Would you snipe on ebay?

Message

polarelf2003 · Thu Aug 18, 2005 5:21 am

I’ve been searching for a petcock for my bike for <i>months</i> now, checking ebay just about every day. I finally found one, listed last night at 10pm. It was selling for $1, and there were no bids on it. I’ve never done it before, but I offered the guy $50 if ended the item now. He bit, ended the auction, I paid, and it is in the mail. I don’t think that’d be very ethical if someone had bid on it already, and I know if I had bid on it and someone did that to me I’d be PO’d. Would you have done it if you were in my situation?

Keep in mind I have a ’77 CB550F and Honda does not make petcocks that fit them anymore – this one was new in the packaging and the part number matched my manual!

#2 Unread post by **cb360** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 5:45 am

If by 'sniping' you mean, bid with ten seconds to go.... hell yes I would. It's the only way I do anything on ebay. There's so much shill bidding going on on ebay these days it's ridiculous. Unless you are truly dealing with a guy selling a few things out of his garage, a great percentage of the time (not ALL) your early bid is gonna get bid up by the guy selling it to try to make a few extra bucks. I've ebayed since '98 and I've seen it all. I use bid nipping program so I don't have to sit around and watch the auction.

#3 Unread post by **Kal** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 5:52 am

Is that the program that puts in automatic bids for you in the closing seconds?

Where can I get it, I've lost a few auctions to these things and as the man says sometimes the item is one that you just arent going to find again for a small rodents lifetime.

In the same vein, this: http://www.fatfingers.co.uk allows you to search for items that have been misspelled when put into the listings. We have picked up one or two real bargins that way.

polarelf2003 · Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:33 am

Hmmmm, I thought sniping in ebay jargon meant contacting the seller and offering them money to close the auction or end it early with yourself as the top bidder. I've lost bids to people with that darned program! I still have to do things the old fashoned way, bidding in person in the last 30 seconds and hoping I'm the last high bidder. Ah well

Still, aside from a few choice websites, it had to be a heck of a lot harder to find bike parts before ebay.

#5 Unread post by **cb360** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:57 am

Contacting the seller for a private deal to end the auction is technically illegal for ebay. Not that that really bothers me. Try bidnipper.com - they'll give you five free 'nips' before they charge you anything. I use to use bidsniper.com but they went under.

polarelf2003 · Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:22 am

Yep, after googling I realized I used sniping in the wrong context. Well, I'm still curious how many people would do it. . . .

Mag7C · #7 Unread post by **Mag7C** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 10:29 am

cb360 wrote: I use bid nipping program so I don't have to sit around and watch the auction.

Oh! I HATE people like you!!!!

The other day I was high bidder but I had a bad feeling about the auction. I put my bid in with 40 seconds left, and kept refreshing so I could watch it count down. Sure enough, with 1 second remaining, I was outbid.

Where do you get that program?

#8 Unread post by **cb360** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 10:42 am

Mag7C wrote:
cb360 wrote: I use bid nipping program so I don't have to sit around and watch the auction.
Oh! I HATE people like you!!!!

The other day I was high bidder but I had a bad feeling about the auction. I put my bid in with 40 seconds left, and kept refreshing so I could watch it count down. Sure enough, with 1 second remaining, I was outbid.

Where do you get that program?

I know how you feel. I had the exact same experience a few times. I figured if you can't bet them, join them. Bidnipper.com. They won't guarantee you'll win, but at least you can just enter your max price and be done with it... which is how it ought to be anyway.

iwannadie · Thu Aug 18, 2005 11:48 am

i always snipe(bid at the last second). ive actually won an auction for some gloves(icon Ti short for Cheap) without snipping i bid like 2 hours before it was to end and some how won, first time ive had that happen i think. it had alot of bids and attention. i guess everyone else just gave up expecting it to be sniped then noone did.

polarelf2003 · Fri Aug 19, 2005 4:06 am

WHEW! I'm glad none of you all have a '77 CB550F or I'd never get any parts!