Bid Sniping in Online Auctions
Why your bid lost the auction in the last five seconds...

Bid sniper software is very powerful.  It communicates with the server at an auction site and reviews and places bids automatically.

So, in the blink of an eye, before you even have a chance to click your "refresh" button, the sniper software has placed countless bids to beat you, all electronically and at near light speed.

Also, most Bid Sniper websites let their users determine how many minutes/seconds before the auction close to bid, the preferred bid increment, how many times they want this increment to be bid, maximum desired bid price, etc.

Bid sniping exploits a weakness in the proxy bidding method at C2C auction sites. Albeit a powerful system, proxy bidding lets the world know "Hey, I'm winning this bid and here's for how much..." And of course, everyone knows the exact time the auction ends.

As a proxy bidding system only bids up to the maximum amount that you have set when you bid without going over it, all a bid sniper has to do is come in at the last second and outbid you- often by only a few cents.

So while you're at the movies or the grocery store, someone else comes along and snatches your dream purchase out from underneath you.  A bid sniper can help you stop losing auctions in these instances.

There are many bid snipers out there- some are programs you pay for once and install.  Other systems are subscription based, on websites with powerful, high speed servers that place and update last minute bids for you.

If you have decided to use a bid sniper, make sure the one you select has regular updates available for little or no cost.  You may only spend 15 or 20 bucks to buy one at ebay or another site, and after downloading and installing the program, it works like a charm.

Then, a month rolls around and your auction website has changed it's HTML slightly and you find that your sniper software no longer works... right when you were trying to bid on that one carat diamond or the latest Harry Potter book, DVD etc.

This is one advantage to using a subscription based system- True, it can be more money out of pocket, since you pay month to month or by the bid depending on which website you choose.

But you get what you pay for- These web based sniping companies have staffs that monitor the changes at sites like ebay, epier, and ubid and they pay their tech people to update their own software accordingly.  

The best part to a subscription based Bid Sniper is you don't even have to have your computer turned on to win!  Plus, you won't kicked offline by your ISP due to inactivity while you're away from your computer.

Now you can forget about last minute computer crashes, power outages, etc.  None of these scenarios will cost you an auction victory ever again; Bid Sniper websites do all the work for you, while you're out cutting the grass or at the mall.

Bid snipers are perfectly legal to use (double check the user agreement at your auction site to be sure about their policies).

Are they ethical? There has been discussion about this since these bidding systems first appeared. We here at BidLab.com feel that they are not only ethical, but useful. A live auction is only won at the last moment by the most interested party, and online auctions are no different.  If someone wants to go through the trouble of installing and or paying for the Bid Sniper software or subscription, then they are serious about winning. 

Remember, with almost all auctions, anyone can still beat the sniper, by sitting at the computer until the last seconds and monitoring bids and placing higher and higher bids- You may already do this routinely, and it's a normal part of the bidding world.  In effect, this is the same as what the Sniper software does.  The bid sniper programs just make it a lot more convenient for people who don't have the time or can't physically be there at auction close.

Plus, even though somewhat exploited by the Bid Sniper software, the proxy bidding system is still quite effective on it's own merit's- It won't reveal any bidder's maximum bid during the auction, and if a bidder really wants an item, they might win it by bidding what they truly are willing to pay, and not just by trying to beat whatever bid they happen to see on the screen at that moment.

A bid sniper is not tricking anyone into bidding any lower, nor is it monkeying around with the auction system to prevent any bids- it merely comes in at the last moment with an interested party's offer. The bid sniper still has to beat the secret high bid established within the auction house's proxy system, and only the bidder who really wants to win the item will do so, whether using a bid sniper or not.

Quite simply, they would be dramatically cutting their own business and making it ultimately harder for sellers to sell; part of the thrill and excitement in online auctions comes from seeing the bidding activity occur as it unfolds.  So if no bidding happened at all until the last seconds on every single item on ebay, then sales would fall off dramatically.

That's why auctions starting at a penny almost always sell well and have lots of bidders. The penny auction may end up selling for $20 or $30, while the same item starting at $9.95 may not even sell. Why? Because once sellers start coming in to an auction, the item is now on their radar screen and a feeding frenzy may begin. They may even put it in their My ebay watch list or auction toolbar and check back on it until the end of the auction.

This is why bid sniping has become so popular: It is a form of Bid Camouflage which keeps your bid out there- lurking and secret until the end of the auction. It's especially powerful in situations where an auction has no bids or only a few small bids- This way, that gold nugget you've discovered stays in the ground until the auction is over, without everyone else knowing your true level of excitement.

Bidding wars favor the seller, not the buyer.  Ever been to K-Mart and seen a 'Blue Light Special' in progress?  Remember seeing all those people suddenly excited by what everyone else was looking at? Could be, it was just a pair of white cotton socks.

But it's human nature to want to go running over and find out- There must be something really, really special about those white socks, or why would every one else be so interested?  Bid snipers help you avoid creating a 'Blue Light Special' on the item you want- by not revealing your bid or your intentions until the end of the auction, you aren't creating a bidding war.

Also, another great feature of Bid Snipers is you can cancel your bid at any time, even in the last few seconds of the auction, without fear of angering sellers, incurring negative feedback or risking your standing with the auction site.  Why?  Because your bid has not been placed yet at the actual website, it's only been set as a pending bid in the Sniping software or on the Bid Sniper web server, whichever you are using.

Yes!  Another advantage to using a Bid Sniper is to protect you from Shill Bidders. A shill bidder is a person who bids on their own item, or uses accomplices to do so, to inflate the final selling price. Of course shill bidding is illegal and flat out wrong- We've seen it in person at live auctions and at the big online sites- It's a real no, no and it undermines the whole auction system for the rest of us, as it erodes bidder confidence in the auction system in general.

Along with checking a seller's feedback rating, a bid sniper can be a bidder's best defense against shill bidding, due to the bid camouflage it provides. A shill bidder won't take interest in you as a potential target to con and exploit if he doesn't know you're out there, waiting to bid at the last moment. Of course, the loophole to this is if the shill bidder is also using a bid sniper, in case someone else with a bid sniper is about to come along. Of course, this is an extremely remote possibility- Such a seller wouldn't stay in business long due to the time, effort and expense involved. But as always- caveat emptor.