I have enjoyed reading the varying sniping strategies employed by those on the list. Seems there is everything from "analog" sniping to third party bid execution. Personally, I have used auctionstealer.com for several years and have been quite pleased. I prefer their servers for bid execution for the simple reason that they are synced to eBay sites. I can only recall one bid ever failing to hit due to their system failures. The $5 or so a month fee is nothing compared to the money I have saved from avoiding shills and newbies. Even more important is the time I saved. I can generally scan my 60 or so categories on eBay start to finish 2 days a week, spending a max of 45 minutes each visit.
I find sniping tools are particularly effective when bidding on European ebay sites where, for the most part, bidders have not quite clued in to snipe services. With U.S. eBay, there are so many more page views not to mention all the people hunkering over their DSL juiced lines pouncing in the last few moments of an auction.
A major reason I use sniping tools is it keeps my perceptions of value clear. Generally, when I find an item I wish to bid on, I set an auto execute bid and forget about it. I don't even put it on my eBay watch list. If I get it great, if not: too bad so sad. Maybe 2 or 3 times a year do I find an item where I am checking up on it throughout the entire span of the auction.
I have pegged some awesome sniping deals, particularly with vintage posters. Earlier this year I picked up a racing poster from the early 1920's for 350euro. Turned out the seller had two more just like it. She offered all three for 900 euro. After an additional $250 for each poster for restoration and linen backing, I was into them for about $600 each or about $1800 for the lot. Since I already had a pristine example of this poster in my collection, I was in it purely to flip it. Once the posters were back from the restorer, I sold all three to a dealer in Paris for 10,000 euro ($12,000).
Certainly don't let me dissuade those who like to troll and bottom feed bid on the first day of an auction. There are more than 20 bidders with similar collecting interests whose bidding activity I review twice each week. They have proved to be a great resource for ferreting out things that I ultimately snipe.
As to the rush of the last moment of an auction, I'll happily bypass that for the satisfaction of landing an item at, or below, the max price I was willing to pay.
Brett Horton San Francisco, California
<<Fred Yavorsky wrote:One thing I have not seen in this thread is a mention of the increased heartbeat and excitement that comes while you watch the last few seconds of an auction you're bidding in. Sniping tools remove that wonderful rush. For me, the rush comes with winning or losing.>>