I use a Mac and wanted to know what everyone uses for a sniper program on ebay ?
thanks
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I use a Mac and wanted to know what everyone uses for a sniper program on ebay ?
thanks
I use EZsniper.com I have no complaints at all. I think it's like a dime a snipe, and that's if you win. If you lose, you pay nothing.
Chris L
No program for me. I like the adrenaline rush that comes as my finger hovers above the return key with 4 seconds to go. :mace:
JBidWatcher baby!!! It's free and works... especially on a Mac!
+1 JBidwhatcher Win XP and Vista
Thanks for the replys !
:D:hmmm::D
I use auctionsniper.com. I think they only allow a certain number of free snipes (counted as you win them) but I win so few auctions that I still have several snipes left after months of using it off and on
gixen.com for me, and it's free :)
+1 on gixen. It's free, It's reliable, and it is web based. I.e. no special software to install.
Nothing bu tpraise for it.
And it allows you to put snipes in group, meaning that you can configure it to snipe on multiple items, with the addition that if you win a certain combination of items, it doesn't bid on the others.
So if there are several ducks, and you want only one, you can put snipes on all of them and be sure that you end up with only 1.
+1 on Gixen
I used it for the first time yesterday and it won me the auction. Can't complain about that. Plus, as Bruno said, it's free, no progs to DL, and so far as I can tell reliable.
The logic behind "sniping" fails me, which is why I don't snipe or use a sniping program. I find an item I want. I place a bid on it for the maximum amount that the item is worth to me. Now since I'm the very first to place that amount for a bid (let's just say it's fifty bucks), as long as the item is currently going for less than fifty bucks, I win, even if someone places a sniping bid for fifty bucks with seconds remaining.
Now let's do scenario two. I don't place my fifty dollar bid early, I try to "snipe." The item is still only worth fifty bucks to me, so with three seconds left, I place my fifty dollar bid. And I lose. Because someone else did scenario one, and placed their fifty dollar max bid three days before me.
As long as you know exactly how much you are willing to pay for an item, your best bet is to place your max bid early in the auction. Placing it with seconds to go decreases your odds immensely.
OK... I want to use it as i am not aways around at the end of the auction... AND ....
why not place my highest bid and just wait? ... because sometimes bidding can draw more attention to an auction that some people may pass by or not notice.. sometimes people dont bother looking at something with zero bids as they feel if there are no bids it may be crap... no one else bid so maby they see something wrong....
bidding early can also start a bidding war... even in the last minute people will bid and sometimes bid more then they would have otherwise had it not been for a bunch of last minute bids. Hence the fear that if everyone else wants the item then it must be better then they originally thought or is that much more of a good deal.
Snipping allows you to put your max bid in early when you are thinking clearly and it does not drop the bid till the final seconds taking away the ability of others to outbid you... unless there sitting bid is higher. When that happens you are letting the item go for what you originally thought it was worth and was as high as you wanted to go and you can now move on to the next item ;)
Just the theroy that works for me :D
And luckily (for me, at least ;) ) the vast majority of auction bidders do exactly what you do; use a sniping program. This allows me to go ahead and place my fifty buck advance bid three days in advance and still be successful, cause everyone else waits til the last second to snipe.
Bottom line is: Highest bid wins. Sometimes that is the first bid, sometimes it is the last. Sniping allows you to watch the auction until the end and see if it has gotten a lot of attention so far. Usually if it is something worth sniping to me- I am putting in a snipe of over $50 higher than the current bid.
Edit: I did have something else written in here but I didn't want to disclose alllll my sniping secrets! lol
If everyone was completely rational, this would be as good a strategy as any. However, I think everyone knows that that is not or never will be the case.
Also, you would only beat out later bidders who either bid the same as you or their bid was not high enough above yours to meet eBay's minimum bid increment.
That is something else to keep in mind when scheduling a bid - the minimum bid increment for the amount that you schedule your snipe for.
One benefit with sniping that I have not seen pointed out - you can cancel your scheduled bid when there is as little as 6 minutes left in the auction, at least with hidbid, and I would assume most other sniping services.
I believe eBay and almost assuredly eBay sellers frown upon bid retractions.
I'm with you! As the minutes tick down, I practice counting as I refresh, to see how accurate my counting is. I try to get in with 5 seconds, or less, left on the clock. It's a game I play, and when I get it, I really get a rush. :tu
It's the child in me! I know there are really neat programs out there, but I just love the game. :shrug:
do the snipers ... gixen users ever consider that they have given up their Ebay security by giving out their password?
I would be especially cautious about gixen since it is free - ie no incentive to keep your password save -
There are accounts of people stealing ebay accounts .. they change the password and email address - then list a bunch of bogus items..
just beware !
I am on my second ebay account precisely because of this. I think it was sometime in 2004 or2005, soon after registering with some snipng programs, which were new back then, that I got an email from ebay closing my account since it was stolen, and the hacker, true enough, was selling a (likely fictitious) CAR on ebay with me as the seller!
Another thing to realize is that now your Paypal account is tied in to your ebay account. The hacker can also get in to your credit card and checking account, and whatever else you have on Paypal. I have a separate checking account I use for Paypal, as well as a credit card with a $500 limit that I use for this and all my online purchases, just in case.
I have used gixen for over a year now without incident. however i change my ebay password before and after each buying session... i might bid on say 10 razors at a time and after the auction ends... i change my password... so at worst i can only get nailed when the auctios are ongoing.
I have been using jbidwatcher for a couple years.
I bet if we all referred one another, we'd all end up with a lot of free snipes. ;)
According to the Gixen site they delete your password 48 hours after your bids are submitted.
So unless put in your snipes a while ahead of time and someone hacks them you're kind of safe. I suppose you'd also have to worry about the site itself but there comes a point where you're just being too suspicious.
Now I'm fine with ebay how it currently is. I use gixen and have nothing but good things to say about it. However...
The real solution would be to change the auction format. What is best (for sellers and buyers) is that any bid at the end of the auction automatically extends the auction time. So, with 30 seconds left, I place a bid. The system automatically extends the auction X minutes. This allows someone who is willing to pay more to outbid me.
Like I said, I like ebay how it is. But this system does eliminate the timing issue. It allows sellers to get the maximum price while letting any buyer who is determined enough to get it. It also mimics a real life auction much more closely.
Just throught I'd throw that out there.
But I still use gixen.
I use this awesome program called Ebay. I type in the amount that I want to bid, and it bids for me. If someone else bids and my bid is higher, it automaticly rebids for me up to the maximum amount that I specify. Amazing program.
This is what I use.
bj
I use Bidnapper.It works great and is inexpensive.
I use Myibay.com
it works as a extension on Firefox.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5571
I'm using eSnipe. You buy points, $10 gets you something on the order of 1,000 and the higher dollar amount of the item you win, the more points you pay. A thousand points lasts a long time! You can also set it as to when it "fires," be it 2 seconds before auction's end or 8 seconds, or whatever suits you.
justsnipe.com its free!
Sniping is just another result of Westerm civilization's relentless pursuit of shiny things at any price with a minimum of effort. Snipers suck.:chop:
The problem with putting in a high bid early...is that other people's emotions can cost you a lot of money.
Say I've got my eye on an item, and I bid $100.00
Somebody who is very emotional and caught up in the last few minutes of an auction might bid $50.00 with 5 minutes left..and then see he is outbid..and then look at the pictures again and bid $60.00, outbid again... finally he starts thinking about how he could force feed his kids ramen noodles for the next few days to save money..and so he bids $80.00 and is outbid again... now theres 30 seconds left and he says SCREW IT and bids $90.00, and then loses the auction to you, who now is paying $91.00
NOW --- you were willing to spend $100, right? we all know that. however, cheaper is good too, right? OK --- soo.... scenario 2:
Some guy bids $50.00 and he is winning the auction. He feels great and watches it all the way till 10 seconds are left and you fire your snipe for $100.00 and win the auction for $51.00
I'm not saying this happens every time -- but... it DOES HAPPEN OFTEN. people get caught up in the last few minutes of an auction and re-bid over and over again. In this scenario, your early bid may have cost you $40.00
This is of course assuming there are only 2 interested buyers :) But the same principle applies to auctions with more buyers as well!
If you understand how proxy bidding works then snipers are irrelevant to you as a buyer.
If you don't understand how proxy bidding works, then you are one of the reasons sniping exists.
eBay's Automatic Bidding System (Proxy Bidding)