Is manual sniping more effective than sniping programs? 2 2

[Martin Sinescu]

3 minutes ago, kav said:

cats actually do a lot of buying on ebay

So I should be listing my empty boxes on eBay instead of recycling them?

[kav]

1 minute ago, Martin Sinescu said:

So I should be listing my empty boxes on eBay instead of recycling them?

no because once the owner discover what cat did they ask for cancel

[01TheDude]

I use a sniping program when bidding on items. I find it helps me stay on track (discipline) as far as what I value or am willing to spend on a book. I will enter a low bid on things of interest before the snipe is set up though as you can sometimes get it for the lowest number. This also shows the item in your current bids listing- making it easier to follow. If I think a book is worth $X, I set up a snipe bid of $X.03 or something like that. If I lose, I don't over spend what I think that book was worth. If few are interested in the item-- I either get it at the lowest amount or beat out the whatever the highest bid was.

One of the main reasons i switched to this is I found far more often than not, sellers are using shill accounts to push the bidding along (you can tell because they usually have HIGH percentages of bids with the same seller). They will either nudge you along a little at a time or decide what their lowest acceptable amount is and put in a bid that high (a way to establish a reserve price point without paying for it). If they end up winning-- they cancel the sale and relist.

it happens more often than you might think. Or I could be paranoid. Not sure. But instead of getting into a bidding war with someone and letting emotions take control, I set up that amount that I feel it is worth and leave it be. One nice thing too is that if I find it elsewhere before the auction ends or two auctions for the same item are going on about the same time, I can control whether the second item gets bid on at all-- or I can decide to pull the snipe bid out entirely.

I don't always use the snipe program-- sometimes I also put the max amount I am willing to go as my first bid and let others knock me off the mountain if they want.

Edited June 9, 2017 by 01TheDude

[jcjames]

1 hour ago, kav said:

cats actually do a lot of buying on ebay

 

[atomised]

I found on the clink auctions, I generally get the book I want at the price I wanted.  HA is a bit all over the map.  I can usually get the book but that will typically mean paying more than I wanted.  On CC, I don't like the extended bidding, I think it's a sham.  I feels like a feature a product manager came up with to increase revenue from customers. On ebay, I feel like I'm bidding against goblins, Russian hackers and collectors so all bets are off and I manually snipe - and still lose on most books.

[1Cool]

11 hours ago, kav said:

Well before I started sniping I would spend like $40 on a $40 item.  Sometimes $50.  Now I often get it for $5

Which is why people don't do auctions anymore.  Thanks Kav

[kav]

2 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

Which is why people don't do auctions anymore.  Thanks Kav

son of a-

[grayzr]

14 hours ago, jcjames said:

What's the difference then between the sniping-program and just putting your highest bid in through the normal bidding process which is also basically "set it and forget it"?

An automatic sniper program with a max-bid set below a regular bidder's max-bid will still lose to the regular bidder, wouldn't they?

Maybe I'm missing something special about what the sniping program does.

 

The problem with that is people will start getting frustrated when they bid and it constantly keeps telling them they are out bid. Bidding at the last few seconds reduce this situation, to some degree.

I have seen countless auctions where some one bids there max bid day one or two days into the auction and some guy tries to out bid the high bidder.

This sometimes results in auctions going over FMV out of frustration.

[AndyFish]

"The difference is the psychology of bidding.  If an item has no bids or one bid and bidders are watching it, they might wait till the last moment and make some nominal bid thinking they are he only one interested and they will get the item.  If everyone is putting their max bid the item may be at $100 with days left to go in the auction.  Now the cards are on the table and people realize what they may have to bid to get the item.  An experienced sniper will wait in his gilley suit with his max bid ready-then when people place their nominal bids his max bid swoops in and grabs the item.  Example is a 3 pair of soccer socks I just sniped.  Bid was at 99c for days, then jumped to $5.  I knew if I bid my max of $13 with plenty of time left in the auction, someone would probably outbid me.  The socks retail at $20.  So I waited and 4 sec before auction bid $13 and got the socks for $5.50. " -- KAV

 

Exactly this.

Edited June 9, 2017 by AndyFish

[grayzr]

I usually bid as soon as the timer hits 2 seconds. Never had a problem with a bid not going through.

I have however seen bids go through when the timer hits 0 seconds.

I have tried to see how close I can make it but never been able to millisecond bid.

[Aweandlorder]

Ok newbs, this is how it's done:

set your sniper on the day the auction ends. Set it and forget it.

Unless it's an action comics 1 listed in home & gardening by accident, with the pic of the book in the last string of pics, with the title reading "some funny looking book I found in my back yard".. that's how I snipe all day every day. 

Why do I set the sniper on the last day?

because by that day I may have overspent my budget on other books and forgotten about said snipe. 

Sniping manually means you have to deal with the "window of death" where sometime a 5$ auction would jump to 101.53 and you'd click "bid" by accident and have to foot the bill on a POTENTIALLY good buy with a seller with 92% feedback and no returns. Not happening

[kav]

3 hours ago, Aweandlorder said:

Ok newbs, this is how it's done:

set your sniper on the day the auction ends. Set it and forget it.

Unless it's an action comics 1 listed in home & gardening by accident, with the pic of the book in the last string of pics, with the title reading "some funny looking book I found in my back yard".. that's how I snipe all day every day. 

Why do I set the sniper on the last day?

because by that day I may have overspent my budget on other books and forgotten about said snipe. 

Sniping manually means you have to deal with the "window of death" where sometime a 5$ auction would jump to 101.53 and you'd click "bid" by accident and have to foot the bill on a POTENTIALLY good buy with a seller with 92% feedback and no returns. Not happening

Isn't that only for ebay online auctions?  regular auctions you set your bid amount and it cannot be higher than that once you click the button.

[Aweandlorder]

44 minutes ago, kav said:

Isn't that only for ebay online auctions?  regular auctions you set your bid amount and it cannot be higher than that once you click the button.

Dunno. I never bid in other auction sites

[kav]

1 minute ago, Aweandlorder said:

Dunno. I never bid in other auction sites

regular ebay auctions I meant vs ebay online auction

[Aweandlorder]

1 minute ago, kav said:

regular ebay auctions I meant vs ebay online auction

 not sure I follow, you mean eBay live auctions? never done those either

[kav]

Just now, Aweandlorder said:

 not sure I follow, you mean eBay live auctions? never done those either

how can you end up bidding more than you want and being on the hook for an item then?  Not sure I understand your original post.

[Aweandlorder]

2 minutes ago, kav said:

how can you end up bidding more than you want and being on the hook for an item then?  Not sure I understand your original post.

Heres a manual scenario (pertaining to an ordinary eBay auction we all use daily):

Youre waiting for last few secs of auction. You manually snipe 5.00 for a 0.99 item (just a random figure for this example).

Then a window pops up telling you "youve been outbid" and it gives you an option "bid 12.00" 

you click 12.00 and it shoots another window with a higher price, and so forth and so on...

Sometimes that 12.00 could be a much much higher number than you have anticipated and instinctively you may click outbid and end up winning at a price you never wanted to bid to begin with

 

[kav]

Just now, Aweandlorder said:

Heres a manual scenario (pertaining to an ordinary eBay auction we all use daily):

Youre waiting for last few secs of auction. You manually snipe 5.00 for a 0.99 item (just a random figure for this example).

Then a window pops up telling you "youve been outbid" and it gives you an option "bid 12.00" 

you click 12.00 and it shoots another window with a higher price, and so forth and so on...

Sometimes that 12.00 could be a much much higher number than you have anticipated and instinctively you may click outbid and end up winning at a price you never wanted to bid to begin with

 

ok I got it yeah i never use the automatic bid increments window I was just naturally afraid of it.

[ADAMANTIUM]

Just now, Aweandlorder said:

Heres a manual scenario (pertaining to an ordinary eBay auction we all use daily):

Youre waiting for last few secs of auction. You manually snipe 5.00 for a 0.99 item (just a random figure for this example).

Then a window pops up telling you "youve been outbid" and it gives you an option "bid 12.00" 

you click 12.00 and it shoots another window with a higher price, and so forth and so on...

Sometimes that 12.00 could be a much much higher number than you have anticipated and instinctively you may click outbid and end up winning at a price you never wanted to bid to begin with

 

Been there, cause it automatically gives you an amount above the highest bid, and if your just ready to up the bid, it's a split decision on the amount  

[Aweandlorder]

2 minutes ago, kav said:

ok I got it yeah i never use the automatic bid increments window I was just naturally afraid of it.

Thats when you call your neighbor asking her to borrow her cat and take a selfie with him on your laptop