I was bidding on a Magellan meridian gold GPS, and right at the last second I was outbidded . the price was at 152.50, and then when there was 25 seconds left, I was outbidded . The only reason this makes me mad is because I had been following it for 3 days, and then it was taken out from under me by someone who happened to bid at the last minute(more like second). Now for the funny part . They paid way more than it was worth . They paid almost $170, and with shipping, it would be nearing 190. For less than that, you can get one on ebay that has been refurbished by Magellan and has a 3 month, or optional 3 year warranty. The one I was bidding on was new in box (supposedly) and had no warranty. Overall, they paid too much.

Sadly that's how ebay works.  it's called snipeing.  I fully plan to do this to myself with a car i'm buying on there this week.  i'll get it in there at the last second.

I talked to my friends about it, and they said craigslist is better, and I have to agree. Even though craigslist is much more plain, it is the simple mans solution to the yuppie dominated ebay.Craigslist is more like a classifieds section in a newspaper, and instead of auctions, there are ads and listings. and the best part is that it is free to list, and most of the replies are local.

Hello,

Quaddawg turned me on to: www.esnipe.com   That's how you win...Don't bid at ebay,get item number and go to esnipe and place bid....It will bid with 6 secs left..

Later Tom K.

I had this overdrive unit on E-bay, I would
of been happy to get $200-$250 for it, well
I kept getting questions, I'd go check the
thing out and post my findings, I ended up
fixing the thing, and posted that, the price
shot up to like $400 and in the last few seconds
of the auction it spiked at $760     and the
guy drove to my house from Phoenix AZ and
gave me cash for it, I, in this case loved the sniping

Wild

I love Snipers.. I make my living on Ebay, and would NEVER bid on anything unless it was a buy it now.. all bidding does is drives the price over retail... and you lose the auction.

go to Esnipe.com or some other sniping service and let them bid for you.

If the item I am trying to win is all over ebay, and sometimes goes cheap and sometimes expensive, I set up a "Bidding folder" for that item, and enter 10-20 different auctions for the cheap price I want to pay... once I win one at the cheap price, the rest are automatically cancelled, so I don't win more than one thing..

All legal, all adhering to ebays STUPID BIDDING RULES!!!

Hey, they set up the rules, so it's up to us to play the game...


NOW, if they would do it like some other auction sites... or like LIVE REAL AUCTIONS... where if there is a last second bid.. the auction is extended 15 minutes... sniping would STOP, and it would be fair to everyone again..

But, for now, Sniping and sniping programs is the only way to bid and win on ebay (at a decent price)


Remember, this is coming from someone with a Powerseller Rating, and multiple selling accounts,.....  I truly do Ebay for a living, both buying and selling...


I buy cars on ebay, sell them locally, and buy other things locally, and sell them on ebay.  Been doing it for over 6 years now...

You Dawg   

If you are somewhat computer savvy and leave your computer on all of the time you can use a free esniper.

http://esniper.sourceforge.net/

Another good online sniper that I have used for years is
www.phantombidder.com
One beneift of phantombidder is that it is a fixed price ($.50) instead of the a percentage of the closing price.  Saves you some money if you are buying more expensive items.

It still comes down to how much you are willing to pay for it.  The whole snipe thing is kinda stupid, I will not do it.  Put in the MAX amount you are willing to bid on it and Ebay will bid it up by proxy bid for you.  If some bid comes in higher than you at the last second, well he was willing to pay more.  no different than a regualr live auction.  I just think this whole sniper thing is kinda dumb to me.   

It's Ebay's rules that are dumb, and that have caused all this sniping.. If they were like other large auction sites, and just continued the bidding after every bid was made.. 'Just like a live auction'  sniping would have never been invented.

Proxy bidding is OK.. but NOT the cheapest way to buy things..

I like proxy bidders even more than snipers.. cause a proxy bidder, fighting with a sniping service means MONEY IN MY POCKET..

So please,  by all means...  refuse to snipe and keep putting those nice high proxy bids on Ebay.. and I will keep raking in the bucks, and getting things cheaper than you..

Thanks!!

hey i'm a dick...yeah i'll admit it.  if someone proxy bids to a point where the thing is grossly over priced.  I'll nickel and dime the bastard till he's paying a small fortune.  it's backfired a few time on me but i love when it works and the guy is paying an obscene amount for it.  that's what he gets for proxy bidding $1200 on a $200 item just to cover his ass.

Thanks for the eSnipe.com heads-up.  I'm trying it, we'll see if it helps me tomorrow.  i Just wish i knew how much this putz is proxy bidding up to.

I used to do that(pushing the price up on proxy bidders). this one time I was bidding on a speedometer for a honda xr600, and I had the winning bid (around 15.00) then some one outbid me through proxy bidding. I still wanted it, and was willing to pay about 30 bucks for it(it was worth about that, being used and all) I kept bidding up to that amount, and I kept getting outbid, so I bid up to about 41.00(where it wasnt worth it to me). Then when the auction ended, it ended up selling for some obscenely high price(around 140 bucks). all I could do is laugh at how it sold for more than it was worth. I wish ebay had a way to tell the buyer that outbids you how much over what the item was worth they paid and how they should feel like an a-- for doing so . Either way, I am watching 2 other gps units that are not going for that much, and I am going to "snipe" them at the last second if the price is right,OR I might not because I have 3 flat tires on the tracker, and they need to be fixed Its too bad because whenever I get some money saved up, something unforseen happens. On the good side, they are all slow leaks.

When i read about people who are furious about sniping i think one thing.....

You shouldnt be bidding on ebay if you are not willing to walk away.

There is no such thing as a must have or a one of a kind on ebay.  When i decide to shop somehting on ebay.....like my samurai.....i do a couple weeks research on what things are worth, then i decide what they are worth to me.

I never bid over what they are worth to me, there is just no point.  Even with my sammy, which i love.....  If it had gone over my price i could have picked up any of half a dozen that have sold locally through ebay since then and probably would have enjoyed them just as much.

Snipers can walk in and pick up low interest items at great prices yes, but its also a lot of work and money to coordinate and pay for buying and selling lots of stuff on ebay. so unless you are really into having a garage full of stuff you got at a great price but dont have time to sell, stick with your max price, and be willing to walk away and wait for the next one.

I am willing to walk away. I think that ebay may be better for selling things than buying. As for the samurai, I say one on there once that was being sold by a car dealer. On part of the item description, it said "it is a great vehicle for hunting. It is perfect for that messy kill" I thought as to how gross it would be to have a bloody dead animal carcass in the back seat, and how it is no better for carrying dead animals  than a passenger car. I thouht it was really funny though (the techniques they use to attract customers). 

ok, i just thought i would add a recent comment about sniping and samurai parts.....

I just bought a samurai transfer case on ebay (and no sorry i wont tell you how much and i wont feel bad if you had one you could have sold me cheaper, but thanks for the interest)  for about half of what i was willing to pay.  The interesting part is that in the last second a snipe program popped in and bid me up by a couple of dollars.

Now if i had been sitting there edgeing my bid up a couple dollars at a time i would have lost that auction.  But since i knew my maximum price including shipping, i just entered that and said to hell with it, i get it or i dont.

I guess fortunently i got it......now lets just hope it works......