Snipe programs and their use

[EggHead]

I wondered about these snipe programs and why would someone use them.

Typically, when I bid I set the maximum of what I am willing to pay and that's it. If I lose, I lose.

Why do you use them?

 

[randooch]

Although this topic has arisen over and over again in the Ebay thread, I've never weighed in. Here goes, then:

As a seller, I resent them. Imagine you're at a live auction in some building with a thousand other buyers, and no one bids until the last 1.3 seconds. Boy, that'd be an exciting auction, eh?

As a buyer, though, I can see their usefulness as a way to save money, because other folks may be eagerly awaiting the last minute or so of the auction to place their bid. If that's the case, you'd beat 'em in the end.

 

[Michaelshane]

This has been discussed to death....

 

[facade]

I wondered about these snipe programs and why would someone use them.

Typically, when I bid I set the maximum of what I am willing to pay and that's it. If I lose, I lose.

Why do you use them?

Because many people don't bid as you do. They make many smaller bids, upping their bid only when someone outbids them. Bidding as you do allows this type of bidder to bid you up. A snipe program often eliminates this. Using a snipe program gives the buyer a greater chance to win the item and to get the item at a lower price.

 

[EggHead]

Say an item on eBay is at $50. I bid $51 and make my max $70.
If no ones max bid is higher than $50, my bid is set to $51. Someone can raise it later and eBay will up my bid until it reaches $70. Isn't that the same thing as a snipe program?

 

[EggHead]

Kabuto, I see a few interesting psychological reasons for bidding that you mentioned. Thanks.

 

[Blackthorn]

Say an item on eBay is at $50. I bid $51 and make my max $70.
If no ones max bid is higher than $50, my bid is set to $51. Someone can raise it later and eBay will up my bid until it reaches $70. Isn't that the same thing as a snipe program?

That's sure how it seems to me. Like you, I can't imagine why anyone uses them.

 

[Michaelshane]

"This has been discussed to death...." Link, or it didn't happen. Don't ask people to try to find stuff with the broken search function.


How can I provide a link when I can't find it?
Broken search function.

 

[facade]

Say an item on eBay is at $50. I bid $51 and make my max $70.
If no ones max bid is higher than $50, my bid is set to $51. Someone can raise it later and eBay will up my bid until it reaches $70. Isn't that the same thing as a snipe program?

No. If you bid through eBay and Joe Bidder comes along with a Max of $100, then he will outbid you. However if you bid with a sniping program, then Joe Bidder has no idea you are interested thus he may bid less than his maximum, perhaps just enough to be the current highest bidder. By sniping you would win the item even though Joe Bidder would have bid more if you had given him the chance.

One can manually snipe and achieve all the same benefits. But a sniping program takes all the work and risk (falling asleep or forgetting) out of sniping for a very modest fee.

 

[PADDY]

Unless A SNIPE is a type/style of 'HAT' then really 'this' should be in the Observation Bar, Gentlemen. Being moved across 'now.'

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

I always wait to the last minute to bin as there really isn't any reason bid early at all. I have eBay on my iPhone and buy using that. I can set an alarm if I need too on an item so that I don't miss the end of bidding. At the end I bid what I think that hat is worth to "ME". When it closes I wait to see if I have been out bidded which sometimes happens.

 

[jkingrph]

That's sure how it seems to me. Like you, I can't imagine why anyone uses them.

Nope. E bay will keep raising the bid in small increments until you reach your maximum bid, and it is shown immediately for others to bid against. In my opinion this encourages a lot of bidding to keep on top.

With a snipe you set your bid and no one sees it until the final seconds of the auction, usually the last 5-6 seconds. If someone outbid you either as an open bid, in time or with another snipe, you lose, If you are high bidder you will usually win.

I use a snipiing service, Gixen and it has worked very well. They even notify you if you are outbid and you may or may not have time to up your bid.

Last week e bay did something screwy with daylight savings time change and ended a lot of auctions early. I lost an item due to this and based on the winning bid I definetly would have been the winner. I did notify the seller about what I had bid ane recommended that he contact ebay about his loss. On a forum about the sniping service I quickly learned that quite a few other folks had the same problem with ebay.

In my opinion the only thing a sniping service does is to keep my bid(s) secret until the final seconds.

 

[newturnofphrase]

A bid sniper is a superior way to win auctions. It is faster, less risky, and more efficient than manual bidding, and allows users to take advantage of information asymmetries. The essential move, that of bidding at the last possible seconds of an auction, *can* be done manually but doing so is extremely risky. Your internet connection could freeze up for a few seconds, or your log-in could time-out just as you are set to bid. You also can't continue to bid higher (it's physically impossible to type in higher bids in the time remaining) in response to other users who are using bid snipers.

For example, bidder A uses a bid sniper, bidder B uses a manual last-minute bid. A bids $100 at t minus 5 seconds. B manually bids $110 at t-minus 4 seconds. A's bid sniper is programmed to increase his max bid 5 times to beat the other last minute bids, with increments of $2.50. A's bid sniper executes this at T-minus 3.99 seconds. In the remaining 3.98 seconds, B doesn't have the time to refresh and see the higher bid, let alone type in the marginal increase that would let him win the auction. A wins the auction for 2.50 more than B's high bid, a marginal amount that B would probably be willing to pay to have won. Hence, manual bidding is inferior in these close situations. It is also inferior for the reasons given in previous posts, IE you have to watch the auction like a hawk and remember to be there exactly on time.

Manually bidding any time before the last seconds of the auction, where the other bidders can see your bid, is stupid because it lets the other bidders see your bid amounts and increments and adjust their bidding strategies accordingly, while you gain no knowledge of their bids or strategies.

For example, bidder A uses sniper while B and C bid on a hat manually throughout the auction. Both B and C would be willing to pay $250 or marginally more for the hat. At T-minus 5 days, they both bid up to $20ish dollars. Then they sit until t-minus 1 day, when they push up the price to $70, all the while bidding in tiny increments. A now has a base bid to structure his killshot, and can look at the number of views to determine whether there are likely to be other bid snipers waiting in the wings to do the same thing. B bids his full 250 an hour before the auction is over, which is bid up to $150 by C. A surmises that a certain winning killshot would be $300-500. So he programs his bid sniper with a bid likely to win, and then sits back and watches. C bids up to 250, then A's sniper takes the auction for $250.50. A gets the hat for $0.50 more, a pittance increment that either B or C would have been willing to shell out to get the hat, but couldn't because they weren't thinking strategically.

So manual buyers hashing it out over the course of an auction are just serving themselves up to the lions with bid snipers. This is good for sellers though, as it can push up the price, which as a buyer although it may make you feel better that the guy using the bid sniper has to pay more for the item, he still got the thing you wanted for only marginally more than you set as your highest bid.

People who use bid snipers almost invariably win auctions. Simple game theory dictates that bid snipers will become more widespread until anyone who wishes to win a popular auction will have to use it. Eventually this will undermine the concept of a popular auction, since there will be no way of determining whether an auction is popular as nobody will bid on them. Currently bid snipers depend on the huge numbers of newbs bidding manually through the course of an auction, and the number of page views to develop their strategies. When those people all switch to bid snipers, (which won't be for a long time because people are stuck in their ways) the bids people make in auctions will be entirely in the dark since bid snipers don't visit frequently and don't show their bids, and winning or losing will be based on subjective assessment of market value and the prices that similar items 'usually' go for, which will make auctions much less predictable, ultimately hurting buyers and sellers.

 

[jkingrph]

No. If you bid through eBay and Joe Bidder comes along with a Max of $100, then he will outbid you. However if you bid with a sniping program, then Joe Bidder has no idea you are interested thus he may bid less than his maximum, perhaps just enough to be the current highest bidder. By sniping you would win the item even though Joe Bidder would have bid more if you had given him the chance.

One can manually snipe and achieve all the same benefits. But a sniping program takes all the work and risk (falling asleep or forgetting) out of sniping for a very modest fee.

I had that happen yesterday on an Open Road style Wormser hat. I had bid, via Gixen about 2.5x his starting price. I woke up this morning to see that it went for almost 4x starting, which did not surprise me, but my bid went in as planned, someone just really wanted it.

 

[Warbaby]

In addition to all the other reasons given for sniping, the main reason I use a sniping service is that I'm too absent minded and often distracted by projects to pay attention to the bidding. When I see something I want, I decide how much I want to pay, set up a snipe bid and forget about it until I get the eBay notice letting me know whether I won the bid. I've been using eSnipe for years and wouldn't bid any other way.

 

[ButteMT61]

I snipe because I can't always be there to bid.
I snipe because it doesn't tip my hat to other bidders.
I set it and forget it - if it goes over my max, I'm not as tempted to up my max bid.
It also allows me a way that thus far has beaten other bidders at the last second where manually bidding is more risky in the last few seconds.
Don't see the comparison to a live auction as it's not a live auction. Being there is part of the fun. This is not a social event, it's a way to procure items at a price you want to pay.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

.
Agreed, agreed, agreed.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

snipe programs are useful for those of us in other countries where auctions are often ending at a decent time in the US, but at 4-5 am UK time.

If the auction is ending when I will reasonably be awake, I sit on it and put my bids in right at the end. If not, I snipe. No getting up early for this owl …

bk

 

[aswatland]

Unless the auction has a BIN price I always snipe for the reasons given above.

 

[DJH]

For me, one of the big advantages of using a snipe site is the flexibility compared to setting up a bid on eBay.

If I place a bid on the eBay site, the only option available is to increase the bid. With the snipes, I can increase them, decrease them, or just delete them if I want to.

This is great if I've set up some snipes, but then see something I want more - simply delete the snipe and spent the allocated $$ elsewhere. Happened this very day as it happens.

I'd also confess to being very indecisive sometimes and setting up and deleting snipes multiple times for the same item