I admit it. I use a sniping program when I bid on E-bay. I find it convenient, it keeps me out of bidding wars, masks my interest in an item till the end of the auction, and so keeps prices down. In other words, I'm totally behind it. The only problem is that I don't always win. The idea behind sniping (which is legal whether you use a program or do it manually) is to wait till the last few seconds of an auction to bid.Those who have been upping their top bids often try by a dollar at a time, resulting in a large number of bids. The sniped bid is placed at the last few seconds, so competitors can't get in again. The double snipe option will give you a second chance when outbid in those last few seconds. Basically, the idea is to use the super speed technology of the snipe program twice, if needed. One may ask-Why not place the absolute top bid in the first place? and the answer is simple- we are cheapskates and then suffer from remorse when that one of a kind item eludes us. The double snipe option will give us the extra thrill of a live-style auction and make things more interesting. Also evens the playing field between other snipers.
-- Rm Brz, Mar 19 2006

Have you really invented anything here? This seems to just be a tactical application of existing technology.
-- DrCurry, Mar 20 2006


I thought E-bay already did this for you. Set your maximum and it will bid for you instantly. Am I confused?
-- jhomrighaus, Mar 20 2006


Sniping doesn't actually keep the prices down, it is based a misperception caused by the fact that the winning bid will always be at most one bid increment higher than the next highest bidder's bid. As a result, the second place bidder thinks, "gee, if only I had bid a couple increments higher, I would have got it". But in fact, they don't really know what the top bid of the winner was, it could be a thousand increments higher than they were willing to pay.
-- JakePatterson, Mar 20 2006


There are arguably some benefits to sniping. Some people will assume an item must be a good value if someone is already bidding on it (the cattle effect), so they will bid a price up.

But once you're sniping, there is no benefit to placing the bids incrementally. Just bid what you'll allow yourself to pay. The worst thing that could happen is that you get what you want at an acceptable price.

I have run across auctions with serious sniper wars among several people, where this second bid idea wouldn't have worked. It would have had to increment 4-5 times. That's what eBay's system does on its own.
-- DarkEnergy, Mar 20 2006



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