Since it was formed in 1995, eBay has taken the internet by storm. From 1995 to 2008 they had grown to an astonishing 7.7 Billion according to this wikipedia article. The greatest thing about of eBay is winning an item at a wholesale price. Who wants to pay $29.99 for this Motorola Droid Verizon Wireless car charger when you can get the same charger for $3.05 at eBay?  Most people aren’t aware that retails stores only make about 10% off their high priced electronic items while they make 70-90% off “required” accessories. Best Buy is only making about $50 off the new laptop you just bought while they’re making $200 or more off insurance, travel bags, cords, and software. eBay changed everything by introducing wholesale prices for these accessories and (often) cheaper prices for major electronics. No doubt about it – with the ongoing recession everybody’s into saving money. eBay can certainly help you do it.

I’ve been doing eBay since 2004. For the first couple of years I was really into it! I loved surfing around for items, finding the something interesting, bidding on, and winning the item. After using eBay on and off for a year I noticed something very interesting: bidders who often won the item wouldn’t bid until the last 5-10 seconds of the auction. I later learned that this process of watching an auction and placing the winning bid at the last possible moment is called auction sniping.

I quickly learned that auction sniping was the most effectively way at winning at a bid because of the fact that until you place you bid at the last 7 seconds you’re competely “under the radar.” None of the other bidders know that I was right there lying in wait like a tiger! In the last couple seconds of the auction I placed swopped in, placed my bid, and won the item. Excellent.

The only problem with problem with auction sniping is than it’s pretty difficult to be physically in front of your laptop at the end of every auction.  The real world often presents logistical hurdles which prevent you from being there in the last couple of minutes. This making sniping hard to do every time. Even though I knew what time the auction ended almost every other time something would come up and prevent me from being in front of the screen. I’d still miss the end and miss my change to snipe my win.

Another thing I realized is the many auctions seemed to be sniped automatically in the last 5 or 10 seconds. After doing some investigation I discovered the world of automatic sniping software. There’s  Gixen, Auction Sniper, Bidnapper, EZ sniper, JustSnipe, and so on. There must be dozens of companies there are setup to integrate your eBay into their sniping platform. Some are free, some are subscription based, some are easy to use, and some are hard to use. I decided to keep manually sniping my bids since I didn’t eBay often enough to justify spending the extra money.

“If you can’t beat them, join them” is the expression that came to my mind. After researching I found that Auction Sniper seemed to be the best auction sniper software. I found them cheap, easy to use, and of high quality. They only charge a tiny fraction of the bid (25 to 33 cents) only when you win. They give you a free trail to see how you like it - the  first three winning bids are free. I’ve been faithfully using them for the past 3-4 years. They are great! If used effectively they can actually save you money. Again – they only charge you when you win an action!

After I started using Auction Sniper I starting winning more auctions. I really enjoyed setting everything up to be auto sniped and leaving it to fate. After the auction was over I’d log on, see if I won, and pay for the item if I did. With auction sniping software you won’t win every auction but you will win more of them. Sniping software also takes a lot of the emotion out of winning or loosing a bid. Since you setup your snipes hours in advance you aren’t influences by last minute emotion and hype. Less emotion and more logic is great for me! The whole process of sniping has saved me money again and again. Without a doubt sniping is the way to go. If you eBay at all I highly recommend looking into Auction Sniper.

Good luck in all your auctions out there!

- Jeremy Ashburn

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail