Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

Hiya

 

I have used eSnipe in the past, not in the last year or two.  I may want to place snipe bids on about 150-200 auction listings, Canadian Seller (Canuck Bucks)  all relatively low ticket items but,  when I just checked their rate chart, it seems eSnipe is now charging $1 per winning bid regardless of the auction item value.  Anyone use eSnipe lately and could please confirm or deny this?  I have tried writing them but, as the listings will begin ending this evening, I can't count on hearing back in time.  Speaking of time, thanks for yours. 

 

 

Winning BidYour Cost Non-U.S. currency auction wins of any quantity$1.00

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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

I've never used that site. I used gixen in the past but not for a few years.

Are the auctions in Canadian dollars? It looks as if they are charging you a $1 because the currency isn't US. It looks like the fees for $US are less.

 

You probably looked at this already but just in case...

 

 

eFrom the faq -

eSnipe is free to new users for limited time. After the trial period, eSnipe only charges if you win an auction, even if you lost because your bid was too low. When you do win the cost is 25 cents for items up to US$24.99, 1% of the winning amount for items up to US$1,000 (rounded down to the nearest penny), and a maximum of $10 thereafter. So if you win an item for $47, the fee is 47 cents. If you win an item for $230.58, the fee is $2.30. eSnipe fees are in BidPoints, which you can buy in quantity for discounts. For more details, please visit our BidPoints Official Rules page.

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Message 2 of 33
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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

HI.  Thanks for the response. The auctions are all in Canadian dollars so it looks like the service would ding me $1.00 per.   Because these are all lower priced items for auction, some may end at a $1 - 2 and I really dont want to pay a buck per for the "privilege"    I am pretty sure that when I last used eSniple, it was a small percentage of the winning bid which, for the most part, worked out to lots less than the $1 they want now.

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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

$1 for each one is high, I wouldn't want to pay that either.

Message 4 of 33
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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

Absolutely not "worth" it for my purposes.  I used to pay (I think) 1%, possibly 1.5% of the winning auction total in fees. 

Message 5 of 33
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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

You can snipe yourself... That's what I always do. Never used a sniping service in my life. I like the rush of sniping myself 😉

 

Unless they end in the middle of the night? If that is the case, just enter your max bid as late as you can. If you win, the item was meant for you. If not, another deal will come along. At least, that's how I see it.

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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

I use Gixen and have never had an issue

Message 7 of 33
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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

You can snipe yourself... That's what I always do. Never used a sniping service in my life. I like the rush of sniping myself Smiley Wink

 

Unless they end in the middle of the night? If that is the case, just enter your max bid as late as you can. If you win, the item was meant for you. If not, another deal will come along. At least, that's how I see it.

 

 

 

Indeed I could....................if there was only one auction of interest to me.  There are actually over 200 of them, all ending at the same time.  🙂 

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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.


@snoopwiz wrote:

You can snipe yourself... That's what I always do. Never used a sniping service in my life. I like the rush of sniping myself Smiley Wink

 

Unless they end in the middle of the night? If that is the case, just enter your max bid as late as you can. If you win, the item was meant for you. If not, another deal will come along. At least, that's how I see it.

 

 

 

Indeed I could....................if there was only one auction of interest to me.  There are actually over 200 of them, all ending at the same time.  🙂 


If they all end at the same time, you may have an issue with any sniping service getting hung up if they are very close together. People list that way so you have to put actual bids in advance of closing.

Message 9 of 33
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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

If they all end at the same time, you may have an issue with any sniping service getting hung up if they are very close together. People list that way so you have to put actual bids in advance of closing.

 

 

Thanks for the heads up.  I think though, in this case, the seller changed their Fixed Price Listings to "Send To Auction"    I had no idea the snipe service may not do the trick because of all of them ending at the same time.  Appreciate it. 

Message 10 of 33
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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

If as I understand it, the listings will likely all end at one or two dollars you could just put in your bids now for the total you want.

The chances of someone pushing all your bids up on such low value items is pretty minimal I would think.

 

Or, if the items are relisted to auction, the seller is trying to move them out.

How about Contacting the Seller and asking for a bulk price on all of them or half of them?

 

KISS.Thinkoutise the box.jpg

Message 11 of 33
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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

How about Contacting the Seller and asking for a bulk price on all of them or half of them?

 

 

I had already done that. My educated guess is he probably  wants to see how much he can get by auctioning them off before considering otherwise.

Message 12 of 33
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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

Try SmartSnipe.  I've used them occasionally and have never been charged a fee.

Message 13 of 33
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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

Try SmartSnipe.  I've used them occasionally and have never been charged a fee.

 

 

Thanks for the heads up.  I have looked into a few different sniping services and my only concern about using a service for over 200 auctions ending (for the most part) at the same time is the word of warning from "dutchman48"  about the potential of the service getting "hung up" when trying to place that many bids on auctions ending so close to one another.

Message 14 of 33
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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

I contacted Mario at Gixen and he told me that it would not be a problem for Gixen to handle that many simultaneous snipes.

 

Gixen is free but I would suggest you pay the $6.00 per year for the mirror service to use multiple servers.

 

Sign up and give it a chance to see what happens.

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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

I haven't bought anything on eBay at auction for a long, long time, but I used to do so many years ago, and snipers were a terror then.  

 

I suspect there are fewer people sniping now, simply because there are fewer auctions on eBay, which is probably why some sniping services are starting to charge a fee per item won.  Everybody wants their cut. 

 

One thing that has always puzzled me about sniping programmes is whether they were actually able to "smart-snipe", that is, somehow read the highest reserve bid by existing bidders and outdo it at the last possible millisecond.  Or does the snipe user have to specify a maximum bid in advance?  I recall a number of times losing very desirable items by just one dollar to snipers, on which I'd placed what I thought was a fairly outrageously high reserve bid during the last few minutes of the auction.  My only consolation was that the sniping bidder was going to have to pay a very high price for the item.  Of course, the seller did well. 

 

If a maximum advance bid is required, I don't see the difference in doing that, or in waiting until, say, an hour before the close and placing the highest bid you're willing to pay.  Of course, I suppose if you're dealing with hundreds of items closing at the same time, that's a little impractical.  But surely you must have to be prepared, at least in principle, to pay for them all in the event every one of your snipe bids wins?

 

Somehow it always seemed "not quite cricket" to me to be hiding in the virtual shadows until the last millisecond (when no other bidder could respond), rather than participating in the open bidding.  There were times I would have gladly outbid the sniper if given the chance. 

 

This is completely at odds with live auctions, where bidding isn't closed until no one else wants to bid.  I know sniping got a lot of people what they wanted, and made some sellers a lot of money, and I understand that it was always "eBay-legal".  But I'm sorry to say it soured me after a time on bothering to bid on any auction whatsoever.  I often wonder whether sniping, rather than having to wait for auctions to end, is what really made BIN so much more popular on eBay. 

 

 

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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.


@rose-dee wrote:

I haven't bought anything on eBay at auction for a long, long time, but I used to do so many years ago, and snipers were a terror then.  

 

I suspect there are fewer people sniping now, simply because there are fewer auctions on eBay, which is probably why some sniping services are starting to charge a fee per item won.  Everybody wants their cut. 

 

One thing that has always puzzled me about sniping programmes is whether they were actually able to "smart-snipe", that is, somehow read the highest reserve bid by existing bidders and outdo it at the last possible millisecond.  Or does the snipe user have to specify a maximum bid in advance?  I recall a number of times losing very desirable items by just one dollar to snipers, on which I'd placed what I thought was a fairly outrageously high reserve bid during the last few minutes of the auction.  My only consolation was that the sniping bidder was going to have to pay a very high price for the item.  Of course, the seller did well. 

 

If a maximum advance bid is required, I don't see the difference in doing that, or in waiting until, say, an hour before the close and placing the highest bid you're willing to pay.  Of course, I suppose if you're dealing with hundreds of items closing at the same time, that's a little impractical.  But surely you must have to be prepared, at least in principle, to pay for them all in the event every one of your snipe bids wins?

 

Somehow it always seemed "not quite cricket" to me to be hiding in the virtual shadows until the last millisecond (when no other bidder could respond), rather than participating in the open bidding.  There were times I would have gladly outbid the sniper if given the chance. 

 

This is completely at odds with live auctions, where bidding isn't closed until no one else wants to bid.  I know sniping got a lot of people what they wanted, and made some sellers a lot of money, and I understand that it was always "eBay-legal".  But I'm sorry to say it soured me after a time on bothering to bid on any auction whatsoever.  I often wonder whether sniping, rather than having to wait for auctions to end, is what really made BIN so much more popular on eBay. 

 

 


Snipe user has to put in a max whether it is fixed price or auction.

 

 

Message 17 of 33
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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

Live auctions also take proxy bids.

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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

I agree with much of what you've said, rose, and I believe this likely caused all sorts of antagonistic behaviour and comments when auctions were so popular and bidders watched and watched their items only to lose them in the final hundredth of a second.

 

I've used it a half-dozen times over the last few years but only when it was not important to me whether or not I won the item -- if I really want something, I use BIN.  While browsing, I might have seen an item and thought it looked interesting, placed a bid and then forgot about it. The last time I used SmartSnipe, I wasn't required to enter my maximum bid because it clearly questions whether you would like to increase your bid.

 

I have no idea how a sniping service could handle a couple of hundred of auctions ending at almost the same time, but it seems to me that if a buyer needs to enter an Item # plus their bid with a snipe service, it might be faster and easier to enter their maximum bid on each of the items of interest.

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Sniping a large number of auctions using eSnipe service.

I 100% believe that buyers definitely got tired of putting bids in that were sniped and that is what has pushed many to BINland.

Actually the good news (at least in my world) is that the BIN folks aren't nearly as likely to be problems as would someone winning a 99c or 1c auction....I've always said that if two auction buyers buy something that should be $10 one gets it for 99c and the other $20 the seller is much more likely to get a complaint from the 99c buyer.....

Usually if I'm bidding on something, that I really care about, I manually snipe, but that is pretty rare.
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