Which ebay sniping program do you use?

Forget "sniping". Bid a maximum amount reflecting the item's worth to you and let the other suckers snipe among themselves.

Tell that to my 100% success rate (despite eBay's claim that "snipers don't always win") as a sniper...

My method: A synched wristwatch, and multiple open windows.

Who needs a program???

Which does not win you the auction as often as sniping that same amount seconds before auction end.

There are many free programs that don't involve waiting in front of your computer.

Don Bruder sez: "> Tell that to my 100% success rate (despite eBay's claim that "snipers

For that statement to have any credibility, you'd have to define the ratio of worth/amount paid.

Bob Swinney

2004.

1% fee for winning bids. You don't have to be around at auction close. Your computer doesn't have to be on and connected. You can put a bid in from any computer anywhere. This is the only way I bid - saves money over time. Not every time, but on average.

Karl

If it's something I want bad enough to snipe, it's something I want to be there for to see the end of the auction and make sure I get it. I don't trust the programs that are available to get the item for me

*EVERY TIME*, as my personal involvement has done.

It does keep the "other suckers" from nibbling away until they are a dollar above you. Making a last second bid is a time honored strategy in open bid deadline auctions.

When you find something you want, check your catalogs and the web for the new price, check the second hand brokers for used prices and the completed auctions for the bid trend. Find a number you can live with, register it with esnipe and forget it. Esnipe has saved me MANY dollars on this boat and I am running about a 70% success rate.

The key is knowing where the market price should be without letting the "other suckers" know and having a lot of patience.

Which is entirely subjective. I might consider an item worth "X", while you, or someone else considers it to be only worth "Y". If I get it for X or less, then its worth and amount paid are within acceptable limits. For you or whomever that thinks it's only worth Y, I got ripped off.

But, having said that, I've never paid more than what I felt an item was worth. I won't bid (sniping or otherwise) beyond that point, regardless of how bad I might want/need the item. *TYPICALLY*, that means I won't bid an item higher than about 1/2-3/4 of the retail value (if I can find something resembling an authoritative retail value for it, that is).

Case in point: Recently sniped clutch kit for my car. I know, from attempting to purchase the equivalent bits and pieces that were included in the kit, that the retail worth was/is somewhere in the $175-250 range, varying by where I tried to source the pieces. But I managed to take the kit out from under another sniper. For $43 + shipping. I was prepared to go to $150, if needed. But I wasn't about to put a $150 bid out there so some dipstick could jack up the final price on me. I follow the bidding to the end, place one bid, and take the item for as little as possible. And I do that by sniping - I don't bid *AT ALL* until the final minutes - Nobody knows that I'm going to be pushing them, and by the time they find out, it's too late for them to do anything about it, because the auction is closed, and I've been declared the buyer. On the (hasn't happened yet) chance that they do manage to outbid me, or they've bid higher than I figured, they're still paying more than I would have, so I still end up with what I count as a "win".

21,

I've actually been quite pleased to have lost more than a few auctions!

Steve

Just enter a maximum of a million dollars, and you'll win most items.

This does have a couple of problems though.

When are we going sailing?

Last I checked, the highest bid wins, not the sniper.

If you win them 100 percent, you're paying too much.

With no files listed!

Doesn't everyone? No need to use a program, just bid your max within the last ten seconds of the auction. Anything else isn't sniping and won't work.

Jim

================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================

Soon as I can snipe a Yanmar 4JH3 diesel. :-)