anyone use a sniping program on ebay

sweetie

Are they allowed? are they any good? can you recommend a good one,
preferably free.
thanks

_Whimsical_

I use www.auctionsniper.com and find it excellent. It's very easy to use and I've always found it 100% reliable.I think you get some initial free snipes as a trial but you have to pay after those are gone. It's well worth the price though. They take 1% of the price of the item you purchase as a charge. I topped my account up with $5 3 years ago and I still have some of that left after 20 something purchases over that period.

I presume using snipers is allowed as I have never had any problems with it.

HarryD

While it would be easy to do so, Ebay have not blocked snipers.
I guess there are a few arguments pro/against snipers.
Perhaps ebay have decided, snipers do them good.
I snipe alot - I reckon overall I've bought more on ebay due to sniping than I would have without.
So maybe ebay are right.

Bob Z

i tried to use one but ebay blocked and sent me a message saying someone had tried to access my account and i had to change my password

O'Coonassa

sweetie wrote: »

Are they allowed? are they any good? can you recommend a good one,
preferably free.
thanks

Ya I use jbidwatcher Never lost one yet with it but I've only used it around 10 times. It's free.

Judgement Day

Never used a Sniper yet as I prefer the last minute killer bid. I used to get upset not always winning but unless it is the Crown Jewels or the Ark of the Covenant, what you are after will inevitably come up again and again - and probably cheaper too.

rubadub

HarryD wrote: »

While it would be easy to do so, Ebay have not blocked snipers.

How would ebay do it?

Judgement Day wrote: »

Never used a Sniper yet as I prefer the last minute killer bid.

thats what sniping is, do you mean you just prefer to snipe manually?

I use snip.pl I used to buy memory cards and many seller had loads of auctions ending seconds after each other, using the functions you can really clean up. Like you can have 5 active bids but if you win an auction it will cancel the others, or increase or decrease the bids if you win one, all sorts of options. If you get annoyed by sniping you are not using ebay correctly

I explain more in post 6 here

Judgement Day

Sorry about the confusion - yes, I do mean manual sniping - counting down the seconds and hoping to God that the internet connection doesn't slow down when you commit to buy. It is nearly as good as being at a real auction.

sweetie

Thanks for the help. I set up an auctionsniper account and when I checked. it turns out my bid was blocked as I was outside the uk. Now, many times I have bid on items with UK only postage and got them sent to my mate in the north but it must block these bids when a sniper makes them. Annoying thing is, my top bid was 62 and it sold for 40!

nava

sweetie wrote: »

Thanks for the help. I set up an auctionsniper account and when I checked. it turns out my bid was blocked as I was outside the uk. Now, many times I have bid on items with UK only postage and got them sent to my mate in the north but it must block these bids when a sniper makes them. Annoying thing is, my top bid was 62 and it sold for 40!

I think sellers can have restrictions that only people in UK can bid for it, so when you tried to bid from Ireland ebay won't allow you, nothing to do with Auctionsniper.

Bob Z

sweetie wrote: »

Thanks for the help. I set up an auctionsniper account and when I checked. it turns out my bid was blocked as I was outside the uk. Now, many times I have bid on items with UK only postage and got them sent to my mate in the north but it must block these bids when a sniper makes them. Annoying thing is, my top bid was 62 and it sold for 40!

You should never bid on an item unless you contact the seller and get a price for postage to Ireland. If you had won the item at a low price the seller might have pushed the price of up to cmpensate.

Sellers sometimes post items to other addresses (i have got items posted to friends houses in the north) but with paypal theyt arent supposed to do this in case the account was stolen

_Whimsical_

sweetie wrote: »

Thanks for the help. I set up an auctionsniper account and when I checked. it turns out my bid was blocked as I was outside the uk. Now, many times I have bid on items with UK only postage and got them sent to my mate in the north but it must block these bids when a sniper makes them. Annoying thing is, my top bid was 62 and it sold for 40!

Ouch,that must've hurt:(

That is weird. Just at the weekend I bought something via auctionsniper that had UK delivery only.I emailed the seller and had got a price for Irish delivery but nothing had changed on the ebay page to reflect that the seller would send outside the UK. I have bought stuff from the US under the same circumstances via auctionsniper too.It must've been a setting chosen by the seller.Sorry it didn't work out though.Better luck next time:)

sweetie

Bob Z wrote: »

You should never bid on an item unless you contact the seller and get a price for postage to Ireland. If you had won the item at a low price the seller might have pushed the price of up to cmpensate.

Sellers sometimes post items to other addresses (i have got items posted to friends houses in the north) but with paypal theyt arent supposed to do this in case the account was stolen

I would have got it posted to the north as Ive done before. Same cost to mainland uk as it's still part of it! I should have checked with him though.
Managed to get a good second hand one for 70 which is still half price so I'm not too bummed.

rubadub

sweetie wrote: »

it turns out my bid was blocked as I was outside the uk. Now, many times I have bid on items with UK only postage and got them sent to my mate in the north but it must block these bids when a sniper makes them.

I doubt it was the sniper software being detected. I find it 50/50 if I am allowed or not if Ireland is not included. Some will say "will ship worldwide" or something, but with no price listed, I think this will allow a bid, but as mentioned if getting sent here ALWAYS contact them first (I know you were going to get it sent to the north though).

A trick I use is to put in a really low bid just to see if I will be allowed to get it with my address. Then I email the seller and ask for postage to Ireland before I put the snipe in place. Now if I am not allowed to bid I will also email them for postage to Ireland, I will also explain I am not allowed to bid and tell them I will change my ebay address. So now I go to ebay account details and change my address to

rubadub,
co dublin,
ireland,
london ewr 784
UK

And my snipe will go through just fine.

chilly wrote: »

I emailed the seller and had got a price for Irish delivery but nothing had changed on the ebay page to reflect that the seller would send outside the UK.

Sometimes they cannot change it, after so many bids or time or something. It is also hassle so I do not like asking them to do it, temporarily changing to a phoney UK address is easier for everybody.

_Whimsical_

rubadub wrote: »

Now if I am not allowed to bid I will also email them for postage to Ireland, I will also explain I am not allowed to bid and tell them I will change my ebay address. So now I go to ebay account details and change my address to

rubadub,
co dublin,
ireland,
london ewr 784
UK

That is a brilliant tip. I'd never have thought of that.Thanks for sharing

IIMII

www.bidnapper.com

Zippie84

www.goofbay.com and it is free also

pissed

Another vote for auctionsniper here. Have used it for years and find it excellent. My tip is look at the item and judge for yourself whats its worth to you. Place your max bid in sniper and if you get it for less then happy days... if you lose then the other guy has paid over the odds . Nothing as bad as sitting with your finger on F5 in the last ten seconds of the auction waiting to see if you were outbid

delllat

pissed wrote: »

Another vote for auctionsniper here. Have used it for years and find it excellent. My tip is look at the item and judge for yourself whats its worth to you. Place your max bid in sniper and if you get it for less then happy days... if you lose then the other guy has paid over the odds . Nothing as bad as sitting with your finger on F5 in the last ten seconds of the auction waiting to see if you were outbid

you dont need to keep refreshing the page ,you can just put in your maximum bid and ebay will only use enough of your total to win the auction

its good to do it at the end though so people have less chance to put in a higher bid but constantly raising your bid by small increments is a complete waste of time unless you get a buzz out of it or something

pissed

You took me up wrong, I always place my max bid at the start. The F5 bit was if I happen to be at the pc at auction end waiting to see if I have won

rubadub

Mr.S wrote: »

You may win the auction, but sometimes if its a big seller, they wont do postage outside the UK, as they have a set prices with couriers who pick up from them, so its to much hassle to sort out different prices if they have a high vollume.

Already covered

Bob Z wrote: »

You should never bid on an item unless you contact the seller and get a price for postage to Ireland.

rubadub wrote: »

as mentioned if getting sent here ALWAYS contact them first (

NEVER bid without confirmation that 1. they will post, 2. how much it will be

Bob Z

When i tried to use e-snip i got a message from ebay saying that someone tried to access my account, they then changed my password and wouldnt let me use the same password. So did i just have bad luck or what? E-snip is till going so i presume it must work for some people?!?