Shill bid or coincidence?

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by BobC

That makes no sense at all. The main purpose(s) of sniping services was so that first, you didn't have to be available to bid as the auction ended, and second, to wait till the last few seconds of an auction to make your bid so you didn't bid early and allow someone else to run your bid up, and/or outbid you. What you are suggesting runs totally counter to one of the main reasons to ever use a sniping service.

Of the sniping services I've seen in use, I've never seen (or heard) of one that purposely kept running up the bidding long before an auction was ending. I'd love to hear what sniping service(s) you're aware of that just keeps bidding like that. And if there is one or more such services out there doing that, I frankly don't consider that a true sniper service. It is something else entirely, just not sure what.

I do not recall the name of the software/executable/app but I saw one that would allow you to customize your bidding. You could set it up to keep you ahead all the way to the last possible second up to whatever monetary amount you put in. Stupid or otherwise. And there were others. And I don't care to debate it with you. Disagree all you want, I saw it. Finally, snipers are 100% a-holes, in my opinion.

[cammb]

My problem was that there were 22 hours left in the auction with no bidders. I put in a bid and 3 minutes later I was outbid. He could have waited and sniped and I would have been fine with that. I did note the seller and will be looking at some of their auctions.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by jingram058

I do not recall the name of the software/executable/app but I saw one that would allow you to customize your bidding. You could set it up to keep you ahead all the way to the last possible second up to whatever monetary amount you put in. Stupid or otherwise. And there were others. And I don't care to debate it with you. Disagree all you want, I saw it. Finally, snipers are 100% a-holes, in my opinion.

Jim,

Not looking to argue or debate with you. Using a snipe service like that just makes no sense to me as it runs counter to what people normally want to use a snipe service for. I'm just surprised someone would want to use such a service in the way you described. To each his own though, right?

[Yoda]

Some consignors love their snipers.

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by BobC

Jim,

Not looking to argue or debate with you. Using a snipe service like that just makes no sense to me as it runs counter to what people normally want to use a snipe service for. I'm just surprised someone would want to use such a service in the way you described. To each his own though, right?

Thanks. I am with you. Sniping is just one of the things that drove me away, but it was a big one. I found it infuriating! It was old railroad timetables. Not nearly as limelight as baseball cards. I would find one with very few or no watchers, no bids, and get sniped at the end. So I asked around, and actually used one once or twice. I think it was called Bid Snapper or something like that. It was a free tool and didn't have any of the bells or whistles like custom bidding, but it would bid at the last possible second. I did not like it, I did not like putting my credentials into it, and I got rid of it and moved on to buy-it-now to the maximum extent possible.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by jingram058

Thanks. I am with you. Sniping is just one of the things that drove me away, but it was a big one. I found it infuriating! It was old railroad timetables. Not nearly as limelight as baseball cards. I would find one with very few or no watchers, no bids, and get sniped at the end. So I asked around, and actually used one once or twice. I think it was called Bid Snapper or something like that. It was a free tool and didn't have any of the bells or whistles like custom bidding, but it would bid at the last possible second. I did not like it, I did not like putting my credentials into it, and I got rid of it and moved on to buy-it-now to the maximum extent possible.

I agree Jim, there are both good AND bad points from using such services. On the one hand, they can help to deter shill bidders and their hijinks, but then on the other hand, you have to put up with issues and conditions as you mentioned. In your case, about the only acceptable and viable solution then is to wait and watch for the auction to end, and then you yourself physically put in your last second bid. Unfortunately, we both know that isn't always easy, or possible, depending on one's schedule and all the different and crazy times auctions can end. Can't always have everything perfectly the way we'd like, can we? LOL