second to winning a bid...

I know someone was using a snipe tool (auto bidding robot which bids in the last min) and ebay checked into this and said no but you can tell because :

time - 20:04:25

[hidden]

I have sniped before. I plan to snipe again tomorrow night!

I've seen bids jump over $50 in the last 10 seconds of some high demand lots! Sniping happens!

[Kari]

I wanted to add something else to watch out for...

Although the snipe bots seems unfair and takes the fun out of a good auction, I don't think Ebay has a policy against it.

What does occasionally happen is Shill bidding.

Where someone has friends in different locations bidding up a price.

That's not against policy, that's against the law.

You can usually tell too if you watch their other auctions.

I was bidding on a ring once and knew it was a shill auction. I stopped bidding and told the seller why.

And Ebay doesn't really have any incintive to go after the questionable ones.

Just ones that get stupid and set up accounts in their dogs name. LOL

[ItchyTasty]

If you think bid sniping is bad think again...