2. If you're bidding for items on eBay, sooner or later you'll
end up having your bid beaten at the very last second by
a "sniper". This can be a frustrating experience. In
theory sniping is against the rules and you can report it
to eBay. In practice, however, they never do anything
about it.
3. The best way to beat the sniper is to become the sniper.
Once you understand the process of sniping, you can use
it to win more auctions, more often, and at a lower price
than you would otherwise pay.
5. If you have a lot of time to spare and a reasonably fast
Internet connection, sniping manually is not all that
difficult. Make a note of the time when the auction you
are bidding on will end. Then make sure you're sitting in
front of the page at that vital last minute. Then just
outbid the current winning bidder, or defend your own
winning bid.
6. Here's a valuable tip to remember for manual sniping:
make sure you set your maximum bid quite high.
Otherwise you risk being automatically outbid, and the
auction will have ended before you can bid again.
7. It's not worth your time to compete against someone
who is using an automated sniping service. If their
service is any good, they will always manage to outbid
you. In the sniping arms race, you need to find a sniper
on full auto.
9. If you enter "ebay sniping" into your favorite search
engine, you'll find a long list of online services that will
snipe on your behalf for a small fee. They usually offer a
free trial, so give it a go.
10. If you don't want to pay each time for an online service,
then you can buy sniping software outright -- for
example, SnipeRight or ISnipeIt (just add a ".com" to the
name to find them on the internet). You pay once and
use them as much as you want.
11. After you've installed the software on your computer,
you tell it which auctions you want sniped and the
maximum amount you're willing to pay. The software
then places your bid in the last few seconds of bidding.
One drawback to this method is that you need to be
able to leave your computer on nearly all the time, or
you might miss the end of some auctions.
13. If you're reluctant to lower yourself to "playing dirty,"
then there is another, more low-tech way to get around
sniping. You can just email the seller and say that you
were sniped at the last minute, but would really like the
item. If they have another unit to sell, chances are
they'll agree to sell it to you for the price at which the
auction closed.