Auction Sniping Services

[SwiftDeath]

So it's come to my understanding that even though this site is home to some of the greatest ebay sniffer dogs I have ever had the pleasure and misfortune to meet, people still don't use a sniping service

This is only my opinion and not endorsed by CE.org in anyway

As with most things in life, you mileage may vary

So first off:

Potential Benefits to sniping an auction

1. Defense against shill bidding - basically if you bid early, some sellers may try to artificially bid up the auction with fake ebay accounts, setting a snipe makes this somewhat less appealing to sellers in my opinion

2. Time Management - Set a snipe and forget it. Work the system not the other way around. If an auction is ending in australia sunday morning, I ain't staying up for it. I like my sleep

3. Helps to set price limit - I hinted at this in number 1 but basically to set a snipe bid you have to choose your maximum bid from the get go and this alleviates bidding wars. Sure you may lose but it makes you honestly assess how much X and Y are worth to you. Not I was outbid thus I must bid again

Potential Downsides to sniping services

1. Service is using your ebay id/password to bid - security issue for some maybe, have never had a problem across the 4 or so that I've tried. Most are fairly professional

2. Machines are not infallible - servers fail, data gets lost/corrupted but nowadays that is quite rare, never had a single mistake from the 300 - 400 snipe bids I've placed in the last 6 months or so

So months back I went searching for a sniping service due to a mix of shill bidding by sellers and late ending european auctions

I tried maybe 3 services before I found Gixen

www.gixen.com

Benefits of Gixen compared to other sniping services:

1. FREE version that is rather feature-rich- you can snipe to your hearts content, no limits, no fees etc. however there are some advertisements, been using it 6 months or more and don't notice them anymore to be honest

2. 6 USD a year for Premium Version - removes ads, adds redundancy to the sniping, allows control of the timing of the snipe, more complicated group bidding I think

3. Bids in the currency of the auction -fairly standard practice but still useful to know and plan for

Negatives of Gixen compared to other sniping services

1. 3rd Party Ads - The free version has ad bars on the site, never really bothered me

2. Gixen Promotion Screen - For the free version, every time you login you have to click past a buy gixen premium/ help promote gixen page. Again don't notice it anymore

So yeah I highly recommend trying it out for an auction or two personally as it really just works

Basics of how Gixen Functions:

You log in to Gixen using your ebay id/password and use the ebay item number to set up a snipe bid

On the free accounts Gixen snipes anywhere from 4 to 9 seconds before the end of the auction and again I have never had any problems with it

I will try to add my experiences with the other 2 - 3 services I tried before Gixen but will have to refresh my memory as it's been a while

If anyone has experience with Gixen or another sniping service, please feel free to share it and I will try to add it to OP if appropriate

[twistedsymphony]

I've been using auctionsniper.com for years and I don't even place normal bids anymore... if it's not buy it now I'm sniping.

I lose about half the time and a win about half the time but I never overpay and never have to camp out for the end of the auction

auctionsniper's price seems a bit higher.. you get 3 free snipes to start and after that they charge 1% of the item value if you win... so $1 for a $100 item with a minimum of 25 cents and a max of $10.

One feature I LOVE about Auction sniper is bid groups. Basically you put a bunch of items in a group and it will auto snipe every one of them until lit wins one and then it stops.

So for example say you wanted to buy a Game and there are 15 auctions that all end at different times. You want to get it for a really low price so you setup all 15 auctions as snipes and put them into a bid group.

Auction sniper will snipe the first ending auction and if it loses, then it tries to snipe the 2nd and 3rd and then 4, etc.

as soon as it wins an auction in a group it stops sniping.

I did this when the Wii was first released and was going on eBay for twice retail, I managed to snip one for only $20 over retail using bid groups... there were so many auctions on eBay that I managed to snipe one in the middle of the night that most other people happened to miss.

-------------
Given the price difference Gixen sounds like a better deal, but I have no idea if they offer bid groups like AuctionSniper.

[SwiftDeath]

Originally Posted by Twistedsymphony

I've been using auctionsniper.com for years and I don't even place normal bids anymore... if it's not buy it now I'm sniping.

I lose about half the time and a win about half the time but I never overpay and never have to camp out for the end of the auction

I'm the exact same way

I snipe every auction now just out of how easy it is

Helps me to control what I will and won't pay for things

Originally Posted by Twistedsymphony

One feature I LOVE about Auction sniper is bid groups. Basically you put a bunch of items in a group and it will auto snipe every one of them until lit wins one and then it stops.

So for example say you wanted to buy a Game and there are 15 auctions that all end at different times. You want to get it for a really low price so you setup all 15 auctions as snipes and put them into a bid group.

Auction sniper will snipe the first ending auction and if it loses, then it tries to snipe the 2nd and 3rd and then 4, etc.

as soon as it wins an auction in a group it stops sniping.

I did this when the Wii was first released and was going on eBay for twice retail, I managed to snip one for only $20 over retail using bid groups... there were so many auctions on eBay that I managed to snipe one in the middle of the night that most other people happened to miss.

-------------
Given the price difference Gixen sounds like a better deal, but I have no idea if they offer bid groups like AuctionSniper.

Yeah forgot to mention it but Gixen does offer group bidding (aka dutch bidding). I just never use it so forgot about it but it looks reasonably good

You can set up to ten different bidding groups on gixen from the look of it and it's available in the free version as well

Not sure if there is a limit to the number of auctions you can have in a single bidding group though

Gixen mirror just adds higher fault tolerance (or lower, I can never remember which is better)

Originally Posted by HIPPEEDUDE

The only benefit i see in a service such is this is as you said the whole different time zone thing. This is the major hurdle we all face sooner or later. I cant remeber what service i tried but the damn thing never worked right. I might give the gixen thingy a try on something i dont really want & see what happens. If it doesnt work,i will blame you

Yep it's great for time management

Tbh gixen just works for me but it is very important to realize it won't magically get you through an ebay seller's bidder blocks (i.e. if seller blocks buyers from other countries etc.)

[HIPPEEDUDE]

Originally Posted by SwiftDeath

Yep it's great for time management

Tbh gixen just works for me but it is very important to realize it won't magically get you through an ebay seller's bidder blocks (i.e. if seller blocks buyers from other countries etc.)

Generally before auction end i do a simple test,if you can message the seller you can bid on their item regardless of wether they ship to you or not. People have the general idea if it say no ship to you that you cant bid but,so far this hasnt been the case.

[SwiftDeath]

Originally Posted by HIPPEEDUDE

Generally before auction end i do a simple test,if you can message the seller you can bid on their item regardless of wether they ship to you or not. People have the general idea if it say no ship to you that you cant bid but,so far this hasnt been the case.

Yep never hurts to contact a seller

And I usually test the waters too but then still place a snipe lol

If only veteran ebayers shared all their secrets

[HIPPEEDUDE]

Originally Posted by SwiftDeath

Yep never hurts to contact a seller

And I usually test the waters too but then still place a snipe lol

If only veteran ebayers shared all their secrets

Well,heres some tricks for you. Send the seller a message if you really have to ask something important but never ask if they will ship international,can be a bad mistake to ask this. If you dont have to ask anything,just check & check only that you are able to message them,if you can then you know you can bid. If you wish to ask them if they will send international ask when its less than 24 hours till the auction ends. By doing this they seller cant put the reply in the listing & cant alter the listing to suit intenational bids. If your going to ask if they will ship it to you still be wary of the less than 24 hours rule,i have had sellers cancel auctions with less than a few hours to go because the item has had no bids & then relist with international postage. Heap pain in the bum & you can miss out this way. One example AC Penny arcade poster,no bids & seller cancelled 2 hours before auction end then relisted it with international shipping after i asked about it. Bit peeved about that & then i forgot about the relisted item so missed out on it.
Next lesson,always see what else the seller has listed,saves on postage if they have other items your interested in. If they do have other items you want & have already won something ask them if they will do a buy now price on the other item/items you want. It helps to offer to have the buy now price added to the postage of items you have already won so they dont have to pay any fees. I know this may be a big no no but,it helps & does work. If the seller doesnt have anything else you want just ask them if they have something not listed as yet or they may consider selling that you could be interested in or is similar to the item already won. Suprising what shows up asking this.
Lastly,if your bidding & you have decided you top dollar is $100 for example,add on another $11.99 or something stupid like that. The amount of times i have lost something over one cent or just a few dollars is stupid & not worth the agro. In the same token the amount of times i have won something by a few cents or a couple of dollars more than what i was prepared to bid is worth the happiness knowing you have the item & you outbid someone by a mere few cents.
Thats all the secrets i will share for now,so here endeth the lesson,lol

[KnightOfTruth]

You dirty little sneaks, every last one of you! And here I was thinking that I'm competing against somebody hanging around during the last 30 seconds of the auction, pulling eye-crusties out of the corners of their eyes and chugging energy drinks to stay alert just like me... I call penalty!

[SwiftDeath]

Originally Posted by KnightOfTruth

You dirty little sneaks, every last one of you! And here I was thinking that I'm competing against somebody hanging around during the last 30 seconds of the auction, pulling eye-crusties out of the corners of their eyes and chugging energy drinks to stay alert just like me... I call penalty!

lol you all know me

If I'm willing to show this strategy, can you imagine what else I must have up my sleeve?

[KnightOfTruth]

There's an auction ending down the road sometime that'll be in the wee hours of the morning, if I didn't care about it, I'd probably use it as a dry-run to test this service out, but I think I'll just have to suck it up and pull an all-nighter for this one

[HIPPEEDUDE]

The only benefit i see in a service such is this is as you said the whole different time zone thing. This is the major hurdle we all face sooner or later. I cant remeber what service i tried but the damn thing never worked right. I might give the gixen thingy a try on something i dont really want & see what happens. If it doesnt work,i will blame you