How Many People Snipe

theczar

How many of you e-bay bidders snipe and how many put in their top bid and see what happens (or try to time them at the last second)?

Stone193

I like the 'snipe' method since many times I forget to bid and I've missed out on some bargains.

The debate on free vs. paid sniping is beyond my experience.

Happy Thanksgiving
mike

Griffins

look at the bid history of any auction, that should tell you.
I snipe virtually everything.

halosfan

I snipe everything I bid on ... I prefer the manual snipe

FRNAllStar

Snipe or be Sniped!

coachh

Beware the snipe.

pandrews

wesley snipes.. but joe rogan might kick his ass..

Brian48

I can honestly say I don't snipe. I just bid my MAX and be done with it. I figure the snipers will drive it up no matter what.

dgbaseball

Ditto what Brian48 said.

Stone193

Here's a classic thread on the ethics of sniping when Aknot was still here.

He later started sniping himself I believe. My memory on the issue is fuzzy.

mike

phreakydancin

Hands up everyone who has ever re-bid on an auction after placing their "max bid" and finding out it wasn't enough!

We've all been there. The problem with placing your max bid way ahead of time is that it gives everyone else ample opportunity to bid and rebid again and again in an attempt to outbid the leader. Sniping narrows that window of time to a mere few seconds, meaning you don't give the other guy a chance to run up the price. Bottom line: you save money. That's what it's all about.

aro13

I snipe almost every item that I place a bid.

Carew29

I know "lawyer05" snipes. How can you have 2 bids in a row with no time left on the clock?

dgbaseball

To me it seems that sniping is a waste of money that provides a false sense of "saving money". If you think you're getting financial value out of it because you're able to win auctions for less than you think you should pay, you've probably misunderstood what you should be paying in the first place.

All of you who snipe who will respond with some story about when you set a max bid for $100 and sniped the card for $50, and then credit the snipe for "saving" you $50 are completely ignoring the fact that non of us regular bidders wanted to bid $51. I just don't see the value. The vast majority of buyers on ebay don't waste money on snipe services. When you think your snipe saved you money, in reality it's just because no one else wanted it for more than your snipe price.

There's certainly some value to bidding late and not drawing attention to auctions, as mentioned. And certainly as an automatic bidder so you don't actually have to watch or even be at the computer as auctions end. But beyond that, I think the only people truly coming out ahead financially are the people selling you guys the snipe services...

pandrews

sniping eliminates pissing matches and also doesnt let anybody know what you're bidding on until the auction is already over..

Stone193

Doesn't anybody use it just to set up your bids so you don't have to worry about auctions that end the same time or what if you forget?

Anyone else?

mike

dgbaseball

Doesn't anybody use it just to set up your bids so you don't have to worry about auctions that end the same time or what if you forget?

I absolutely would if it were free, for all the reasons people have mentioned.

Speaking of which, I'll guarantee that ebay will support scheduling bids by the end of 2006. We'll have two options, Enter Bid or Schedule Bid. For a fee, of course. A fee much cheaper than any snipe service.

softparade

<< <i>sniping eliminates pissing matches and also doesnt let anybody know what you're bidding on until the auction is already over.. >>



yep, two big time factors in what drives up hammer prices. I snipe almost everything I bid on.

softparade

<< <i>

Speaking of which, I'll guarantee that ebay will support scheduling bids by the end of 2006. We'll have two options, Enter Bid or Schedule Bid. For a fee, of course. A fee much cheaper than any snipe service. >>



Wrong, use just snipe basic service and you get 5 freebies every week. If you are a buying machine, it costs 5 dollars a month for UNLIMITED snipes. No way e-bay would beat that.

zef204

<< <i>Doesn't anybody use it just to set up your bids so you don't have to worry about auctions that end the same time or what if you forget?

Anyone else?

mike >>

First and foremost this is why I snipe. I am not always by the computer, although the wife would likely tell you differently, and I know that I can get a bid in on what I want if I snipe.

As far as the pissing match...

I agree and I have tried to match piss before I started sniping. I think " what is the most I will pay for this?" and that is what I set my snipe at. If I lose it I just hope I find a comparable hit the Bay soon. But I think everyone of us is guilty of bidding in the last few minutes, manually, and going a lot higher than we wanted to because we got caught in the moment and "needed" what we were bidding on.

For me, sniping is a sense of disipline and prevents me from getting a card, a lot or a set and being like "Why the FCUK did I spend $120(arbitrary #) on this?" Also, I like to snipe things I see at a tad above the open bid because I would like it for that price, but don;t care to watch it to see how high it goes and convince myself I really need it. I guess this goes back to the discipline. But if you see something not bid on with 3 days to go and its at $.99 and you think, I would take that for a $1.50, to me it makes more sense to try and grab it at the end if you can get it for your price.

Also, for whatever reason, people take comfort in bidding on items that other people have bid on. It kinda validates the seller further than only feedback. I sell event tickets on eBay sometimes as well, and you would be shocked to see what happens sometimes. Just recently for a Paul McCartney show I listed 2 tickets at $200. No bids. I needed to get rid of them so I relisted the next day at $.99 and used the exact same text. They sold for over $300 because by the time they hit $200 there were 15 bids.

I think that given my above reasoning, sometimes a $.99 card will stay with zero bids sometimes because the novice bidder may pass if the card has no bids. I actually have some proof on this from the card world. I used to buy a lot from "sidsgraphs" and he primarilly sold auto's, but he always had 20-30 1976 topps singles and a few 64 Philly fb singles. These puppies were mint. everytime. They are all commons and the same 20-30 commons every time but I must have bought 150 singles from him and got tons of 9's and 4 10;s. I started sniping while I was bidding on his stuff and I was shocked to see that I won nearly all the cards I sniped rather than bid $1.50 on. I know its a small sample but it helped me make up my mind.

Oh well, I am long winded tonight. TIFWIW and sorry if I snipe any of you who are ANTIsnipe, but hey, you should have bid higher

DaBigHurt

I snipe exclusively on things I really want. I used to snipe manually, but after using a sniping site, found it to be MUCH more practical. Sure it was fun to sit at the PC and count down the seconds of an auction, but there are times I can't sit there all day and night to watch an auction unfold.



For the anti-snipers, I have no idea why you don't snipe. My only suggestion is, if you haven't tried it yet, do so. Embrace technology!
You really have nothing to lose as many websites offer free snipes (like 5 a week).

SooperDave

It is illogical to say that sniping isn't the best way to bid an online auction.

Use these rules when you bid and you will always optimize your auction experience:
1. Bid only once
2. Bid the absolute maximum you are willing to spend
3. Snipe

Plus it's fun....tell me another way you can make some dope on the other side of the country pound his computer desk in dismay after you snipe a card that he thought he was getting for half SMR.
DM

SportyJoe

To me, Sniping is the only way Not to get into a Bidding war. I Bid My max and if it works, thats great. If not it belong to the next guy. One thing about , sooner or later another one will come along.

Knuckles

I snipe.. and pay for it on esnipe.com I've missed countless auctions by trying to bid myself in the last 10 seconds of an auction only to forget about it or just plain ol screw up so esnipe.com it is!

tkd7

haven't sniped through electronic means, just manually

detroitfan2

Does anyone think we'll see the day where ebay runs auctions like major auction houses, and doesn't end an item until some allotted time (5 minutes?) expires since the last bid? Personally, I don't understand why they haven't done this already. It just means higher ending prices, which means more $ for ebay. Perhaps it's too confusing for people, or maybe it's tougher to arrange this (from a technical perspective) than I think.

gosteelers

Was anyone else freaked out about giving up your personal info to one of these sniping services?

rbdjr1

This is a common snipe: A COMMON SNIPE!

And a sailing snipe too? A SAILING SNIPE!


Ahhhh yes!

I wish I knew about sniping earlier, as not knowing cost me thousands!


rbd

Seraph

I manually snipe. And if I can't be around, I put in my max bid as the last thing I do before I leave.
If I get beat, I get beat. I won't cry about someone else having to overpay.