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Auction Sniping

By Aron Hsiao, About.com

Definition: Auction sniping is the practice of waiting until the last possible moment before an auction closes to enter your bid, with the hope of outbidding other sellers that didn't anticipate such a move. Auction sniping is not a violation of eBay rules and is considered fair practice in auction bidding, despite the fact that some members find it to be objectionable.

Members who are worried about auction sniping should follow the tried and true rule that you should bid once, and use as your bid amount the maximum that you are willing to pay. Note that because of the way that eBay bids work, such a bid will not necessarily cause you to pay more when an auction closes.

More controversial than manual auction sniping are auction sniping websites. To use an auction sniping website, a prospective bidder supplies the website with his or her eBay account information, the item number he or she wishes to bid on, and desired bid amount. The website then visits eBay to determine the precise closing time for the auction in question, using the bidder's eBay account information to place the desired bid at the last possible moment on his or her behalf.

Because such websites require that a user release his or her eBay account information, their use is strongly discouraged, since there is often no way to establish the integrity or security of such sites.


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Also Known As: sniping

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