On-Line Sniping Services: The Only Way to Buy
Have you ever really wanted something on eBay? You make a bid on it. You even overbid it a bit so as to make sure no one can overbid you. But then you get called away and miss the last few seconds of the bid, only to find someone's outbid you at the very last moment?
Last-second bidding in on-line auctions like eBay is called "sniping" and its (unfortunately) a terribly effective way to win an auction for a highly-desired item. What most people don't know about sniping is that there are tools that can do the sniping for you...
These for-cost services charge you a fee to automatically drop the highest bid for an auction at the very last second, ensuring you get the item you want. The web site for one hosted service, eSnipe touts:
eSnipe keeps you out of bidding wars. In a traditional or outcall auction, it's good practice to set a price and stick to it. But those auctions last only a minute or two. If you set your price early on eBay, other buyers have up to 10 days to outbid you. These bidding wars can be sharply reduced by holding your bid until just a few seconds before the end of the auction. They won't have a chance to outbid you!eSnipe keeps your bid secret. eBay has a Search by Bidder option. Suppose you're a collector who's found an unusual item in the wrong category. The second you place your bid other users can find out about it easily using Search by Bidder. You want to keep others from finding out about it. Use eSnipe to defer your bid until seconds before the auction ends. That way competitors using Search By Bidder won't be able to dig up the same bargain by following your interests.
eSnipe lets you change your mind up to 5 minutes before the auction ends. When you place a bid with eBay, it's a binding contract. You can only retract a bid in special circumstances. eSnipe holds your bid until just a few seconds before the end of the auction. With eSnipe's BidWizard, you can change it anytime until 5 minutes before the auction closes, so you have plenty of time to rethink.
eSnipe keeps track of your older auction descriptions. After just 3 months, eBay deletes all auction information from your buying history except the item number and feedback. eSnipe's BidWizard keeps the auction description, item number, your bid status, and the amount you were willing to pay as long as you're a member.
eSnipe helps save money and time with bid groups. Suppose you'd like to buy a new computer, digital camera, or other commodity item. Just find all the auctions you're interested in, set a price you're willing to pay for that item, and add to a bid group. As soon as you win one of the auctions, the other listings are all canceled automatically.
Other tools are downloadable agents that watch the auction through eBay's API functions. If you're a power eBay'er, or just someone who really wants something, check them out. Contrary to popular belief, sniping is not prohibited by eBay!
Some tools to check out are...
eSnipe: http://www.esnipe.com/
PowerSnipe: http://www.powersnipe.com/
AuctionSentry: http://www.auctionsentry.com/
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Comments
Snipe bids don't work if the current bidder's proxy bid is higher than your snipe bid. So I don't buy this "ensuring you get what you want" nonsense. I'm assuming they refund your fee if you don't win, or something? Or is "ensuring" just marketing fluff?
All sniping does is force other people to actually understand proxy bids and use them properly. It really irritates me when I look at the bidding history of an item with 121 bids, and find that some dolt manually increased his minimum bid by $1 120 times in order to get above the current bidder's proxy bid.
Sniping is still useful, don't get me wrong, but it depends on the stupidity of the masses (which, sadly, is pretty reliable). The problem with proxy bids is that people's perception of what they can afford is, in most cases, directly related to other people's interest in the item, and not to any budgetary constraint.
Posted by: Dragon | June 21, 2007 11:21 AM