Help and FAQ

bidsniper - Basics

What does bidsniper do?

bidsniper is an eBay sniper that automates the process of placing your eBay bid in the closing seconds of any eBay bidding auction, dramatically increasing your chance of winning. We keep it simple: you tell us what you want to win, and we snipe eBay for you.

Back to top

How much does bidsniper cost?

bidsniper is free to try for 15 days.  After that you can pay as little as $8.33 per month for unlimited sniping.  See a complete list of our pricing options on our home page, www.bidsniper.com.

Back to top

How do I pay my bill?

Credit card or debit card with Visa or Master Card
Log in.
Click the "Preferences" tab.
Click on the link to “make a payment”.
Enter your payment information and click the button to pay.

Back to top

What are the risks of sniping?

There are risks to sniping. No service or software guarantees your wins.

Back to top

Why do you require my eBay password?

bidsniper is not associated with eBay in any way. bidsniper acts as your bidding agent. To do so, your username, password and email address must be in our database.

Back to top

Where can I find more information?

For information on joining bidsniper, please check out our membership terms.
If you would like to know about bidsniper and your privacy, see our privacy policy.

Back to top

What happens if two bidsniper users bid on the same item?

Although the probability of this happening is very small, we have developed our software to give bidders an equal chance of winning in all possible cases.
In most cases, it’s very simple. The bidder with the highest max bid will win.

Back to top

Does bidsniper work with Mature Audiences auctions?

Yes – however, because eBay must validate your age to bid on these items, every few months we do encounter more technical difficulties. Our support team can help you with this bidding process should you discover a problem. https://www.bidsniper.com/contact.aspx

Back to top

Can I bid using non-U.S. currency auctions?

Yes - We snipe in the currency of the auction. That‘s actually how eBay has it set up. No conversion is going on. So if the auction is in GBP, AU$, Euros or whatever—that‘s what your bid is in.

Back to top

Do I have to leave my computer on for bidsniper to place a bid?

No - bidsniper makes sniping on eBay auctions as easy as placing a bid, anyone can do it! Since we snipe eBay from our servers your computer doesn't even have to be on and there is no complicated software to learn. Our bid sniper server will snipe eBay just a few seconds before the auction ends, so you can rest easy.

Back to top

What does bidsniper do with personal information?

bidsniper will never give out your private information. Please read our PRIVACY STATEMENT: http://www.bidsniper.com/privacy.aspx

Back to top

What is the ideal lead-time?

Lead-time is the number of seconds FROM the end of an auction that you would like bidsniper to place your bid. We recommend lead times between 5 and 12 seconds. Currently, bidsniper successfully places 99.9% of all snipes with 5-second lead times.

We don't recommend anything less than 5 seconds. Although we send the snipe on time, during peak times an eBay server may not process it in time. This is not the fault of eBay or Bidsniper; internet traffic is just heavier at certain times. And during peak periods the default 5 second lead-time, while adequate for most weekday situations, often isn‘t enough for evenings and weekends. Anything under 5-seconds is not recommended. We synchronize from an atomic clock, which calibrates our servers.

We snipe every auction multiple times, from multiple servers and locations. These servers adjust for eBay server lag according to how long their average server is taking.

You should increase your lead-time to 7-12 seconds on auctions that close 5-11 p.m. Pacific (eBay) time, and on weekends, when eBay traffic is heavier.

Back to top

Can bidsniper place bids at other auction sites?

bidsniper only works on eBay sites, both foreign and domestic.

Back to top

I sniped at the right time! What happened to my snipe?

Our snipe servers try to adjust for eBay server lag and internet lag, so that eBay processes your snipe with the lead time you’ve specified. However, although the vast majority of snipes do go through on time, eBay can take longer (or shorter) to process your snipe. In addition, eBay will often take even longer to process your bid during peak hours: you might want using slightly higher lead times between 5 and 10pm Pacific Time, particularly on Sunday evenings. Using a 7-12 second lead-time is highly recommended during that time.

Back to top

How come I’m outbid but my snipe doesn’t know it yet?

We check if you are outbid as follows:

  • If the item ends within 30 minutes, we may check every 10 minutes
  • If the item ends in an hour, we may check every 20 minutes
  • If the item ends in a day, we may check every 12 hours
  • If the item ends in 7 days, we may not check yet.

Also, during peak hours, especially Sunday evenings, our message server can fall behind. Of course, you don’t have to wait for the server to catch up: you can just click on the item in the snipe and go straight to the auction to know how you made out.

Back to top

How did I lose when I was the high bidder? Why does it say bid too low?

You may indeed have had a slightly higher bid, but eBay has minimum bid increment requirements.

For U.S. go here:
http://pages.eBay.com/help/basics/e_bid_conf3.html

For UK go here:
http://pages.eBay.co.uk/help/basics/e_item11.html

And you‘ll see how you lost out. You can also click on the confirmation link to the right of your snipe (click on Lost) for eBay‘s message back to you on this.

Find out how it’s possible to lose by less than one increment:
http://pages.eBay.com/help/basics/e_items_closed2.html

Back to top