Sniping services

[RedsFan1941]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

How does a sniping service keep me from shill bidding if the shill bidder realizes most of you are using sniping services and with 5 seconds to go just bids thousands higher on eBay to drag all of you up with him.

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

If I was shilling something and thought to myself "under no circumstances am I going to let this go for under $20,000" I have no clue how a sniping service is going to act as some kind of deterrence to me. If it is sitting at $18,000 with ten seconds to go I enter a bid for $20,000. I must be missing something.

Your post on April 24:

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Bid what a card is worth to you and not above that and you will never be defrauded.

[Snapolit1]

Ronnie -flattered that you spend so much time studying my past posts. Maybe I will publish them in a bound volume to save you time and effort.

I'm just trying to understand how a service works that I've never used and can't seem to understand what others see in it.

[swarmee]

Yeah, odd post from the OP. There are a bunch of reasons for and against using a sniping service.
Pros: Auction can close at 4am and you can still bid with seconds to go while you're sleeping.
Single bid at the end *reduces* the likelihood of being raised either by the consignor/owner or other bidders. Many only bid when they get the email from eBay saying "You're no longer the high bidder..."
If you get stressed out watching the end of auctions, it can reduce your blood pressure.

Cons: Sometimes snipes don't go through because eBay turns on their Captcha software to root out bots from bidding, and sniping services are by definition, bots. (Strong passwords can reduce the odds of your getting the captcha block, but this mainly seems to happen on Sunday nights which is when a lot of big cards get sold.)
You have to remember to change your password in the sniping service whenever you change it on eBay, or else they won't go through.
Some sniping services have had their own network outages and didn't make bids.

I have never signed up for one, since I prefer to watch the end of auctions, and if it's important enough, I'll even wake up in the middle of the night to bid. Bidding your max hours before the end time is just costing you more money.

[CobbSpikedMe]

I use a sniping service when I find an auction that I really want to win and don't want to have to worry about missing the end of the auction for any reason. I set my snipe and can forget it. The sniping service is free too. I just set my snipe at my max amount I'm willing to pay and that's it. It's convenience that I want, and I don't need to remember or put anything on hold just so I can sit there watching an eBay auction end on my phone.

And sniping (whether its a service you're using or you do it yourself) does save you money in some cases. Not all the time, but I'll gladly take the savings when it does.

AndyH

[Snapolit1]

I get the convenience factor! I said that already. Peter told me there have been thousands of posts about how it will protect me from being shilled. That's what I'm not getting.

I like watching auctions end provided it's not 3am.

[nolemmings]

It reduces some shilling, but not all.

It is also convenient when sellers are ending multiple auctions within seconds of one another or at the same time, and you want to get your max bid in on more than could be handled if you tried to do it manually.

It can be a secondary means of getting in a bid that you absolutely do not want to miss even if you are watching---kind of a fail-safe if your Internet fails, your computer hangs, your power goes out, etc.

Justsnipe let's you have a few free snipes each month or so--I forget because I do not use it all that much. I am glad to know that I can use it though, and have done so as recently as in the past 4-6 weeks.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

I get the convenience factor! I said that already. Peter told me there have been thousands of posts about how it will protect me from being shilled. That's what I'm not getting.

I like watching auctions end provided it's not 3am.

It won't protect you from all shilling as there are many ways to shill, and different reasons people do it. So if for example someone is intent on essentially establishing a reserve, there isn't anything you can do about it. But if you put your high bid out there during an auction, as opposed to doing it by snipe, people see it and can try to run you up and either outbid you and then retract, or outbid you and hope to push you higher, or if they are good with reading the increments, string bid and stop short and leave you at your max. If your bid isn't out there, they can't do any of this.

Maybe overall it doesn't make much difference, I don't know that anyone has that data, but it seems to make sense not to put a target on your back?

[Snapolit1]

Wouldn't someone who wants to effectively shill their auction just use a sniping service themselves?

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Wouldn't someone who wants to effectively shill their auction just use a sniping service themselves?

No because there is a much higher risk, I would think, of winning the auction that way whereas the intent is usually to push the bid as high as it goes without winning. Which, it seems to me, is easier to do with a bid on the books to shoot at.

[botn]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Wouldn't someone who wants to effectively shill their auction just use a sniping service themselves?

If they are simply trying to protect the item they could or might but use a sniping service they could also do that by simply dropping a bid in early. If they are trying to run up the perspective buyers or create false competition they would absolutely not use a sniping service.

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Wouldn't someone who wants to effectively shill their auction just use a sniping service themselves?

The huge danger with using a sniping service to shill an auction is that putting in a snipe does not allow time for a retraction. We have all seen eBay accounts that have dozens or hundreds of retractions. Last second shill bids are a dangerous game because the bid cannot be retracted. The shill bidder could accidentally win the auction with a last-second snipe.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Bored5000

The huge danger with using a sniping service to shill an auction is that putting in a snipe does not allow time for a retraction. We have all seen eBay accounts that have dozens or hundreds of retractions. Last second shill bids are a dangerous game because the bid cannot be retracted. The shill bidder could accidentally win the auction with a last-second snipe.

This is true but why would the shill bidder care if they won. Just another non paying bidder or Seller/shiller just cancel the transaction to avoid fees. Then relist using the same or different account.