quote:
HELP STOP SNIPERS!
SNIPERS ARE NOT WELCOME TO BID ON MY ITEMS - I DO NOT WANT YOUR BUSINESS
If I determine that a winning bidder has used sniping software, they will be placed on my blocked bidders list and will receive negative feedback.
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quote:
Originally posted by Bartelby:
Morning Mrs M - took us a week to move in, that was with a 6 week old baby.
Dont wanna do that again in a hurry
Lexie
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Moved six months ago to another state--NO desire to move anytime soon, but must do so to permanent house this summer. Yecch!
) 
quote:
Originally posted by sunshineannie7:
Are the auctions we win by sniping marked as such?
I only see that he's left one negative for a sniper, so I guess most snipers honor this seller's T.O.S.
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Originally posted by Jabbergah:
Unless the bidder admits to such, how would the seller determine if the bidder MANUALLY sniped his item (which presumably is acceptable) or used sniping software (which apparently is totally unacceptable to the seller!?)
quote:
Originally posted by Jabbergah:
But, if one has InstaMail TURNED OFF, like so many folks here have done, THEN how would the seller know?
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Originally posted by Jabbergah:
I just looked at about 200 listings by the seller since the new year. The vast majority of the listings, if not all, listed/sold < $20. Only a FRACTION of the listings SOLD, and only 3 of those sold had more than ONE bidder! Items are not in high demand -- why would a sniper WASTE a snipe on any of these items when they can pick them up for a proxy bid? In one auction, a buyer SNIPED himself! http://offer.ebay.com/ws3/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=2214773773 I wonder if the seller didn't sell to him?
quote:
Thanks for asking.
A sniper is a person who uses software to hide his bid until the last
possible second in order to win as cheaply as possible.
Snipers are easy to spot.
They never (or almost never) have any open bids. Closed bids are always
filed at almost exactly the same time before an auction ends. That's
because snipers use this software to disguise who they are and what they are
willing to bid in an effort to win items as cheaply as possible - to the
detriment of other buyers and sellers. eBay lets you view the open and
closed bids for anyone. If you are unsure how to do so, send me an email
and I'll help you through the process and you can see what snipers do.
Sniping software is (often) freeware that allows a bidder to enter an eBay
item number, ending date, ending time and a maximum price the bidder is
willing to pay. The software then enters the bidder's price at the end of
the auction - usually within 6 or 7 seconds of the end of it. The
sniper-bidder usually has entered a ridiculously high bid because they know
that eBay's proxy bidding will never get them to that level - eBay only
takes them to the level that is required to win. The sniper software usually
runs on a server somewhere that is always logged on to eBay, so the sniper
never has to look at what's happening to the item he wants.
Snipers claim that it means more business at a higher price for a seller-
and I find this absolutely fallacious. Sometimes they claim that they simply
don't have the time to follow auctions - this is equally fallacious because
eBay's proxy bidding system allows them to do exactly the same thing as
sniping - except that their current bid is open for all to see. Auctions
are supposed to be open and one should know who else is bidding and thus
have the opportunity outbid that competition. Many (perhaps the large
majority) of eBay bidders don't know what sniping is and when they are
outbid at the last second, lament that they might have bid higher had they
known there was more competition. That hurts sellers (like me) a lot.
Here's what eBay says about sniping:
"There is a way to protect yourself from snipers and prevent being outbid at
the last moment. If you bid the absolute maximum you are willing to pay, our
proxy system will do the work for you.
Human nature sometimes makes us resist making the highest bid within our
spending limits, but proxy bidding does work.
There is a common misconception that snipers always win. The truth is that
they don't. To win, they must outbid you. By placing a proxy bid at your
maximum limit, someone else can outbid you only if they are willing to spend
more for the item than you are. " (end of eBay quote). Problem is, most
bidders don't think about using the proxy system - it's counter-intuitive to
auctions and bidding.
I've had snipers tell me that since eBay allows sniping I am breaking eBay's
rules by my stance. My response to them is that eBay also allows false
negative feedback - but that doesn't mean that people should use that kind
of capability. Sniping is secretive; it's devious and an obvious attempt to
assure that the sniper gets the item at the lowest possible price - to the
detriment of both the seller and other bidders. My position is not in
violation of any of eBay's policies. I've been reported to eBay so many
times about this that you wouldn't believe it and yet eBay takes no action
against me. In fact, I just got reported to eBay again (on August 27,
2003). eBay took no action because I'm not violating their rules - despite
what the snipers want to believe. And, eBay's policies also allow me to
determine at my sole discretion to whom I wish to sell - and I block each
and every sniper I find.
Bidding at the last second does NOT make you a sniper by my definition.
Using software to do your bidding secretly on items makes you a sniper.
I'll never give negative feedback to a last second bidder. And, believe me,
snipers are easy to spot - I even send them an email asking them to confirm
it before I take action. So far, I've never given a negative because of
sniping and have only added seven people to my blocked bidders because of
sniping - they really seem to be afraid of my warning on my listings.
Several of them have bid on my items and won - and when I sent them an email
asking if they really want negative feedback, they have sheepishly asked me
to release them from their bids - admitting that they did not read my
warning. One of them turned me in to eBay last month, and guess what - eBay
said (again) that I'm not in violation of their policies. He then decided to
withdraw his bid - not wanting negative feedback.
eBay could fix the problem with snipers by leaving the auction open for some
period of time after the last bid is entered (just as is done in a real
auction). This would cause the sniper software to be of no use to the
sniper since they could never bid at the last second - and those of us who
are honest would always have a chance to top the high bid - thus keeping the
auction open until the true selling price has been bid.
I became the subject of a couple of dialogs among the snipers on eBay not
too long ago. Unfortunately, eBay has terminated the threads so you can't
see what kind of folks these really were. The discussions were worth taking
time read as they moved from attacking me as an anti-sniper to determining
who and what eBay bids should be and finally to bashing gays, democrats,
patriots and anyone else who doesn't meet their standards of behavior. At
least 10 of them tried to get me involved in their conversations. I still
get one or two emails a week telling me what a dastardly person I am because
of my position (you might suspect that their language is uniformly pretty
foul - apparently that's how they communicate). I chose to not respond to
those kinds of immature and narrow-minded individuals - except to report
them to eBay and their email service - and so far, I never hear from them
again. On the other hand (and not too surprisingly) I get over a dozen
emails a week applauding my stance and thanking me.
I'm just a small voice in the wilderness about this, but as both a bidder
and a seller, I really abhor sneaky, dishonest people like snipers.
) Here's a situation that just worked out for me. Curious, as the same hi-volume seller had an identical item listed in 2 other auctions with the same $19.95 opening bid & $24.95 BIN! ). Sniping isn't the end-all and be-all, WINNING at your desired price IS! With that in mind, sniping is an important and well-used strategy in my eBay bidding, but it's not the ONLY strategy I use.
