When do your snipes stop...

Ultimately, you control the bid by determining how much you want to place the snipe for. If you set up AS for $1 then that is as much as it will set the bid. If you choose $10, then it will make the snipe and you will pay a maximum of $10 if you win (hopefully less).

For example, if you set up a snipe with a maximun of ten dollars and another bidder set up a proxy bid for 12 then you will lose because as soon as your snipe is placed their proxy will outbid you. If they set their proxy for 7 then you will win with I think a bid of one dollar over their amount.

Auction sniper doesn't repeatedly bid, it just places your proxy bid at the last possible second (under 10) giving you a better chance of winning and not tipping off the competition

Also if two ASr's are bidding on the auction, yes both snipes will be placed but the one with the higher maximum bid will win assuming they are not outbid by someone elses bid.

For example as a grotesque exageration of when you won't win, if I proxy bid for an item on day one and say I am willing to pay 20,000 for it if the item is only worth say 10, I will win it with a bid of 1 dollar over any other bidder including a 5 second sniper (unless of course their max is 20,001

Hiya Papasmurf (boy doesnt that bring back memories) and Welcome to the Forum

Corprolite is rite in almost everything they have told you.

You do control what Auction Sniper will bid, but it will only bid ONCE for you, therefor you have to decide what is the absolute MAXIMUM you are willing to pay for that item and bid that. You dont want to put in a bid that is under your MAX, because you may lose and will kick yourself for not bidding more.

You also dont want to bid too high, your will you kick yourself for over spending if there is a big proxy out there or another sniper.

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For example, if auction sniper bids $1 but then at the very last second some crazy guy bids $100 and you don't want to spend that much, will auction sniper bid again over the other guys bid? Also, lets say 2 guys are watching the same item and both are using AS. Will AS bid against itself? Thanks for your time!

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In your first example - Dont bid $100 if you dont want to spend that much. Place a snipe for an amount you are comfortable with paying. If there is some *crazy guy* out there that puts in a proxy of $100, AS will submit your snipe and ebay will use whatever you told it to bid against the crazy guy. If you bid $80, he will win for one bid increment above that $81.00.

If there were 2 of you using AS, both bids will get placed and the person with the highest bid will win. If you are both using AS AND have the same snipe amount, both bids with get placed and the bid that gets accepted first will win. Which is why we suggest your snipe be an odd amount ...ie $20.27 instead of $20.00. BUT - it would be very rare for 2 snipers to bid exactly the same at the same lead time.

The only thing that Corprolite said that I dont agree with is....

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For example as a grotesque exageration of when you won't win, if I proxy bid for an item on day one and say I am willing to pay 20,000 for it if the item is only worth say 10, I will win it with a bid of 1 dollar over any other bidder including a 5 second sniper (unless of course their max is 20,001

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Corprolite WONT win for 1 dollar over any other bidder as the Bid Increments change as the bidding increases

GOOD LUCK

Lexie

The only thing that Corprolite said that I dont agree with is....

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For example as a grotesque exageration of when you won't win, if I proxy bid for an item on day one and say I am willing to pay 20,000 for it if the item is only worth say 10, I will win it with a bid of 1 dollar over any other bidder including a 5 second sniper (unless of course their max is 20,001

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Corprolite WONT win for 1 dollar over any other bidder as the Bid Increments change as the bidding increases

GOOD LUCK

You are correct, I was only thinking about low dollar bids and was tired when I put it in. Thanks for the correction

Papa,

Thank you guys for the extensive replies and the warm welcome. Just a few more questions though. So AS will only snipe once and thats it? If so, srry for the earlier questions, I thought it kept on sniping. Also, is there any way to make AS not snipe after a certain level? For example, let's say I'm gone on a trip for a while and the auction ends while I'm on my trip. Let's say that I only wanted to spend around $50 on an item and when I left for the trip the item was at $20 with 1 day to go. What if the item goes up $200 in 3 hours and I don't want to bid on the item any more but I don't have access to a computer. Will AS still snipe the item even though the price went up? Basically what I'm trying to say is, is there any way to make AS not snipe on a item if the price went up to much? I know it's really hard to understand so it's ok if you can't answer it but thanks for all your help!

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So AS will only snipe once and thats it?

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Yes - once and once only, at what time you program it to snipe and for the amount you set the snipe.

Re your other question....
If you tell AS you want to bid $50 on the item you mentioned in your example and the bidding goes to $200, you wont have a problem as AS will register your snipe as "Bid Too Low". It wont bid higher than you tell it to.

Hope that helps

Lexie

Papa. think of sniping as a one time, at the last moment, proxy. Place you snipe at the max you want to pay. A S will place it with Ebay at the aprox. time selected. Ebay will use the amount you need to win only. If your snipe in total is too low, you loose! And, you can walk away assured the other guy paid too much!

Proxy bidding can be hard to understand -- but don't worry about it. When you enter your bid, whether it's on AuctionSniper or on eBay, you name a specific amount. Win or lose, your bid will never go over that amount.

When you say the system "keeps bidding for you", you're talking about the way ebay automatically raises proxy bids. Yes, you place just one bid. That's your proxy, which might be higher than the current bid, and eBay automatically uses your proxy to raise your bid a little bit at a time as needed. eBay will give you the win at the lowest price possible, after it accounts for all the other bids. But it always stops where you tell it to. If the other bidders go past your maximum, it won't keep bidding for you. You'll lose the auction, but you won't pay more than you wanted to.

Here's an example:

Let's say there's a stereo up for auction. Mrs. M, Puppy, and I all want it. The opening bid set by the seller is $20.00.

Mrs. M wants to pay no more than $30 for it, so she enters that as her bid (by proxy or snipe, either one). Since hers is the first bid, the auctions shows her as the winning bidder for $20 (the opening bid). The rest of her bid is a secret.

Now let's say that I come along, and I want the stereo too, but I'm only willing to pay $27.75 for it. I can see that Mrs.M is the winning bidder for $20, so I enter my bid of $27.75. eBay will automatically raise each of our bids, one against the other, until one of us runs out of money. Since Mrs.M's hidden proxy was higher than my bid, she would now be the winner at a price of $28.25 or so (one increment above my highest bid, but still within her proxy limit).

Then puppy comes along, and he REALLY wants the stereo. So he bids $40. Again, eBay automatically raises each of their bids until Mrs.M's $30 bid runs out, and now Puppy is the winner at about $30.50. The rest of Puppy's bid is hidden still. If no one else bids, he wins it for $30.50, which is almost $10 less than the maximum he entered as his proxy.

So don't worry about being out of town. Just enter the amount you are comfortable paying. Make sure it's high enough that if you lose it by $1.00 you won't wish you had entered a higher number, and low enough that if you win it for that amount you won't feel like you've paid too much. Then Bon Voyage!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...I thought it was way different since I have never bought off of ebay. I thought that if you entered $1 at the last 5 seconds (if you are using AS) it will add $1 to the total amount and that's what I would have to pay. So I would type in the amount of money that I'm willing to pay, not how much I want to increase? For example, if there is an item going for $40 and I'm willing to pay $45, I would type in $45.00 instead of $5.00? Thanks a million!

Papa, it is always best to snipe at an odd amount. It give you an edge! Example, if an item is up to 40 dollars on the auction page and I am willing to pay a maximum of 50 dollars, I would instead snipe at maybe 51.31 or something instead of an even amount.

Ok, I'll keep that in mind but could anyone reply to my previous post? Also, you mentioned something earlier about ebay not showing the other people's bids. For example, if some an item is selling for $20 there could actually be a bid on it for $100, or would the price show up if someone already bid on it? Thanks

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Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...I thought it was way different since I have never bought off of ebay. I thought that if you entered $1 at the last 5 seconds (if you are using AS) it will add $1 to the total amount and that's what I would have to pay. So I would type in the amount of money that I'm willing to pay, not how much I want to increase? For example, if there is an item going for $40 and I'm willing to pay $45, I would type in $45.00 instead of $5.00? Thanks a million!

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No, you enter the most you are willing to pay for an item and ebay will use whatever portion is necessary for you to win as long as your snipe is high enough to win. If someone has $20.00 showing in an auction,you see only that. They could have a proxy bid at 100.

Papa, you really need to click on help at the top right of the page and read it carefully. I think it will help you understand. It would also be of interest to you to go to Ebay and read about proxy bidding.

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Papa:
For example, if there is an item going for $40 and I'm willing to pay $45, I would type in $45.00 instead of $5.00?

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Yes. That's correct.

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For example, if some an item is selling for $20 there could actually be a bid on it for $100

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Yes. Also correct.

>Click Here< to learn about proxy bidding on eBay. (or through AS)

Ok, thanks for your help. One last thing (I swear...), I'm looking at this item:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3662074202&category=47331

It says $9.99 but there could actually be someone who bid $100 on it? I was just wondering because it said 1 bid and I was wondering if that was his actual bid. Thanks

Now that's what I'm talking about! What gracious replies and explanations you gave! Way to go!

Sometimes taking time to understand where the other person is coming from vs. working from our own assumptions takes some skill and patience. Still, it is worth doing!

[This message was edited by littlebit on February 23, 2004 at 09:26 PM.]

Hi! It is highly unlikely that anyone bid $100 for the item, but not impossible. Ebay uses increments in bidding. If the starting bid the seller is asking for is $9.99, then that is what the first bid will show up on the screen as, even if the bidder really bid $14.99 or whatever.

If the next bidder bids $11.13, thinking or hoping that is higher than the first bid, ebay will tell him he is outbid. Because of the 2nd bidder's bid offer, ebay will use more of the first bidder's limit to keep him one increment in the lead, but no more. First bidder's bid would now show as $11.63, with two bids having been placed.

Either bidder and others besides can come back and bid again and again. That is how sometimes things go for more than they are really worth - bidders get caught up in the action!

AuctionSniper lets you avoid contributing to such bidding wars by saving your bid for the end. You decide in advance on your MAX price you would be happy to pay, then set it to go in AuctionSniper near the end of the auction (like with 8 seconds lead or so).

If the auction goes past your max price, you will be outbid. If yours is the highest bid at the end, you will win. It doesn't matter who is ahead off and on during the auction. It only matters who has the highest bid when the auction ends. (AS will usually notify you by email in advance if you are outbid early in the auction, but if it happens in the last little while, you won't know until it is over. But if you really bid your MAX, it doesn't matter anyway. It just means the other person paid a price you think is too high! If you hang around and keep looking, another item usually turns up. After you search for an item a while, you get a good idea of the going price. If you are patient, you can usually get a bargain. If you are in a hurry and are willing to spend the money, you can often - but not always - win.)

Make sure you check out the seller's feedback rating, especially negative feedback, terms of sale in small print, etc. Also, don't forget to check the shipping fees and method of payment.

Anyway, most people learn to use ebay, then later learn to use auction sniper to bid on ebay for them. It must be tough trying to learn it all at once! Take time to check out ebay's tutorials and help, like bid increments, proxy bidding, etc. Then check out auction snipers tutorials and peruse the forum. You'll learn a lot! (and probably make a few mistakes, too, like most of us did. Oh, well - the price of education. )

I wish you well!

Hey Again Papasmurf,
None of us has any way of knowing what *bonecrackers* Maximum bid is. If they really want the driver they might have a bid of $200.00 in proxy reserve.

All you can do is decide how much YOU are willing to part with for that particular driver.

If its $50.00, put in a bid of $20.57 (thereabouts - so long as its an odd amount), if you will pay $100, bid slightly over that.

The bidding is currently sitting at $9.99 because thats all ebay needs to use of *bonecracker*'s proxy to keep him in the lead. Ebay may be holding another $50, $80 or $100 in reserve of *bonecracker*'s if another bidder comes along.

Does that help?

Lexie

Yes, that helps a lot. So ebay only puts down enough for the next bidder to take the lead? If you click on the link again I think it went up to $39.59 but the guy could actually have another $40 in reserve? If so, I could put down $50 and still not win? Thanks for your help!

Thats correct Papasmurf.

That guy could have another $40+ in reserve. He could have alot more in reserve.

You still seem to be stuck on worrying about what the other guy *may* pay. You just have to settle on an amount that you would be happy to pay and bid that.

Then if you win - WOOHOO. If you dont - its because someone else put a higher value on that item than you did....they had deeper pockets.

Lexie