How many use "snipe" services

Nicky

I am curious to see how many of us use snipe services such as Esnipe? I have been using Esnipe and think it is great! What other snipe services exist?

mikeschmidt

esnipe is my fave

bobsbbcards

<< <i>esnipe is my fave >>


Mine too.

rbeaton

I snipe...

Robert

Southsider

Another esniper here.

jimtb

I esnipe. Only one bid not placed in over six months.
Jim

Aknot

I tried it once then never used it after the initial time.

jvineyard

Auctionstealer. They have a free service limited to a few snipes a week, or unlimited usage for 8.95 a month.

onlychild

I use auctionsnipe on each & every auction. It's essential. Hasn't let me down yet.

coach30

Most auctions are decided in the last few seconds. Esnipe allows you to decide what you want to bid and then forget about it, instead of sitting next to your computer trying to time your bid. For me the only way to go!

VMFA115

I use JustSnipe most of the time...no problems.
Dave C.

interchanges

Esnipe is also nice cuz you can go over your limit and they're not hard asses about being paid.

It still suprises me that many veteran ebayers do not use it. They just keep bidding it up all week long.

Cubfan

I use the free auctionstealer as well and have only had 1 problem in over 500 snipes.

Does esnipe have a free program also?




Keith

Vargha

JustSnipe

ZodiacMindwarp

I have never used a snipe service but I learned a long time ago the benefits of placing bids during the closing moments. I used to hate when people sniped and I couldn't figure out how they were able to place bids with exactly 5 seconds remaining on every auction I was bidding on.

ydsotter

Auctionsniper... works like a charm

Nicky

Better question: Is there anybody that does not use Snipe services on Ebay?

JonB

I just "manually" snipe. I always just place my bid in the last 3-7 seconds of the auction.

ctsoxfan

What would it be like if every single bidder entered his bid via a snipe service? You would have listings sitting dormant for a week, and then furious computer bidding in the last few seconds...I wonder how many sellers would nervously pull their listings with a few minutes to go rather than give their items away. Sniping was a cool thing when fewer people knew about it and used it.

aro13

Esnipe. It only failed me once on a PSA 3 Joe Lopchick Sports King card.

HCS

I use Auctionblitz after esnipe failed me on 2 different occassions. It has been nearly a year since I started using Auctionblitz with, knock on wood, zero failures.

mudflap02

I use bidnapper. Is there some sort of benefit with esnipe I don't know about? Seems to me like they all do the same thing, but for varying amounts of cash.

liffeystynx

I feel kinda guilty confessing this in the face of such expertise, but ... (gulp) ... I have never sniped and don't plan to.

When I see a card I like, I work out what I want to spend on it. At that stage, I would far prefer to know whether I am at the races or not, and if not, to move on. So I place my bid and if outbid immediately, track the final price and revise my bidding next time out. If I am high bidder, of course, I am then frequently disappointed when a sniper gets me in the end (as it were). But I rationalize this with the thought that their greater need or deeper pockets would have beaten me one way or the other. I am patient enough not to get drawn into bidding wars and quite frequently will end up with an equally acceptable card at a far cheaper price.

Now that said, I have yet to have the experience of being close to completion on a set and seeing THAT card dangling tantalizingly out there. In that circumstance ... who's to say?

I would be delighted if some veteran sharpshooters want to patiently point out the error of my ways

Jonathan

bobsbbcards

<< <i>I feel kinda guilty confessing this in the face of such expertise, but ... (gulp) ... I have never sniped and don't plan to. >>


Throw five hail mary's and your sins will be forgiven.

Your bidding philosophy is exactly correct if you are bidding against snipers or other logical bidders such as yourself. If everybody bid once and only once, and bid the highest amount they would be willing to pay, the world would be a better place. I like to think of this "highest bid" as an amount where if you win you don't want the wife to know but you are still happy. If somebody bids one penny more than this magical amount, you go "Whew, I couldn't afford that anyway. Now, where's my beer?"

The problem with your approach is what I like to call "slightly odd bidders". If you bid before a "slightly odd bidder" or SOB, you are in danger. When an SOB bids, they like to bid a very low amount because they want a "deal". When your "highest bid" again becomes the top bid (since they bid low), they get annoyed and bid again. They will do this again and again, never thinking about whether this is their "highest bid" or not. These SOBs usually frequent estate auctions and seem to like raising their hand lots of times with lots of different bids in order to draw attention to themselves ("Look at me! I'm bidding. Lookit, lookit, lookit!") The end result of an SOBs bidding patterns is they will either bid you up to a higher level than you could have gotten the item for if you had sniped, or heaven forbid, they might win the item, feel happy and smug for a while, then when they realize what they have done they will jump in front of a train (making bidding easier for you next time but delaying all of those nice people on the train).

If the SOB had bid first, they would have been happy ("Lookit, lookit, lookit...I have the high bid...are you lookiting?") until six seconds before the end of the auction where you would have then placed your "highest bid" and gotten the item for $1.00 more than the SOBs bid.

Bob

liffeystynx

Bob,

Your argument is extraordinarily persuasive!

Seriously, in people's experience, are there many SOBs out there?

Jonathan

jrdolan

It's nice that the success rate is so high, but sometimes the snipe does NOT fire, or perhaps fires too late because there was a fluke slowdown on eBay or in the connection. Then of course you have the hair-pulling feeling of seeing that your card of cards went for half of your snipe max, because you didn't lay down a bid the usual way.

On cards I need that only show up every few months or so, I dare not rely on a snipe alone. I make sure to manually bid my max price minus a certain amount within a minute of the end, and then hope my max snipe outbids anyone who might outbid ME.

VMFA115

Question for those that don't snipe...can I assume you have a broadband connection as a landline would be so slow? Even DSL can be slow turnaround.
Dave C.

jrdolan

Even broadband is too slow if eBay gets bogged down. As for dialup, I can't imagine effectively sniping with it. If I had only dialup or a slow connection, as I have had when traveling, I would try to manually bid my max within a minute or two of the end and hope my proxy holds up.

theBobs

snipe or die

PSARich

Don't snipe. Just place my bid at my max and let others beat it if they want.

theBobs

nice icon you got there PSArich

Tipem

Snipe,Snipe,Snipe,Snipe Snipe,


Is there any other way? I haven't placed a manual bid in over a year.



Vic


Edited to add:

Another reason to snipe is to prevent others from seeing what you are bidding on.I frequently check certain bidders to see what they are bidding on as they are knowledgeable on the set that I am bidding on.I won a real low pop card the other day that was graded by SGC that should crossover and probably wouldn't have seen it otherwise.It will probably save me $300 or so.I don't do this to undercut others but it saves me a ton of time searching for cards.It is amazing the time that some guys spend on the computer searching for cards that are listed wrong or high end cards that I might have missed.When you place an early bid,it shows up in your bid history for all to see.

PSARich

Yes Bobs...I admire yours to the max. Thanks for the compliment!

theBobs

At the risk of hijacking the thread, here is an image for PSARich Its nicer than the icon image which has a few board dings.

Buccaneer

Having just been sniped out of that (31) 1961T PSA7 lot, I think it doesn't matter as far as actual bidding...if you are going to be around. $268 was the highest I would go and of course, the snipe came in at +$5. Even it was a manual bid, it wouldn't have been any different. The only advantage I see to sniping if you are not going to be around at the end or forgot about (which I do). I think it would be too dangerous to use sniping for an automatic bidding war because at this point, there are no cards I "need" to get. Every card I need for my sets will be available in the future and most at the same or lower prices.