Limited in time - the lot goes to the highest bidder during the auction, the winner is announced at the end of the auction
- with a fixed price - you can buy the product immediately for the specified amount
- there is also a mixed option, when a minimum price is set, from which the bid increase begins, and there is a fixed price at which you can buy the lot immediately, ending the auction ahead of schedule.
To win a certain lot, you must place the highest bid. However, this can be quite a tedious process - you have to constantly monitor the status of the auction, make more and more new bids, get nervous, and fear for your wallet (it's no secret that participation in auctions is a very gambling activity). In addition, it is possible that the auction ends late at night, and in the last seconds before the end of the auction, your Internet connection is broken. This is where the sniper comes in.
Sniper is software, which facilitates interaction with the auction. Sniper is applicable to auctions that are limited in time, while the option to "buy now at a fixed price" may or may not be present. The idea is simple - you tell the sniper the lot you are interested in and the maximum price you are willing to pay. A few seconds before the end of the auction, the sniper makes a bid on your behalf. If there are bids in the auction that exceed yours (i.e., higher than the amount that you are not sorry to part with) - you have lost this auction. If there are no such bids, then the sniper will make a bid on your behalf that is a minimum value higher than the maximum existing bid, thus saving some of your money (this mechanism will become more clear from the example below).
There are two types of snipers - installed on a computer and web services. In the first case, you install and configure the program, leave the computer turned on, and hope that no troubles will happen to your Internet channel at the decisive moment. To be honest, I don't see any reason to use this kind of snipers - I find it inconvenient. Therefore, let's look at an example of how web snipers work.
My favorite sniper is gixen.com. It must be entered under account, which you use on ebay (any sniper will not be able to function if he does not know your username and password from the auction). Suppose I want to buy this lot. In the add new snipe form: I enter the auction number (eBay Item Number, in this case 270758409219) and my maximum bid (Your bid, say $100). The auction will end in 9 days, so for now you can go to relax by the sea. If a few seconds before the end of the auction, the current price of the lot is less than my $100, the sniper will make a bid, and the magical Palm T|X is ours!
For example, if the lot price is $80, then the bid made by the sniper will not be $100, but approximately $82 (current price + minimum step for the next bid).
In addition, gixen allows you to group lots. For example, we really want to buy a Palm T|X, but we only have $75 in cash. The probability that we will win the first auction with such a small amount is small. Therefore, we select several lots of interest to us at once, and put them all in the sniper, placing them in one group (Bid group). If one of the lots in a group wins the auction, the sniper will automatically cancel all other bids in that group. This allows you to avoid the risk of accidentally winning five identical lots. Gixen also offers advanced features for paid users, such as unlimited lots (regular users have a limit of 10 concurrent lots) and improved fault tolerance. To become a paid user, you need to pay a very small amount, or simply place a link to this service on your website.
What you should pay attention to:
- there are many different snipers on the net, and all of them are potentially dangerous, because you give them your ebay login and password. Therefore, be careful with the choice of a sniper
- Bid in gixen is accepted in the same currency as for the current auction. Be careful! £100 is not the same as $100!
Definitely talking to experienced buyers eBay auction(and any other online auction) you will learn that each more or less experienced Buyer has his own bidding strategy. After all, this is an art! Buy a valuable lot, and even without inflating the price, leaving it as acceptable as possible. And all this among hordes of competitors. Everyone knows that whole wars are played out at the auction for good lots. Competitors, if they do not buy the product, then at least darken your joy of buying it high price. Sometimes gambler Buyers in the heat of the moment pay much more for a product than it really costs.
This problem is partly helped by the “Proxy Bidding” feature available to all eBay Buyers, where you define in your eBay account the maximum bid that you are willing to make (this bid will not be visible to other bidders). The system starts trading for you, each time raising the price as soon as someone outbids you. But it will not work beyond the “threshold” amount you have determined. The main disadvantage of this function is that the auctions are still open and in most cases you win the lot, if not for the maximum price you set, then for a very close one. Also, do not forget that by specifying the maximum price and “launching” the system for auction, you cannot “replay” and cancel everything, and if the bid wins, according to eBay rules, you must buy the product.
The so-called "sniper" programs can completely help to remove these problems. These are online services opened by companies who decided to earn extra money and meet the huge demand of the market. The circuit is very simple. Experienced Buyers usually do not actively participate in bidding without spurring other bidders. They make a winning bid seconds before the end of the auction for the lot. And this rate exceeds the previous maximum, not by much. This most common technology of experienced Buyers was taken as the basis of "snipers". You register, connect to the service and start trading. It is enough to set the lot number and your maximum price - the "sniper" will "shoot" - will make a winning bid, some seconds before the end of the auction. But it will “shoot” only if the maximum price you set has not been exceeded. The most important advantage is that the "sniper" makes the lowest possible winning rates.
Almost all such services are paid and cost between 40 and 100 US dollars for an annual subscription. Periodically appear and disappear, very cheap or free "snipers", but the fact that for the work of the "sniper" you need to provide a login and password to your eBay account - stops many and they prefer respectable companies. After all, if your data falls into the hands of scammers, there will be very little funny.
One of the oldest and most popular Russian-speaking "snipers" is a service: " Rapidcatch". This product appeared on the market of Russian-speaking "auction snipers" one of the first and remains generally recognized as the best. " Rapidcatch» was and remains a guarantee for Buyers that the lot will be won at the lowest possible price. Just establish a connection to the network a few minutes before the end of the auction and a "sharp hit" is guaranteed. The service works with almost all branches eBay. A 1-year subscription to this service costs a little relative to competitors - about 50 dollars (you can pay monthly). But this is a very small amount, considering how much this "sniper" will save you for this time. On just one lot, he can save several hundred. And you will sleep peacefully knowing that your personal data will not fall into the hands of unscrupulous people. If you want to learn more about this service or subscribe to it, read our article..
eBay Sniper
A lot of friends and acquaintances ask the question: how do I manage to buy this or that item from the eBay.com auction at such a low price?
I'm tired of talking about some of the secrets of working with eBay auction Therefore, I decided to write this article, hoping that it will be very useful to someone.
This article will talk about how I win auctions and sometimes get things at an unrealistically low price, especially for Russia.
I will tell you about what an eBay sniper is, or rather I will tell you about one of them, a completely free and perfectly working eBay sniper.
What is an eBay sniper?
First, let's understand what an eBay sniper is.
eBay sniper- a program on a computer (phone / tablet) or an Internet service that allows you to track the product (lot) you need and helps you win this auction at the lowest possible price by placing a bid in the last seconds of the auction. If you've ever tried to win an auction on eBay and got outbid in the last seconds, that's the job of an eBay sniper. In order to understand its work, you need to understand how the eBay auction works.
eBay auction
What is an eBay auction and how does it work.
Any Internet user who has registered on eBay and in the PayPal system can buy and sell goods and services on eBay that do not contradict the law. For users from Russia the greatest interest represents electronics. The eBay auction is maximally focused on the buyer, therefore the bidding process itself is done differently, not like in a regular auction. When you place a bid you must enter the maximum possible amount which you are willing to pay for this product (lot) excluding shipping up to cents. What does this mean? Not always you will have to pay exactly the amount that you bet, let's see why:
Bid history on EBAY
In this picture, you can track the rates on the just sold Apple iPhone
on the auction eBay. Here you can see that the user who made a bid in the last seconds of the auction won the auction. The price of the lot that won $125 does not mean that this user bet $125, it only means that his bid was the largest, and having made it in the last seconds, he simply did not leave time for his opponents to think and make it even higher.
Why did the lot cost $125?
As I wrote above, eBay is optimized primarily for the buyer, everything is done to make the buyer feel good, including the auction system. So, the cost of $125 came out like this: the previous bid of $122.50 + the minimum auction step, which in this case was $2.5. This user could bid any amount from $125 to thousands of dollars, and he would still pay the cost of the previous bid + the minimum auction step. This allows the buyer to save sometimes very good money. And yet the bet was placed eBay sniper.
eBay Sniper
The eBay Sniper is designed to take your average user no time to think about their next bid and to allow you to bid your maximum bid in the last seconds. It's simple, whose figure is at least 1 cent higher, he won this lot. eBay snipers are not prohibited by the eBay auction, using it you do not violate any rules, but only increase the chances of winning the auction. In addition to the advantages described above, there is something else. You can decide for yourself on the product, and most importantly, the price in advance and program the “eBay sniper” in such a way that he tries to win not just one but 100 or even 1000 auctions at once, the main thing is not to forget to include the cancellation of the remaining auctions after the first one is won. Otherwise, it turns out that you bought 100-1000 things!
eBay Sniper Classification (IMHO)
"Ebay snipers" are divided into several types:
- Client application for computer/phone/tablet- this type of eBay sniper is mostly paid, although personally I don't understand what you have to pay for there since this type of eBay sniper is very inconvenient and you do all the work yourself. It is necessary that this application is constantly turned on, and the device on which it is running must be constantly connected to the Internet. This is extremely inconvenient. Any connection failure and you won't win the auction you've been waiting a week for!
- Client-server application- this type of eBay sniper is more reliable, since whatever you queue will be tracked and won on servers that are more stable and reliable than a home PC. These applications are usually paid as well. But the downside is that in order to perform any action, you need a client program that will make changes on the server. I think this type is also not convenient and not practical.
- Web service c - while searching for a decent eBay sniper, I tried all the options (IMHO) that I found and wondered: why hasn't anyone still made a normal, full-featured Web service for "shooting lots"? The advantages of this approach are obvious… All you need is a device with internet access. You go to the site and set up the eBay sniper in the way that is convenient for you, turn off the device (computer / phone) and go to bed calmly, and in the morning you are pleased with e-mail letters from eBay that you have won this or that lot. I was incredibly happy when I found such a service and the most interesting - for FREE!
eBay Sniper Gixen.com
Just think, before writing this article, I tried dozens of programs, really TENS of programs, hard to find. They either did not work or still did not work as I wanted. And only one service deserved 10 points out of 10.
So meet Gixen.com
The web interface is just perfect and intuitive!
Appearance eBay sniper Gixen
How to use Gixen.com's eBay sniper?
So, there is no registration in this service, to enter it just use your login and password from eBay. Do not be afraid that your data will fall into bad hands or that something bad is going to happen. Your eBay account is worthless without PayPal data, and gixen won't ask you for it. After a successful login, you will see the following picture:
eBay Gixen sniper after authentication
Click the "Not right now, continue to my account" button if you do not want to purchase VIP access to faster servers. At the time of this writing, there was not a single case that the server did not have time to process the request. Therefore, a “loaded” free public server, I think, is enough for your eyes! So your personal account opens:
It simply consists of an "auction planner". Now we need to add lots, let's do that.
So. First we need to decide what do we really need?
For clarity, let's complicate the task. Let's say I want to win 3 auctions. Namely:
- Auction 1 - Used White iPhone 5 16 GB. within $350 excluding shipping costs.
- Auction 2 - Used Black iPhone 4 8 GB. within $200 excluding shipping costs.
- Auction 3 - Used Black iPhone 4 8 GB. within $200 excluding shipping costs.
Now we need to fill in Gixen as many lots that satisfy us as possible and set up the scheduler correctly.
Looking for lots for Gixen
Doing a search on eBay.com White iPhone 5 16 GB. 1 PC. within $350 we do everything as in the picture:
iPhone 5, lot on eBay
Then, in the search results, open the instances you like, attentively we read information about the product, information about delivery and if we are satisfied with this copy copy lot number to clipboard, this number is highlighted in the picture:
Paste the lot number into Gixen:
IN Your bid you must specify your maximum amount which you have the opportunity to pay for this product in that the currency in which the lot is listed.
Well, then press the button ADD
Note that the Bid group is set to Group 1. This is very important, if you don't do this, each auction will run independently and you could win a mountain of auctions independently.
And those auctions that are in the same Bid group will be interconnected in such a way that as soon as 1 auction wins, all the others in this group will be canceled.
So, we repeat the procedure until you get tired of it, the more lots you choose, the more chances for success. You can add 10-200 lots that will end within a week and just follow your mail until you receive a letter that the auction has been won.
ATTENTION!!! Read the descriptions of the lots carefully, there is very important information. For example, the iPhone may not be working or not quite working, there may be a large shipping cost, etc.
As you can see in the screenshot, I added 3 lots, but I did it for an example. You will need to add a lot of lots if you want 100% luck. Then canceled or lost by price lots will be colored in yellow(they can be deleted immediately because they are no longer needed).
But our task was to win 3 different iPhones. With one we figured out and what to do with two more ...
There are two options:
1) We make 2 more Bid Groups (to get 2 independent series of auctions). I remind you that in the end you will win as many auctions as you have Bid group configured. And if a group of lots is not set, then the auctions will be held independently of each other.
2) We make one big list, and as soon as 1 auction is won and all subsequent auctions are canceled, we again manually turn on the remaining auctions.
In the end, we win the lots we need, as soon as we receive letters that the auction (s) have been won, we go to E-Bay, pay for our purchases and enjoy pleasant prices.
In the world of Internet trading, there is a whole class of programs designed to facilitate transactions for transactions at auctions. I will try to answer questions regarding the services under the name: eBay Sniper program. I will list their features, give a definition and show the principle of operation.
What is the "auction sniper program"
eBay Sniper is a program or service that allows you to adjust your maximum bid limit for certain period time before the end of the auction for the lot you are interested in. So, for example, many inexperienced users begin to raise the price, thereby “warming up” interest in the lot and thereby increasing its price. A much wiser option is to set your maximum price that you are willing to pay for the item and indicate the time (usually a few seconds before the end of the auction) when your bid should be hit.
Do not worry, the lot will not always go for the maximum money
So, for example, if you have limited your maximum to $300, and the value of the lot by the end of the auction does not rise above $210, if your bid was the last one, you win the lot for $210 + step, for example $5. That is, at a price of $ 215, unless of course there was a more nimble buyer who also put Sniper for eBay on the lot you are interested in. From my own experience, I can say that it makes sense to set the timer for 2-3 seconds before the end of the auction.
There are more simple ways, such as the "Proxy Bidding" feature available to all eBay buyers when you specify in your eBay account maximum value the amount that they are willing to pay (it will not be visible to other bidders). The system starts trading for you, each time raising the price as soon as someone outbids you. But it will not work beyond the “threshold” amount you have determined. The main disadvantage of this feature is that the auctions are open anyway.
Programs and services snipers for eBay
There are several types of similar services designed for trading on eBay auctions. They can be paid and free, let's take a closer look.
Programs snipers for eBay
You can install them on your computer as a standalone application.
Sniper programs have several significant drawbacks and are not very popular. Judge for yourself:
- The computer must be turned on during the auction.
- You have to "adjust" your free time auction or leave the computer on for a long time.
- The operation of such software is largely affected by the speed of your connection. If the speed is not high enough, then the probability of winning the lot of interest is even less.
- You are forced to constantly switch between the browser window and the program window.
Therefore, users often abandon desktop programs in favor of web applications.
Web services for working with eBay
Such services are located on remote servers and have their own user-friendly interface. Often integrated into the browser (Mozilla, IE, Chrome). For example, you open a lot of interest, and a small footnote appears at the bottom, for example, “myibay”. Press it - a window appears in a new tab, where the lot data is filled in, it remains only to enter the threshold and time. It is very comfortable!
Well, accordingly, the sniper does not work if your highest bid is already outbid. While sniper services may be frowned upon by some people, this does not violate eBay's rules. There are exceptions - eBay.de banned automated sniper services back in 2002.
Paid and free programs snipers to work with eBay
Now in the vastness of the network there are many online services with similar functions! And most importantly, they are free or shareware (there are restrictions on the purchase amount and the number of goods per week). Here is a list of sites where you can choose and download the best program sniper for job on eBay:
- www.sniper24.eu
- www.goofbay.com is a free program
- www.myibay.com is a free program
- www.quicksnipe.com
- www.esnipe.com
To see how reliable these services are and how they differ from each other, first read reviews about them, just google them.
I have used ESNIPE, MYIBAY, GOOFBAY, the last two are free. Working with them does not require additional knowledge and effort. In order for snipe service to be able to bid from an account, it needs an eBay username (eBay ID) and . Remember that this is confidential data, do not register on the Sniper service if you do not trust it enough - this may lead to account blocking. If the hosting (disk space occupied by the program) is located on a server located in a country other than where you live, this can also lead to a temporary blocking of your account. Very rarely, but such incidents do happen.
You can visually see how auctions take place using the eBay Sniper in the video:
How to buy goods cheaper at auction
You should take into account some of the technical and psychological nuances of auction trading for a more guaranteed win for the least money.
Here are the main ones:
- The cost of goods by the vast majority of people in the minds is formed from multiples: 1, 1.50, 2.5, 5.50, 10, 110, 230, 300 and so on. A person tends to round numbers - this is the main "enemy of the wallet"! For a more guaranteed win, we must take into account the auction step and should not stand on round tens. The auction is more likely to be won by the person who bid $21.01 than his opponent who prefers round numbers and bids $20.00.
- Using a sniper program to work on eBay gives you a disproportionately higher chance of winning. Since your maximum amount is not visible at the auction until the last second, everyone can see that the lot is interested less people. The eBay system shows the opponent what he has in this moment the highest bid. Whoever thinks that he wins the auction will not raise the amount higher, because he does not see the real rate.
- Of great importance bid time. If 2 people have the same maximum bid, for example, exactly $100, the system will choose the winner of the bidder who placed this bid in the system earlier.
- Usually auctions ending on weekends seriously raise the cost of goods. If you find two identical items and want to buy either of them, the item that ends at an “inconvenient” time on a business day will most often be sold cheaper. Draw appropriate conclusions based on this fact.
- Exists several tables for calculating the auction step. But do not forget that the seller has the right to independently choose the step, along with other conditions of the auction.
For US dollar (USD)
Current price_________Step
$ 0.01 — $ 0.99________$ 0.05
$ 1.00 — $ 4.99________$ 0.25
$ 5.00 — $ 24.99_______$ 0.50
$ 25.00 — $ 99.99______$ 1.00
$ 100.00 — $ 249.99____$ 2.50
$ 250.00 — $ 499.99____$ 5.00
$ 500.00 — $ 999.99____$ 10.00
$ 1000.00 — $ 2499.99__$ 25.00
$ 2500.00 — $ 4999.99__$ 50.00
$5000.00 and up______$100.00
For Euro (EUR)
Current price______________Step
EUR 1.00 - EUR 49.99________EUR 0.50
EUR 50.00 - EUR 499.99______EUR 1.00
EUR 500.00 – 999.99 EUR_____EUR 5.00
EUR 1,000.00 — 4999.99 EUR___EUR 10.00
EUR 5,000.00 and above________EUR 50.00
The best free eBay auction sniper software in Russian
Many in the comments sent the question: what is the best free program? And it is desirable that it be in Russian) In my opinion, the best sniper today is Myibay.com. Has a client program that connects to a remote server. Unlike other programs, it is not sensitive to the speed of the Internet connection, and you do not need to be online at all! The service is absolutely free. The client program is paid and costs only $12.95. What I like most is that this service of our compatriot
Sincerely, Maxim M.
I am sure that each of you reading this article already familiar with online auction eBay. You perfectly understand that this auction is used by millions of users every day. Therefore, it is not so easy to win the "battle" for the lot, especially if you do not want to overpay, but are going to buy the goods at a price that is acceptable to you.
After talking with experienced buyers on eBay, we realized that each of them has its own system, its own strategy for conducting an auction. Over the years, most have developed various schemes and methods that allow you to place bets and buy the right products, while not overpaying too much. You need to understand that sometimes there is a whole online “war” for good lots. Bets are interrupted one by one, buyers, not wanting to miss the thing they like, increase the price more and more. Sometimes it comes to the point that in a fit of excitement people significantly inflate the real price of the lot. But how to make sure that you win the competition, and not miscalculate with the price?
Part of the solution to this problem is the "Proxy Bidding" feature available to all eBay Buyers, where you define the maximum bid that you are willing to place in your eBay account (this bid will not be visible to other bidders). The system starts trading for you, each time raising the price as soon as someone outbids you. But it will not work beyond the “threshold” amount you have determined. The main drawback of this system is that bidding is conducted openly and to the bitter end. You will buy a product for the maximum specified price, or for not significantly different from it. "Proxy Bidding" is good for those who have a budget and are going to buy this lot anyway.
Also, do not forget that if you launched "Proxy Bidding" by specifying the maximum bid, then you will not be able to cancel. The system works hard doing its job. Once you win the auction, you will be obligated to make a purchase.
Completely solve this problem only snipers for eBay can. A quite logical question may arise: “what is it, and what is the principle of operation of these programs?”. In this article, we will try to briefly talk about eBay sniper programs, their advantages, and the benefits of using this software.
Experienced auction players know that it makes no sense to sit on eBay, wait for a bid, fanatically outbid another buyer, hoping to "snatch" a good item at a low price. You need to be more thoughtful and cunning, putting the right bid in the last seconds of the auction. But how to do that? After all, you can forget, not be in time, or miss the end of the auction. This is where eBay snipers will help you. "Sniper" makes a winning bid for some seconds before the end of the auction for the lot. And this rate exceeds the previous maximum, not by much. This is the most common technology used by experienced Buyers. It was she who was taken as the basis of the "snipers".
How does a sniper work?
First you need to find a good and working service that has a lot of flattering reviews. You need to register, select the lot number, set your maximum bid, and the time when the "sniper" should shoot, buying you the goods. As a rule, many snipers work automatically, making a bid in a matter of seconds before the end of the auction. But it will “shoot” only if the maximum price you set has not been exceeded. The most important advantage is that the "sniper" makes the lowest possible winning rates.
Good and proven snipers cannot be free. As a rule, an annual subscription costs between 40-100 dollars. Of course, sometimes there are free services which work well. But many are stopped by the fact that for the functioning of the sniper program you need to enter your username and password. Doing this on a site that has been working on the strength of half a year and has no authority on the network is very dangerous. If your eBay account falls into the hands of scammers, you can “shoot” yourself with non-purchases good prices but a lot of problems. Therefore, if you decide to seriously engage in bidding at the auction, and want to choose a good "sniper", then look online for proven services that have been operating for more than a year and have tens of thousands of reviews.
One of the very first and most popular "sniper" services with a Russian-language interface is rapidcatch.com
This company appeared one of the first on the Runet, and to this day remains the most authoritative and recognized "sniper" among buyers from all over the CIS. "Rapidcatch" has been and remains a guarantee for Buyers that the lot will be won at the lowest possible price. Just establish a connection to the network a few minutes before the end of the auction and a "sharp hit" is guaranteed. The service works with almost all eBay affiliates. A 1-year subscription to this service costs a little relative to competitors - about 50 dollars (you can pay monthly).
At first glance, it seems that the subscription is expensive, but after using the service several times, you will realize that it saves dozens of dollars. If you make 2-3 purchases per month, then the annual subscription will pay off already at the end of the 2nd month. And then work only in profit and enjoy excellent rates on good lots.
If you want to buy something expensive, then Rapidcatch can save hundreds of dollars. It is also very important that using this service, you can be calm about your personal data. The company takes security very seriously and takes many steps to ensure that eBay user account passwords do not fall into the hands of scammers.
And at the very end, great news for those who shop infrequently. Rapidcatch is offering a month of free use of their sniper. You will have full functionality available to those who use the paid version, unlimited rates, and a great opportunity to test all the features of this service. At the end of the month, you can continue using Rapidcatch, but under special conditions - no more than one bid per day, and no more than one active auction. If you need more, then $ 5 per month, and the full functionality of "Rapidcatch" is yours. If you subscribe for a year, get a 15% discount.
That, perhaps, is all that we wanted to tell you. I would like to say right away that this is not an advertising article, and it just so happened that we one-sidedly highlighted sniper programs. Of course, you can use any recommended by friends or acquaintances. It's just that we, and many of our colleagues, used Rapidcatch and were pleased with the results of working with this service. Therefore, we advise what we are more than confident in. If you have suggestions for more interesting, then write your thoughts in the comments. Also watch the video attached below this article. The authors of these videos talk about the sniper programs they use in their auctions. We are sure that you will supplement the knowledge gained from our article.
