Our Best Advice
Our best advice on bidding competitively is to bid your absolute maximum amount, then let Bidnapper and the eBay proxy system do their jobs. On your typical auction, you will not pay more than you need to, because your bid will only be raised to the necessary level by the eBay proxy system. And, bids late in the auction prevent manual bidders from responding to your bid. It`s a powerful combination, and the easiest way to bid.
Benefits of Sniping
There are a number of benefits to sniping. Chiefly, when you deliver your bid at the last second, you eliminate much of your competition, those bidders who choose to sit and bid incrementally. They are left with no time to respond. You also keep your interest in the item private. This is a distinct advantage if you do a lot of bidding. And finally, you don’t participate in running prices up. Remember, our sniper software uses the proxy system when it delivers your bid, meaning you will only bid enough to make you the high bidder. So our advice is to snipe with Bidnapper and enjoy the benefits of both the proxy system and sniping.
Using the eBay Proxy Bidding System
Do not confuse the eBay proxy system with sniping. When you submit your bid manually or with Bidnapper, you are entering the maximum bid you are willing to spend. But the bid will only be raised one bidding increment above the previous high bidder by the eBay proxy system. The bid will be automatically advanced anytime someone bids against you, until your max is reached. This way, you save money, and you are protected from any snipes that come in after yours if you have bid enough. Learn more about proxy bidding HERE.
Buy It Now Auctions
Bidnapper will work with auctions which have the Buy It Now option, just as it does with regular auctions. The only difference with these auctions is, someone may end the auction prematurely by paying the seller`s asking price. However, the Buy It Now option goes away when someone bids on the item in some categories. This is the one situation where it may be advantageous for you to bid early, directly with eBay, on an item. Don`t bid any more than the minimum. Your early bid would eliminate the chance that the auction could end early. Then, enter a more competitive bid through Bidnapper to gain the benefits of sniping. As long as you use the same username and password with Bidnapper as you use to bid manually, you will not be bidding against yourself. You may see a bid arrive late in the auction from Bidnapper, but it will not advance your bid.
eBay also offers `Buy It Now only` sales which have no auction associated with the sale. Our auction sniper does not work on these, because there is no bidding on these items. You can just buy them. Check to make sure bidding is accepted for the item in question.
Reserve Auctions
A Reserve Auction has a minimum price the seller is willing to accept for the item. This price is kept private, but you will see RESERVE MET/NOT MET noted on the auction site’s listing. There is no need to change your bidding strategy on these auctions. However, some users get confused when they are the high bidder and the reserve is not met, yet the user`s maximum bid does not appear on the bidding history. If your maximum bid had met or exceeded the reserve, eBay would have raised it to that level when your bid arrived even if it was more than one BIDDING INCREMENT. Because it did not, your bid was left as the highest bid, but your max bid was kept private, in case the item should come up for sale again. This is the only situation that really distinguishes a reserve auction from a regular auction. Our best advice is to bid your max, and let Bidnapper, and the eBay proxy system do their jobs.