Sniper bidding on eBay

[DejaVu]

Just a quick heads up, although this was a first for me.

Usually, I like to leave bidding on eBay til the last dying seconds and this tends to work well to grab some bargains.
On this particular occasion it did not go too well.

Watching a monitor for 3 days, I thought I'd bag a bargain by sniping it at the last minute. I put a bid in from under 1 minute from the end, but after confirming, it went back to the auction without my bid. With 12 seconds left I tried to speed through another, but totally missed out.

According to eBay customer service chat, they can see my bid was placed in time, but they say it was unsuccessful!
The rep also reckons the countdown timer is not as accurate as they would like and also depends on network lag/internet speed etc (I'm on Infinity FFS!).

I asked why my bid was unsuccessful and got the 'script entry' about how the eBay Proxy Bidding works!

I'm not happy I lost the monitor by a few seconds, so just a heads up to not live on the edge when bidding on eBay. You may regret it.

[cbrookes]

I normally use goofbay and set it to bid 3 seconds before the end, as of yet its always worked for me but thats probably the kiss of death!

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk 2

[hoponbaby]

The timer on the app on iPad always seems to be slightly off

[evilsatan]

Snip.pl never failed for me, set to 4 seconds. If I try manually doing it I always make sure to keep refreshing as the automated countdown gets out of sync very quickly! I bid on last 20 seconds if doing it manually.

[Zoots]

Two browser windows open. One with the auction and one with your bid ready to go. I usually bid within the last ten seconds and never failed yet.

[reverend]

I always make sure my machine is synchronised with a reliable NTP time source, as the eBay servers will be synchronised with the same time - that way you can make some very accurate late bids, have to admit I've never tried the sniper software as it takes all the fun out of it!

[Over Carl]

Two browser windows open. One with the auction and one with your bid ready to go. I usually bid within the last ten seconds and never failed yet.

I always make sure my machine is synchronised with a reliable NTP time source, as the eBay servers will be synchronised with the same time - that way you can make some very accurate late bids, have to admit I've never tried the sniper software as it takes all the fun out of it!

This is what I do - two windows, keep refreshing one then finalise my bid on the other at 4 secs, or 3 if I'm feeling adventurous.

Lost about 2 or three auctions recently where ebay has decided to bring up a login prompt just as I'm making the final click - now when I'm getting warmed up and ready to bid, I ensure to logout then login again to make sure this doesn't happen.

If I were you DejaVu, I would insist the eBay rep give you the reason why your bid was unsuccessful.

[DejaVu]

If I were you DejaVu, I would insist the eBay rep give you the reason why your bid was unsuccessful.

Tried that, but must have had an eBay monkey the other end. Felt too scripted.

I've messaged the seller offering more than the winning bidder if the sale falls through.
You never know. Distance might be a problem etc. They are 5 minutes from me!

[Over Carl]

I remember getting nowhere with an idiot at paypal a few months ago. As soon as I had finished venting my anger at that twat I just hung up the phone and started fresh and calm on another phone call back to different operator at paypal which got me great results.

[Mickey]

Not had issues bidding at the last 30 seconds. Gives me a sweaty on LMAO.

Thanks for the thread. I will add another 10 seconds to the bid just in case

[cosmicma]

my wife was bidding on an item a couple of days ago on her android tablet and i was watching the same auction on my htc 1x there was a 3 - 4 second difference between the countdown timers
the htc 1 x was showing the timer as being 3 - 4 seconds ahead of the tablets
both were using the same wireless network and we were about 3 feet from each other using the same android official ebay app

[Shotgunjim]

I use Jbidwatcher fine!? But I snipe at about 10 seconds which is enough. Lets face it, if you get outbid in under 10 seconds, you were never going to win it!

[XBOX4LIFE]

I use auction sentry deluxe (aka bid sniper) and have it set to 3 seconds, it's never missed one yet, lost a few but that was down to price

[ka$h]

I used to use baygenie on the PC and it won me loads (cost me a fortune too!)

Now I'm on the mac, I need something that works well for not a lot of pennies if there are any recommendations (tried the jsnipebid but wasn't comfortable with it)

[Copex]

i used myibay for years, dont even need to have the pc on :-) and its free.

[GTI]

Esnipe is the original and best; I've been using for over 10 years without issue. You only pay if it succesfully snipes an auction, and the costs are pretty reasonable all things considered. I set it to 10 secs before the auction end and I always bid an odd figure e.g. £21.23 as opposed to £20, since psycologically most people will enter a nice round figure, and if they get in there first you'll lose out.

[Mickey]

Esnipe is the original and best; I've been using for over 10 years without issue. You only pay if it succesfully snipes an auction, and the costs are pretty reasonable all things considered. I set it to 10 secs before the auction end and I always bid an odd figure e.g. £21.23 as opposed to £20, since psycologically most people will enter a nice round figure, and if they get in there first you'll lose out.

I have won items on say prices like £20.01. I would just love to see the face of that fecker i beat to it LMAO

[BigBird]

I usually bid in the last five seconds with my absolute maximum bid. If I'm outbidded it doesn't matter because I wasn't prepared to pay more anyway. Hasn't failed yet although a couple of times I've set my phone alarm for 15 mins before auction end and I've been about ten miles away when its gone off. Lucky enough I've been able to call with someone I know and demand to use their laptop. They were watching the timer counting down and were panicking when it got to one minute. They couldn't believe I was leaving it to the last ten seconds (I always add a few seconds when on wifi).

I've never understood why people start bidding five days before the end. All they are doing is getting into a bidding war with a few other numbskulls like themselves who don't understand the benefits of waiting until the end.

There are only two rules:
1/. Don't place any bids until the last five to fifteen seconds depending on your connection.
2/. Bid with the absolute maximum you are prepared to pay, which would usually be a rounded up amount, plus an odd number of pence over. For example if your maximum (including postage) is £50, place a bid a few pence over because chances are that someone else is thinking along the same lines as you and has rounded the price up to the same amount as you. Usually they add a penny (like Mickey above) . Which is why I always use 13 pence over and have never failed so far.

Appologies to any numbskulls who may read this. At least now you should understand the benefits of waiting and are an ex-numbskull. (">