Paul gave a good answer but I use (IIRC) 7 seconds. You tell esnipe the
maximum amount you're willing to bid. It waits until the last few
seconds (a time period you specify) to place your bid. A very short
time period does not give someone else a chance to see your bid and then
outbid you by just a small amount.
Let's say you are willing to pay $200 and set that bid on esnipe and
tell esnipe to place the bid 10 seconds before the end of the auction.
You also tell esnipe your ebay ID and password. Shortly before the
auction ends esnipe logs on to ebay as you using your ID and password
and places a bid for $200 10 seconds before the end of the auction. If
the next highest bid at the end of the auction (excluding yours) is $150
and the minimum bid increment is $5 you will win the auction at $155. A
short time period before the end of the auction is good to prevent
someone else from bidding in response to your bid but, if the time is
too short and the network is busy, esnipe may not be able to get logged
on fast enough and your bid may not get placed. I've been using esnipe
for 5 years or more and I have only lost one auction because esnipe did
not get logged on in time.
It prevents bidding wars and buying on emotion rather than logic. You
also don't have to be logged on to ebay. If the auction ends in the
middle of the night you can go to sleep and check in the morning to see
if you won.
Chuck Norcutt
Paul Braun wrote:
> Michael Wong wrote:
>> Chuck,
>> Why? What benefit will you get to bid on eBay by using esnipe?
>>
>
> It's psychology. It's a game of poker - never show your hand too early.
>
> If you put your max bid into the proxy system, you give the guys bidding
> against you time to bid, get outbid, and then think about whether or not
> they're just going to keep outbidding you just to irritate you.
>
> By not putting your max bid in until 10 seconds to go, the other bidders
> don't have time to re-think their max bid.
>
> Ultimately, they may be doing the same thing, and they may have a higher
> max bid right off the top. In that case, you lose simply because
> someone else outplayed you and was willing to spend more.
>
> It still boils down to who is willing to pay more, but by not bidding
> until the end you eliminate a variable. I use esnipe all the time.
>
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