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24 replies

You Won! - Oops - I wasn't quite sure I wanted it.

J johnslMember
Folks,

I'm new to Auction Sniper having used a sniping program called IsnipeIt from my own system for about 3 years - the support for IsnipeIt vanished about July '03 and after an Ebay change in November '03 it ceased working.

So I went looking for an alternative and found AS.

However there is one facility which I have lost and which I miss.

I used to be able to load auctions into my sniper tools without committing a price. I used this a a type of 'watching' list for items which I am pretty certain I want to bid on but I may choose not to.

I started using AS the same way and loading most of my Ebay watch list into it (to help clear the list and watch more as 30 is often too few).

Everything went fine for a few days, the default snipe price is the next bid increment so most items got passed out and the snipe price was too low and nothing happenned.

And in a few cases I raised the snipe price to a proper snipe bid and won the items.

But now I have won an item which I was only half interested in - because nobody else bid on it and I got it at the start price ($65).

Not a huge problem because it is probably worth the money, but it's not really as nice an example as I was looking for.

So, to cut to the chase, is there any way to put an item into Auction Sniper without committing a bid on it so that I can think about it for a few days and then pop in a bid a day or two before the auction.

I pretty much review Ebay and AS every day - and with my previous tool I would often reduce, turn-off, turn-on or increase the bid on an item several times before snipe time.

With AS reducing the snipe price is easy, as is increasing it, but the only way to turn it off which I have another think about the item is to cancel it and then re-add it if I change my mind - but if is is no longer on my ebay watch list - because it's almost allways at 30 then I may forget it.

"Get organised" is an acceptable but unhelpful answer.

John.

John SL
Original Post

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rickrickMember
johns,

You could "park" those auctions in an expired bid group.

Read this tutorial:
http://www.auctionsniper.com/bidgroup.aspx

Once the specified number of wins is reached, AS will no longer bid on items in the bid group, although you can keep adding auctions/snipes to the bid group (a common complaint when people don't know how bid groups work, but in your case it's what you want it to do). You could move the item to "My Snipes" folder, or you could keep resurrecting the same bid group by increasing the specified number of wins.
Last edited {1}
T theothersteveMember
I continue to use the eBay watch list.

If there are things I'm thinking about bidding on, or there are things that I'm interested in, but are priced higher than I want to spend I put them on my eBay watch list.

Then either:

I decide I want to place a snipe, then I delete it from the watch list and track it in AS.

I decide I don't want it and delete it.

It's something that I think the minimum is to high and someone bids on it, then I delete it from the watch list.

or -

It's something that I think is priced high and it does not sell. I then contact the seller and make him an offer. I may do this prior to the action closing as well. They either agree or relist the item - at which time I delete it from the watch list.

So far this seems to work OK for me, haven't had a problem with the 30 item limit.
J johnslMember
Thanks for the welcome, Jab.

I had though about the group idea, Rick, and I tried to do it but I got messed up and gave it up.

I'll try it again - more carefully.

Of course, I have to start with an item which I really want to win in order to 'expire' the group.

Having read the forums and seen the issue about people missing bids because they continued using a group after it had won up to its limit I did think that this was a possibility, but the biggest problem is that if most people see it as a bug then it may get 'fixed' so that either a group can't be added to once it has used up its win limit, or adding items will force the user to increase the linit by at least 1.

The 30 item limit is a problem for me - I collect Irish coins - hundreds/thousands are listed every week - I am interested in some as a buyer and in others just to see what they go for. With my old snipe tool I would put in a low snipe bid on many items on the basis that 'I'll be happy to buy that for $x or less' - and then I would put in a serious bid for very many fewer items which I really wanted.

I don't win many of the low snipe bid ones, but the ones I do win are good value.

It would not be unusual for me to have had 30 snipes lined up - even if a few were hopelessly low.

At the moment on AS I have about 12 - I only expect to win 1 or 2 and there is only 1 with a serious bid which I want - which I will use to seed the 'watch' group.

John.

John SL
rickrickMember
quote:
Originally posted by Puppy Raiser:
Or you could just change the default qty of one to zero. Go to My Snipes, Click on Manage Folders. Change the qty to zero, and click on update.

Much better. I wonder why AS allows a zero? Seems strange. It's almost as if they planned them to be used for watching. Or maybe, a quick way to expire the bid group.
Last edited {1}
J jabbergahMember
bid group based on this?

Think about it. Say there are 4 items you'd be interested in ONLY if you win item A. Set up snipes for the 4 items and put them in a 0 of 0 (zero) bid group. Now set up the snipe for item A and put it in "My Snipes". Monitor the results of the Item A snipe. If you don't win, do nothing. If you DO win, modify your zero bid group to 0 of 4. Bingo!- Your 4 snipes just went live & active!

Obvious downside is having to babysit item A for the results.

Thoughts? Comments?

Jabbergah                                                    
B bjones9942Member
quote:
Originally posted by johnsl:
Folks,

I'm new to Auction Sniper having used a sniping program called IsnipeIt from my own system for about 3 years - the support for IsnipeIt vanished about July '03 and after an Ebay change in November '03 it ceased working.


Wow! That's why I'm here too! Did you get any response to emails sent to the isnipeit people? I haven't! And it seems they're STILL selling the program Frown NOT NICE! It was a nice little program, except it couldn't bid on adult items (not that I buy a lot of them, but sometimes there's a cute little risque item I can give someone as a gag gift).

I had to think long and hard about moving over to AS instead of finding another piece of sniping software for my machine. I like paying a flat one time fee instead of AS's 'pay as you go' system. But I'll have to admit, AS has worked extremely well for me - and from what I read in the forums, is pretty quick to produce updates to counter eBay changes. I've been through 3 or 4 different sniping software packages - all of them died due to developer neglect. Hopefully AS will keep going strong! Great service and tons of people in the forums to help when needed!


Brett

Mother Mary Says, 'HONESTLY! you're just ruint!'
J johnslMember
Brett,

I hadn't noticed that IsnipeIT didn't work on adult items! With all those coins listed I guess that I just don't have much spare time to explore other areas of Ebay !

No, I received no responses, but I don't think that they are still selling it - They used to auction it on Ebay but the seller id they used has had no activity for 6 months or more - The site appears to still offer it, but I am not going to test the purchase cycle to see if it completes ;-)

I agree a once off payment suited me better, but getting in a late bid is sufficiently useful that I'll take it whatever way I can get it.

And so far AS appears to be doing the job - But I tend to bid at reasonably long lead times.

My overriding reason for sniping is that I just hated coming back to see that a reasonable proxy bid had been picked away at by someone - sometimes over several hours indicating that they went away and thought about it and then came back and had a few more goes. Sometimes beating me, but other times just making me pay more than I would have without their activity.

Deep down I think that Ebay and other auction sites operate in an incorrect manner which makes last second bidding in the manner that we do it effective. Giving their methods of operation I thing sniping is the right thing to do, but overall I would prefer if Ebay extended an auction so that it allways had a period of time after the last bid was received before closeing.

By the way, the 0 wins bid group appears to be operating ok - some slight anomalies in that the status goes to cancelled on some items which means that I have to re-add them when I want to put in a proper bid amount. And it is not possible to add an item directly to the 'watching' group - you have to add it to a valid group and move it to the 'watching' group.

John SL
S shirleyMember
Ok, I'm at work and I'm bored, so forgive the diatribe...

I can understand your feelings about the fairness of bidding at the last second, but I don't agree. It's impossible to come up with a system that EVERYONE will think is "fair". How would you extend the end-time of the auction in a way that would be fair to everyone?

If you're going to extend it for the benefit of people who are sitting at their computer until the last minute, you also have to extend it for the benefit of people who might not be in front of their computers, but still have an interest in the auction (i.e. have placed an earlier bid). Regardless of what part of the world they may be in when they place their bid. So how long do you keep it open? 24-hours every time a bid is placed? How many extensions do you allow? Do you give the seller the option to extend it at will? So the auction ends up staying open indefinitely, as people nibble up the bid over the course of a month or so? Who is THAT fair to?

The system that eBay has set up is very clearly defined. It has a fixed start and end date, a fixed opening bid, and fixed bid increments. Any legitimate bid that is placed by a valid user during that time period is accepted, and the highest bid accepted before the end of the auction, wins the item. You've heard it before: It's not the LAST bid that wins, it's the HIGHEST.

In fact, if you think about it, the proxy system is specifically designed to PREVENT snipers from having an unfair advantage. It eliminates the last-second advantage by AUTOMATICALLY and INSTANTLY raising the two highest bids, until one of them passes its maximum.

People who complain that last-second bidding is unfair are not using the proxy bidding system correctly. If they place a proxy bid at the true maximum amount they're willing to pay, and they still get outbid, it doesn't matter WHEN the higher bid was placed. If they didn't place their true max bid in their proxy, then who's fault is it if they lose in the last five seconds?

Not mine! Snipe on!
B bjones9942Member
quote:
Originally posted by johnsl:
Deep down I think that Ebay and other auction sites operate in an incorrect manner which makes last second bidding in the manner that we do it effective. Giving their methods of operation I thing sniping is the right thing to do, but overall I would prefer if Ebay extended an auction so that it allways had a period of time after the last bid was received before closeing.

John SL


Ubid extends their auctions. It's even more frustrating than loosing to a sniper because auctions never seem to end (I think they add 15 mins if you bid towards the end ... then another 15 mins if someone else bids near the new end, ...)! AND they don't have a proxy bid ... if you bid high, that's what you'll pay if you win! Made that mistake the first time I used them. Plus, their shipping is outrageous - but sometimes they have items so cheap it's worth it (usually refurbs).

Oh, I was referring to Isnipeit's homepage still offering the program for sale Mad Yet another item finds its way to abandonware!

Mother Mary Says, 'HONESTLY! you're just ruint!'

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