The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Question for people who buy on eBay. Do you use a bid snipping service to place your last second bids? If so, which service do you use?

I'm looking for a cheap and reliable one so I don't have to sit in front of the computer all day and wait to place my last second (losing) bid. Thanks

I have used esnipe for many years now, with great success. I just set my highest bid and walk away. They have never failed me, and the cost is minimal (and no charge if you don't win).

I see no need for a sniping service. If I want an item badly enough I decide on my maximum bid and submit it immediately. This tactic usually unsettles the opposition, who quickly tire of getting the "Outbid" message every time they increase their bids by small instalments. If at the end I am outbid, so be it. You win some and you lose some. That's life.

epigramophone wrote:I see no need for a sniping service. If I want an item badly enough I decide on my maximum bid and submit it immediately. This tactic usually unsettles the opposition, who quickly tire of getting the "Outbid" message every time they increase their bids by small instalments. If at the end I am outbid, so be it. You win some and you lose some. That's life.

That tactic of setting a proxy bid might work sometimes, but it brings attention to your desire to get the item. If you decide to use a proxy bid, only submit it 5 seconds before the end of the sale (I don't refer to eBay as an "auction", because it is not). I prefer something like poker, where I don't show my hand until the end... If you place a proxy bid you also usually pay more than you might have had to for an item, because of OCD bidders, who can't stand getting the "outbid" notifications five days (or whatever) in advance of the end. It starts "feeding frenzy" in some of them or, more importantly, the seller might use it to maximize their price using "straw bidders". They will tap your bid by $10 or so, over and over and over, until they either reach their limit or discover your maximum bid and then top it by $10 or less... Either way, you are encouraging bidding behavior that is not in your best interest...

Think about it this way... if I go to a phonograph show and someone has brought something to sell, they put a price on it. I don't tell them a week in advance what I am willing to pay for it and wait for the seller to question other buyers about how much they are willing to pay and decide who gets it...

I have used the free app - MyIBidder.com with great success... That way, you either win or lose, but you don't artificially inflate the price while competing with newbies or the sellers themselves...

epigramophone wrote:I see no need for a sniping service. If I want an item badly enough I decide on my maximum bid and submit it immediately. This tactic usually unsettles the opposition, who quickly tire of getting the "Outbid" message every time they increase their bids by small installments. If at the end I am outbid, so be it. You win some and you lose some. That's life.

I have done the same in the past until I noticed that always some bidder bids in small increments against me until they surpass my maximum bid. Then they retract their last bid because of some "error" and I always have to pay the high price. Of course this is against the rules, but they always find loopholes. This has pretty much taken the fun out of ebay for me. I used to be on there all the time, but not anymore. I either use Buy It Now or try to proxy bid a few seconds before the end.

Andreas

I've never used sniping software. I will put my highest bid in the last few seconds. If I get outbid the item sells for more than I was prepared to pay. Simple.

I take a similar view on early bidding as has been expressed above. I believe that it just drives the price up, and if you put your highest bid in early it tells other bidders what they need to bid.

alang wrote:

epigramophone wrote:I see no need for a sniping service. If I want an item badly enough I decide on my maximum bid and submit it immediately. This tactic usually unsettles the opposition, who quickly tire of getting the "Outbid" message every time they increase their bids by small installments. If at the end I am outbid, so be it. You win some and you lose some. That's life.

I have done the same in the past until I noticed that always some bidder bids in small increments against me until they surpass my maximum bid. Then they retract their last bid because of some "error" and I always have to pay the high price. Of course this is against the rules, but they always find loopholes. This has pretty much taken the fun out of ebay for me. I used to be on there all the time, but not anymore. I either use Buy It Now or try to proxy bid a few seconds before the end.

Andreas

This has never happened to me. Perhaps I have just been fortunate. I accept that there are circumstances where submitting a maximum bid early might alert the opposition, and that is partly why I do it. It sends a message to everyone else that they are up against someone serious.

"I accept that there are circumstances where submitting a maximum bid early might alert the opposition, and that is partly why I do it. It sends a message to everyone else that they are up against someone serious."

You are assuming that it alerts other legitimate buyers, and you are right... BUT it also alerts not so scrupulous sellers that they have "someone serious" (someone willing to pay more than the listing price and maybe many times more than the listing price) and allows them to manipulate your bid to the maximum by using friends, family, etc. to bid you up. If they get you over your maximum, the shill bidder just cancels his last bid... It is totally naive on your part to assume that you are dealing with honorable sellers who would never do that... greed is a major factor in a world where it's all about money. The reason I am posting this, is that it has happened to me on more than one occasion...

I also realize that it is entirely your right to be taken advantage of and bid any way you prefer... However you do it, if you set a limit on your maximum bid, it is exactly that... Your Maximum Bid. So, why is there push back to sending your maximum bid at the five seconds to end point? There is no moral issue regarding using sniping programs, you either get the item or not. The LAST bid, higher than the previous one, WINS... it's as simple as that. Unless you get some happy feelings from outbidding and squashing early competition by throwing "Outbid Notifications" in their faces...

I always used to fall into the camp of Epigramophone but have fallen victim a number of times to my bid being nibbled at over a period of time to the point where I feel I have probably paid more than I would of if I had submitted a last moment bid. I have also been victim of shill bidding from ebay members with suspiciously low or no feed back pushing my bid higher.

I would now seriously consider using snipe software to do my bidding for me in the last moments of an auction to avoid the above problems - and if I win, I win and if I don't then there will always be another record This change of heart has been a gradual thing for me. So thanks for the tips of ones which are available out there to use.

I, in turn, can't perceive as "issues" the above mentioned experiences.

If anyone pushed your bid higher, it means that you bid improvidently early. Moderate early bids are useful only as a courtesy message to the seller: to let him/her know that the sale raised interest, and should not be shut down. In any case, the "definitive" bid should be placed in the last half minute before the auction is over.

If anyone overbid you at the very last minute, it just means that he/she was open to spend big money while you weren't. As simple as that.

I can hardly see how any bidding software might improve anyone's bidding experience, on these premises.