Losing auctions in the last 1 second by "snipers" - any way to combat this?

[codegreen]

...well, if you're bidding against a slow crowd, and your competition cannot think logically and economically and they allow their emotions to get the best of them...

And that hits the nail on the head. I used to agree with everything you wrote... until I tried a sniping program and found I won much more often, even though I did essentially the same thing I did before: evaluate how much the item was worth to me, set a firm maximum price, and set my bid.

Setting an early maximum bid on items that you want, and refusing to go higher than that bid, only works if everyone else is doing the same. On the bid history of items I lost, I would find people making multiple "maximum" bids until they exceeded my maximum. Did they pay too much for the item? Yep. But they did it anyway, and I didn't get the item I wanted.

Now, with a sniping program, my maximum bid goes in at the last second, along with everyone else who is sniping. I still lose if someone puts in a higher max bid, but it eliminates all the "just five dollars more" bidders that are emotionally unable to set a firm maximum bid.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

And that hits the nail on the head. I used to agree with everything you wrote... until I tried a sniping program and found I won much more often, even though I did essentially the same thing I did before: evaluate how much the item was worth to me, set a firm maximum price, and set my bid..

I haven't found a difference in them, but I don't get emotional about fleabay. That link I made back a few pages to that software, my friend wrote it, so I should be for them, right? I have access to the full paid for version for free...but I don't find it gives me any advantage these days.

Anyways..it's a free country.

 

[MobileTechie]

Sniping works very well. I do it for almost all ebay purchases. You're more likely to win the item for a good price.