electricsheep,

If you put your max bid into ebay it will instantly increment the auction if someone else bids - and you stay on top as long as it is within you max bid. With snipe software it leaves the bidding until the last few seconds so doesn't push the auction price up until then - if people are bidding manually then you have a higher chance of winning the auction at a lower price.

I'm not sure how it would work with your max bid being in ebay and being the same as the one in your snipe software (assuming this is what you meant?) - I haven't seen this and I'm not sure what would happen.

I think you will find you can do this 'style' of bidding by proxy through e-bay anyway!

I've won quite a few items on eBay using the NBS996 method and it works fine, just stick in your max bid within the last minute and if you get beaten, well the point about it being more than you'd have wanted to pay anyway is a good one.

The other point to mention is that you really don't need to get carried away bidding for an item. Unless it's a really rare item, there's usually another one along in a minute, or a day or a week or month or whatever. I remember bidding for a tacho not so long ago, cos mine had bust. Popped in a bid for £50 and got beaten, saw that there was another tacho auction ending 10 minutes later and won it for £23. So, if you have a bit of patience, don't sweat it and go for the next one that comes along.

Another thing that I've found is not a feature of eBay as such, more to do with human nature. We all tend to think in £5 increments, so when we place our Max. bid we'll tend to pop in £20, £25, £50 whatever. Most people do that. If your max is £50, pop in something like £51.50 and you'll be suprised to find yourself winning more.

I do all this in the last minute or so (sometimes the last few seconds). I guess the only advantage of sniping software is that you can be down the pub when the auction ends and let the software do your bidding instead of being hunched over the PC.

The only time I got ratty about losing was when I wanted a standard right hand exhaust for my ST. Watched the auction all week, it had zero bids. It stayed at zero bids until the 30 seconds when I put the first bid in at it's £10 start bid - I did this from work. With virtually zero interest in it until the last 30 seconds I was confident that my winning bid would stick and went to get a coffee, by the time I got back I had been sniped and someone had won the auction from under me for £10.50...DOH!

Annoying, Jools, but, again, their max bid could have been £50 for all you know. It would only have cost them the £10.50 it took to beat your bid.

Lee,

If you are interested in using a "snipe" go to www.esnipe.com

I've used it once and I think you still get a 14 day free trial or something.

To be honest though, if I see something I really want, I set my max price and then hoist a bid in with a couple of minutes to go. If I don't win it I don't worry - similar items will always come up.

Watch out for "reserve" prices though - I sat up till 2 in the morning bidding on a Breil watch (metal strap - got the rubber one but they are not interchangable....:mad:) I was clearly the only one interested but I didn't win it coz I didn't meet the reserve (I gave up at £170!!!).

Good luck
Jacko.

Ebay - Tips
 

A lot of good tips posted. Just to add mine. Decide on you max bid and add £0.01 (one pence) to it. It has made the difference in winning in the dying moments of the auction. Most people bid in whole £'s.