- What is a sniper?
A sniper is a software that will place bids on your behalf on auction sites like eBay. You simply tell the sniper how much you are willing to bid and when to place the automatic bid.
- Why is a sniping tool useful?
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Using a sniper, you can place your bids near the end of the sale. Of course you can do that without a sniper too, but that means that you have to be online at that precise moment, ready to click... A sniper is accurate, reliable and does not require your attendance. All this allows you to safely get your bid placed in the last minutes, or even in the last seconds of a sale.
That said, I hear you asking 'why on Earth would I want to place my bids near the end of the sale?'. Yes, you mumbled it in front of your screen, but I still heard you...
- Your competitors cannot help it, they always bid more when you outbid them. This is called bid chasing and can escalate into a bidding war. To avoid that, and keep the final prices at a reasonable (low) level, just let a sniper bid in the last seconds for you. That way, your competitors do not have much time to react (or even no time at all), and the bid war ends before it even started.
- You do not want to show your interest in a given product. If you bid early in the sale, everybody will get to know that this particular product is of interest, and especially of interest to you. Screaming to the world that you want this product is certainly a good way to find some followers, and to rise the price. With a sniper, your interest in an object is only revealed at the very end of the sale, without unnecessarily attracting attention.
- You cannot help it, you always bid more when you are outbid. If you are this kind of bidder, just set up a snipe mission and wait until the sale end to know wether you were outbid or not. A sniper is a good mean to refrain yourself from exploding your initial maximum bid.
All this boils down to keeping the prices low and giving you a higher chance to win an auction.
- What is the difference with proxy bidding?
Sure when you bid on an auction site, your maximum bid is not revealed until someone outbids you. Read again: until someone outbids you. This means that there is a way to know your maximum bid, a way that, incidentally, also pushes the price up. This is giving the stick to be beaten with. Keep the stick for yourself, use a sniper.
- How is an online sniper better than an offline local software?
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- You never experienced any internet disconnection
- You never experienced any power outage
- You are willing to keep your computer on 24/7
- Your computer system is perfectly reliable, you never experienced a crash or a freeze
- You are sure that your downloading activities will never use 100% of your internet bandwidth
Each of the above items is a necessary requisite for a local sniper software to be efficient. If you answered 'Wrong' to at least one question above, then an online sniper is definitely what you need. The software runs on a perfectly stable, perfectly reliable system with a perfectly stable, perfectly reliable internet connection. This ensures that your bid will be placed right in time. And you can keep an eye on your snipe mission at any time from any computer.
- What makes Snippy's the best?
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- eBay Australia, eBay Austria, eBay Belgium FR, eBay Belgium NL, eBay Canada, eBay Canada FR, eBay France, eBay Germany, eBay Hong Kong, eBay Ireland, eBay India, eBay Italy, eBay Malaysia, eBay Netherlands, eBay Phillipines, eBay Poland, eBay Singapore, eBay Spain, eBay Switzerland, eBay UK, eBay Motors, eBay USA
- Delcampe International, Delcampe Canada, Delcampe Germany, Delcampe Austria, Delcampe Belgium, Delcampe Spain, Delcampe USA, Delcampe France, Delcampe Italy, Delcampe Netherlands, Delcampe UK, Delcampe Switzerland
- Yez
- Does this really work?
Yes it does work, but you do not have to just take our word for it. Registration is completely free of charge, and comes with 5 free Snippies, which allow you to set up up to 5 free snipes. So, feel free to see for yourself!
- How close to the sale end should I bid?
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The only correct answer to that question is: 'it depends'. It depends on what you are trying to achieve with using a sniper. It also depends on your tolerance to risk. All in all, it depends on your taste and the choice is yours.
That said, our 'all purpose well balanced' recommendation is to set your buffer to 5 seconds. The buffer is the number of seconds before the sale end at which you want our sniper to place your bid. To help you make an educated guess about what buffer you should use, here are the accuracy statistics of our snipers over the last 7 days:
eBay sniper (9/2/2010)
after target
before target
Delcampe sniper (9/3/2010)
after target
before target
- What if the auction site extends the sale end?
On some auction sites, some sales are automatically extended if a bid is placed near the end (usually in the last minute). Snippy's will alert you about this when you set up a new mission so you can adjust your buffer accordingly. Again, there is no definite answer to that question, it is also a matter of taste. If you do not care about the extension, keep your usual buffer. If you want the shortest time between your bid and the sale end, set your buffer to 61 seconds.
- What amount should I bid?
Give to Snippy's the same amount that you would input on the auction site if you were to bid manually, i.e. the maximum amount you are ready to put on this object. The auction site will treat Snippy's bid exactly the same way as it would handle your manual bid, that is to say that it will adjust the final price at the smallest amount that allows you to win.
- How should I take the bid increment into account?
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The bid increment is a tricky thing that can make you lose a sale even if you wanted to bid more than the actual winner. Say the winner offered 9.75$ and you wanted to bid 10$. Your bid would be rejected by the auction site if the bid increment is of 0.50$, because the minimum bid accepted would be 9.75 + 0.50 = 10.25$.
Furthermore, some auction sites, such as Delcampe, have a very strict bid increment policy. If the bid increment is of 1$ and the initial price is 10$, you can only bid for 11$, 12$, etc... A bid for 11.50$ would automatically be adjusted to 11$.
So, be careful about the actual bid increment value when you set a mission, and ask Snippy's to send you an alert when you are outbid, so that you can adjust your bid when necessary.
- How do I monitor a pending mission?
Until the mission is completed and the bid is placed by Snippy's, you can always change your mind about the amount, the buffer, or the quantity you want. You can even cancel the mission all together. This is another great advantage that a sniper provides. To know how your target sale evolves, you can of course connect to the auction site. You can also check your Snippy's account. The most convenient way, however, is to set Snippy's to send you a mail alert when a change is detected. Check out our toolbox for more details about this unique feature.
- How much does Snippy's cost?
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Snippy's services are paid with so called Snippies. You buy Snippies in advance. The more you buy, the cheapest they are, but you will pay at most 0.10 Euros for 1 Snippy (for a batch of 50).
When you set up a mission, and that you eventually lose the sale (for instance if your bid was too low), you pay nothing. Snippies that were 'frozen' (reserved Snippies) for that mission become available again, so the mission did not cost you anything.
When you win the sale, a number of Snippies are taken from your account. This number depends on the object final price (not your maximum bid, the actual final price). If the final object price is lower than 10 Euros, 1 Snippy is taken. If it is between 10.01 and 20 Euros, 2 Snippies are taken, and so on... You can play with the tool below to get a better idea.
So, all in all, a mission with Snippy's costs nothing if you lose. If you win, it will cost about 1% of the final object price, with a minimum of 0.10 Euros.
- How can I pay for Snippy's services?
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Snippy's uses two popular pateforms for accepting payments, which are Paypal and MoneyBookers. Both plateforms accept account to account payments (if you are one of their members) as well as a wide range of payment media such as debit/credit cards or e-checks (if you are not a member).
- Do I have to pay any extra?
No extra, no hidden charge, no nothing. You just pay when you win, period.