Survey: What snipe program do you use?

"Paul Robertz" wrote in message
om...
On those infrequent occasions I see an eBay item I can't live without,
I use the free snipe utility from vrane.com. It has never failed me
yet (although mosr of their other utilities don't work for about a
week after eBay makes a change to their listing or feedback
procedures.) I have no complaints and no reason to look elsewhere or
bid differently.


I lose about 80% of the Ebay auctions I am high bidder on in the final
hours, usually by a snipe bid in the last seconds. So I assume at least one
bidder will be lurking with a snipe in each auction I place a bid in. If I
chose to join the snipe fraternity, how would my last seconds bid ensure my
winning the auction if others will be doing the same thing? If I set my
snipe at the same amount of my mid-auction proxy bid limit, I would still
lose out at the end. Even though they may win more auctions, I would think
snipers end up paying top price for items more often because their single
bid is their "top dollar" bid intended to win the auction. Lately, they're
up against more and more others with the same idea.

Bruce

"Bruce Remick" wrote:
I lose about 80% of the Ebay auctions I am high bidder on in the final
hours, usually by a snipe bid in the last seconds. So I assume at least
one
bidder will be lurking with a snipe in each auction I place a bid in. If
I
chose to join the snipe fraternity, how would my last seconds bid ensure
my
winning the auction if others will be doing the same thing? If I set my
snipe at the same amount of my mid-auction proxy bid limit, I would still
lose out at the end. Even though they may win more auctions, I would
think
snipers end up paying top price for items more often because their single
bid is their "top dollar" bid intended to win the auction. Lately,
they're
up against more and more others with the same idea.

If you're up against snipers who are truly bidding top dollar, it won't
help. But there's a tendency for even snipers to bid lower when the showing
bid isn't so high. Sniping won't "ensure" wins, especially if your bids are
on the low side, but it should reduce the 80% figure you estimated.

--Chris




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(Paul Robertz) wrote in message . com...
On those infrequent occasions I see an eBay item I can't live without,
I use the free snipe utility from vrane.com. It has never failed me
yet (although mosr of their other utilities don't work for about a
week after eBay makes a change to their listing or feedback
procedures.) I have no complaints and no reason to look elsewhere or
bid differently.

Eric Babula wrote in message ...
I figure it's about time I looked into snipe programs, since I seem to
always be the snipee, and I want to be the sniper! I'm often not around
a computer for auction end, and want to see if these programs will help
me win some auctions I otherwise lose, or don't even attempt to bid on.

I did a little search on Google, and came up with these possibilities:

http://www.esnipe.com/
http://www.vrane.com/
http://www.snipeswipe.com/
http://www.powersnipe.com/
http://bidtamer.auctionstealer.com/home.cfm
http://www.cniper.com/
http://www.phantombidder.com/PhantomBidder/Default.asp

It seems that esnipe and vrane were the two most popular ones, in the
little search that I did. I have not really looked into all of these
snipe programs, yet. I will be doing that, soon. In the meantime, I'm
hoping I can get some input from you about these snipe programs (and
others, if you have a favorite).

So, here's the survey part:

1. Do you use any/all of these programs?
2. What do you like/dislike about it/them?
3. Do you have a different snipe program you like to use?
4. If so, what is it?
5. What is the best (in your opinion) FREE snipe program available?
6. Are there limits to how many snipes you can do with any of these
snipe programs?
7. What do you like/dislike about the free snipe programs?

Since I don't bid on a lot of stuff at one time I use the free snipe
from vrane.com On the really desirable coins you need to bid high to
win. The drawback is that it leaves 7 seconds for someone to beat you.
Lots of times if you don't snipe you don't win. Wuts the diff if you
wait ill the end and do it yourself or have some program do it for
you? Its convenient if you don't have access to a puter when the
auction ends or when your service can be crappy like AOHELL. Nothing
unethical about sniping at all.

"Chris S" chris(at)imt.xohost.com wrote in message
...
"Bruce Remick" wrote:
I lose about 80% of the Ebay auctions I am high bidder on in the final
hours, usually by a snipe bid in the last seconds. So I assume at least
one
bidder will be lurking with a snipe in each auction I place a bid in.
If
I
chose to join the snipe fraternity, how would my last seconds bid ensure
my
winning the auction if others will be doing the same thing? If I set my
snipe at the same amount of my mid-auction proxy bid limit, I would
still
lose out at the end. Even though they may win more auctions, I would
think
snipers end up paying top price for items more often because their
single
bid is their "top dollar" bid intended to win the auction. Lately,
they're
up against more and more others with the same idea.

If you're up against snipers who are truly bidding top dollar, it won't
help. But there's a tendency for even snipers to bid lower when the
showing
bid isn't so high. Sniping won't "ensure" wins, especially if your bids
are
on the low side, but it should reduce the 80% figure you estimated.

At what point during a seven-day auction does a sniper set his bid? I read
about people setting up a bid in their snipe program and essentially
forgetting about it, indicating to me that they do this early on when they
first run across the auction. Or is it more common to check the bid action
during the first half of the auction, when there may be some bids showing,
before settling on a snipe bid figure? I also have noticed that most snipe
bidders had never placed an earlier bid. If an auction had 6 or 7 bidders
in the game halfway through, the sniper usually wouldn't be among them.

Bruce
'looking for tips to confuse or deceive a sniper or two'

Bruce Remick wrote:
I lose about 80% of the Ebay auctions I am high bidder on in the final
hours, usually by a snipe bid in the last seconds. So I assume at
least one bidder will be lurking with a snipe in each auction I place
a bid in. If I chose to join the snipe fraternity, how would my last
seconds bid ensure my winning the auction if others will be doing the
same thing?

Sniping does /not/ ensure that you will win the auction. As you stated
(and what you be patently obvious to anybody), you still need to be the
high bidder when the auction closes, no matter when you bid is placed.
Indeed, I lose a fair number of snipes, too:

http://offer.ebay.com/ws3/eBayISAPI....tem=2221253017

laurance22 sniped higher than I did, and won the auction, and I honor
him for that.

Again, the main thing sniping does is not ensure you win, but rather
ensure that you're the last bidder, and moreso that no one has time to
react to your bid. I'm sure you've noticed that when you're overbid,
eBay sends you a little courtesy notice that you've been overbid with
links and instructions on how to increase your bid. Many eBayers jump on
this message, come back, and bid again and again and again. If you proxy
bid you max once and for all, you will be unfazed by these messages, but
many, many eBayers just do not bid their max -- they will keep coming
back, starting a bidding war and raising the price beyond what anyone
would reasonably pay (great for the seller, tho'!).

Take your 80% loss rate. Let's say that rather than proxy bidding those
bids, you put the same bids in as snipes. Yes, the auctions where other
snipers are lurking will be unaffected -- but for auctions that escape
the sniper's radar, I'd wager you'd win a lot more of those than
previously. And furthermore, of the 20% that you normally win, I'd wager
you'd be winning them at a lower price, leaving more money for even more
coin purchases.

--
Bob

BAJJERFAN wrote:
Since I don't bid on a lot of stuff at one time I use the free snipe
from vrane.com On the really desirable coins you need to bid high to
win. The drawback is that it leaves 7 seconds for someone to beat you.

Actually, there's a school of thought that says 7 seconds is better than
5 or 3 seconds. If there is a tie, then the first person who bid wins.
Seven seconds is still soon enough to prevent humans from coming back
and rebidding, and if you're up against a 3-seconder and both bid the
same amount (or: if his snipe is not at least one bid increment above
yours) -- the seven seconder will win.

Lots of times if you don't snipe you don't win. Wuts the diff if you
wait ill the end and do it yourself or have some program do it for
you?

The big diff is just as you say -- you don't have to be at your
computer. Heck, with web based snipers, you don't even need to be in the
same country. Last summer I was in Paris. I stopped into a web cafe to
check my email, and surfed eBay as well. I saw a coin that I really
wanted, so I dropped over to PhantomBidder and put in my snipe. I won
the coin at 35,000 feet over the Atlantic.

Its convenient if you don't have access to a puter when the
auction ends or when your service can be crappy like AOHELL. Nothing
unethical about sniping at all.

Absolutely correct. Another word for sniping can be "bidding". That's
really all you're doing -- just bidding. It's only the time of your bid
that makes the difference.

--
Bob

In article zV7Vb.39043$u_6.17907@lakeread04,
"Bruce Remick" wrote:

At what point during a seven-day auction does a sniper set his bid? I read
about people setting up a bid in their snipe program and essentially
forgetting about it, indicating to me that they do this early on when they
first run across the auction.

That's what I do. I often forget about the bid until the end. Saves LOTS
of grief. If I do want to know what I've got a snipe bid on, I go to my
account on eSnipe and check it out.

That stuff only happens on TV, it couldn't happen to me ....

"Bob Flaminio" wrote in message
...
Harold Fears wrote:
I use Snip at http://www.snip.pl/en/ , which is 100 % free and the
program works like a champ.

I've seen that one, but I'm reticent to send my eBay login information
to eastern Europe.

That's one issue with the snipe services -- if you intend to use one,
make sure it's one you can trust. A sniping service necessarily needs to
know your eBay username and password for it to work.

Before signing up for PhantomBidder, I had a lengthy email exchange with
the author of the service. At all times he showed that he was
intelligent, friendly, and honest, and built a level of trust that I
doubt I could get elsewhere.

--
Bob

That stuff only happens on TV, it couldn't happen to me ...



"Scottishmoney" wrote in message
...

"Harold Fears" wrote in message
...
I use Snip at http://www.snip.pl/en/ , which is 100 % free and the
program
works like a champ.
Harold

From looking at the site this morning per your post, I would gather at
least
lately that it works more like a chimp than a champ, seems like a recent
21
hour downage cost a lot of people some auctions, see the first page.

Dave


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Bruce Remick wrote:
At what point during a seven-day auction does a sniper set his bid?
I read about people setting up a bid in their snipe program and
essentially forgetting about it, indicating to me that they do this
early on when they first run across the auction. Or is it more
common to check the bid action during the first half of the auction,
when there may be some bids showing, before settling on a snipe bid
figure?

Both, and more. Sometimes I find an auction the first day it's listed,
and set a snipe right then and there. Othertimes I wait for the action
to develop before setting a snipe (especially if I'm unsure of the value
of the item). Sometimes I see an item and go off and do some research on
it before deciding a snipe bid. Other times, especially for higher
dollar items, it takes me a few days to work up the nerve to attempt to
purchase it. And more -- but in all cases, the time the bid actually
gets executed is seconds before close. All the machinations take place
behind the scenes, out of view of other eBayers -- as opposed to proxy
bidding, which is right out in the open. More than one RCC member has
picked up "stalkers" -- people who look for auctions that they bid on
and intentionally outbid them. (This is actually a back-handed
compliment -- for example, Eric Tillery can be considered an expert on
Morgan dollars, so someone who wants to buy a quality Morgan dollar
would do well to follow Eric around and just buy whatever he's bidding
on.)

--
Bob