Very Upset With Myself

[steve B]

Some of sniping is psychological, but there are a few real advantages.

it does limit the degree of shilling possible. Of course a dedicated seller could enter a shill at a fairly high price. Some do it to avoid paying for a reserve.

It also eliminates the "bid big then cancel to find the other bidders max" strategy (which I have never used even though it's possible)

Done manually it allows those of us with poorer organizational skills and/or less budget to make the decision to bid and how much at the last moment.
For example, I may have a few cards in watching, all of which I want and can afford. Say it's 5 T206s that I expect to be about $40 each. But then I see one listed that's maybe a tough back or a really nice one. If I've bid my max on the other 5 I have to continue as if I will win all of them. If I'm waiting to snipe I can pass them by freeing up budget for the more interesting one.
Yes, with a service I could cancel the outstanding snipes, but I'd be likely to forget or get busy with something else and end up with a problem. I've only used credit once for a collectible, and that was a once in a lifetime or two opportunity.

Doing it manually also allows a two tiered snipe. On a very few items I'll place a bid at what I think is full price at about 10 seconds, or as early as a few days before the end. And I have another waiting to use at somewhere under 5 seconds. (This might only be possible with a fast connection like cable) I only do this on stuff I really want, and the crazy bid is only there for those cases where my realistic max might fall slightly short. And it usually means I'm done buying for the month.

The downsides?
The biggest problem with doing it manually is forgetting or missing the end time. But as others have said there's usually another cool item coming up soon.

And you really have to bid your actual maximum which can be a bit of a budget buster if two people place fairly high bids. I've had that go both ways.

Steve B

[doug.goodman]

Erick (and Leon) are absolutely correct.

Looking at it from a purely logical perspective :

If you bid your maximum amount early, then future bidders who you have outbid know about it instantly and have a chance to bid again, which costs you money.

Bidding multiple time doesn't make sense for more reasons than I care to go into.

Bidding your highest amount at the last possible second means that the only people who will have time to out bid you are those who either already have or are doing using the same strategy, either way you lost, so get over it.

Let's say that you and another guy both want an item. He bids the minimum early and keeps an eye on the auction. If you bid early, he has time to rebid, and rebid again, and so do you. Eventually somebody wins. Price keeps going up. Seller is very happy.

If you waited until the last possible second and bid your maximum, he has no time to bid again and you win the item for the minimum plus one bid increment.

My method does not guarantee a win, but my method does guarantee that you spend as little money as possible.

Doug

[Exhibitman]

Shilling is the biggest reason to snipe. Since Ebay made it impossible to see who is bidding against you, it is open season for shilling. I usually put in a low bid to indicate that someone is interested in the card so the seller won't panic that the item won't sell, then set my real max as a snipe. I believe it has saved me a lot of money over the years.

Chipping away at a max bid is definitely real; I do it all the time. I often see an item that I would be willing to own at a certain price level but don't want enough to pay what I perceive to be full retail. If it has bids already I will sometimes whack away at the high bid a few times just to see if I can luck out and top it, running up the bid in the process. If that bidder set a snipe instead I would end up with the high bid at a lower tier and would stop bidding at that point.

Another use of sniping is bid coordination. I use auctionstealer, which allows you to create bid groups in which the first item to hit cancels the other bids on items in the group. Really useful when I definitely want at least one item of a group-like for a rare type card--but not necessarily all of them.

Finally, there are some circumstances in which I am not sure whether I want to commit to an item for whatever reason. Sniping lets me set up a bid so I don't forget the item [we all know how life can interfere with card shopping] but without really committing to it until the last minute.

[frankbmd]

I have not used the sniping programs, but do think chipping away at max bids is real. I prefer to place my max bid at 5-7 seconds before the end of the auction, the pre-snipe bid. This prevents manual bidders from topping me by rebidding. If I lose to Leon with his $10,000 max bids, so be it. But if I happen to match the snipe bid (and this has happened), my pre-snipe trumps the snipe.

As I tell my wife, if you lose at the casino, the money is no longer in your pocket, but if you lose to a snipe bid, you break even.

[teetwoohsix]

When I used to use ebay, I'd chip away at bids. Sometimes my "original" bottom line price would go out the window quickly, depending on "how bad" I wanted that card....and I didn't use a snipe program. But I see the point of snipe programs to deal with shill bidding....that makes sense.

Sincerely, Clayton

[CW]

All of the preceeding posts explaining the benefits of sniping, and the disadvantages of placing an early max bid, are right on the mark. Sniping is the only way to go, whether done manually or with a service. Anyone who fails to see the benefits of sniping on eBay are simply living in denial.