Sniping On Ebay whats the purpose?????

ldarrellc · Senior Member

From a sellers point of view....... and If I put on My auction that I will close the auction 1 hour early if no interest to cut down on sniping will that hurt or help My auctions?

eagames · Expert Member

I have seen sellers say that but it seems foolish to me.

In reality most winning bids happen in the last minutes and in an auction the only bid that matters is the highest bid.

I think it's best without saying that, if anything it might turn away the final highest bidders from bidding.

If sellers think that way they're wrong, they try to lure bidders with a low reserve and expect bidders to set a reasonable reserve for them early on or they cry foul. They can't have it both ways.

I'd just let the auction work naturaly, let the highest bidder win whenever they bid and if you realy need a reserve set one but I've seen they do best without reserves anyway.

Good luck on that item.

Gabe · Senior Member

I have sold many things on Ebay, and 90% of all winning bids come from people sniping at the last minute.

I have found it useless to run 7 day auctions, since bidding doesnt really start until day 3 or so. If you claim in your ebay auction that you will cancel the auction early if there are no early bids, it will just draw away potential buyers.

coppercoins · Site Admin

I have found that the 7 day auctions still serve their purpose, because 3 days doesn't give all the prospective buyers time to see it. I have the auctions start and end on a weekend, or during the evening if I can't get them started on the weekend.

The whole thing about sniping and trying to prevent it? What the hell for??? That's how you get most of your bids. Who's it hurting anyhow? The seller?? I certainly think not! Any seller who ends their auction early to prevent sniping is a moron, plain and simple. Sorry to be so blunt, but it's childish and stupid.

smed · Senior Member

I agree. However, I also think the ones that say that in their listings are trying to get bidders to bid early rather than wait in hopes of getting higher bids.

Personally, I use a paid sniping program for almost all my bidding. Why? The main reasons are: I won't get into a bidding war and thereby be a bidiot, I stand a better chance of getting a lower winning bid, and much less chance of bidder's remorse.

rollmeupabe · Veteran Member

I just learned something new. I did not realize the concept of "sniping" existed. As a seller I am now understanding why my bids may not have brought in as much as I thought they were worth, especially when there were no bids until the very end.

As a buyer I am off to find out how to get a sniping software package !!