Unfortunately I am probably one of the snipers. I use esnipe.com and have for a couple of years. It's easy and it's really quite inexpensive. And a godsend if you don't want to stay up til 2 in the morning to hit the bid key.

As for other sites, I've read of a number of them - looked at many, but none have the variety of items that ebay does.

There are several other .com sites you could take a look at - ebid, bidville, ubid, bidz, overstock, ecrater. But I haven't found any that offers the possibilities of Ebay.

Good luck. Sorry about sniping, but really it's the best way to go! Maybe you should try it :)

I'd like to find another place too...personally I hate the sniping,ebay isn't fun anymore.I used to have fun bidding.Now it seems it's all buy it now or the sniping thing.I figure if you want something bad enough you should bid your limit,not get it done for you....JMO!

Amazon and Craiglist's

How about sites to buy and sell tropical plants and seeds - are you aware of any besides Ebay? Thanks!

Sorry Chubbyrat, but those of us who work and are gone from the house from 7:30 to 7 pm and in bed by 10 don't have the time to sit around waiting for the last minute to place a bid.

Nor am I willing to put a bid in ahead of time so other people can run up the price trying to outbid me. That's just plain dumb.

But, that's just me and the other 50,000 users. Sorry if it takes the fun out of it for *you*, but it surely works well for *me*. ;)

tally - I am not mad at you for using sniping, I am just tired of losing every time. LOL And I can understand not wanting to stay up till 2 AM or missing an auction because you have to be somewhere else. When I do put in my highest amount, people beat me by 50 cents or it does run up to my limit. I haven't got a bargain in a long time. Maybe I will try it. How does it work?
Clare

Clare, esnipe is so easy. And the best part of waiting until the last minute is that you don't have people trying to outbid you for 2 days running the price up.

Just go to esnipe.com and register. You will need to give them your Ebay password and username. (I know, it made me a little uneasy too, but in two years I haven't had a single problem. They've been great.)

The first 14 days are FREE! I tried it and was hooked.

They charge a small fee for placing your bid (1%), so you need to deposit a small amount of money to purchase bid points. I think I put in $10 which lasted me almost a year.

Then it's real simple. It's all user friendly. They ask you to put in the URL of the Ebay auction and the maximum you want to bid. It defaults to a 6 second bid, but you can change the time if you want.

You have up until 5 minutes before auction end to change your maximum bid. And then you just wait.

When I signed up for the free trial, I was home for the auction so I sat and watched it. Sure enough, 6 seconds before close up popped my bid. Wheeeeeee!

Truthfully, I think no matter what auction site you go to you be confronted with sniping. It's not exclusive to Ebay. It just makes sense as a buyer not to tip your hand too soon because all you do is invite people to run the price up. Even if you do win the auction, you probably paid more for it by giving people 2-3 days to try and outbid your price.

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: ensipe

tally - Thanks for the information on esnipe. I am going to check into it. I have been trying to buy a nice bracelet for my Mom's 90th birthday and keep getting outbid at the last minute. Also thanks for the list of other auction sites.
Clare

Has anyone used Bid Assistant from Ebay?

Say you want a nintendo game. You put several of them all on your watch list. Then you check them off the list for bidding with bid assistant.

Since all things are not equal...different shipping, different accessories/games, etc, you then go and fill in the max amount you would pay for each of them separately (on the bid assistant form). If you happen to win the first one, it won't bid on the rest of the list. If you lose the first one, it will then bid for you on the second one and on down the list. Pretty cool...I wonder if they can get a late bid in after a sniper, since it is automatic from ebay...anyone ever use it or look at the bids after an item closes?

I will be using it in the future I'm sure. Pretty cool I think. Just set the amounts for a whole string of items and then just relax and wait until I get what I want at the price I'm willing to pay.

Sue

I buy off Ebay and Amazon.

On eBay, I use Maximum Bid. Basically, just put the highest bit you're willing to pay. It's convenience. You don't need to sit by it to bid and it helps you not to overbid the items.

Here's an example: Let's say the item you bid starts at $1.99 and you're willing to bid up to $5.99. After you confirmed your bid, there's a box that allows you to put the Maximum bid.

Your current bid stays at $1.99 but if someone else comes in and bid the next highest amount,2.99, the auto bid will bid for you at the next bid increment, $3.99 and so on. It'll go on until it reaches your Maximum Bid.

Often, the items I bid didn't reach to the Maximum Bid amount.

Hope this helps you. Unless, you just like to sit there and wait for bidding.

chemocurl - I have never heard of Bid Assistant. I will have to check it out.

ntt_hou - I have used Max Bid in the past. The problem with that is unless you are around, someone can beat your Max Bid by 50 cents or a dollar. And you kick yourself because you would have paid that extra 50 cents or a dollar to win it.

Also say something is going for $1.99 and you want to get it as cheap as possible. But you know it is worth $9.99. If you put that amount in and there is a bidding frenzy it will drive it up to your Max. I swear there are kids out there who do that just for fun to see what your Max Bid is. If you had waited till the last minute to bid, you might have got it cheaper.

That is why I don't like Max Bid. Hope I explained that well.
Clare

Who says Chubby doesn't work from seven to seven and isn't in bed by ten? Or that she spends her days lounging at the computer? All she said is sniping software has taken the fun out of ebay and it has. Sniping is suppose to be a no no (like cheating) at Ebay but like many ebay rule, it doesn't seem to apply to but a few.

I used to sell a lot on Ebay but even without the new policies-pending, the commission and listing charges were taking the fun out of it.

Lori

When on Ebay, if there's something I REALLY REALLY want, put in a ridiculoudly high maximum bid, maybe $201. I tend to use odd amounts. Like, what's the most I want to pay? plus a dollar. 200 plus one equals 201. Is this example clear?

http://www.shopgoodwill.com/
http://www.propertyroom.com/

Thanks Lori! For the record,I work from 8 to 5...leave the house at 7:30...get home at 5:30.I go to bed around 11.
I also feel like sniping is cheating and I don't cheat in real life so won't cheat on the computer......but then that's just me...maybe I'm TOO honest...
I either use the maximum bid way (even though I don't like to) or wait til the end of the auction.Or use the buy it now if I have to.There's nothing I want bad enough to snipe to get it.

chemocurl - I have never heard of Bid Assistant. I will have to check it out.

I just noticed it this weekend. It appeared as a link on my page on the items being watched. It wasn't until after I bought 2 items this weekend, that I went and looked at the form. I assumed it would only allow you to bid one amount for any/all of them...but it wasn't. It allowed you to put in a max amount for each watched item.

Like I asked b4...I wonder if it might bid after the snipers.

Also say something is going for $1.99 and you want to get it as cheap as possible. But you know it is worth $9.99. If you put that amount in and there is a bidding frenzy it will drive it up to your Max. I swear there are kids out there who do that just for fun to see what your Max Bid is. If you had waited till the last minute to bid, you might have got it cheaper.
I really doubt if there are folks who bid them up...just for fun. They 'might' get stuck winning things if they did.

I have used Max Bid in the past. The problem with that is unless you are around, someone can beat your Max Bid by 50 cents or a dollar. And you kick yourself because you would have paid that extra 50 cents or a dollar to win it.
But who know what the winners max bid might have been. It might have been $5, $10, or $50 dollars above your max bid. One just never knows.

I just put in the max I am willing to pay and let it ride...occasionally even upping it another time. 99.9 times out of a 100, it isn't anything I have to have and there will be another one come along b4 too long.

I think I'm gonna go and try for a steal deal with bid assistant now.

Here is a link that might be useful: I won today at $12 below my max bid-Woohoo!

Clare. I understand what you're saying and frankly, I'm not bothered by someone that is playing game with my bid. Actually, I haven't seen it happened to me... yet.

But when I set a max amount, a max is a max. Going over 50 cents is not considered a max. At least, that's what I understood the term "maximum" is. If someone over bid me then, to me, it's simply not worth fighting for it. Neither it is worth sitting there in the middle of the night fighting for a bidding. It's just not in my blood. I simply go elsewhere to get the item. Guess, I'm not a gambler.

Actually, alot of times, I do "Buy it now" and just purchase the item.

Mona's suggestion, shopgoodwill.com, is a great site. If you purchase an item from a local Goodwill, you can pick it up and save postage. Here's a funny Ebay video. It may have been posted here before. Linda

Here is a link that might be useful: Ebay video

if you're Canadian,try www.kijiji.com

Sniping is not against Ebay rules.

"Last-minute bidding
Placing a high bid in the closing seconds of an auction-style listing is called "sniping" within the eBay Community. Sniping is part of the eBay experience, and all bids placed before a listing ends are valid - even if they're placed one second before the listing ends."

http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/outbid-ov.html

There's a list of some other auction sites here.

I don't blame you for wanting to leave Ebay. I haven't sold that much stuff myself, but these new changes make me leery myself. I'm glad that whatever I was going to sell has already been sold, so it's a non-issue for me, I guess.

i got my first negative after almost 10 years and 200 feedbacks by someone with ZERO feedback...it bummed me out so bad, I've not sold since...You would think ebay would care enough to work with the sellers more since WE are the ones who are putting money in their pockets but no way...they were NOT taking off my negative...so i'm still trying to decide if I want to continue selling or not...

http://youngsstopnshop.ecrater.com/ check it out i made this site off ecrater.com great place to buy and sell forget ebay

Sniping is just one of the many things that will contribute to the fall of ebay. Say what you want, say what you will.People who snip bid are like people who cheat while playing games... they're just no good.