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Author Topic: Best Ebay sniping tool  (Read 6484 times)

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Grasshopper

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Best Ebay sniping tool
« on: September 10, 2021, 03:01:44 pm »
Hi,

Unfortunately esniper for Linux, which was my favourite Ebay sniping tool, no longer appears to work. So I'm wondering whether anyone here can recommend an alternative for either Windows or Linux?

I would prefer a tool that doesn't require you to enter your Ebay credentials into a website. But I'll consider anything as long as it's considered trustworthy.

Thanks in advance.
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Vocalitus

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #1 on: September 10, 2021, 04:59:24 pm »
Hi,

Unfortunately esniper for Linux, which was my favourite Ebay sniping tool, no longer appears to work. So I'm wondering whether anyone here can recommend an alternative for either Windows or Linux?

I would prefer a tool that doesn't require you to enter your Ebay credentials into a website. But I'll consider anything as long as it's considered trustworthy.

Thanks in advance.

That says it all doesn't it?  Something that is trustworthy.  You will need to use the .com version of ebay.   co.uk doesn't work.

If you are going to bid on something put the max amount and be like the rest of us, besides Ebay is looking for users doing this and documenting. 

Its not illegal but they are clamping down on it.


Grasshopper

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #2 on: September 10, 2021, 05:21:34 pm »
I really don't want to get into a debate over the ethics of sniping, but for what it's worth, Ebay's official position is that it's acceptable:

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/bid-sniping?id=4224&st=3&pos=1&query=Bid%20sniping&intent=sniping&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1298
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lilshawn

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2021, 11:22:42 pm »
no, but he's saying ebay literally has "sniping" built into it with automated bidding.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/auctions-bidding/bidding-works?id=4014

all you have to do is go in a minute or 2 before the close and put your max bid up to whatever you are willing to pay and ebay literally puts your bid at whatever the last highest bid is +1.

it's not completely automated, since you have to manually put your bit proxy up, but everything else is literally all a sniping program does anyway... get that last bid.

also my 2 cents:

who "bids" on stuff on ebay these days? if i'm looking at something and it's not buy it now, i know i'm not interested. all the auction process does is drive up the price from shill bidding and self bids trying to get more for their items. the only thing i might be interested in buying auction style is something with zero bids and minutes to go...and chances are it'll come back as tHiS iTEm DidNT reAch tHe reSErvE pRIce anyway, so i hardly waste my time.

Howard_Casto

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #4 on: September 11, 2021, 11:35:08 pm »
But that doesn't work.  The point of sniping isn't to win the auction but to win the auction with the lowest possible amount.   If you set up an auto bid 2 minutes before the auction ends all you are going to do is greatly inflate the price.   You might win, but you won't get a deal.   Sniping makes it appear like there isn't any interest, so people generally set their max bid to something low and then you go in at the last possible second and outbid the max bid by a couple of bucks.  I've never been good at it but I do understand the concept.   

Vocalitus

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #5 on: September 12, 2021, 03:58:15 am »
no, but he's saying ebay literally has "sniping" built into it with automated bidding.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/auctions-bidding/bidding-works?id=4014

all you have to do is go in a minute or 2 before the close and put your max bid up to whatever you are willing to pay and ebay literally puts your bid at whatever the last highest bid is +1.

it's not completely automated, since you have to manually put your bit proxy up, but everything else is literally all a sniping program does anyway... get that last bid.

also my 2 cents:

who "bids" on stuff on ebay these days? if i'm looking at something and it's not buy it now, i know i'm not interested. all the auction process does is drive up the price from shill bidding and self bids trying to get more for their items. the only thing i might be interested in buying auction style is something with zero bids and minutes to go...and chances are it'll come back as tHiS iTEm DidNT reAch tHe reSErvE pRIce anyway, so i hardly waste my time.

Maybe Grasshopper is desperate to snag a 3080 TI 20gb and doesn't want to pay 5,00000 rubles for it.    :laugh2:

Grasshopper

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #6 on: September 12, 2021, 06:46:02 am »
Yep, Howard is right.

If everyone put in their genuine maximum bid, and then walked away until the auction had finished, there would be no need for sniping. However, that ignores the psychology of the bidding process. When it comes to auctions, people often behave irrationally.

What tends to happen is that the bidder places their maximum bid, and then gets outbid. The rational thing to do at this point would be to walk away. But most people are naturally competitive, at least to a degree, and want to beat the other bidders regardless of what their initial maximum bid was. So the bidder thinks damn, maybe if I go just a little bit higher I can still win. He then makes another bid, and gets outbid again. This process continues for a few cycles until the bidder has gone way over his initial maximum bid.

It's very easy to get caught up in the heat of the moment, and bid more that you originally intended. That's especially true if you've invested time and effort in an auction by following it for several days. The main reason why I snipe is actually to impose discipline on myself.
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lilshawn

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #7 on: September 12, 2021, 04:25:37 pm »
The main reason why I snipe is actually to impose discipline on myself.

pffft okay. XD

so the idea behind your sniping is so you can't spend more that you should on something because you have terrible self control and an inability to walk away?!

got it.

put 20 bucks autobid on your item. if you don't get it for 20 bucks...you never were... cause someone else's autobid is already higher.

all YOU are doing is contributing to the artificial price inflations, and the main reason people don't bid on stuff and instead BIN.

Grasshopper

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #8 on: September 12, 2021, 05:00:34 pm »
all YOU are doing is contributing to the artificial price inflations, and the main reason people don't bid on stuff and instead BIN.

Nope. You've got it completely back to front. The whole raison d'etre of sniping is to try and win an item for a lower price than you could achieve through regular bidding.

Over time, sniping actually has a tendency to deflate prices.
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Vocalitus

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #9 on: September 12, 2021, 07:31:11 pm »
all YOU are doing is contributing to the artificial price inflations, and the main reason people don't bid on stuff and instead BIN.

Nope. You've got it completely back to front. The whole raison d'etre of sniping is to try and win an item for a lower price than you could achieve through regular bidding.

Over time, sniping actually has a tendency to deflate prices.

Well all of this is moot as you will be dealing with the US site and the exchange rate and shipping costs in  US and UK Covid land will curb your activities.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2021, 07:32:42 pm by Vocalitus »

lilshawn

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #10 on: September 12, 2021, 09:21:30 pm »
The whole raison d'etre of sniping is to try and win an item for a lower price than you could achieve through regular bidding.

except ebays built in autobid ALREADY DOES THIS.

let me explain this by a couple examples...

item is at $1
guy 1: bids $20 - you are the highest bid
guy 2: puts in autobid amount for $100
ebay:  put guy 2's bid at $21
guy 1: bids $40
ebay: immediately comes back with an you've been outbid and the current bid is $41
guy1: bids $75
ebay: immediately comes back with an you've been outbid and the current bid is $72
guy 1: bids $120 - you are the highest bid.

no propose the next example
item is $1
Guy 1: puts in autobid for $100
ebay: guy 1 bids is at $1
grassniper: i'll pay upto $75 for this item
ebay:bidding ends in 5...4...3...
grassniper: $2
ebay: immediately comes back with an you've been outbid and the current bid is $3
grassniper: $4
ebay: immediately comes back with an you've been outbid and the current bid is $5
grassniper: $6
ebay: immediately comes back with an you've been outbid and the current bid is $7
grassniper: $8
ebay: immediately comes back with an you've been outbid and the current bid is $9
grassniper: $10
ebay: immediately comes back with an you've been outbid and the current bid is $11
grassniper: $12
...
...
...
ebay: immediately comes back with an you've been outbid and the current bid is $74
grassniper: $75
ebay: immediately comes back with an you've been outbid and the current bid is $76
grassniper: okay
ebay: the auction has ended

or

Guy 1: puts in autobid for $100
item cost $1
current bid is $1
grassniper: puts in auto bid for $150
ebay: immediately comes back with your current bid is $101
5...4...3...2...1
the auction has ended and you pay $101

any way you look at it, the outcome is the same. you get the item for the lowest price within the budget you specified. you can snipe with autobid, you just need to go just before it ends and setup an autobid for the item with your budget.

pbj

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #11 on: September 12, 2021, 10:32:13 pm »
All ebay has ever had to do is extend the bidding when someone snipes, like literally every auction elsewhere in the history of ever.  They refuse to do so, at this point it’s their model.

Put in whatever you’re willing to pay and move on with life.

 :cheers:

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #12 on: September 13, 2021, 06:56:29 am »
except ebays built in autobid ALREADY DOES THIS.

let me explain this by a couple examples...

...

Yes, I'm aware of how Ebay's automatic bidding process works. But I'm afraid you're missing the point.

Ebay bidders don't typically enter their maximum bid and walk away. Many of them (probably the vast majority) also react to what other bidders are doing, and that tends to cause price inflation. If you bid at the last possible moment, then other bidders don't have a chance to react to your bid, and that helps to keep prices down.

Now you might think you're the exception to the rule. But even if that's true, you'll almost certainly be competing against other bidders who are not.

Nothing I'm saying is particularly novel. The advantages of sniping have been debated for many years. It looks like there's even a Wikipedia page on the subject.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auction_sniping
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Grasshopper

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #13 on: September 13, 2021, 07:03:47 am »
Well all of this is moot as you will be dealing with the US site and the exchange rate and shipping costs in  US and UK Covid land will curb your activities.

What makes you say that? The online sniping services that I've looked at so far all seem to handle both the US and the UK sites.

For example gixen.com can point to non-US Ebay sites:

https://www.gixen.com/main/faq.php#can-ebay-item-links-point-to-my-country

Is there a particular service that doesn't offer this facility?
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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #14 on: September 13, 2021, 11:06:02 am »
The advantages of sniping have been debated for many years.

Heh.  I'm guessing the debate stems from those who don't fully understand human behavior when it comes to auctions.  Sniping works.  I've used it in the past with considerable success, and lose auctions far more often as a result of no longer using it, to those who still do.

You don't need it to win an auction on ebay, but you do need to alter your bidding mindset.  Without sniping, you shouldn't even consider the current bid shown on the screen.  You need to bid as late as possible, at a value higher than what you believe the sniper has set for their maximum bid, leaving them no time to alter it (snipers using automaton tend not to intently watch auctions anyway.)  So essentially, a "manual" snipe.  The tools are just automating the same process.

The thing with ebay is that I've often lost auctions by being the second highest bidder.  I know this because the losses have been at the minimum bid increment.  What you never really know is how high the other individual's maximum is.  It could be within the range of extra you'd have been willing to pay to get the item (sometimes a dollar), or well beyond.   Those who say "just raise your max and let ebay manage it" will contribute to inflating prices and will likely never find that elusive deal, the latter of which is kind of the point of participating in auctions in the first place.

But the cold hard truth is that in many cases, it doesn't really matter all that much in the end.  If someone else wants that thing more than you do, you won't get it  :lol

lilshawn

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #15 on: September 13, 2021, 12:27:59 pm »
i'm just saying, setting a maximum bid allowance for an item renders all of it moot anyways.

If you MUST HAVE something and want it for the cheapest price possible, whatever the cost may be, sniping is the thing for you. put in $9999 and get it for whatever it costs. 100% guaranteed win, even against other auto bid people.

if you have a maximum money limit to spend like grasshopper says he does with his wanted auctions, just  go into the auction with 1 minute to go and setup an automatic bid at the limit you are willing to spend and that will proxy your bids at whoever else's auto bid max may be, +1 bid. trying to snipe it in this case make zero sense, and makes zero difference here. you will either know you've lost it right away and it will go for more than you are wiling to spend, which won't matter since you won't spend more than that... or you will win it cause its at your limit or less.

sniping works, yes, but not in the way grasshopper wants to use it. the built-in autobid would work perfectly fine for him.

Do what you want, but all things considered... you don't particularly need any software to do what you want to do.

RandyT

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #16 on: September 13, 2021, 01:23:13 pm »
Grasshopper, at least from his later posts, seems to be focusing on not wanting other bidders to be able to raise their bids in reaction to his, which is exactly the purpose of sniping with only a few seconds left in an auction.  If you put the max bid on ebay, it displays it in real-time as others are trying to outbid you, giving them a higher chance of succeeding in that effort and inflating prices overall.

Sounds to me like he knows what he is after :)

lilshawn

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #17 on: September 13, 2021, 01:50:48 pm »
not wanting other bidders to be able to raise their bids in reaction to his

this is why you go in and set it up with a minute left. nobody will have time to raise their proxy bid amount before it closes... and if they do, it was sniper vs sniper and chances are you wouldn't get it anyways since whoever had the lowest ping to ebay would win in that case.

either you really really want it and you'll pay ANY price, or you play the game and try to get a good deal. you can't do both with any efficiency. sniper or not.

this is precisely why i almost exclusively "buy it now". i want it, i want it now. i'll pay for it. if it's too high, i'll buy somewhere else or make an offer. if you won't take my offer, i'll go someplace else.  if he would have rejected your offer, even if you bid in the auction, chances are good he would have a minimum price setup and you wouldn't get it anyway for any kind of deal. these are the sellers who are trying to sell something for more than it's worth.

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #18 on: September 13, 2021, 02:20:18 pm »
 :)

A minute is a HUGE amount of time to raise a proxy bid.  I've outbid others with only 5 seconds left on the clock.  If I did it with 10, I'd likely have lost the item.

But yeah, I tend to use the "Buy It Now" filter more nowadays.  Half the time, I can buy something outright for less than an auction went to on the same or similar item, or the savings is so minuscule, it's not worth the bother of the auction.

Ebay has become a shadow of it's former self.  It has more in common with AliExpress and now Amazon, than it does with the Ebay of old.  But there are a dozen reasons for this, which probably aren't related to this thread.

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #19 on: September 13, 2021, 03:18:47 pm »
AliExpress... man, I had a really good track record with them for years until recently.  One item, the seller wouldn't ship my item unless I gave him more money after the sale.  I refused.  He gave them a bogus tracking number for an item to a different state and AliExpress refused to refund it.

Other item never showed up, he gave an invalid tracking number.  Same BS.  No refund.

Credit card company zapped those charges immediately but dang.  Go in there prepared to fight, I guess.


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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #20 on: September 13, 2021, 05:36:19 pm »
except ebays built in autobid ALREADY DOES THIS.

let me explain this by a couple examples...

...

Yes, I'm aware of how Ebay's automatic bidding process works. But I'm afraid you're missing the point.

Ebay bidders don't typically enter their maximum bid and walk away. Many of them (probably the vast majority) also react to what other bidders are doing, and that tends to cause price inflation. If you bid at the last possible moment, then other bidders don't have a chance to react to your bid, and that helps to keep prices down.

Now you might think you're the exception to the rule. But even if that's true, you'll almost certainly be competing against other bidders who are not.

Nothing I'm saying is particularly novel. The advantages of sniping have been debated for many years. It looks like there's even a Wikipedia page on the subject.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auction_sniping

You are now using  a site instead of an app and you said in your first post you wanted something trustworthy...    :lol

Off you pop and have a nice time sniping Grasshopper.

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #21 on: September 15, 2021, 09:39:26 am »
I dont really snipe any more.
I just use the auto bid feature or buy it now.

Ebay is not as cheap as it used to be, often the stuff I want is either bid up to normal buy it now prices (sometimes higher!) or set at such high prices I go elsewhere.

On the very rare occasion the item is on low bids and hard to obtain I will manually snipe it with my highest auto bid a few secs before the end but thats really rare now.

I never buy stuff for “sport” so I dont care about the whole will I wont I competitive thing.

I know how much I am willing to pay and thats all I am prepared to pay up to.

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #22 on: September 15, 2021, 11:23:22 am »
Yes. The weird thing about Ebay is that the price of second-hand items has rocketed in recent years. And that’s particularly true of vintage computer items, which is my main area of interest at the moment.

However, somewhat paradoxically, it’s also become one of the cheapest and most convenient platforms to buy new stuff. I actually find that, most of the time, Ebay’s prices for new items are cheaper than Amazon’s.

So, when I’m buying new items (or items with a low monetary value) I tend to use the BIN option. In fact, for new items that’s often the only option available.

However, for second-hand items which can’t be obtained cheaper elsewhere, I definitely think it’s worth bidding, and adopting a sniping strategy. You have to be careful though, as prices can be very erratic.
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Grasshopper

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Re: Best Ebay sniping tool
« Reply #23 on: September 15, 2021, 11:28:23 am »
Off you pop and have a nice time sniping Grasshopper.

Thanks. And you have a nice time paying over the odds for your Ebay items.  ;D
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