sniper

"Buzzygirl" wrote in message
. ..

"????" wrote in message
...
what's a sniper on ebay?

A "sniper" is a bidder who uses special software or the services of
a
"auction sniping service" to put in last-second bids on eBay
merchandise.

Wrong. A sniper is merely a bidder who places their bid either
manually or automatically at the very end of an auctionin an attempt
to keep other bidders from outbidding them.




Some
sellers will automatically add 15 or more minutes onto an auction if
a bid
is placed in the last minutes or seconds of an auction, ostensibly
to thwart
snipers out of fairness to other potential buyers.

Wrong. Can't happen. Never could, never will.

jim menning

"Buzzygirl" wrote in message
...



I've seen such descriptions mentioned on certain sellers' auctions.
I don't
know how they automatically extend auctions. I've never sold
anything on
eBay before so I don't know how that works.



You have no idea what you are talking about.

jim menning

"Wes Chormicle" wrote in message
ink.net...

Someone who uses a program to automatically place a bid seconds
before an auction closes in hopes of getting it cheaper.


Wrong. You don't need any program to place a bid near the end of an
auction.

jim menning

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
Way I see it, snipers are doing it to edge the other
buyers out of the chance to fix a "you have been outbid" situation.

That is the point. Why would you want to let someone 'fix' the outbid
situation unless you were a shill?

On Fri, 04 Nov 2005 03:16:53 GMT, Brian Blackwell wrote:

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
Way I see it, snipers are doing it to edge the other
buyers out of the chance to fix a "you have been outbid" situation.

That is the point. Why would you want to let someone 'fix' the outbid
situation unless you were a shill?

By bidding higher. Buyers don't really know what stuff is worth, either
do sellers. A last-second sniper is trying to get the item for as
little as possible, which denies others the chance of bidding more for
it. It becomes a contest of "who has the fastest network connection"
rather than "what is the item actually worth".

In , on 11/04/2005
at 03:25 AM, Dave Hinz said:

it. It becomes a contest of "who has the fastest network connection"
rather than "what is the item actually worth".

Speed of your network connection if irrelevant (relatively . You time it
to where there are X seconds left, which means there is one and only one
shot at it. Very little difference between 1 second (fast connection) and
needing 5 (slow), except in the case of a tie bid. There's no trickery
here ... a sniper simply has decided to place his absolute best bid in as
late as possible. Sort of like a closed bid or mail bid auction.

Without snipers, duh, sellers get the high bid showing before the snipe.
Now, where's the logic in wanting that as opposed to possibly more money?
Possibly much more money?

All I know is what an item is worth TO ME. And that's what I snipe. If I
get it for less, then I've won it for 1 bid increment above what the second
most-interested person in the item. In fact, snipers often drive the price
WAY up on the closing seconds.

Ah, but you're not going to argue, right? Fine. It might help to get a bit
more educated about these matters, tho.

Nick

Correct. I have been sniping on eBay and Teletrade for a decade at
least and I do it all manually. I still enter the highest I would go
on each lot and confirm the bids summarily in the last minute or even
closing seconds of the auction. There are a couple advantages. (1) I
do not get caught up in the irrational practice of violating my maximum
in the frenzy of an auction if that maximum is immediately outbid (no
time). (2) I pay the least possible price for each lot I win as
response bids (apart from automatic max bids) don't have a lot of
opportunity to go through the manual cycles to confirm a higher bid and
either win it or make me pay more.

Some people might see that as unfair. However, I specialize in VAMs
and here are two examples where it was fair to me. In July, Teletrade
had an 1887 PCGS MS62PL in an auction. 1887 is hardly a special date
even in prooflike and particularly under choice uncirculated. This PL
was the result of repolished dies. In repolishing, some of the detail
of the underlying 6 in the 1887/6 (VAM-2) was polished out and not
clear to the casual bidder. It was missed by PCGS even when they
slabbed it. I knew it was a VAM-2. Had I bid my maximum bid early,
another bidder who otherwise would have missed that detail might wonder
why his bid and subsequent bid got immediately outbid and look closer.
This past weekend they had an 1885-S in NGC MS65, a great coin in full
gem. As a VAM-6 S/S, it is a spectacular coin and the finest to my
knowledge of the Top-100 variety. It's a tough one to cherrypick
online if you don't look for secondary markers, date position, etc.
Why should I clue in someone else and have them jump into the adjacent
swim lane for the full lap? Folks who are early copper nuts and other
variety collectors do similar. It's fair and a lot easier than trying
to maintain a good poker face when you are cherrying a dealer's coin at
a show.

I have burned myself doing this though. Weeks ago, my confirm page was
taking forever to return and I ended up confirming 2 seconds after the
auction closed. I was crushed as I had cherried nearly a dozen Morgan
and Peace dollars, having spent hours of research and observations of
the lots. Hope the winners checked for VAMs when they got them.
Anyway, that is the negative side of the fairness of auction sniping.

On Thu, 03 Nov 2005 20:17:09 -0500, "Nick Knight"
wrote:

In , on 11/03/2005
at 08:00 PM, "????" said:

what's a sniper on ebay?

Someone smart. Someone who holds their best bid until the very last second,
then takes a single, precise shot at the item. They either outbid the
current bidder (and other snipers) with this one bid, or lose trying.

Nick

Or are outbid before the snipe bid is even placed which can happen
more often than not depending on what the maximum proxy bid is set.

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 04 Nov 2005 03:16:53 GMT, Brian Blackwell
wrote:

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
Way I see it, snipers are doing it to edge the other
buyers out of the chance to fix a "you have been outbid" situation.

That is the point. Why would you want to let someone 'fix' the outbid
situation unless you were a shill?

A last-second sniper is trying to get the item for as
little as possible, which denies others the chance of bidding more for
it. It becomes a contest of "who has the fastest network connection"
rather than "what is the item actually worth".


Again, that is the point. As a buyer, why would I want to pay more?

"Nick Knight" wrote in message
...

All I know is what an item is worth TO ME. And that's what I snipe. If I
get it for less, then I've won it for 1 bid increment above what the
second
most-interested person in the item. In fact, snipers often drive the
price
WAY up on the closing seconds.

Yes, exactly. The highest bidder still gets the goods. One should still bid
no more than what THEY feel an item is worth.

Jackie