HOUSTON, Updated 6:05 a.m. CST November 21, 2000 -- If you plan to buy holiday gifts through online auctions, you need all the help you can get to outbid others looking for the same item.
Instead of sitting at your computer all day and all night bidding, put technology to good use and start sniping.
Sniping means placing a bid in the closing minutes or seconds of an auction. It’s a practice that’s been happening since the advent of online auctions.
As controversial as this may be, there’s a growing amount of sniping software, or bid bots as they’re sometimes called. And if you use them, it’ll give you an edge up on others.
Software from iSnipeIt uses a tool for an eBay shopper that lets you monitor, manage, and place your bids within in a built-in browser window.
To use iSnipeIt, tell it the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for an item and it automatically places a bid for you at the end of the auction.
If you’re new to auctions and the process, this has an easy interface and is user-friendly. Best of all, you can download it free for a 20-day trial and use all of its features before you decide to register it.
EZ Bid is another sniping tool. It works like iSnipeIt and has a one-step bidding feature. This means you can connect to auction servers quicker by going directly to the items you’re bidding on.
The EZ Bid software is very simple to use also. To place a bid, just type in, or cut and paste, an auction item number and your bid amount. Wait a few seconds and you’ll get a notice that your bids been placed.
EZ Bid costs a little money up front, about $9.00, but doesn’t give you as much flexibility as iSnipeIt.
Although these programs aren’t a perfect solution for winning all bids, they’re very powerful tools. They can provide an edge in tightly fought bidding wars.
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