Gavelsnipe failed me.
 

I know this has happened to others, but a card I was bidding on, and had set a healthy snipe on was lost about two hours ago. I then received a message from Gavelsnipe saying eBay was currently blocking all bids from Gavelsnipe and please do t use them on suctions you hoped to win. That message would have been handy before the auction ended, not afterwards.

Well, I’ve always said I would get all of Howe’s cards back, but this one was tough to take as my snipe was quite a bit higher than what it sold for and in my imagination, that Heine would be in its way to me now.

Sorry to vent but if you’re using Gavelsnipe right now, you might want to check in to this.

While I understand the desire to get cards as cheaply as possible, this right here is the MAJOR DISADVANTAGE to sniping!!! In the future Ed, might I suggest using GIXEN....or even a combination of the two. They are both free. Gixen has never failed me. Not saying they never fail....but it is miniscule.

If it is something you want badly enough, there is no harm in setting different ones up. Don't worry....you won't be bidding against yourself. Not as long as you have them both coming through the same Ebay account.

This has been the case with Gavelsnipe for more than a month now. They have had this message in big red letters at the top of their website for weeks now. I stopped using the service after being burned 5 or 6 times in one week.

Others ?
 

A bit off topic but does anyone know if eBay is declaring "War" on all snipe services ?? I can see them doing just that. I use Bidnapper and have always been pleased with their service but have not used them in many months. So I am not up to date with what is going on. If they fight the use of sniping many collecting live will be impacted.....we will be sitting, at odd hours, with a stop watch to manually snipe . So....anybody else have a surprise in bidding with another service?

It has been happening with Gavelsnipe for several months.

Gixen has just changed their policy as well. You're entitled to 4 free snipe wins per month; anything after that and they demand you pay their annual subscription rate of $6 (recurring) or $8 (one time payment).

What's wrong with, you know, actually putting in a bid in advance of what you are willing to pay. As long as you don't feel you will go over the number; lock in your bid and either win or lose.

Venting is good :). It relieves stress.

If and when I can't live without something I usually set a snipe and also manually bid.

I will never understand why ebay doesn't switch to a dynamic ending (or soft close if that's a term you're more familiar with) They leave a LOT of money on the table and I stopped doing auctions for the most part after a series of expensive sales resulted in under-bidders messaging me offering me more than the winning bid for the item.

They tried it for a while, it didn't work.

When? I have been on since 1998 and never saw it. I know for some big clients they did simulcast auctions but it was never available for ebay only auctions that I'm aware of. With technology today I don't even understand how it could "not work." If there's a bid the auction keeps going.

I honestly don't remember exactly when it was. I think it was around 6-7 years ago and didn't last very long because people hated it.

Anybody else remember this failed eBay experiment?

EDIT: Done a google search and didn't find anything, maybe I am misremembering them extending auctions if a bid was placed in the last minute of the regular time.

I’ve been selling on eBay for 20 years, they have never had extended bidding. I would really hate this as a buyer but would love it as a seller. I would be torn if they did this. :D

100% same. It would prevent me from sniping stuff cheap, but it would totally help out with giving my own stuff away. So for that, I vote for extended bidding.

Hi Ed,

I just got back from a quick vacation (my son got married last Saturday and the wife and I took a few days away in Portsmouth, NH). I was the winner of the Howe McCormick Heine Wagner (the only reason that I was bidding on it was that this was the last Red Sox player that I needed for the T206 set). The card was waiting for me when I arrived home and is yours, as I love your collection and the story behind it!! Just let me know your mailing address and I'll send it out tomorrow morning.

Best,

Steve

Auctionsniper has never failed me. They do charge more than others, but I like the reliability.

Steve, thanks so much.
 

PM sent.

Ed

That is a nice gesture.

There has never been extended bidding on ebay. Not sure why ? Should be 30 seconds added after the last bid . This would be more money for the seller , which means more money for ebay ! They are too dumb. I talked with them years ago about this. Not good for the buyer.

Agreed! It’s great seeing stuff like this happen.

+ 2

Yes
 

This

Very nice gesture.


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In my hey day of rabid collecting I would very often lock in spots. If something went for more I usually didn't go back to it. (unless I couldn't live without it, of course :))

FWIW I had used Gavelsnipe for years and started encountering same/similar problems with not going through months ago.

Switched to Gixen, no issues since

Another victim of GavelSnipe not going thru due to CAPCHA.
I have not used this i a long time, saw something last night (from PWCC)
Knew if i had a shot, it needed a snipe.
Well, I would of beaten the winning bid if it went thru 'supposingly' if not the others would of topped it maybe.
Defintelty looking at other methods of sniping next time.

GIXEN just completed their successful interface with eBay.

It has failed me one single time, in about 850 - 900 instances. Very reliable, and worth a try, if you're seeking alternative options.

My recollection as well
 

Been selling and buying since 1998

why, oh why?

I dont know why, i saw a card, about what i was looking for (psa 2)
I guess i could always wait to see REA has in store.

I signed up for Gixen now, it was simple to do. So, next time is shame on me.

A month or two ago I lost 4 items because Gavel Snipe failed to execute.
This past Tuesday I won 8 items of 32:rolleyes:, a result of signing up with Gixen.

Anyone here tried https://www.auctionsniper.com/ ?
Is that currently working on eBay?

JFYI ... I too was having problems off & on with Gavelsnipe for about a year (CAPCHA) so after posting here & then seeing this thread I recently signed up for Gixen. I've only used it once so far but it worked on eBay a couple days ago. FWIW.

I used auctionsniper for years but then found all of the free services. I don't know anything about them any longer but they used to charge for wins. I still use gavelsnipe for now.

Thanks, Leon -- been using GavelSnipe for eons but their recent difficulties in sniping eBay auctions
had us looking for a free/cheap alternative. AuctionSniper does appear to charge (a nominal pittance)
for winning snipes, but what we were wondering was whether they, too, were now having their snipe attempts
blocked by eBay.
Gixen is probably the better way to go (for now), but we managed to win a couple auctions last night
with manual snipes anyway...

Does anyone know how instantaneous these sniping programs are?

I don't utilize any of them, so in bidding the traditional way on ebay, I used to manually 'snipe' at the ten seconds left mark, then I moved to 4 seconds, and last night I threw in a bid on the downside of 3 seconds. It always seems to take a (mind numbingly anxious) second or two for my bid to catch and go through, so I have to be careful how long I wait to jump in. (The goal, obviously, is to get my bid in just as the auction closes, in order to shut out other bidders.) The question is, if someone is using a sniping service, does it even matter how long I (or other people) wait to pull the trigger, or is it moot, since their electro-bid (just coined that phrase) will be a nearly instantaneous, split second hit??

From Gavelsnipe's FAQ

GavelSnipe has a user defined snipe time that defaults to 20 seconds prior to the auction end. GavelSnipe allows a user setting as low as 5 seconds prior to the auction end.

Thank you, that's good to know. I wrongly assumed it was something like 1/100 of a second.

Has anyone been using GavelSnipe lately? Have there been successes or are there continued failures?

What are peoples latest experiences?

I've been using Gixen the rare times I snipe. Nary a complaint.

I've used Gavelsnipe several times in the last couple of weeks.

No issues and won a couple of cards.

Has worked fine for me lately.

sniping
 

How is sniping different than just hitting the bid button a few seconds before the auction ends with a max bid ( other than not having to be there and physically hit the button ) ?

Was just thinking the same thing . . .

If I know I will bid up to say $1500 for something on eBay and not a penny more, why not just wait until their is 10 seconds left and enter my max bid? Never got the sniping thing. if others are willing to pay more I wont get it.

Comes in handy if you forget about an auction or are not in a position to make that last second bid.

Sure, I get that. Don't have to hang over an auction. But, isn't that 90% of the fun?

Which was my situation.

Playing golf in the Rocky Mountains today was also a lot of fun.

90% of the fun is WINNING an auction! :)

The other 10% is sales tax :)