E-bay Sniper..............?

Stuart Ablett

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I'm rebuilding my old Cannondale mountain bike, I need some "Vintage" parts, I've found them on E-bay, but I don't want to miss out on the auctions, I've heard of this "E-bay Sniper" program, or something similar, has anyone used this or can you recommend something?

Cheers!
 
I've used EZ Sniper before. Seems to work, but it's not a 100% sure thing if there are other snipers involved, or if some other bidder puts in a higher bid.

It does raise your chances significantly, and it's not that expensive.
 
I will second Esnipe. I have had one time when it had an error and didn't place my bid. Otherwise has worked flawlessly for me. And one of things I love is bid groups. If there are multiple actions for an item you want. You can create a bid group and it will go down the list and bid on each one till you win one. Then it will cancel your other snipe bids you set up in that group.

Like Brent said and I am sure you know, you still have to be the highest bidder but my success rate is MUCH improved with Esnipe. It seemed I was always getting out bid by a some small amount. Now at least no one has time to raise their bid 50 cents over mine!
 
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I use Bidnapper.com, and have been very happy with them for years. Most of my winning bids have been placed within the last 5 seconds of the auction. As Brent mentioned, any sniping service is subject to getting beat by another sniping service.
 
What I find funny is the whole mindset of ebay auctions. If everyone would just say, 'Yeah, I'd pay X for that', put in their bid, and walk away, it'd be fine.

But Human nature comes into play. The whole, well, if they'll pay that, I guess I could up it a bit, over and over during the life of the auction...

So what the sniper programs actually do, even though some people hate them, is to allow people to set their actual, final, maximum bid on an auction and walk away...

Some people hate em, but to me, if you really want an item, you have to assume someone else is going to use one so you have to fight fire with fire, as they say..
 
By putting your bid in early, you give others the ability to "test" your bid. So let's say you bid $100 on the first day. Someone else is probably going to make small incremental bids, looking to either top your bid, or see that your bid is less then the standard increment. So if they bid $99.99, the system will bid $100 for you but the one cent difference is less than the increment at that price (probably $2 or $2.50), so they know they found your max bid. Then they can overbid you at the last minute.

But even if they don't overbid you, they can push your bid up more than it should be.

Compare this to putting in your bid of $100 at the last minute. It's more like a sealed bid because others do not have the time to test your bid. Everyone who snipes puts in their max bid and the highest bid wins.

Mike
 
Well said Mike.

A lot of people gripe and moan over "snipers". Well it's an auction! The merchandise goes to the highest bidder. It doesn't matter WHEN you put your bid in. Using sniping software is 100% acceptable in my opinion. The bidder just has to decide what their absolute maximum price is. If he wants his bid made with ten seconds left in the auction then so be it. If there's another sniper out there that's willing to pay a buck more for it, he won't have time to outbid and will lose. It all comes down to who is willing to pay the most.

John
 
Thanks fellas!

Chuck, the main thing I need is the bar top shifters, I'd like the Shimano Deore SIS or the Shimano Deore XT. Has to be for a seven speed cassette.

deore_shifters.jpg deore_xt_shifters.JPG
The ones I have got water in them and they are all rusty :doh:

I doubt I can get parts for them.

If you have something like this laying around, I'd pay fair market value for them :thumb:

Cheers!
 
...Everyone who snipes puts in their max bid and the highest bid wins...

Not necessarily. With the service I use, they determine what the highest bid is seconds before the end of the auction, then bid only the next bid increment higher to beat it. If I've put in a max bid of $100, and the bid is sitting at $55 seconds before the end of the auction, the sniping service will only bid $56 (or whatever the next bid increment is) before the end of the auction, not the full $100 I've set as the max.
 
Vaughn,
I think you and Mike are on the same page. When you set up the snipe, you have to enter your maximum bid. But if you win, that doesn't necessarily mean that you'll pay your maximum bid. That's the way Bidding Scheduler works. It looks at the highest bid at the time you specify and then adds the minimum bid increment up to your maximum and then places the bid.

John
 
Most of the time, I just put in my max bid and walk away. But, that is most of the time. Sometimes I exhibit human weakness and try to sneak in last second bids. Seldom works, I don't use a program. I have heard that in Europe sniping is not possible. If a last second (or minute, or whatever) bid comes in the whole auction time is extended by twenty minutes or so. Things could go on forever that way. But, then, the bids would keep going up and that is good for the seller, and eBay.
 
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