Direct Link: http://www.auctionsniper.com/TipsSheet.aspx
Auction Sniper Tips
TIP SHEET
Most anyone can buy on online-auctions, but only the more skillful do it well. Using Auction Sniper gives you a competitive-edge that will help you to become more successful with your online-auctions. We’ve compiled a few tips that we’ve garnered through years of online-auction experience.
BID YOUR MAXIMUM.
eBay will accept just the next increment over the previous bidder‘s max. This is why it is safe for you to put in the absolute maximum you're willing to bid. Remember that eBay doesn‘t show a bidder‘s max, just the next increment needed over the previous bidder. - Your snipe bid will jump to a seller's reserve. This would happen if you bid directly on eBay too. We follow all eBay rules in bidding. - Don't rely on emails to tell you your bid is too low. A bidder may have a much higher max than what eBay shows in the auction. They only show the next increment above the previous bidder. An auction might show a current bid of $23, when in fact the bidder's max is $100. So a snipe of $52 will look perfectly fine until it snipes and you lose to the max bidder at $53. Always put in your max. Much of the bidding happens in the last hour of the auction, where an email won't do you any good.
DON’T USE ROUND NUMBERS.
By tossing in odd dollars or cents, you can throw off the bid increment and you might win an item you would otherwise have lost. Why is this important to you when you're sniping? Isn't a snipe the last bid? Because there might be another sniper on the item, or you might hit a manual sniper who just gets very lucky on getting his bid in after you. Or you might even exceed another savvy bidder trying this tactic by a few dollars or cents.
KNOW THE BID INCREMENTS.
Pay attention to the bid increments and where they change. A bid is currently at $27. You bid $32.33. The bid increment is $1.00. Another sniper or person gets lucky and gets a bid in after your snipe at $33.00---but you win because he failed to make the next increment which at that point will now be $33.33, thanks to you. He lost by 33 cents and you saved 67 cents and won the auction. - Bid increments change at $100 from $1.00 to $2.50. Many eBayers are not aware of the bid increments, make sure you do. The last bid was $99, and you snipe at $103. Somehow a snipe or bid comes in after your snipe at $105---again, you win because the increment was $2.50 and his bid would have had to be $105.50 to win the auction. - This is also why many snipers lose the bid: their snipe was slightly higher---but failed to meet the next increment. Was the sniper willing to pay just a bit more to have won the item? Most times yes (max again!): we have many snipers writing in all the time upset they lost, and it's often for something just like this scenario. - It is also possible to win by less than an increment, and here's eBay's two links: one to required increments---and one to how you can win by less than an increment:
(Increments: http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/e_bid_conf3.html)
(Less than one increment: http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/e_items_closed2.html)
ON DUTCH AUCTIONS – you’re your own lowest bidder.
Another one to watch out for is bidding on ALL of a Dutch auction. eBay‘s minimum bid increments don‘t apply to those, and by bidding on ALL of an item (in a Dutch Auction) you become your own lowest bidder. - For instance, if there is an auction with 50 items. eBay gives the wins to the 50 highest bidders...who all pay the lowest winning bid amount. o So if the highest winning bid was $200 for one and the lowest winning bid was $25 for 20 of them, the highest winning bidder pays $25 for his one. All the winners pay the same price. Which sounds great. Problem is, let's say our top winning bidder bid $200 each for all 50 of them, and the next bidder bid $25. Our winning bidder pays $200 EACH for all of them: he was his own lowest bidder.
KNOW THE SHIPPING & HANDLING.
Always check shipping and handling charges, especially on smaller and less expensive items. Sellers will often lure you in to bid on what seems a great deal, but try to recover money through excessive S & H.
READ FEEDBACK.
Be wary of bidding on expensive items when the seller has a 0-2 feedback rating, especially if the deal seems too good to be true...it probably is. And on an expensive item where he seems to have great feedback, see what the feedback is on. Is it on cheap items that he bought or sold? If his feedback is under 5 and all very recent, you may want to think about that. Maybe he did that to boost his rating before selling this big item which was his intent all along. Read negative feedback, see if there's any pattern to the complaints. If not, and it's a seller with an otherwise high rating, it's likely due to buyer misunderstanding. Even though a seller may have a high feedback rating such as 99.9%, click it to see his feedback. Sometimes a seller might be on his way downhill and all those negatives he's received are in the last week or two of his transactions. You can save yourself from getting involved in a deal likely to go sour.
UNDERSTAND AUCTION SNIPER LEAD TIMES.
We never recommend less than 5 second lead times on auctions. Less time than that and eBay can take too long to process it, or even respond with the wrong message. My personal recommendation is 7 seconds, and a little more during peak time: hard for anyone to manually counter a snipe in under 7 seconds.
BE FAMILIAR WITH SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE.
eBay undergoes scheduled maintenance every Friday from 1:00am to 3:00am PST. We will snipe any auctions early if they fall during that time to ensure your snipe bid goes through. http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml
BE KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT THE ITEM.
Research is indispensable. Know the value of what you're bidding on (check outside eBay for other places selling your item!). Consider S & H costs into the final value of the item.
Patience is a virtue. Ignore other buyer feeding frenzies on an item: too often these are no longer a good deal, and with emotional bid wars, it's easy to pay more than the value of the item, especially factoring in S & H. Let someone else overspend. You'll live to snipe another day. Bad deals are made on bids with excessive buyer interest, and good deals can be had where no one else has bid at all.
ASSORTED eBAY INFORMATION.
- Remember, we must always match eBay for username and password! - eBay wants you to be verified on amounts above $15k http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/f-verify.html#19
BID GROUPS – use them.
Auction Sniper’s Bid Group feature is under-utilized. It’s a simple procedure to set-up and exceptionally time-saving. Bid Groups allow you to bid on the same item from different sellers. As soon as you win one auction at the price you want, we'll automatically cancel the rest of your bids.
RUN SEARCHES ON AUCTION SNIPER.
If there is a rare item that you’re looking for, set up a search on Auction Sniper and you’ll get an email message if that item ever becomes available on eBay and you can then snipe it.
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