Proxy vs Sniping ??

Hi BettyB,

We hit upwards of 99.95% of snipes. That means just 1 in 2000 or less misses. Any of dozens of reason why that could be ranging from us or eBay processing the bid too slowly. The high volume times dont really effect us much on this end since it's all computer automated. We also track eBay replies times from snipes and adjust our bids accordingly. So if eBay got real slow we'd send your bids earlier so they'd get there in time.

But that's all snipes, even 1 second snipes. So in general a 5 second snipe is safe. To be more cautious though 10-20 would be even safer.

If the item is really really really something you just have to have then it would probably be prudent to manually snipe with say 10-20 seconds left. Otherwise I think we are accurate enough to win. We do charge though for any snipe that is placed even if you manually sniped. But it's probably worth it in that scenario just for you to have us firing off the snipe as a backup.

Thank you

I recently outsniped & won an auction on a camera lens. Both snipe bids were exact same amount but mine came in 10 sec ahead of other bid. Remember, high bid wins everytime. Also, bid just over increment amount. Item @ $10, bid increment is $2, your max bid is $20, you should bid $20.02. Auctions are won everyday by pennies. Proxy bids have the tendency to drive up price. Some will continue to bid as you remain high bidder, till your max proxy bid is reached. Snipe bid is waitng in wings till last minute. Some items I've bid on have jumped 50% or more in closing minutes. I usually set it and forget it. Don't get caught in "just a few $ more". Few items are truly "one of a kind". Another one will come along.

Yep, good hint.

Always bid .02 more than you think you should. Most people bid exactly .00 .25 .50 and .75.

Then some sneakly people slip in bids for .01 .26 .51 and .76 to win by a penny.

So I think the .02 .27 .52 and .77 are less frequently used.

In any case whatever you use try and not use the .00 .25 .50 .75 that everyone elses bids.

I also agree that on lower priced items where you have a good idea of where the end price will be to put your snipe in around 10-15 second lead time, rather than our default 5. That way you bid will go in first before any other snipes and in order to win they'll have to bid at least 50 cents more than you. I use this a lot when sniping on DVD's and things like that.