Sniping by Samby

Essentially ebay's Proxy bidding system and Time Conscious Proxy Bidding (More commonly known as "sniping") are the same. There is just one difference....The timing of the bid.

Ebay recommends the best way to bid in this venue is to bid ONCE and bid the absolute MAXIMUM you think the item is worth to you (factoring in shipping and handling of course) This is what they call a Proxy bid. It is automatic-you don't have to do anything special except enter your maximum bid in the bidding box. It is the back bone of ebay. Check this link to see it explained: Ebay's Proxy bidding explained

Sniping has one extra feature. Bid ONCE, bid the absolute MAXIMUM you think the item is worth and bid LATE.

This is what ebay has to say about sniping
Ebay's official Stance on Sniping

Why is sniping advantageous over regular proxy bidding?
1. You have time to put the item on your watch page. You spend the week researching the item, both on ebay and off. You work out the true value of the item for you, you research your seller, his selling history, his postitive comments and his negs. Look at the nature of the negs. Look at the percentage of positive to negative.
2. Your maximum proxy won't get nibbled to nothing by lowballer, halfballer and nibble bids.
3. If you're a collector, your competition won't search your bidding history and follow you from auction to auction, using you to find their goodies for them.
4. An enemy competitor can no longer compete with you
5. If you inadvertantly have stumbled on a shiller seller, There is nothing to shill because you haven't bid yet.
6. You have all the time you need to email the seller about anything that concerns you BEFORE you bid.
7. Your win rate will increase dramatically. Most don't bid on ebay for "sport", we bid to get stuff we want, need or collect.

What disadvantages does sniping have over regular proxy bidding?
1. A good true max proxy that is higher than your snipe will win out anyday, no matter when it was placed...day 1 or day 7. Solution: If you really want this widget, make sure you bid the very most you can or want to pay for it.
2. Occasional ebay outages may occur when you least expect it, ruining your snipe. No real solution to this. It can be a gamble because outages do unexpectedly occur. Ask any sniper and the will tell you a story about "the one that got away" because of an outage
3. Sniping allows no time for the other bidder to react and bid again, BUT it also allows no time for the sniper to react either, hense the importance of bidding your absolute MAX.
4. If you enter a bid at the last second that ties with an earlier bidder, then that bidder will win. Solution: Add a few extra pennies to your bid instead of bidding in whole amounts.

Remember to be a successful sniper you must:
Bid ONCE, Bid your absolute MAX and Bid LATE (as late as you dare)

Also remember:
It's not the LAST bid that wins, it's the HIGHEST!

You may still lose to a higher proxy BUT you have bid your max so the disappointment will not be as acute than if you bid less than your max.