topic Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal? in Buying

Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

tjls007 — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 22:31:09 GMT

Is sniper bidding fair and legal? if it is what is the best program?,

if you can't beat 'um, Join 'um.

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

chameleon54 — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 22:38:33 GMT

Everyone knows the rules. Bids are accepted up to the last second. everyone knows that snipes regularly occur. There has to be some system in place that everyone works too, so it is fair and legal. Personally I dont bother with them very often. I just place my highest bid and if someone else wants it more they will bid a higher price, either during the auction or with a snipe. The only time I snipe is if it is a very rare item that I am unlikely to see again and I want every last chance of securing it.

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

curraone — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 23:22:21 GMT

if you google sniper programs you will see that there are several available.

I have used goofbid

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

putney32 — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 23:55:17 GMT

yes of course its legal. any bid placed within the timeframe of the auction is OK

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

cq_tech — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 00:18:00 GMT

I find them most useful for international auctions which end at inconvenient times for us locals (like 3am for example).

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

k1ooo-slr-sales — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 03:05:26 GMT

if the ability to snipe was restricted to some but not all members then I would say it was not fair, but there are no restrictions on who can snipe so the answer is YES, it is fair and it is legal.

I don't use snipe services, I just bid as late as I can on items. If it is ending past my bedtime then I bid just before going to bed.

The way to beat a snipe bid is to bid as late as you can, not necessarily in the last seconds or minutes, and bid your maximum. The reason for this is that many eBayers set their snipe bid early in an auction or with a just a day to go. If bidding has been taking place in the early days they will know that they might need to bid higher if they were going to if they want to win. Bidding later deprives them of the opportunity to reassess their bid.

The other way to beat a snipe bid is to find items you like that end on a Friday (between 4pm and 7pm AEST) and bid your maximum on Thursday night or Friday morning. Because of eBay's regular Friday maintenance access can be difficult on a Friday afternoon, so getting in earlier can beat a snipe bid if the snipe service is unable to complete the bid.

Seasoned eBayers will know all this, and when they snipe they will snipe their maximum early in the auction and not even check until the auction is over.

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

lane-ends — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 09:28:49 GMT

@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:

The way to beat a snipe bid is to bid as late as you can, not necessarily in the last seconds or minutes, and bid your maximum. The reason for this is that many eBayers set their snipe bid early in an auction or with a just a day to go. If bidding has been taking place in the early days they will know that they might need to bid higher if they were going to if they want to win. Bidding later deprives them of the opportunity to reassess their bid.

The other way to beat a snipe bid is to find items you like that end on a Friday (between 4pm and 7pm AEST) and bid your maximum on Thursday night or Friday morning. Because of eBay's regular Friday maintenance access can be difficult on a Friday afternoon, so getting in earlier can beat a snipe bid if the snipe service is unable to complete the bid.

Seasoned eBayers will know all this, and when they snipe they will snipe their maximum early in the auction and not even check until the auction is over.

What you are saying is the way to beat a snipe is to snipe it. Then highest snipe wins.

What most novices don't relise is that these snipe bids are not one bid more than theirs, and often if programmed, the sniper is not even watching but out having a life instead.

Apart from the benefits of increasing the odds of a better price i also use program snipe programs so that I dont watch the auction, dont get sucked into one more bid in the moment, dont forget to bid or miss the auction. The advantage also over placing early high proxy bids, means I have up until it is placed to change my mind and cancel it.

I am surprised ebay still continue with the bid and counterbid platform as most users are over that novelty. Either use Buy Now or introduce a fixed period tender submission without dressing it up as an auction, and be done with it.

Is it unfair? Only by way of the lesser informed being at a disadvantage until they know the system.

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

*crikey*mate* — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 10:06:06 GMT

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

imastawka — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 10:24:54 GMT

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

k1ooo-slr-sales — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 10:54:09 GMT

@lane-ends wrote:
k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:
The way to beat a snipe bid is to bid as late as you can, not necessarily in the last seconds or minutes, and bid your maximum. The reason for this is that many eBayers set their snipe bid early in an auction or with a just a day to go. If bidding has been taking place in the early days they will know that they might need to bid higher if they were going to if they want to win. Bidding later deprives them of the opportunity to reassess their bid.
What you are saying is the way to beat a snipe is to snipe it. Then highest snipe wins.

you don't have to snipe to beat a programmed snipe bid. You can bid an hour before the item ends and beat a snipe. I don't consider a bid an hour out from the end to be a snipe.

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

bright.ton42 — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 11:14:24 GMT

If the auction is ending while I'm awake I will always snipe bid. A bit earlier I'll make a bid to get an idea of how much more I need to

bid though. And in regards to the poster who say they prefer to have a life, I do have a life and the occasional win through sniping is part of it and I like the challenge. For some it's the pokies, for me it's snipe bidding, lol.

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

*crikey*mate* — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 12:39:54 GMT

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

lane-ends — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 02:13:35 GMT

@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:
@lane-ends wrote:
k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:
The way to beat a snipe bid is to bid as late as you can, not necessarily in the last seconds or minutes, and bid your maximum. The reason for this is that many eBayers set their snipe bid early in an auction or with a just a day to go. If bidding has been taking place in the early days they will know that they might need to bid higher if they were going to if they want to win. Bidding later deprives them of the opportunity to reassess their bid.
What you are saying is the way to beat a snipe is to snipe it. Then highest snipe wins.
you don't have to snipe to beat a programmed snipe bid. You can bid an hour before the item ends and beat a snipe. I don't consider a bid an hour out from the end to be a snipe.

Why does timing of a proxy bid make any difference to a snipe? The maximum is not revealed until the snipe is placed and is a one shot, sniper doesn't get a second chance either. Snipe bids take no account of any existing bids have been placed, or when.

If I want to pay maximum of $X for an item I set a snipe for that figure, irrespective of any other bidding action. Then I leave it alone and it will bid in due course unless I change my mind about the item and cancel it. Whether a competing maximum it has to beat is placed one minute after item is listed or one minute before it ends, makes no difference. To win I just need to be higher

To anyone who believes sniping means placing one higher bid at last second they are in danger at loosing the item for less than they were willing to pay, as they can be beaten either by another sniper or a higher standing proxy.

Most of the time my set snipe is beaten and redundant well before the auction ends. At the end of the day it is highest wins and in the event of a tie first in. Sniping is about whether you are willing to reveal you hand or not, with the added bonus of not being committed to the bid until the end, nor being duely influenced by what others do.

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

zanadoo_56 — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 23:53:41 GMT

I use sniping when an auction finishes at a time I know I won't be able to follow it, or when I've got two or more bids on auctions that are closing at virtually the same time. Very handy.

I use Gixen.

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

2106greencat — Sat, 21 Jun 2014 07:40:56 GMT

Absolutely - I use proxy bid if I am interested in an item, but if it is something I really want - yep - gixen all the way.

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

prototype-alpha-01 — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 10:09:17 GMT

well you shouldnt be able to bid at the last second and i have a solution that eliminates untrustworthy third party sites and sniper programs. its a simple method.

you have to outbid every time no less than 1day, on the last day you have to put a bid at least every hour, on the last 30 minutes you can only place a certain number of bids. so if you dont follow these rules and wait for 4 days till you bid, it will tell you that you cannot place a bid. if you bid the last 30 min it will tell you you have 5 remaining bids left.

if you bid faster then a human can refresh and bi or you ar egetting assistants from friends, yolu are banned when they examine the logs. If you resell the product fo rmore then the quater of the value that you recently purchased of ebay which i beleive is what most snipers do and they do not do it because they want the rare product and want to use it then you are banned. if you do not provide a order number for a product you are placing for sale which is identical to a product you purchased then you are banned.

place this method into the system and it will alleviate all the people misuding it and trying to make ridiculous amounts of money since developers dont want to re release collectors ingame content after a certain period passes which would eliminate most of the bid sniping and people making money and resorting to measures to get this rare sealed games, but developers arnt going to do this cuz like most humans they lack the ability to foresee these things inevitably happening, if a ebay system guy reads this post then pleas implement these measures into the system cuz i just got sniped from 2 products within the last 30 seconds and they were definitely using a sniping program.

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

davewil1964 — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 10:39:52 GMT

Your suggestion, apart from being NINE years late, is unlikely to get up. eBay allow sniping programs, as you have found. As the OP said, NINE years ago, if you can't beat them, join them.

eBay employees neither read nor respond to board posts, just other members, so your point in bumping this NINE year old thread is non-existent.

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

padi*0409 — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 11:36:17 GMT

That would probably be the most rediculous piece of writing I've ever seen on the boards.

Well done the numpty prize is yours..................

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

countessalmirena — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 11:55:54 GMT

There are so many fallacies in your post that is not worth my addressing them.

Simply put, there’s no correlation between using a sniping service and reselling on eBay.

And… this is a dead mouldering corpse of a thread. You have dug it up from where it lay decomposing since 2014. Please PLEASE look at the date of a thread before posting on it!

Re: Is sniper bidding fair and legal?

kh-stanley1 — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 12:06:54 GMT

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.