You found the perfect item on eBay, you placed your bid and anxiously waited for the item to close. As the final seconds approach you get more and more excited, you’re winning the bid, the item is practically yours, your win is so close you can practically taste it … you refresh the page …
Bang, your item has closed and a bid placed a few seconds before the item closed has snatched the item from under your nose. How could this have happened ?
You’ve been beaten by a snipe. There’s a number of auction sniper techniques that let you place a bid on an item just before it closes. This ensures you pay the cheapest price as there is no opportunity for someone else to place a counter bid. It may be considered unfair, but it’s a technique that many people use and auction sites don’t seem to have a problem with it. So, as with all these things, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
One such sniper is Bidnapper, which is an online service (you don’t need to download anything onto your computer). The advantage of online services lies in the fact that your snipe can be placed even if your PC is turned off. They have an interesting page with comments from a number of University studies about how sniping helps people trying to win auctions. It’s free for 15 days after your sign up, so you may want to give it a try and win some auctions.