Thread: Ebay sniping and you...

So I am new to buying things off of ebay as well as a newb with razors...as most decent razors are out of my price range before bidding time, I have only bid on a couple things on the bay, (there was a razor I wanted to get for my brother for his birthday, the blade was etched "duke" which is his nickname) yet it seems that even if I am the highest bidder with 5 seconds left on the clock, I am still outbid.

And then I read about sniping. It could be that someone was watching the items as well as I was, and got in manual bids with only seconds to go. Yet it is the idea/prospect of bidding against a software program that frustrates me, when all as said and done, humans aren't as fast as software, and I believe it does put those who are bidding manually at a disadvantage.

If there is something that I want, is this the way that I am going to have to go in order to get it? Must I use a sniping program to win items off of the bay? I don't really want to, as I don't really want to have a distinct advantage over other bidders, but I will if I have to. I am not trying to critisize those who use them, so please don't take it personally, these are just some initial, honest frustrations from a newb. Be honest, am I misguided in my feelings on this, and making a mountian out of a molehill?

Sniping and manually using Ebay to bid basically comes down to the same thing. Place the bid for the maximum you are willing to pay for an item, then wait for the auction to end.

If you bid a max of $50 on an item with no bids, you bid will be the lowest price for that particular auction. It may start at $9.99. It will not start at $50.

If someone bids against you, with a bid of $12, Ebay automatically places a bid for you above the new bid, for $13.

If someone bids against you, with a bid of $51, you are now out bid. This is because your max was $50.

Sniping works the same way, except doesn't place the first bid until moments before the auction ends.

The trick is that ebay places emphasis on early bids. So if you put in a max bid of $50 and someone has a snipe set at $50 for the same item, you will win if you place your bid through the manual ebay bidding format, because you placed your bid potentially days earlier.

Hope this helps.

Since eBay auctions have a set ending time, there is no practical way to prevent sniping. The only solution I have found to combat snipers such as myself is to decide what I am willing to pay and then bid that amount. I have no desire to give you time to think about outbidding me. If you are basing your bids in a particular auction off of other people's bids in that same auction, then you must be prepared to accept the consequences of them catching on to what you are doing

I am an unapologetic sniper. I see no sense in driving the price of an item up early just so I have the dubious pleasure of seeing myself listed as the high bidder. I want to see that after the auction is ended and pay as little as possible.

Another advantage in sniping is that by manually sniping with 3 or 4 seconds to go I am not tempted to increase my bid as I might be if I had the time to put another bid in. I lose a lot of them because of that but I save money and I don't really need another razor anyway. Plus I get the adrenaline rush in the last few seconds.

Similar to Jimmy, I find that sniping helps me both pay a lower price and, more significantly, keeps me from going outside my budget. If I set a snipe and then wait until after the auction ends I'm far less likely to say "well, I can pay $5 more".

I can say from experience that I own a few items that I won by raison d'etre on ebay manually, $5 at a time....that are worth WAY less than what I paid for them out of stubbornness. Usually when I lose something really cool (Anybody here see the amazing crystal-and-gilt Deo non fortuna seal a few years back?) I smart for a day or two, but am glad I didn't win it.

That said, sniping doesn't make my bid any higher, nor give me any competetive advantage against manual bidders other than that I am guaranteed never to get a razor that I really like but cannot afford at the price I paid.

Best of luck on the 'bay.

I am like a Somalia pirate when I bid.

I wait for just the right moment, then quickly move in, snipe and flee with my goods. Sometimes holding them up for ransom in the classifieds.

see rifleman in my sig line

I am also a countersniper

Originally Posted by gentlemanly

Yet it is the idea/prospect of bidding against a software program that frustrates me.

This excite me! I like manually bidding!

Thanks for the responses guys, it is nice to get a different perspective on things. I can definitely see the advantage on a personal level (i.e. "far less likely to say "well, I can pay $5 more"") I can see that this actually would help to save money.....so, if one were to use a sniper...where would one go to set up something like that?

Gixen.com allows you several free snipes at any one time