Snipe Bidding Services and Programs

[ole_muddy]

Rigwelder posted a comment on possible shill bidding in this thread where a relatively new ebayer made a whole lot of small bid raises on an item before finally giving up; the thread:
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... =2&t=18214

I made a reply to that comment and mentioned how I like to use a snipe bid program to fire a lone shot (win or lose) at a knife very late in the auction to prevent having an earlier-placed bid run up by someone just testing the waters. I have used two different snipe systems, Auctionsniper and AuctionSentry and the latter is the one I currently use. Sniper is a by-the-bid service that does the bidding for you and charges for each auction won. Sentry is a download that I spent $15 bucks for about four years ago and it is my preference by far since there's no ongoing expense.

What I'm looking for here are comments and opinions of other members and if you have used either service or a similar one that I'm not aware of. So, what's YOUR opinion about using snipe bidding applications??

Thanks, Eric

[ddixon]

I sometimes use snipe bidding on ebay, but I just do it manually. What I do is determine beforehand what the maximum price a given item is worth to me. If the price is still low I might put a single low bid on it early into the auction so I can use the 1-click bidding feature during the final minutes. Then I just watch the price in the last 15 minutes. If the price stays below my predetermined price, I'll shoot my max bid in the last 5 to 10 seconds (takes my computer about that long to process things) and then wait to see if I won or lost.

I've also won auctions by just entering my max bid early on and never getting outbid. Sure, the price might get driven up by a shill, but that's just how ebay works. I don't see much point in getting exercised about it. As long as I don't bid more than what I'm willing to pay to begin with, no problem.

[Roush428r]

I used auctionsniper for a couple years but I switched to bidnapper.com a couple years ago and I like it better.

[Dave O]

I find tht everyone's bid sniper program is just a second better than mine?

[Joe Dirt]

I'm currently using AuctionSniper. My bid time is set at 3 seconds (the lowest it will accept), but it goes in at 6 seconds left??!

It doesnt matter how fast YOUR computer is, as the bid is placed by THERE server.
If you use the "one click bid", it depends on your computers speed/modem to process it.

What are the main differences in the other snip programs?
That "one time fee" sounds pretty good, Eric. What are the pros/cons compared to AuctionSniper?

................. Joe

[ole_muddy]

I'm currently using AuctionSniper. My bid time is set at 3 seconds (the lowest it will accept), but it goes in at 6 seconds left??!

It doesnt matter how fast YOUR computer is, as the bid is placed by THERE server.
If you use the "one click bid", it depends on your computers speed/modem to process it.

What are the main differences in the other snip programs?
That "one time fee" sounds pretty good, Eric. What are the pros/cons compared to AuctionSniper?

................. Joe

The big pro is the one-time fee for the download. It also includes program updates for free as time goes by. You don't have to send them money every so often like AuctionSniper to keep your account current. It is offered in standard and deluxe editions and I just have the standard and that's all I need. The deluxe costs another ten or fifteen bucks. In case you change computers, they will download to your new computer for free, it's a one-time fee only.
The cons are that you will need either a DSL or wireless connection, I don't know if it works with dial-up or not. For it to function properly you will need to go into your power options and set your computer to run full time power with no sleep mode active. You also need to make sure that the program is synchronized with ebay timewise and this is on the tools menu of the program. You need to put your username and password into the program and then check to make sure it can sign in to ebay. When you don't have any active bids running you can close the program and reset your power settings to where you normally have them, just remember to switch to full time the next time you activate the program. The one thing that you have to also do is to restart the program in case Windows or Norton automatically restarts your computer for one of their overnight updates, it will not restart on its own. I think I spent around 80 bucks with AuctionSniper before I found this one and that $15 is all I've spent since I bought the program and I have no idea how much I've bought with it but it's a bunch. You can check it out at AuctionSentry.com

Eric