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.
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.
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.
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Last edited by DefaultGen; 03-12-2023 at 08:27 PM.
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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.
"The last time a nation did what a bush told them to do, they ended up wandering 40 years in the wilderness ... " - Anonymous
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.
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?
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.
"The last time a nation did what a bush told them to do, they ended up wandering 40 years in the wilderness ... " - Anonymous
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.
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
The moral is, don't **** with Uncle Tim when he's been drinking!
Sniping makes baby Jesus cry.
Also pisses those of us who are using eBay the old fashioned way off.
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.
"The last time a nation did what a bush told them to do, they ended up wandering 40 years in the wilderness ... " - Anonymous
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.
"The last time a nation did what a bush told them to do, they ended up wandering 40 years in the wilderness ... " - Anonymous
I have no problems with sniping, but I do it by my lonesome and without a program
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.
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Last edited by DefaultGen; 03-12-2023 at 09:13 PM.