How to Snipe a Bid on eBay.com
It's difficult to win popular items on eBay, especially if there's a crowd of watchers tracking an auction. Last minute bidding, or sniping, has become a dirty secret among many eBay fans. Human snipers can sometimes strike it lucky with a high-speed Internet connection and fast hands, but the best results come from utilizing an automatic program such as BidNapper, AuctionSniper, and ezSniper.
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Instructions
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The shopper should select a sniper site to suit his needs. Some sites are aimed at high-volume shoppers, while some are great for the occasional item. Use a pay site if speed truly is important, since pay sites place bids as close as ten seconds from the end of an auction - an important edge for popular designer clothing and electronics auctions. Free sites normally get the buyer within 20-30 seconds of the auction end.
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After selecting a site, fill out the necessary information to create a user profile. When filling out this information, make certain that all eBay username and password information is correct. If this data is flawed in any way, the site won't be able to do its job.
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Click on the site's link for "New Items." The site will ask for the item number and the top bid that the buyer is willing to place.
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If asked, specify a bidding lead time of at least 8 seconds. Some sites may also ask for the user to specify the latest point of time that they can place a bid. While it may be tempting to place a bid in the last two or three seconds, this usually isn't the best option, since eBay's servers need time to process the bid and send information back to the proxy server acting in the bidder's stead. Choose a safe amount of time for the computers to do their work. Chances are, other buyers aren't using a snipe program unless it's an extremely hot item, so 10 seconds should be fine.
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Press "OK" to send the item to the snipe site. The site will pull up the auction particulars, including the title, date of completion, and price information. Check this to verify that the snipe program will bid on the right item.
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Leave the website to do its work. Snipe websites are similar to eBay's own bidding system, placing proxy bids in the user's stead. Once the sale is over, most sites will send an email to the buyer telling exactly how much the item sold for, what time the bid was placed, and how much the bid cost (if a pay site). It is then the buyer's responsibility to finish the transaction as usual.
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Resources
- Photo Credit 2006 hfabulous / Creative Commons
