Re: [Harp-L] E-Bay and sniper programs

[Joel Fritz <jfritz666@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

M. Erickson wrote:

> I loath e-bay. I see a good deal, with an apparent lack of interest by the
> rest of e-bay community; I make my bid, only to be outbid in the last few
> seconds of the auction. I get out bid by "sniper programs". Basically any
> auction on e-bay can have a multitude of hidden bidders. Their sniper
> programs will active in the last few seconds of an auction to place their
> bids.
>
> E-bay is a sellers market. Good deals can be had, but let the buyer
> beware.
>
> (I'm bidding on a bassman right now -- good price, less than 500 bucks.
> Until the snipers begin firing..)
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>
>
>  
There is a good free program called J-Bidwatcher that you can download 
from sourceforge.net.  The online services have the advantage that 
they'll place a bid for you if you aren't on line.  They want a small 
fee per transaction and some sort of subscription.  You have to supply 
them with your Ebay id and password too.  The one thing that will affect 
sniping software of any kind is that periodically Ebay will make some 
change or other that breaks the software.  All the software producers 
race to get updates out but the lag is always at least a day or two.

If you have broadband J-Bidwatcher is a good option.  I've had 
reasonable success with bids timed for 3 seconds before the close of the 
auction.  It may be that you aren't setting your maximum bid high 
enough.  I've also lost a fair number of auctions where the winning bid 
was placed well before the auction closed.   The winner's max bid was 
higher than my snipe.  Another thing to consider is that sniping 
software generally won't bid up to a point over the reserve price.  You 
can have the highest bid but come in under the reserve regardless of 
your maximum.  I think that's true for a bid placed directly.

My strategy has always been to decide what I want to pay and never, well 
hardly ever, go over that amount.  If you're looking for a Bassman, the 
good thing is that they come up over and over again.  If you're willing 
to bid on a lot of auctions and you know the average winning bid, 
eventually you'll get one for the price you want to pay.  Just be 
prepared to lose a few.


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