I wrote an article a while back that was published by The Dollar Stretcher that talked about, among other things, eBay bargain secrets. In the article I discussed how I often will wait until the last 30 seconds of an eBay auction before I bid. This almost always guarantees I will not be outbid and get the best deal possible.

Apparently this technique, known as ‘Sniping’, is heavily frowned upon by many online auction users.

This was brought to my attention by Susan, a reader of The Dollar Stretcher, who wrote (or screamed) me an email that went exactly like this:

DEAR KYLE,

PERHAPS YOU ARE NOT AWARE, BUT PUTTING IN BIDS ON ITEMS ON EBAY IN THE LAST FEW SECONDS IS CALLED ‘SNIPING’ AND IT IS HEAVILY FROWNED UPON BY EBAY AND MOST OF ITS USERS.

OBVIOUSLY, IF YOU DO A SEARCH, AND ONLY FIND AN ITEM RIGHT BEFORE IT EXPIRES, THAT HAPPENS, AND IS ACCEPTABLE, BUT WAITING UNTIL THE LAST FEW SECONDS TO MAKE YOUR ONLY BID IS NOT.

PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS SNEAKY PRACTICE, AND IF YOU MUST, PLEASE DO NOT TELL OTHERS TO BE AS UNDERHANDED AS YOU ARE.

RESPECTFULLY,
SUSAN
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My response: (Looking back, I might have over reacted)

Hi Susan,

Thanks for the note. I have never heard of this term ‘sniping’, nor did I know it was as issue that people frowned upon.

If this is such an issue, eBay could easily take care of it by automatically extending the auction time if a last-second bid is placed. Case closed.

As you do not know me, or anything about me, I do not appreciate you calling me “underhanded”. I was simply passing along what I thought at the time was a technique that I thought was helpful.

You failed in your note to point out why this is a bad technique or how it harms anyone.

Cordially,
Kyle James
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See Also: 4 eBay Tricks That’ll Score You a BIG Deal

Susan’s response:

Mr. James,

I only refer to you as ‘underhanded’ if you continue to use the practice after being notified that it is frowned upon. The reason it is frowned upon is that it does not give people time to respond to up their bids if they are the winning bidder at the time of the sniping.

For instance. someone has their bid at 10.01 and are the high bidder, and the current bid is 7.50. A sniper, can go in, and up bid, until they reach over the 10.01 limit.

At that time, the person with the 10.01 bid would be sent an automatic email, if their account is so set up, to let them know they have been outbid. If the sniper has done this with less than one minute left, it is unlikely that the former high bidder will receive their email in time to make a higher bid.

I realize that one might think, ‘if they really wanted it, they should have been watching the page’, but even that doesn’t work because you have to constantly refresh and sometimes computers slow down, etc and prevent the previous high bidder from making another bid in time.

Frequent users of ebay try to avoid this practice in the sense of fair play. As I said, if you just find something at the last minute, then it cannot be helped, but to set out to intentionally snip something away from other bidders is underhanded.

If it were an in-person auction, everyone who was bidding would have an equal chance to change their bids with response to others in the room and time would not be an issue, but because it is online, time is an issue, especially under one minute and the time it takes to login, bid, and get the bid accepted after being notified of being outbid, even if the original bid was higher than the current bid.

Anyone who wants any item will probably be willing to pay 50 cents higher than their high bid, or even a dollar or two on occasion, but sniping does not allow them to, and that is why it is frowned upon.

Extending the auction time would probably not be feasible for ebay, and the sellers would probably object, although perhaps they can look into a five minute extension, or something like that. I don’t know how, or if that would be acceptable to those parties, but it can’t hurt to ask. If this doesn’t fully answer your questions, please ask again.

I know most people do not know everything, and we learn from experience, so anything I can do to help, I am glad to do.

On the other hand, keep up the good work with the articles – more people need to know about more ways to save too!

Sincerely,
Susan
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I then thanked Susan for the detailed description of ‘Sniping’ and asked her if I could create a post about this to let others know about the issue.

Plus, it would let others weigh in with their opinion. She gave her full consent and so here we are!

What do you think about sniping? Do you think there is anything wrong with doing it?

Ask The Reader: Should practices be put in place to keep sniping from happening? Looking forward to what you have to say.

By Kyle James

Photo credit to Mike Mozart.

Cool…I Got Tagged! I have been blogging for a couple months and finally got tagged. 

A blog I always enjoy reading, JuiceFairy, by a girl living on a budget, tagged me on ‘7 Random Things About Myself’.

A little intimidating because I don’t want to scare off some readers with my quirks but I will give it a try and then tag 7 other blogs that I would like to know more about!

1. I don’t like potlucks. This is a weird one I know, and I take some gruff from my wife, but I like to know who is cooking the food I am eating. Not big on random food.
2. In college I would cut my own hair. Yep, give me a mirror, some scissors, and some trimmers and I was good to go. Amazing I ever had a date.
3. I am a HUGE fan of the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers, particularly the football team. My Dad went to school there and we still have a lot of family in Nebraska. Go BIG RED! And yes, I do have a Cornhead, thanks Brendan. (The picture above is my dad and my son sporting their Cornheads!)
4. My clothes all hang the same direction. I am a neat freak, especially with my clothes. The hangers all hang the same way and my clothes all get folded a very particular way.
5. I love The Discovery Channel. Mike Rowe from ‘Dirty Jobs’ is pure entertainment for me. Same with Jaime and Adam from Mythbusters. Shark Week….fo’get about it. I could sit and watch for hours if I could sit and watch for hours, if you know what I mean. Parents out there no what I mean.
6. I really, really like Fruity Pebbles. I try not to buy them because an entire box will be gone after 2 mornings. I will even eat them at night for dessert. Barney and Fred…you are killing me with these things.
7. I was really involved in 4-H. I raised market lambs and took them to 3 different county fairs every year. I did this until I was a senior in high school. Nothing pulls the chicks like white jeans, a white dress shirt, and a green tie and hat.

O.K., that was only slightly humiliating.

By Kyle James

I have to preface this post by saying my Dad grew up on a farm in Nebraska with NO running water.

I think they did have electricity when he got a bit older.

Here are some of his “unusual” conservation techniques:

– He puts a brick in the back of the toilet tank so he does not waste water when flushing.

– He puts a five gallon bucket in the shower and when it gets filled he uses the water in the bucket to water his garden. (I am not kidding!!!)

– He gets in the shower and then turns the water on. Once he is wet, he turns the water off, soaps up, then turns the water back on to rinse off.

I don’t think he has had a warm shower since 1986.

– As a kid, I can remember him constantly going around the house turning off light switches that were not being used by anyone.

Funny thing is, I find myself doing this now when my kids leave the lights on.

– He has a wood burning stove and the furnace is NEVER to be turned on.

He will sit in his living room and read the paper with a heavy sweatshirt on during the winter.

When my sister and I would say “it is cold in here”, his response never changed, “Cold? Are you really cold? I think it’s nice in here”.

– He will NOT throw food away. I have seen him cut mold off cheese then slice some for his sandwich. He is a human garbage disposal and claims that “everything always tastes great”.

– We had some pigs on a small farm that I grew up on, and my Dad would get old bread from a local bakery to feed the hogs.

Without fail, at least one of the loaves of bread would end up in our pantry. I could tell because the packaging always had a big black line drawn through it.

So what do you think?

Frugal, cheap, strange, or perhaps a man whose vision has yet to be fully recognized?

Looking forward to your comments.