How can you tell if an Ebay item is being sniped?

You can’t but you can snipe it yourself. You never know what you’re up against in a closed bid type format though, so bid high and hope it goes low.

Sometimes people go nuts at the last minute… I’ve also heard of people asking their friends to bid-up an item. If the friend is the last one to make a bid, there’s no actual transaction. The hope is that the stranger (you) will keep upping your price so the seller can make as much money as possible.

You can’t bid faster than a sniping program because it ups your bid within milliseconds. There are many programs out there and some have a handful of free snipes per month for free. Just don’t bid on my auctions. :)

So, the guy who had the bot up probably didn’t expect to pay as much as he did. If I knew for sure that was going on when I was bidding, I’d jack my bid up and put him $1000.00 in the hole for an item not worth $10.00. Would serve him right.

@tnatwo14
Unless you won which then of course you would have overspent for it.
I sell and bid on eBay. I bid at live auctions as well.
It is never a good idea to get into a bidding war with anyone and I will rarely do it. The only way not to do it is to research the product that you are interested in. Determine the average to high selling price and bid according to the highest you would comfortably be willing to bid. Place your bid at anytime and don’t wait until the end. Remove the element of drama and high stakes which get your blood boiling and your brain paralyzed. It’s also not good for other buyers or the market in general. Personally, I research the last 90 days of selling prices on eBay to determine what fixed price I may charge for an item.

People just put in highest bid they are willing to go to , that way when you place a lower bid you automatically get out bid . It depends on the item, the price and the interest for the item some/most people will wait for the last few minutes/seconds to bid .

@tnatwo14
And keep in mind that people often way overbid something just because they have to have it.

@SeventhSense

Oh yeah they do. It just happened in another auction I was wasting my time with. They bid items up to standard asking prices every single time anyway. Ebay auctions don’t seem to be worth the worry, time, or money spent.

@tnatwo14
Ebay auctions don’t seem to be worth the worry, time, or money spent.
As a buyer and a seller on eBay, I disagree. I have bought things at significant savings and sold things at significant profits. You just have to use your head. And as far as collectible items, nothing else compares to eBay.