Auction Sniping Services

[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.

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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.

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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

[SwiftDeath]

lol I understand where you're coming from but I consider it a little rude to bid on an auction without asking if it doesn't specify shipping to my country

Sellers are also usually a lot nicer about it if you ask first

That being said there are sometimes the post reply problems you mention but rarely the relist with international shipping at least in my experience

Although I suppose you probably deal with a lot of American ebay sellers this way whereas my experiences are mostly with French/Spanish/German sellers

Oh and it is always always good practice to add .93 or whatever to your max bid

NEVER ever bid 100, always bid 100.93 or better yet 101.93

Again gotta work the system and incremental bidding is an important aspect to ebay

[HIPPEEDUDE]

Originally Posted by SwiftDeath

lol I understand where you're coming from but I consider it a little rude to bid on an auction without asking if it doesn't specify shipping to my country

Sellers are also usually a lot nicer about it if you ask first

That being said there are sometimes the post reply problems you mention but rarely the relist with international shipping at least in my experience

Although I suppose you probably deal with a lot of American ebay sellers this way whereas my experiences are mostly with French/Spanish/German sellers

Oh and it is always always good practice to add .93 or whatever to your max bid

NEVER ever bid 100, always bid 100.93 or better yet 101.93

Again gotta work the system and incremental bidding is an important aspect to ebay

I always do ask if they will ship to me but,i just wait until the seller cant revise the listing to suit international shipping & cant add the answer in the listing. If you ask to early they can change the listing or put the reply in the listing & bang goes any chance of you getting it possibly cheaper than you would have.

The $100 was just an example,for me its always something like $102.99 or what have you. All i was saying was if you feel your maximum is one amount add on at least anther $10-$20 just in case. Worst case scenario is you get outbid but dont feel as bad & best case you win it for possibly a few dollars more than your maximum.

Also,always ask for a buy now price if you can,offer to pay them directly through paypal as an incentive. This also works.

Have had sellers from the US,Germany,France & the UK all either cancel the auction then relist with international or agree to a price then sell it cheaper because it was more convenient. I have have only one exception from a UK seller that i bought the Darksiders Xbox console off. They had a buyer closer & was offering more than me but,despite this they still honored the original agreeement that was negotiated.

Sometimes all this never works. I bought something about 2-3 weeks ago in Italy. The seller agreed to ship it to me,advised me of the cost etc & all was happy. I bought the item & havent heard boo since. No correct invoice to pay,no sorry i have changed my mind or anything. Very very frustrating

[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