eBay Auto-Bid or Snipe Software / Services

[BrynJ]

I've been looking at making a few purchases from eBay in the states, but often the auctions end in the middle of the night over here, so I've been investigating some of the eBay auto-bidding / sniping software that is available. I've signed up for a free HammerSnipe account (www.hammersnipe.com), but this only allows 3 auto bids a week and their monthly charge is pretty hefty.

There is also a program called Ebay Snipe (www.telience.com) which is fairily cheap to buy at $9.99, but I don't really know much about the application. I'm assuming that your pc must be switched on and running Ebay Snipe for it to work, from what I can gather?

So, does anybody have any experience of these programs, or know of any (preferably free) alternatives? Thanks :)

[pburnage]

I use justsnipe.com

Click Here (http://www.justsnipe.com) This has 5 free bids a week. Hope this helps

Phil

[nwgarratt]

I have won auctions that end at 3-5am in the morning. I don't like the idea of snipe software having access to passwords/usernames so i just stay up and bid myself. I usually just watch a few DVD's to make the time go by until I want to bid.

[M@rtin]

I use www.bidmate.co.uk - 3 free bids per week, placed 10 secs before the auction ends. Never had any security issues...

[BrynJ]

Thanks for the replies chaps. I think I will sign up for justsnipe and bidmate :)

[pototea]

http://lotsnipe.auctionstealer.com/

3 free snipes a week, I have been using it for about a month now. It is very good

[Stevie G]

http://www.sniperight.com/ it excellent though not the cheapest. You download it and can use it offline, but when you add a snipe you don't need to be connected their. Their server deals with it for you.

[MrWibble]

I have used www.auctionsniper.com in the past - seems to be reliable - may try some of these others now as well !

Just noticed that BidMate and LotSnipe appear to be one and the same.

[BrynJ]

noticed that BidMate and LotSnipe appear to be one and the same.

I've just tried to sign up with BidMate - it seems like it's also the same as HammerSnipe, as it wouldn't let me register with the same email address. They all appear to belong to AuctionStealer.com - hmm, seems a bit strange them all being under the same banner.

I will have a look at SnipeRight - any other suggestions too?

[DeadKenny]

I use Auction Sentry (http://www.auction-sentry.com/).

Never lost an auction yet with it (at least not one that's under my price limit ;)).

There's a free trial period and then a one off fee of $14.95. There's also a deluxe edition but that has a renewal fee each year. I can't see any point in the deluxe one though as the standard edition does everything you need.

It's client software rather than server based so you need a decent internet connection to get snipes in on time and need the PC on at the time of the snipe of course ;). However the bonus is you're not storing your ebay ID and password on some 3rd party server you may not be able to trust.

[hallanthony]

I've been using Auction Sentry for the last year or two, and have never had any problems with it, great bit of software...

[Stevie G]

I've been having a look round for a decent sniping tool. I had installed Snipe Right but have found it really slow and clunky, and has let me down on numerous occasions on auctions I would have had a chance winning if it had placed my bid.

Auction Sentry has been recommended, but I also found one called Auction Auto Bidder (http://auctionautobidder.com/) and I have to say it's excellent! Like Auction Sentry you have to have your pc connected at the time the auction ends, but then I suppose you could argue that you're not relying on a company's server to place the bid (a la Snipe Right :mad: )

Auction Auto Bidder (http://auctionautobidder.com/) is more of a complete ebay auction tool. I've found I do all my browsing within the program and no longer use my web browser for ebay searching. It's got a really nice, clean and simple interface, really quick to respond, very configurable and one little thing I really like is that you can set it to auto-login to Ebay when it asks for your username and password (I find it does it a lot, even when I've told it to stay logged in and have been using the site!)

Even though it's US based you can specify the default homepage, so I've been able to change it to the Ebay UK page, and also set the UK timezone (SnipeRight's always had the US times).

I certainly recommend it. :thumbs:

It's cost me $15 to register, which worked out as £8.01 which is pretty cheap. The trial version doesn't let you actually place bids. It's effectively the program but with trial bids - it tells you a minute or so before the end of an auction that it would be bidding now if it was registered.

Apparently they're releasing an update very shortly which should have more features in it too.

[kjmacphee]

Don't think that anyone has mentioned http://www.freesniper.com/. Totally free and has worked for me in the past.

If you are a serious seller/buyer then Auction Sentry is great for tracking a bunch of auctions (can snipe but I don't trust that the connection won't go down) and Sniperight is fantastic for sniping. Both cost a few dollars but if you are a heavy ebay user then they are extremely cheap - especially with the exchange rate.

[M@rtin]

Don't think that anyone has mentioned http://www.freesniper.com/. Totally free and has worked for me in the past.


Sorry - I asked nicely that people visit the sponsors if they use this service. You didn't so I have shut it down. I may start it up in the future - I haven't decided.

Oh well, bidmate still works :)

[kjmacphee]

Bum. Hadn't been there for a while!!

[ben.bayliss]

Hammersnipe here. Dont think I'll ever need more than 3 in a week.

[Keiron99]

I've been using Auction Raptor for a couple of weeks (free trial). It places bids with about 2 or 3 seconds to go. However, I've lost about 5 items I've bid on, with bids going in at exactly the same time as me all for exactly $1 more. It's almost as though the winning bidder knows exactly what I'm going to bid. Is it just coincidence and have I been unlucky, or is there some considerably more sophisticated sniping software out there?

[rickdean]

Another vote for www.bidmate.co.uk here :thumbs:

[kjmacphee]

I've been using Auction Raptor for a couple of weeks (free trial). It places bids with about 2 or 3 seconds to go. However, I've lost about 5 items I've bid on, with bids going in at exactly the same time as me all for exactly $1 more. It's almost as though the winning bidder knows exactly what I'm going to bid. Is it just coincidence and have I been unlucky, or is there some considerably more sophisticated sniping software out there?
Errr ... if someone bids £20 more than your bid then the winning bid will still be only whatever the minimum bid is more than yours. If the minimum bid at the price level of the auction is a £1 then all is in order.

Is that what you meant?

[crazyp]

http://www.xellsoft.com/HarvEX.html

Has anyone else tried HarvEx/Turbosniper...?

I was trying the various ones and this seems a bit more complicated than Auction Sentry but I think i prefer it overall....

(free trial available)

Crazyp

[Saber]

I asked this in another thread in the suppliers forum but its more of a computing/ebay question so I will ask here, hopefully I won't get in trouble:

I just signed up to lotsnipe and put two auctions on the list to fire off with 3 seconds to spare, I am worried that if the lotsnipe server is being slow I could miss out completely as it only has 3 seconds to do it.

Is that possible or am I being paranoid?

Also saying someone has gone and used ebay auto bidding, and their max is £20 more than mine, however I snipe it 3 seconds before the auction ends, will ebay auto bidding have enough time to beat my bid?

[M@rtin]

It's certainly possible that network delays could cause your bid to be entered too late. As for auto-bidding, that is instantaneous AFAIK, so ebay will check your bid against prior proxy bids to see if they are higher than yours. That means you have to literally outbid the other person's maximum bid.

[Saber]

Ok then, so when the sniper puts in my bid it will put in my maximum right? so as long as my max is higher than the other guy's I should win even if ebay has to compare out max bids with seconds to spare.

I am probably just being paranoid but there is an item I really want and I want to avoid shill bidding, in theory couldnt the seller's "friend" put in a high max bid and hope someone is desperate enough to keep trying to beat it.

That way if the seller wants £500 for the item and I have a max of £450 and his alter ego has a max of £500, he will beat me, and then if he retracts the bid I will have the opportunity to pay £450 as its the second highest bid, when infact I might have had the highest bid with £400 if they hadnt tried to raise it, and if they don't retract in hopes of a last minute snipe, they can tell ebay they mutually cancelled and get the fee back.

[snowball]

I use www.bidmate.co.uk - 3 free bids per week, placed 10 secs before the auction ends. Never had any security issues...

sorry to bump this thread :) Ive just signed up to bidmate, and on the 'free' snipe service they give the impression that the snipes are 'queued'. Does this mean that sometimes you are likely to miss the end time before your snipe is executed? Anyone had any problems with sniping using the free service?

[maddogsuk]

Moving...

[Kevb]

I can recommend hammersnipe. I bid on a lot of items from the US so staying up is not an option till 3-4am in the morning to catch the end. I pay for the service and feel I've got good value from it.

[thetope]

sorry to bump this thread :) Ive just signed up to bidmate, and on the 'free' snipe service they give the impression that the snipes are 'queued'. Does this mean that sometimes you are likely to miss the end time before your snipe is executed? Anyone had any problems with sniping using the free service?

only once ever had a problem with bidmate and that was during one of their update periods (which are made clear on the site if they are scheduled). they are "queued" becuase the bid isn't made until the ~10 seconds before the end.
the only thing is (but it can work to your advantage) that the updates of the current price aren't all that frequent so you can be outbid before it updates. if you are pre-outbid you lose one of your 3 free snipes. however, if you cancel it yourself (and, if you want, re-submit with a higher price, or else move on to another item) before bidmate has updated, you don't lose the free snipe.

[Butterapple]

I have used www.bidmate.co.uk in the pass myself