Sniping and bid bot services available in Canada

[branta_branta]

Because of frustrations with seller fraud and the challenges with bidding on multiple items at once (without buying them all, by accident) I was ready to give up on eBay.

Then I discovered the concept of sniping and I'm spending far too much time on eBay now ;).

What sniping services work well in Canada?

I've discovered an app that seems promising but I have yet to win any auctions with it because I haven't bid high enough (against others using sniping services ;).

My desire to switch to a sniping/bid bot model of buying on eBay stems from three things:
1. Save time;
2. "Bid" on multiple listings for the same item at once without running the risk of buying all of them; and,
3. Avoid seller fraud whereby they use proxy bidding to push your bid to the limit.

I would love to be able to bid on multiple items at once and have all other bids automatically cancelled when I win an item in that category but eBay doesn't directly offer that service.

I would also like to be protected from seller fraud but eBay doesn't protect from that either.

Sniping seems to offer protection from the one and the ability to bid on multiple items.

In the past year I've been the successful bidder and victim of seller fraud (not necessarily the seller of that particular item) on two or three auctions for mobile phones.

The nasty thing about all of these wins was that they were conveniently at my maximum bid: someone had bid to just over my maximum and then retracted their bid leaving me as the "winner".

The frustrating thing about that is that eBay should then revert your bid to the next highest bid by someone else and not the person who fraudulently pushed up your bid. Instead eBay should revert the bid to the level it should be at if that fraudulent bidder had never participated.

I've only just discovered how to report that fraud and I'm not even sure eBay will do anything about it.

I'd also like to bid on multiple items without running the risk of winning them all.

By scheduling them in a sniping site I can 'bid' on multiple items and cancel future bids if I'm successful without having to waste time making sure I'm near a computer near the end time of an auction to be able to participate in multiple auctions.

eBay is going to have to address the problem of wanting to bid on multiple auctions and of wanting to avoid seller fraud if they're going to want to keep their business model going.

If we're going to a 'buy it now' or 'best offer' model of buying and selling used items how is that any different from a listing on Kijiji or Craigslist or Facebook?

PS I started another post with this content but ended up marking it as spam. Could not delete it or change the spam designation. Hopefully there won't be two posts (asked moderator to delete other thread).

[reallynicestamps]

I would also like to be protected from seller fraud but eBay doesn't protect from that either.

I take it you mean there was a shill bidder on the same auction who retracted his bid when you stopped bidding?

Sniping is one good way to prevent that.

The shill does not want to win, he wants you to win, at the highest price he can pry out of you. Last nano-second snipe bidding prevents the last-minute retractions of the shill.

Other frauds, such as non-delivery or Not As Described are well protected. Most sellers might even say too well protected.

I take it you are sophisticated enough to understand how the Resolution Centre at the bottom of this page works?

I do think it is time for eBay to retire the masked bids, which were brought in to prevent false Second Chance Offers from scammers who were not the original sellers.

Masking bidders names now leads to unwarranted claims that an auction was shilled by bidders, often new, who don't understand how automatic bidding works.

but I have yet to win any auctions with it because I haven't bid high enough

Yes, it is the highest bid, not the last bid, that wins.

An amazing number of eBayers don't seem to have grasped that.

I don't have any opinion on multiple bids on similar items. It strikes me that it would be easier just to buy one of the 85% of listings that are Fixed Price. Auctions are down to less than 15% of listings, and most of those allow either a Best Offer or a Buy It Now option, because most buyers prefer to buy and be done with it.

YMMV.

[branta_branta]

Most of the listings (in used electronics) that are fixed price are unrealistically priced and never seem to sell.

And many of the best offer listings start with ludicrous asks. Best offer is such a frustrating process because people think their used stuff is worth more than it really is. You have to go through many back and forths before the seller finally sells their item (and they usually do because they've had so few offers because their starting price is unrealistically high and people are dissuaded from offering because the price is too high).

For example, I recently bought a used camera listed as bin $599 for $125. What a waste of people's time!

And, eBay makes it hard to determine what a best offer item actually sold for which is why I'm guessing many sellers have unrealistic expectations for their equipment.

Why doesn't eBay address shill bidding? It is VERY easy to algorithmically detect when someone places a bid that wins and then promptly retracts it and then flag the listing as being at risk of price manipulation (of course, eBay profits from this practice).

Yes, the buyer protection is strong and I fear selling electronics on eBay because of buyer protection. Luckily I've never been burned [edit].

As a buyer I've had to make use of buyer protection about 30% of the time in used phones. People often don't disclose faults in their listings (I am scrupulous about full disclosure in my own sales and have never once had a complaint after the fact). Interestingly enough I've never had any pushback whatsoever from a seller when I avail myself of buyer protection.

It's like they know they've been caught in a lie or an obfuscation and accept the consequences (because eBay makes them).

That's why I'm leery of selling[edit]. From what I've seen as a buyer it would be too easy for a buyer to extort a price reduction by threatening a return. Or to simply use an item, claim it's faulty after intentionally breaking it and then returning it as if there were a real warranty.

Ultimately eBay's business model is under siege. [Edit] it's not at all good for cheap new junk because it needs a rating scale for items and has dozens, if not hundreds of listings for the exact same item (which makes it hard to find items).

eBay would be able to resurrect the auction space by preventing shill bidding. Being able to bid on multiple items without having to be stuck behind a computer would be a nice added bonus.

And, open bidding. I vaguely remember when they hid the identities. I found open bidding great for being able to identify fraud and to avoid listings with the same low rating buyer driving up prices on certain auctions. It's like one type of fraud prevention created a cottage industry of shill bidding.

Anyway, given that my first post was edited to remove a sniping service name I don't think this is the forum where I'll get an answer to my request for opinions on good sniping services.

[reallynicestamps]

FWIW - DH used esnipe when he was bidding on Australian auctions. For him, it was the time difference.

Also, as a side note to masked IDs, he also sniped because he found some competitors were following his bids and bidding against him, on the basis that he knew what was the good stuff. This ended with masked IDs too.

[branta_branta]

What they could do is unmask the IDs after a few days. This avoids the fake second chance but also returns some accountability to the system.

There is a lot to be said for full disclosure. Before the domain name registration system (how people register domain names) went hidden it was possible to identify fraudulent or political sites on the basis of the person who registered the domain.

As soon as registrations got hidden it became a lot easier for fraudsters, political hacks or commercial actors to get away with fraud or deception.

We've lost a lot of protection from fraudsters and many others with less than honorable motives with this move to hiding the true or proxy identity of people 😞

[musicyouneed]

For auctions I always use a bid service.  With that service I don't show my hand until the last 10 seconds.  I put on what is the highest I will pay and have had a lot of success.  I would say I win 70% of what items that I wanted and usually pay less than the highest I would pay.  It is too stressful for me to watch and bid.