Why the last second bid....................

[Exhibitman]

I snipe on Ebay so I don't get shilled up. I am sbsolutely convinced that I get items cheaper--sometimes a lot cheaper--with a snipe than with a max bid. And I never miss stuff with a snipe. I once forgot about a really major item for my collection and missed it because I didn't have a sniping program in place. Not gonna do that again.

I often wait to the last to bid on items in a regular auction because I don't necessarily know my budget allocation until I get KO'd on some items of higher priorities.

[theseeker]

As always some really insightful replies. Thanks.

This has brought me to a few other related questions. Sniper software? Any recommendations and how does it work?

Also, on several occasions I have won an auction on Ebay at exactly my maximum bid (note: I always make it a odd number total.) Could shilling possibly be this precise?

[David W]

If it's something I really want that is going to be more than $30 or so, I just snipe at the end, saves me being run up or losing the auction for $30.05.

If it's something I don't care if I win or lose, I'll just throw a bid on there for about half what I think it's worth, and I usually win about 25% or so of those items, usually cheaper items.

[D. Bergin]

As a long-time Ebay seller I'd like to think most of these accusations of shilling are just buyer paranoia. I'm sure it does go on here and there, but as someone who has run thousands of auctions over the years, I would hope I'm not in the minority in thinking my reputation is more important then running up an item a few extra dollars with a fake account.

What sniping has done is drive the price down in many areas, because not nearly as many bidding wars go on as used to. I remember the good old days of Ebay selling, before bidding ID's became private, in watching two bidding competitors who you know didn't like each other, drive up the price of an item throughout the course of the week.

As a seller, I would love for Ebay to make bidders identities public again. Would end all these constant accusations of every seller on Ebay shilling up their auctions, and might bring back a little competitive spirit between bidding rivals. Not as much as before because of sniping software, but enough to get the juices flowing, I think.

[Mrc32]

Had a snipe set for $30 on a card this past weekend. Snipe went off. I ended up winning it for $19.

Had I bid $30 a day or two before the end of the auction, I'm sure the other people who were bidding would have tried to outbid me.

Pretty much common sense.

[mintacular]

I use GIXEN, no problems and cheap $6 year, as long as you aren't snipping on hundreds of lots, I think you can have 10-20 snipes set at any given time.

http://www.gixen.com

[Robextend]

Agree with Jeff and Adam completely. I was very active on Ebay for a couple years before I started to use a sniping service and I know that I have saved myself some money. If I win great, because I will get the item for what I want to pay or less...if I lose no big deal because the item will have went for more than I was willing to pay.

I also use Gavelsnipe, never really had a problem with it.

[DixieBaseball]

I never put a top bid in and let it sit there for 7-10 days so the seller or even an overactive competitive bidder will run it up to beat me out or take the bid to my high bid, so I can pay more... Perfect example was last week, I bid on a card that I was a bit indifferent on for sale on ebay, so I put a bid in on day 1 of $222 and let it set for 7 days, and wouldn't you know it, on the last day of bidding a bidder with 0 feedback outbids me at $223, then within 12 hours of the auction ending, the seller sends me a 2nd chance offer to buy the item. I reported the seller to Ebay, and didn't buy the card for $222, which was my original high bid. I rarely bid like this, but occassionally will put a soft bid in to track a card or see what happens, and I feel that about 1/3 ro 1/2 the time I put a top bid in early, it is inevitable my bid gets beat or run up to the top. I rarely lose out when I put a last second bid in, and I generally get the card for way less than expected. I have bought thousands of items on ebay, and to me there is only one way to bid on ebay to make sure you don't overpay. That is to bid in the final seconds whether it be sniping or just popping a bid in...

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I snipe on Ebay so I don't get shilled up. I am sbsolutely convinced that I get items cheaper--sometimes a lot cheaper--with a snipe than with a max bid. And I never miss stuff with a snipe. I once forgot about a really major item for my collection and missed it because I didn't have a sniping program in place. Not gonna do that again.

I often wait to the last to bid on items in a regular auction because I don't necessarily know my budget allocation until I get KO'd on some items of higher priorities.

I wholeheartedly with Adam.....for the exact same reasons. However, I use a manual snipe for the items I am really interested in.

MWheat

[bobbyw8469]

I like BIDNIP. They are very cheap (no percentage of your win, unlike some of the others), and they only debit you if you win.

[slidekellyslide]

Gavelsnipe is easy and free..I've won hundreds of items sniping with that program over the years. I snipe for a couple of reasons...one is because I don't want to get my bid run up over the course of 7 days, and two is because sometimes I forget about an item on ebay...many times I'll win an item that I completely forgot about and am thankful that I had set a snipe on it...case in point the other day I won a lot of 20 Casey Stengel press photos for the opening bid and had completely forgotten about that lot..I set my snipe right away when I saw it listed.