I know that this isn't the right board for this, but AT seems deserted these days so I thought I'd post it here. My apologies in advance to the mods !

The past two times that I bid on a item, someone else outbid me by $1.00 in the last second. Is this one of those "sniping" services? If so, are they legitimate? Are they safe to use? If not, is there anything else I can do to help win an auction?

Thanks in advance!
Nancy

I use Esnipe. I wouldn't bid without it and yes it's safe.

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It could be a manual sniper, but probably an automated sniping service or software.

Any that have been around for awhile should be legitimate, or the bad news would be available on the internet and no one would use them.

Any sniping service should use SSL on their site for better security. Any thing is possible, but it should be safe.

Free eBay sniper. eBay auction sniping made easy. An eBay bid sniper - Home is a sniping service you can try.

Just remember that you still have to have the highest bid to win an auction (unless 2 bids are the same or there isn't enough difference between them to meet the minimum bid increment - the 1st of the 2 bids in wins).

As far as increasing your chances of winning an auction, maybe try finding listings with the main keywords misspelled in their titles, you'd have less competition. Sites like typojoe.com have ebay misspelling search tools that would help with that.

Also, maybe subscribe to a service that regularly checks ebay for saved searches that you create and emails you when an item is listed that matches your saved search. Ebuyersedge.com can do this for you. Ebay itself can as well, but they send out only 1 email per day.

Sites like ebuyersedge will check multiple times a day and send you an email each time it detects a new listing. You'd then have the jump on most others that would be interested in such an item if they new it was available. This would give you a huge advantage when the item is listed at a good price as a 'Buy it now'.

Esnipe - have used it for years. Using a sniping service is "legal" and sometimes the only way to win at the price you want. It's the only way I bid on anything.

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Mary

Thank you all for so much great information! I really appeciate it!