Be prepared to get sniped

habs71 · December 30, 2003 10:42AM

more often. The local ABC station (7) just carried a story on eBay auction sniping..called it a "new concept". They highlighted ESnipe & Bid Slammer..told viewers how it works and how to sign up.

As a sidebar, they also mentioned that ESnipe CEO, Tom Campbell , purchased the then failing company on eBay.

Skip

Tipem · December 30, 2003 11:07AM

Skip,

Thanks for the good news!!!

Vic

qualitycards · December 30, 2003 11:27AM

When you think about it, if more bid via snipe or choose to bid earlier. It really won't affect your outcome too much.
Case in point, say you want a card and you'll bid or snipe $200.00. Whats the difference if another buyer will pay $250, be it on the 1st day or with 5 seconds remaining - you'll be topped either way...jay

dbj77 · December 30, 2003 12:13PM

Jay,
That's exactly how I look at it. I know going in just about how much I'm looking to spend on a card. I'm in no hurry to get into a bidding war with other buyers. So if I see a card I want, I'll bid on it whenever.

duner · December 30, 2003 2:34PM

the psychology behind sniping is the elimination of "heat of the moment bidding." many people have a high price in mind on day one that continues to increase as the days roll. there's no doubt in my mind if everyone sniped sellers would make less money....and bidders would have far fewer encounters regretting bidding unrational prices.

gemint · December 30, 2003 5:11PM

<< <i>As a sidebar, they also mentioned that ESnipe CEO, Tom Campbell , purchased the then failing company on eBay.

Skip >>

I wonder if he won the company on a snipe bid?

habs71 · December 30, 2003 5:45PM

<< <i>I wonder if he won the company on a snipe bid?

>>

Matter of fact they said he did!

toppsgun · December 31, 2003 12:36AM

Ever since signing up for a high speed internet connection, I've given up on sniping. It's just not worth the 1% esnipe was charging me.

Vargha · December 31, 2003 12:41AM

Ever since signing up for a high speed internet connection, I've given up on sniping. It's just not worth the 1% esnipe was charging me.

If only more people that I bid against thought like this, I'd be much happier.

packCollector · December 31, 2003 1:50AM

toppsgun , why not use a service that charges a fixed annual fee? i use powersnipe , I think I paid $40 for the year and it has never failed and I saved more than that on my 1st bid. just an idea, I don't know what the pricing structure is at the other services.

BigKidAtHeart · December 31, 2003 2:23AM

or use one of the ones
that do not charge you.

spacktrack · December 31, 2003 2:51AM

I use hammersnipe.com which is a free service limited to 10 snipes a month with an 8 or 10 second buffer, I can't remember. You can sign up for a monthly or yearly fee and get unlimited snipes and a 3 second buffer, but since I manually snipe anyway, it has not been worth it for me. Hammersnipe has never failed on any of the snipes I do place with them and I have set multiple snipes that end at the same time.

Might be worth a look for some.

Fabfrank · December 31, 2003 3:43AM

I used to hate snipers, but I've now joined the "dark side". I agree with Packcollector. Since I've joined I've won more auctions as well as won more of my auctions more cheaply (does that sound right:confused

.
I started noticing that certain people on Ebay were watching my bidding patterns and either bidding me up to my max or just outbidding me for items. No longer a problem with my esnipe account. I've figured out that I saving about 30% now on the auctions I'm winning

Rainman · December 31, 2003 4:22AM

beyond price (assuming you can actually get a decent price), what advantage does sniping have? for example, most of the cards i bid on aren't true 1/1s- in fact, the same card often appears weekly from another seller...and so what i do is set my "max" on all of those cards i see at any given time (say psa 10 mcgwire 85 topps) and what happens, happens. i've noticed some bidders bid on the same items i do- and a few times i believe i got beaten by the snipe..which in that case was fine as i got the card cheaper a short while later. and yes, i'm one of the dialupdinosaurs, but it's not really an issue since i rarely pull the trigger at the very last minute

Fabfrank · December 31, 2003 5:09AM

Rainman- I was a doubter too. I than tried Esnipe on the free 2 week offer. At the time I was a strong buyer of 64 Philly football. I would bid on items and my top was usually $25-$30 on PSAS 8 commons. If I bid on 20 cards I would win maybe 5-7 cards at my top price. I would notice many of the same names in the bid historyeither just beating me out, or driving my bid up to the max. The first week I used Esnipe I bid on 20 cards and won 15 of them at an average price of $16 per card. I've been hooked ever since and it has continually saved me money. I still put my max bid in through Esnipe, but now no one knows what I'm buying till after the auction. If I win, it's usually below my max. If I don't win, I wait for the next time the item is offered. It really is a no lose situation.

Tipem · December 31, 2003 9:18AM

Rainman,

I am a diehard sniper and I too believe that it has saved me a lot of money.I see certain people bidding on the cards that I bid on and I always wondered if they were checking my bidder list.I admit that there are certain people that I check their bidder list on.I don't have the time to look at all the things that I might have an interest in but I do know a few bidders that seem to spend large amounts of time searching e-bay.I have a short list of 6 or so that I find very thorough and they have led me to a few bargains.It is amazing how much time some people seem to spend on e-bay.While I don't single out anyone in particular to snipe,checking out what others are bidding on is a very efficient way to weed through all the garbage that is out there.I find that there seem to be fewer bidders on some auctions that I snipe than there used to be.

Vic

Be prepared to get sniped

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