space_cowboy Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 What I'm wondering is how do these people sit on their a$$ for 10 days then come in at 10 min left on an auction and win it? Do they have some bot monitoring the bids? Most items I've tracked have been won in the last 10 min by $10. These obvious pros's are probably laughing about it, but can kiss my a$$. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 Cowboy, Truth is they don't sit there all day. Go to www.auctionsniper.com register for the site. Place your Highest bid for the item you want and go play hockey............(or whatever). Site will notify you when or if you win. 9 times out of 10 you will.............. The first three snipes are Free, then there is a nominal fee........................ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
space_cowboy Posted January 3, 2004 Author Share Posted January 3, 2004 Thanks Bill, good info, sorry for the off topic language refs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 Good ?,and an even better answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 You don't need auction sniper to be a sniper, and you don't have to wait around all day. All auctions close at a precise time, so return to the auction, say, 5-10 minutes before close, enter your bid, then push the button with 5 seconds left. You do have to pay attention to time, but they make alarm clocks for that purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erdric Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 Well, I lost so many auctions to last minute snipers that I gave up bidding on anything until the last 10 minutes or so. If there's something I want I write down the time the auction ends and make sure I'm at the computer for the last 10 minutes. Of all the items I've bid on I think I've only won once when I didn't bid in the last minutes of the auction. That's just life on Ebay I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheltie dave Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 I have been hammered multiple times, so I finally went to the dark side and started using Auctionsniper.com. It works great. Now I am a disciplined bidder- I can laugh when an auction goes sky high. I can smile when another sniper nips me by ten dollars, because he wanted to pay a little more than I wanted. My success rate in auctions where my snipe actually bids is running about 75%, so I am judging value pretty well according to the Ebay market The only bad thing is the account is in my wife's name, so there is no furtive sniping. By now she realizes that I'm going to do it no matter what she says, and I have yet to take a bath on anything I have sold. The chain has been loosened slightly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RangerSix Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 I think its bad policy to encourage sniping. I understand why folks snipe and on a certain level Ill even admit it makes sense, but damn if it doesnt chap my a$$ when I see slimy scumbags do things like that (and yall know who you are). There seems to be no honor in that type of behavior. Sure, most of us over time will learn how to effectively counter the Lone Sniper, but doesnt it feel like cheating nonetheless? It reminds me of the weasel in the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons. Whatever happened to bidding to your max threshold point and letting the amount ride? If in the end I lose, well so be it. I feel absolutely no regrets should someone else outbid me. So far, I'm at about 60-70% success in bids that I feel okay about. However, on items I REALLY want, I'm usually about a 85% success rate. It works for me, and I sleep comfortable knowing that I didn't gip someone at the last moment. I know it's naive, but it's a code that I have establish for myself. To each his own I guess. Often for amusement and with too much time on my hands, I will watch a popular high-dollar auction item (in this case Japanese Swords) just to watch those weasels scramble at the last moment to get their bid in before the clock runs out. Recently, a sword jumped $3000 in the last minute finishing at around 15k. As usual, the winner was someone who did not even bid throughout the lifecycle of the auction. SCUM! Well, Ive ranted long enough. I know it wont make any difference, but it sure feels good to get it off my chest. -- Off Soap Box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 I wish I could just bid on an item and let it ride, but reality is that If I do so, somebody else will snipe me out at the end by a buck or so...so turnabout is fair play, IMHO. After all, it is called sniping for a reason...you don't squeeze the trigger on your target when it first appears, you wait til the most opportune time to do so in order make your escape safely afterwards...especially when multiple targets are concerned! One thing I will not do is snipe a fellow forum member on an audio item! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tankhokie Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 wow, some pretty strong emotions here... i am going to make a wild stab here, but i am guessing most people have never been to a "real" aution house. it is like a poker game, you don't reveal your hand until the end...if you do bid early, your just mindlessly driving up the bid. you wait, see who is interested in the item and bid when the bidding is nearing a close. just because this aution is not in a warehouse does not mean the rules change. the smart bidders wait, see who is interested, use the timed clock to their advantage, and win. bidding from 2 days to 2 seconds is all fair and open to all... ...but yet we call the guys who use strategy, bidding tactics, and all fair advantages scum/snipers??? sounds like a sore loser mentality to me, but if not---i guess the u.s. armed forces are scum too, as i remember, i outranged most enemy tanks on the battlefield, used better intel, had better sights, and used this shock and firepower to kill/win at the precise time. although i guess i could have been fair by shooting a round downrange at my max effective distance before the enemy got to that point (to let them know my max capabilities/position) and then sit back till everything was fair then fought it out--but i was more interested in using all available resourses to my advantage and winning. bottom line is, if you want an item, follow fini's advice, use a high speed connection, set your own limit, keep refreshing the pricing page, and bid at the last second. if you don't want to do this at 3:30am, use a service that will. you can't break the rules, but you can use them in your strategy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 Ranger, Sellers love your attitude (it drives up the price), and that system would work if the auction were blind, in other words if the bids were not seen until the action closed. There is NOTHING dishonorable about sniping. It is, in fact, a way of effectively submitting a blind bid, as the bidder puts in the maximum amount he is willing to pay. It sounds like, maybe you are more dissatisfied with the proxy bid aspect of eBay auctions, whereby a bid is only raised by the minimum amount each time. In other words, a bidder can place a maximum bid on an item, but his bid will only show up as the minimum bid over the next highest bid. I sure said "bid" a lot, huh? What IS dishonorable is retracting a bid you've put in in order to find another bidder's maximum, not paying for a won auction, shill bidding, and bid shielding (where outrageously high bids are placed, discouraging other bidders, then retracted at the last moment so one's lower bid wins). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthurs Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 you can also use calendar reminders and watch item tabs available on the item page, I use these to remind me what I'm watching and then calendar triggers me 30 minutes before it ends. I usually alweays get what I want to .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tankhokie Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 fini, ha, i re-wrote a lot of my sentences because it sounded funny with so many "bids" (i think one was like "the bid that the bidder bid earlier would be out-bid by the next bid") i re-read my post and it sounded kinda hostile, not the way i had it it my head/mind. sounds like i am stabbin at ol' rangersix, but i just don't have many analogies that work as well as old army stories that would be great if ebay went to blind auctions...but of course, that would mean lower selling prices and when ebay is taking a percentage of that cut...doesn't make sense for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougdrake Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 tankhokie - Interesting analogy. Especially interesting as Ranger also has a military background, I believe. All's fair in love and war, eh? As an aside, Ubid auctions don't end until there have been no bids for 10 minutes - no last minute sniping there. DD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
space_cowboy Posted January 3, 2004 Author Share Posted January 3, 2004 Thanks for all the replies and advice. No sour grapes here, just a newbie learning experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfogg Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 "and on a certain level Ill even admit it makes sense, but damn if it doesnt chap my a$$ when I see slimy scumbags do things like that (and yall know who you are). There seems to be no honor in that type of behavior. Sure, most of us over time will learn how to effectively counter the Lone Sniper, but doesnt it feel like cheating nonetheless? It reminds me of the weasel in the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons. Whatever happened to bidding to your max threshold point and letting the amount ride? If in the end I lose, well so be it. I feel absolutely no regrets should someone else outbid me. " If you lost the auction to a 'sniper' you were outbid (they had to bid more then your max bid) so according to your own post you shouldn't feel any regrets. That the winning bid may have only been $5 above your bid is irrelevant. They could have bid $300 above your max bid... but if no one else bids ebays system will go to your max and go one jump above that. Exact same thing would have happened if the 'sniper' placed the bid 3 days before the auction closed and there were no more bids on the item. And yes, I tend to use AuctionSniper too. I am not convinced it makes that much of a difference in the final selling price though. What it does let me do is 'place a bid' (without worrying about forgeting to bid) on an item well before the auction closes that can be canceled if a better deal pops up without ever really placing a bid on ebay and being a weasel about retracting it. Also the bid groups on AuctionSniper are very handy. If there are 10 pairs of K'Horns on ebay you can entire them all into a bid group assigning your max bid to each of them. If the bidding on ebay gets above your max bid for one of them they are removed from the group. As each auction is closing AuctionSniper will place your max bid on each until you win an auction. Once you do the bid group is closed down and no more bids are placed. Very handy when you want one of a specific item that there are a lot of on ebay. Shawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 Yep, Sniping is just part of the territory in a "timed" auction which will end at a precise moment. In a regular auction, the auctioneer just takes bids until no one will bid higher. If you've noticed the way Ubid does auctions, is that the auction will automatically extend every time another bid is placed. Kind of a hybrid. What is most irritating to me following auctions is when "shilling" up the bid starts to get obvious. Amazing how a seller with zero feedback attracts bidders with little or no feedback who get into bidding wars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RangerSix Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 ---------------- On 1/3/2004 11:11:24 AM tankhokie wrote: i guess the u.s. armed forces are scum too, as i remember, i outranged most enemy tanks on the battlefield, used better intel, had better sights, and used this shock and firepower to kill/win at the precise time. although i guess i could have been fair by shooting a round downrange at my max effective distance before the enemy got to that point (to let them know my max capabilities/position) and then sit back till everything was fair then fought it out--but i was more interested in using all available resourses to my advantage and winning. ---------------- Tankhokie, Im part of the same military fraternity (though why anyone would want to be in an M1 is beyond me?? ). While I understand your analogys intent, I dont think it applies to auction sniping, unless of course, you are comparing the tactics of Al Queda then I would wholeheartedly agree. Sheeesh, I knew I should have had my flak vest on. That's cool, my last post did seem somewhat vitriolic to snipers. My apologies. Everyone has made valid points to sniping. To attempt to counter your arguments would be foolhardy. I guess it's the ethics of it all that gets me. Cheers, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 Ranger, The ethics of bidding against someone else? Or the ethics of selling to the person who will pay the most? Not capitalism?? It's hard to determine via the internet who would be the most deserving of the object (although that would be nice, like if a seller could look and see that some rich guy already has 4 Scott 299's, and this poor student can't afford, but would really dig one). I appreciate you ethical concerns. Consider, also, the eBay seller who doesn't know what he's got, or makes a mistake in listing, and lets a gem go too cheap ("Klipshorns, $200 BIN"). Hopefully, Karma helps to even things out in the end... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T2K Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 Sounds like sour grapes to me. To bid less than one was actually willing to pay for an item seems somewhat unethical. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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