Thread: eBay User, show yourself!

I use Bidnapper also and set it at 3 seconds.I usually enter my bids around the 3rd day and dont even usually pay much attention until bidnapper emails me with results.Happy New Year Gary

Tony makes a mental note to update his Bidnapper settings to 2 seconds now <g>


Tony

Originally Posted by Tony Miller

Tony makes a mental note to update his Bidnapper settings to 2 seconds now <g>


Tony

RT

I have tried just about everything out there.
Here's the deal, if you use a "dial-up" internet connection, I would use an online "web-based" sniping program.
If you have DSL, Cable, etc [constant] use a local program.
Here is what I use. Its FREE [Ok, now I got your attention!], and is actually... pretty good!

http://www.buyertools.com/index.php?content=home

MY eBay username= wash.dc

I kind of like doing the snipe personally. I just won an auction where my bid was 1 second before the end. That wasn't deliberate, I almost fumbled the deal and was just able to get in before the end.

Previous posters have made good points. Sniping is the surest way to win and biding up front is an invitation to a bidding war. As I said, I like to snipe, but I have been sniped too, or outbid. That's just the way it goes and no one should get hot under the collar for being on the short end of an auction.

Don in Ohio

Is sniping actually bidding? One needs to consider the consequences of an ebay in which everyone uses a snipping tool: out would go the NR listings and in would come high prices. Some argue that sniping is justified because newbies tend to raise prices. This idea is bogus. You don't need snipping tools to deal with new bidders. If you want to put in a proxy (maximum) bid, you can do just that. If you are overbid you are overbid. Sniping is not the best defense against newbies. If you are satisfied with the amount you are willing to pay, then you should be satisfied with the amount you are willing to pay. If a newbie wants to pay more, that's the newbie's problem. Some also argue that sniping can level the playing field. On the contrary, sniping is all about doing the just the opposite. On this view, it is asserted that a sniping tool is needed because one can't follow the auction. So one puts in his/her "best bid" and never looks at it again until the auction is over. You can put your "best bid" in anytime before the end of the auction. Sniping does not help you place your "best bid"; it is all about gaining an unfair advantage over the "best time" to bid. Just how close to the end would be best? .000003 seconds before the hammer drops? An auction reduced to only the last few milliseconds of bidding is not an auction. These types of stealth practices undermine the whole spirit of the bidding process. A genuine auction, where all bidding is transparent, is good for not only ebay, but also bidders and sellers.

Hal

Another group I am on hashes over the sniping/bidding thing daily, fair, unfair, cheating, not cheating. When it's all said and done, the highest bid wins, not the last bid.

Of course you have to remember, when you win an auction, you have just paid more than anyone else thought the item was worth <g>

Tony

Originally Posted by Tony Miller

Another group I am on hashes over the sniping/bidding thing daily, fair, unfair, cheating, not cheating. When it's all said and done, the highest bid wins, not the last bid.

Of course you have to remember, when you win an auction, you have just paid more than anyone else thought the item was worth <g>

Tony

Hi Tony,

My main point was simply if this new snipping software becomes the norm, then there will nolonger be any bidding. Debates about whether or not it is fair, unfair or cheating, the last bid or the highest bid, all beg the question of what an auction is all about. An auction without bidding is not an auction.

Cheers, Hal

If it becomes the norm though then a item will haved no bids until the last 30 secs and then the person with the highest amount put into the autosnipe wins. So the person who bidded the highest wins. Nothing wrong with that

Hi Max Incognito,

Nothing at all, but whether or not there is anything "wrong" with some sort of software competition winning the item is not my concern. It simply is not bidding and hence no longer an auction either. An auction involves a group of individuals bidding against known values. If no prices are available (regardless if it is 30 seconds for a millisecond till the hammer strikes) to be known to bidders with values concealed as they are by the snipping software until the very last second, you don't have an auction.

I wouldn't care to say there's anything "wrong" with that. However, I do think it's wrong to call it an auction or bidding. It's something else entirely.

Hal