ESNIPE ON EBAY

[Aggie87]

The thing that bothers me about this concept is that I still think of Ebay as an auction site. Meaning I compete against other bidders, and get to decide if I want to outbid them. With sniping, you don't get a chance to respond to someone else's last-second bid.

edit - what sniping does is effectively turn ebay into a sealed-bid auction, I guess.

Edited April 17, 2005 by Aggie87

[Jazzmoose]

Exactly. The sealed bid auction comparison is apt.

By the way, about a sniper swooping out of nowhere, that's the way it's supposed to work. I rarely, rarely, RARELY bid more than once on an item. If you bid more than once, you weren't doing your homework. In an eBay type auction, you need to determine what the max is you're willing to pay and bid it. If you're making more than one bid, you aren't disciplined enough to play the game. Bid once, bid accurately, and make it count.

[Dan Gould]

My approach has always been to monitor auctions until the end and then decide what I want to bid. Only time I've placed a max. bid was if the end time was inconvenient, in which case I'd usually still bid late. I figure its also important to minimize the available time any prior winning bidder has to jump back in and bid again.

Therefore, I usually bid in the final minute. Its not as efficient as sniping - I have been sniped once or twice - but there are few things I had my heart set on that I didn't get.

As far as those incremental bidders go, I ended up manually sniping an antique toy bank that my Mom was interested in - and I didn't even intend to. The situation was, it had a reserve price on it, and someone, in the last couple of minutes, started probing at that reserve price - so the bid went up, but the reserve wasn't met, wasn't met, wasn't met. And the bid had exceeded my Mother's maximum by about $100, so I wasn't even supposed to bid.

So with about 30 seconds left, all of a sudden the bid was $400 and reserve met. So, I figured what the hell, the guy probably bid $425 or more, but I'd try $401.25 ... and with three seconds left, my bid was in and I was the winner. Man, that guy must have pissed! He probes and he probes and he finds the reserve price, he's the winner, less than 30 seconds to go and BOOM. He missed out by 75 cents.

And, fortunately for me, Mom had no problem with my exceeding her maximum and was absolutely thrilled with the item (it was made by a Connecticut company in the 1880s, so she was getting it for the Historical Society where she is the President).

(Actually, its a pretty cool item, called the Tammany Bank. Back then, children were taught the value of thrift and so there were lots of banks to keep their pennies in. This one though was an odd thing because while teaching thrift, it was basically glorifying graft. The bank was in the shape of a large man in a suit, seated in a chair. You put the penny in his hand, and the weight made the hand drop the penny inside the coat, while the man nodded his appreciation. See? Teach graft by showing a payoff to Tammany Hall!)

[Brownian Motion]

(Actually, its a pretty cool item, called the Tammany Bank.  Back then, children were taught the value of thrift and so there were lots of banks to keep their pennies in.  This one though was an odd thing because while teaching thrift, it was basically glorifying graft.  The bank was in the shape of a large man in a suit, seated in a chair.  You put the penny in his hand, and the weight made the hand drop the penny inside the coat, while the man nodded his appreciation.  See?  Teach graft by showing a payoff to Tammany Hall!)

"I seen my chances and I took 'em". -George Washington Plunkett.

Quoted in Plunkett of Tammany Hall.

[Dave James]

I'm an end game bidder too. Sometimes that costs me because I wait a few seconds too long to submit a bid and an item I would've won goes to someone else because I didn't pull the trigger fast enough. Caveat emptor.

What I don't understand at this point, is why anyone even bothers to bid while an auction is ongoing. There are so many snipers out there, it's almost like anyone who bids before an auction concludes is just wasting their time. So, who does this? I suspect it's mostly neophyte bidders who really don't understand how the game has come to be played, or others who just think they'll get lucky and grab something that stays under everyone else's radar. I'd guess that in a couple of years, you simply won't see any action on any item until the very last second. Not sure that matters much in the great scheme of things. I suppose that might make it a little harder on the seller (of which I am not one), but that kind of goes with the territory.

With regard to sniping programs, I don't use them, but I think I understand how they work. Seems to me this takes some of the fun and excitement out of the bidding process.

Up over and out.

Edited April 18, 2005 by Dave James

[Brad]

Like Jazzmoose said, it doesn't matter if you lead the whole way but where you are at the end. I think to call it sniping is pejorative. You're just trying to make sure you get the item for the least amount possible. Where this would be useful is having a bid at the last possible second. You always try to time it correctly but that doesn't always work and then you never get a chance to bid. So if the servers of esnipe and ebay are properly synchronized, you could at least get it in. This sounds like a business ebay would want to purchase as it's only to get bigger and lead to more money, a la paypal, which they now own. Anything that will get them more money will be of interest to them.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

Back then, children were taught the value of thrift

I continue to find it amazing that the fed. govt. has made absolutely no effort over the decades to whip together a brief ad campaign stressing the importance of saving money.

[AmirBagachelles]

I laughed too when I saw that comment about being on the top the longest. A world without sniping would be like a world without two-out come from behind victories in the bottom of the ninth. If you're crying about sniping, you've probably got some other issues to tend to.

[porcy62]

Back then, children were taught the value of thrift

I continue to find it amazing that the fed. govt. has made absolutely no effort over the decades to whip together a brief ad campaign stressing the importance of saving money.

Are you serious? The whole system is based on overconsuming.

[Brad]

Back then, children were taught the value of thrift

I continue to find it amazing that the fed. govt. has made absolutely no effort over the decades to whip together a brief ad campaign stressing the importance of saving money.

I use to have a pretty cool eagle looking bank when I was a kid, almost looked like one of those German type eagles. Apropos of not saving enough, there was an article this past weekend (can't remember where) indicating that most people are not really ready for retirement or even thinking about saving for retirement.

[Jazzmoose]

With regard to sniping programs, I don't use them, but I think I understand how they work. Seems to me this takes some of the fun and excitement out of the bidding process.

Without a doubt. I would imagine most only use them for times that are incovenient. There's nothing as satisfying as a sucessful manual snipe on eBay. Snatching that puppy away with three seconds left to go and imagining the look on Conn's face is priceless...

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

Snatching that puppy away with three seconds left to go and imagining the look on Conn's face is priceless...

[connoisseur series500]

With regard to sniping programs, I don't use them, but I think I understand how they work.  Seems to me this takes some of the fun and excitement out of the bidding process. 

Without a doubt. I would imagine most only use them for times that are incovenient. There's nothing as satisfying as a sucessful manual snipe on eBay. Snatching that puppy away with three seconds left to go and imagining the look on Conn's face is priceless...

...Conn frowns a bit, then breathes a sigh of relief he didn't end up spending more money...

[wolff]

Remenber Dr. Larry from eBay? For months this guy sniped me on everything I was bidding on. I had zero luck with manual bidding. He spent around 20K in a few months. I'm sure he was imagining the look on my face. He's a big reason I now use Esnipe. If you can't beat 'em.....

Edited April 19, 2005 by wolff