How do people feel about sniping services?

[backguard]

To me it seems kind of shady to use them. It kind of seems like it screws sellers over from getting the best price too. Just wondering how other people feel about these services too.

[Nicola]

It's shady but it's the second best.
In a world were almost everyone uses it, if you don't, that's a third best.

If nobody uses it, then first best for everyone, seller included.

[mr_nihilism]

I have nothing against snipers as I feel it's just part of the strategy of bidding. As for sniping services (programs)...it seems a little more shady.

[DefaultGen]

.....

[Lemmi_Is_God]

However trusted some of these sites are, i'm too iffy about giving my Ebay pass to a site, even if it just goes to some server somewhere. I snipe the old fashioned way, good ol' alarm clocks.

i hate them, you lazy bastards, set your clock :)

[Vroomfunkel]

Ah, the age-old debate.

If a seller is that obsessed about getting the "best" price for their item, then they'll put a reserve or BIN.

When you say it "screws the seller over from getting the best price" I wonder if you've missed the point. People snipe because they're not prepared to pay more than a certain amount. Your assumption is that the seller is losing out because the alternative scenario is that the sniper places their bid earlier, and gives someone else the opportunity to come back and bid more. This is a misconception - the alternative scenario is that the sniper doesn't bother to bid at all, and the seller actually gets less than they would had they bid.

Someone who bids with a snipe is, in general, someone who wouldn't otherwise have bothered to bid - but they'll take a chance with a snipe on the off-chance that they could win something. I'd say at least 50% of my snipes don't win (probably even 75% or above) - thus the seller loses nothing there. The ones that I win, the seller gets more money than they would have done had I not bid - so how exactly do they lose out from that?

At the end of the day, a snipe is just a bid. It will lose to someone who has placed a higher bid - and it will win against someone who has placed a lower bid. That's how these auctions work.

Trust me, if eBay thought they could bump final prices up much by eliminating sniping, they would (it's not too hard - just do what Yahoo did, and give the option to automatically extend the auction by 5mins if someone bids in the last 5mins!). The fact is, this would lead to less bids being placed - and probably to lower final prices overall.

[NE146]

Dont mind them.. mater o' fact that's the only way I bid on Ebay. I dont use a service, but rather a program (Auction Sentry).

I figure, why bother putting in a bid early.. might as well just wait until the last minute before I show my hand. If I don't win it, oh well.

[Griking]

I asked this in another current thread but this appears to be a better place for it.

When you use a sniping service it sounds like the program or service makes the bid on your behalf in the very last seconds. If this is the case wouldn't you have to provide your eBay user name and password to this company and if so why in the hell would anyone be willing to do this?

[Vroomfunkel]

If you download a sniping program that operates from your own PC then there's no need to give your password to anyone.

As for the online ones where you do have to provide your password, no I wouldn't just give it to any old place. But if it's a well established and reputable site like Goofbay, why on earth would I assume that they would do anything untoward with my details? They'd be shooting themselves in the foot.

Down to personal perspective I guess.

[MachineGex]

I am surprised ebay doesn't add an extra minute to an auction if someone bids in the last minute or so. That way, it would be like a real auction. I have been waiting for this to happen for awhile, guess I am wrong.

[rbudrick]

eSnipe has saved me thousands of dollars and headaches, which is truly priceless to me. The service costs pennies per auction. What the hell in this world has ever been a better deal than that?

I know some folks are opposed to them but, I say sour grapes to them. You like spending shitloads of extra money? Fine, but that's dumb, imo.

-Rob

[skaar]

Sniping makes baby Jesus cry.

Also pisses those of us who are using eBay the old fashioned way off.

[Griking]

If you download a sniping program that operates from your own PC then there's no need to give your password to anyone.

Not directly you're not but your entering your user name and password into a program that obviously communicates over the internet. At this point there's absolutely nothing stopping the software manufacturer from gaining access to this info if they wanted it.

[Vroomfunkel]

Not directly you're not but your entering your user name and password into a program that obviously communicates over the internet. At this point there's absolutely nothing stopping the software manufacturer from gaining access to this info if they wanted it.

I'm surprised that you take the risk of connecting to the internet at all ...

Like I say, it's a personal choice. If you're not happy to do it, I am by no means going to try to brow-beat you into it. As for myself, it's not as if it's my Paypal account, or my bank details - there's a fairly limited amount a person could do if they had access to my eBay account anyway - and practically nothing that I wouldn't notice and be able to halt pronto.

[Vroomfunkel]

Sniping makes baby Jesus cry.

Also pisses those of us who are using eBay the old fashioned way off.

You shouldn't put half-hearted bids in then. If you get outbid by a sniper, then it is either because (a) you didn't bid the maximum that you were willing to pay, or (b) because the sniper bid more than the maximum you were willing to pay.

If the latter, you were never going to win the auction anyway and you just need to learn to live with that fact - if you can't cope with the existence of people willing to pay more than you, eBay is really not for you ...

If the former, you only have yourself to blame - next time, place your maximum bid rather than some half-way figure.

[8bitnes]

Sniping makes baby Jesus cry.

Also pisses those of us who are using eBay the old fashioned way off.

The old fashioned way to fight wars was to march lines at each other, but times (and technologies) change. If one wants to be competitive, though, then he needs to change with the rest of us.

[skaar]

The old fashioned way to fight wars was to march lines at each other, but times (and technologies) change. If one wants to be competitive, though, then he needs to change with the rest of us.

Easier to hate you. ;)

[Felixthegamer]

I have no problems with sniping, but I do it by my lonesome and without a program

[Steven]

I snipe manually, but when I can't, I use auctionstealer.com

it's free, you get 3 snipes a week and it places a bid with approx. 11 seconds to go. Although recently, I used it and it bidded with 20 to go. Maybe they increased the time?

I have no problem I guess with people who snipe via machine. I can't tell you how many auctions AS has helped me to win. Many while I was at school.

[DefaultGen]

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[NE146]

Not directly you're not but your entering your user name and password into a program that obviously communicates over the internet.

And what do you think you're doing when you enter in your login/password into a browser like Firefox & IE? LOL

[PapaStu]

I've got no problems with snipe programs at all. I use one when the item 'warrants' its use (Rare or Big Ticket), or I manually snipe when i'm around and not too worried about the carnage that it might bring upon ebay.

I personally use e-Snipe and have only had 1 problem in the many many moons that i've used it, and that was because of the seller screwing with the auction end time and not the program itself.

[DefaultGen]

.....

[Griking]

And what do you think you're doing when you enter in your login/password into a browser like Firefox & IE? LOL

I suppose that all of the spoof emails and scams have me paranoid.

I trust Mozilla enough that I believe that Firefox wasn't designed as a tool to steal my eBay user identity. However I don't trust sniping services with this information.

[NE146]

I suppose that all of the spoof emails and scams have me paranoid.

I trust Mozilla enough that I believe that Firefox wasn't designed as a tool to steal my eBay user identity. However I don't trust sniping services with this information.

Again, you can pretty much install a program and not give your login/password to anybody. Auction Sentry ( http://www.auctionsentry.com ) is what I use.

If you're really paranoid, and a little savvy you can trace what any program is connecting to using any number of packet sniffers or some plain Firewall monitoring. But in this case it'd probably be a little misguided. :p

[megamaniaman]

Ah, the age-old debate.

If a seller is that obsessed about getting the "best" price for their item, then they'll put a reserve or BIN.

When you say it "screws the seller over from getting the best price" I wonder if you've missed the point. People snipe because they're not prepared to pay more than a certain amount. Your assumption is that the seller is losing out because the alternative scenario is that the sniper places their bid earlier, and gives someone else the opportunity to come back and bid more. This is a misconception - the alternative scenario is that the sniper doesn't bother to bid at all, and the seller actually gets less than they would had they bid.

Someone who bids with a snipe is, in general, someone who wouldn't otherwise have bothered to bid - but they'll take a chance with a snipe on the off-chance that they could win something. I'd say at least 50% of my snipes don't win (probably even 75% or above) - thus the seller loses nothing there. The ones that I win, the seller gets more money than they would have done had I not bid - so how exactly do they lose out from that?

At the end of the day, a snipe is just a bid. It will lose to someone who has placed a higher bid - and it will win against someone who has placed a lower bid. That's how these auctions work.

Trust me, if eBay thought they could bump final prices up much by eliminating sniping, they would (it's not too hard - just do what Yahoo did, and give the option to automatically extend the auction by 5mins if someone bids in the last 5mins!). The fact is, this would lead to less bids being placed - and probably to lower final prices overall.

So Yahoo now has the 5 minutes extended option. I have a feeling Ebay is not far behind.

[Griking]

So Yahoo now has the 5 minutes extended option. I have a feeling Ebay is not far behind.

I hope so

[ryborg]

So Yahoo now has the 5 minutes extended option. I have a feeling Ebay is not far behind.

"Now"? Yahoo's had this policy for years. If ebay wanted to copy it (which I hope they don't, as a seller and buyer), they would have by now.
________
PORTABLE BUTANE HERBAL VAPORIZER (http://vaporizers.net)

[rik1138]

Yeah, Yahoo I think has always had auto-extending auctions, but it's something you have turn on when you list an auction (and I think it costs a small fee to do, like $.50 or something.)

Yahoo will also not allow sellers to cancel their auctions (so people can't talk them into ending the auction and selling the item 'behind the scenes') by default. If you want to end an auction early, you have to state in advance, while setting up the auction, that you want to be able to do this. And, they charge you for it. (Again, another $.50 or something, thus most people don't do it, so their auctions have to end normally.)

Two things I really wish Ebay would do instead of stupid sh*t like turning all the bidder names into 'bidder1', 'bidder2', etc. If they'd just pull their heads out of the *sses they'd see what they have to do to reduce the crime on their website...