OT Which sniping service do you use?

[Dave]

I have been buying at online auctions quite a bit and would like to start using a sniping service to place my bids. I'm looking for a service that is free, secure, and reliable. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Dave

[J.B. Bobbitt]

ACME Snipe has always worked for me. Or AAA Snipe.

-JBB

[Mark]

The ultimate snipe:

Bid what your willing to pay.

[Brian Elfert]

Using a sniping service doesn't mean you will overpay. It just eliminates the folks who will let emotion rein supreme and bid it up higher than they had planned to pay.

Brian Elfert

[Pounds on Wood]

Bidding early with what you are willing to pay works great. You will save lots of money by not winning. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the same things as I.

--

[Dave Hinz]

How about you bid what you're willing to pay, instead of trying to get it as cheaply as you can? If it goes above your limit, you didn't want it anyway.

[Ed Beers]

If you have a computer with a reliable full time connection, then run jbidwatcher locally.

Ed

[Greg]

Some of these snipers are real good. I was bidding on something the other day, I looked at it and it said 0 seconds left and I was winning,. The next time I looked I was outbid. (I wasn't that dissapointed since my proxy max bid was really too high) I'm not even sure how that happened. Ebay must really close bidding at -1 seconds.

[Tom Veatch]

Dave, I agree with what you are saying, in principle, and wish that it would work that way. The problem is that there seems to be a class of bidders that either:

a) consider an auction to be a "game" to either "win" or "lose" instead of a market to purchase some commodity.

or

b) don't know themselves what their maximum bid should be.

If a representative of this category is in the bidding, and you place a proxy bid with your maximum amount early in the bidding, a "nibbler" will:

a) place a bid that is lower than your maximum. b) decide that he/she is going to "win" come hell or high water - or - decide that "Well, if I was willing to spend X$, then X+1$ is not that much more." and bump up their maximum bid. c) repeat steps a) and b) until they exceed your bid

I've seen some auctions that show numerous consecutive bids from the same bidder. I don't recall the maximum number of nibbles I've seen, but certainly more than 10. Not many with that number, but if I bid early, I can count on being outbid by someone who places multiple, increasing bids. As I mentioned, I don't know what the rationale is, but it appears to be that they begin to think of it as a competition that _must_ be won, or can't decide on a fair value for the item.

The only way to buy an item at auction when you are faced with that type of bidder is to optionally place a lowball bid to give the "piranha" something to nibble on and wait until late in the auction to place your real bid. Of course, taking that tactic to the limit, you wind up "sniping" the auction.

It would really be nice for everyone if all bidders would place a proxy with their "real maximum", but ...

Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA

[kmy]

Dave wrote: : I have been buying at online auctions quite a bit and would like to start : using a sniping service to place my bids. I'm looking for a service that is : free, secure, and reliable. Any suggestions?

Its a free service, but only allows 3 snipes per week.

[Dave]

Thanks to the few people who offered suggestions for an actual service (or local software) to use.

I'm aware of all the opposition to sniping. I've even felt it myself actually. I got over it when I decided that life is what it is and now I snipe too. Of course I'll never outsnipe a person who placed a higher bid earlier. I do find the extreme emotion this question raises to be fascinating.

[Dave Hinz]

I think it's because, as a seller from time to time, I feel that I am getting less for my items than I would if people would bid normally. Also, as a buyer, I feel (rightly) that people are trying to sneak in at the last second and buy an item, without giving me a chance to counter.

Think about it in terms of a real auction - it goes until people stop bidding. I would actually pay extra to list an item if I could be given the option of saying "Bidding closes 15 minutes after the last bid after a certain time". Some of the gun auction sites do this, and it seems the most fair for sellers and the various buyers, instead of being biased to the person with the best nework feed and/or sniping software.

[Robert Bonomi]

Is somebody on a _snipe_hunt_ ??