How to Avoid Losing to eBay Snipers

Sniping occurs when a bid is about to end. Some

yahoo rushes in and bids a little higher than the

highest bid as the clock runs out of time – winning

the bid. Sniping is against the rules at eBay, but it

doesn’t slow the snipers down! In most cases, even

if you report it, the sniper will get away with it, and

you will have lost the item that you wanted to win

so badly. Unfortunately, in order to avoid losing the

items you want to snipers at eBay, you have to

take on the sniper mentality. You also need to

snipe in a way that will not violate eBay’s rules.

Snipping can be done in one of two ways. The first

way is the safest, but not necessarily the easiest.

Simply keep up with the item you are bidding on.

Make a note of the date and time that the auction

will end, and make sure that you are in front of your

computer and logged into the auction well before that

specific time. The objective is to either bid higher than

the highest bid during the last few seconds – which is

what snipers do - or to simply make sure that you are

not outbid by a sniper.

Remember that sniping is against the rules, so you

should log in about thirty or forty five minutes before

the bidding ends, and get your bid up until it is the

highest bid. At that point, all you need to do is to

keep an eye out to make sure that nobody else

raises the bid. If you’ve been logged in for a while,

this cannot be considered sniping.

Using this method, you must be aware of automatic

bidders. It is very hard to bid against people who use

bidding software. That software has been designed for

the purpose of snipping, and your chances of

outbidding the software manually are very slim –

which leads us to the second method of snipping

– Snipping services.

Snipping services are very easy to find online, and

they are relatively inexpensive. You can also

purchase your own snipping software. If you want to

become a sniper, purchasing your own software is

usually the best way to go if you bid on a lot of items.

You just set up the software, tell it which auction to

watch and what the highest price you are willing to

bid is, and let it do the work - just remember that it

is against the rules, and while eBay seldom enforces

this rule, you will be running the risk of getting

banned from eBay.

Sniping is bad if someone does it to you, but if you

use it yourself to win bids, it can be a wonderful thing.

On the other hand, it may not be very ethical.

Outbidding someone is one thing, sniping is

something altogether different!

How to Avoid Failure on Your eBay Auctions

Many first time sellers have one thing in common –

they fail. Many of them fail time and time again,

never understanding what is going wrong. They do

hours of research looking for the perfect item to sell,

get the auction set up, and wait for the bidding to

begin. Hours go by and no bids are placed. Days go

by, and there are still no bids – or there are very low

bids. Finally the auction ends, and it turns out to be

a total failure. Considering the huge number of sellers

who run eBay auctions, there are specific things you

must do, and specific things you must not do if you

are to be successful.

There are many reasons why auctions fail. The most

common reason is that the item is not in high

demand. This problem can be avoided by doing the

necessary research to determine which items sell

well, and which items should be avoided. This

research takes a great deal of time – but in the end,

you will find that it is time well spent.

Another reason for eBay failure is pricing. No matter

what your reserve price is, your opening bid price

should never be more than $50 or so. This is how you

will attract potential bidders to your auction. If you

set that opening bid too high, most people won’t

even click the link to read the description for your

item. Another pricing problem is lack of research.

Before you set your reserve price, you must

determine what the item is really worth, and the price

similar items have sold for in past eBay auctions.

Poorly written descriptions are another cause of

failed auctions. Poor grammar and misspelled words

drive people away. Failing to post a picture of the

item will also keep people from visiting your auction

page. Make sure that your description is well written.

This is essentially your ‘sales copy.’

Shipping prices scare people away from auctions if

they are too high. Find the lowest shipping prices

that you can find, and consider paying for the

shipping yourself if it won’t cut into your profits too

much. Do not charge handling fees.

Offer great ‘customer service’ for all of your auctions,

and ask your buyers to give you feedback. If the

items that you sell are everything that you said they

would be, and you offer great customer service, you

can expect wonderful feedback – and this

feedback will help a great deal in your future auctions.

How to Avoid eBay Scams and Fraud

Countless people have been scammed and

defrauded on eBay. eBay is a fun place to bid on

items and to sell items – but you must know how to

recognize a scam, and how to avoid them, them or

you quickly join the ranks of those who have lost

their money to eBay scams. Of course, if you are

scammed, there are some actions you can take the

correct the situation – but in many cases, the

scammer does indeed get away! The best option is

to avoid being scammed.

You can easily avoid many scams with the payment

method that you use – whether you are a buyer or a

seller. eBay owns Paypal, and in most cases,

Paypal is the payment method you should use. First,

as a buyer, if you are scammed or less than

satisfied with the item when it arrives, you can

dispute the charge easily, and demand a refund. The

seller must reply and show proof that the item was

shipped, and that it arrived in the condition that you

expected, or Paypal will return your funds to your

account.

As a seller, you can protect yourself by only

accepting Paypal. This will eliminate the chances of

receiving a bad check or having the buyer dispute a

credit card charge. Instead, they must dispute the

charge through paypal, and you of course will be able

to prove that you shipped the product. You cannot,

however, prove that the product arrived in the

condition that was expected. In this case, you should

demand that the product be returned to you before the

refund is issued.

Another common scam that buyers use is the

bidding scam. This type of scam is run either with

two separate eBay accounts – with one person in

control of both of them, or with two friends with

separate eBay accounts. A very small bid is placed

on your item, using one account. This is followed by

a very high bid, from the other eBay account. Right

before the bidding ends, the high bid is cancelled or

withdrawn, leaving the low bid as the winning bid.

This bid can only be avoided by setting a reserve price

– the lowest bid that can be placed is the same as the

reserve price that you set.

If you are an eBay seller, you can further protect

your auctions by placing a notice on your auctions

page, declaring that you have the right to back out

of the sale if you suspect potential fraud. As both a

buyer and a seller, also beware of spoofed emails.

These emails appear to be from eBay. The email

may claim that you need to verify your information,

and ask you to login to your eBay account, using

the link provided. If you follow that link, the site looks

exactly like eBay, but it is actually a scam to get

your eBay login details, as well as your credit card

details! eBay will never ask you to do this. If you

suspect a spoofed email, report it to eBay

immediately!

Don’t let scammers ruin your eBay fun! Just use

good common sense, and a reasonable amount of

caution, and everything should run smoothly. Report

suspicious activity to eBay, and if a deal doesn’t feel

right, simply back away from it and move on to the