Sniping items on eBay
By Tyler Jones

What a nice non-controversial topic. Perhaps no other eBay subject generates more passion than that of sniping. In a nutshell, sniping is the practice of waiting until an auction is almost done, then bidding as close to the end as possible so that nobody else has a chance to outbid you, and you get the item for a lower cost.

As in most things in life, sniping has its fans and detractors. Critics claim that sniping is unfair. If you bid on something with 10 seconds left, and overtake me (who was the current leader), then I won't have a chance to bid again. They also claim that by doing this, and thus lowering the price (since I would have bid more had I the chance), that this hurts sellers by lowering profits.

My sniping tour is broken up into 6 sections. We'll examine what sniping is, with arguments pro and con. We'll discuss some of the solutions proposed by the anti-snipers. I'll even give you some tips on how to defeat sniping. Finally, I'll sum it all up in a brilliant, yet brief, conclusion. :-) For pronoun gendering, I have chosen to make all of the lowballers, nibblers and whiners male while the snipers and proxy bidders are female. That should earn me a few points with the P.C. crowd.

Many people have web pages describing enormously complicated methods and procedures for sniping. The suggest opening up dozens of windows, aligning satellites with the North Pole Star and such, but most of that is really not all that necessary.

1. Synch a timepiece with eBay. eBay is on PST and I believe that they keep their clock very close to the true time. Using a digital watch or clock, and matching with any auction in the final hour, you can set your watch to their time or figure exactly how far off they are. I synch my own watch to eBay about every week. It runs about a half second fast every day, so I keep a close eye on it.

2. Note the exact time that each auction ends. Don't bother going thereuntil the final hour. Refresh about every 20 minutes or so until the final 10 minutes. Depending on internet conditions and such, do your best to place your bid as close to the end as you dare.

3. Since many people get nervous the first few times they snipe and miss the end, you might try a combination of practice and approximations. For your very first time, try bidding around 5 minutes. That should give you plenty of elbow room. During each successive auction, try to bid 10 seconds closer to the ending time. Soon you'll be sniping with the best of them!