Sniping -- How can it work?

[clarry100]

I've seen a bit of chat on here about snipe bidding.

I understand that the idea is to place a bid in the last second or so of an auction so that your opposition does not have a chance to respond with a better and the sniper wins. Is this the idea?

But the way I understand it, it's the bidder with the highest maximum bid set that will win. So when the hammer falls (a time = ZERO) it will be the highest maximum bid set by any bidder no matter if you placed that bid with 1-second to go or 1-hour or more to go.

So if you place a bid of, say exactly $10, with 1-second to go, but your opponent's last bid was $9.50 but he has his maximum bid set to $10.50 then your opponent is going to win. Because your maximum bid of $10 is less than his maximum.

So just wondering how sniping could possibly be of any benefit? To me it seems its all about the maximum anyone is willing to pay for the item. Not how quickly they can click a mouse button.

[amber-eyed-girl]

Sniping gets you the item for less, is also the reason. As there is not time for another bidder to "nibble" bid up towards your max bid.

as there is only time at the end to place one, max, bid in one hit. So if you, say, as an example, place 100$ on an item with an hour to go.

someone else bids 50, you top them. They then bid 60, you top that. They then bid 70, you trump them again. They get uncomfortable and drop out.

in the last few secs, if you had placed the 100 only then, the other bidder would have had the time for only the original 50 bid, that they were originally planning on.

rather than a few people all placing their max bids with an hour or more to go. Where they then get their bids topped, as people decide to go a little bit higher...then higher...as their bids are outbid.

sniping is a good tactic for a buyer. placing maxs early on tends to mean that you can lose out, as your max is exposed, or you pay more.

that's how I see it anyway.

as people do think of fluid maxs to beat someone else if they really want the item, in nibble bidding. Just a little more...

so nible bids benefit the seller.

[au.j001]

I think most buyers don't put their maximum bid in straight away.  Either because they are hoping to win it for less, or they don't want a shill bidder to bid up and over their maximum.    

[*crikey*mate*]

Yep, and ambs and I saw an excellent example of this last night.

From $200 - to $710

[*crikey*mate*]

A seller listed an item BIN $1000, auction start at $200.

I so anted it so had been watching it all wekk ready for my snipe.

During communication with the seller, they openly admitted that if the item didn't sell for $1000, they wouldn't be selling.

(The really scary part about this is that they signed their PMs to me as being a bank manager for a nominated bank! A bank manager who doesn't know about contracts????? scary stuff....

Anyweay, being the helpful little munchkin that I am, I told the seller that if the auction ended with that one bid for $200, they HAD to sell. yada yada yada (was too late to end the listing by now)

Within 22 minutes, a couple fo bids appeared pushing the shown price to $710

eBay accidentally confirmed today that the High Bidders account was registered to the same person who listed the auction......It seems that when we call them, they can see all of our accounts and can also read the messages in each account, so they could read the comms between us even though i rang them as crikey, but more importantly, they could see the other accounts of this member and its recent activity.

[amber-eyed-girl]

is eBay going to follow it up?

as a confirmed shill bid?

they have to. to retain the trust of eBay members. Or to start rebuilding that trust.

[lane-ends]

Snipers, especially auto ones are rarely the next bid increment. They are the maximum. So none gets a chance to up their bid in response. Program snipes mean you dont have to watch the auction end, you can set it days before, which means you wont miss it or forget. Neither will you get caught up in the moment, your judgement wil be more objective. The program will default place your bid, you can cancel it unlike the case of placing an early proxy.

In short your odds of getting it cheaper are greater, and also you can get on with your life rather than hanging around for items to finish. 

You are correct if someone places a higher bid at anytime you loose, you are not guarnteed to win, it just increases the odds if your bid is realistic.

[cherry*135]

New ebay members bid early. Experienced buyers don't want the price shooting up in a bidding war so leave putting their bid in closer to the end of auction time.