Improve your eBay auction sniping with JBidWatcher 2.0 software

Posted on June 10, 2008 at 5:05 am

As techies, it’s a good thing that we have a lot of comparison shopping resources to rely upon. It seems we are always looking at or searching for that new gadget, upgrade, computer accessory or (gasp) even non-techie things.

PriceGrabber, PriceWatch are typical shopping tools along with Amazon, Froogle and many other paths to shopping Nirvana. eBay is an option used by many of us as well - because it’s not just for your neighbor’s attic of 1970s memorabilia. Many eTailers, some large and some garage-based, offer new equipment with warranties and all the usual goodies on auction on eBay. And if you know what you’re doing, you can get great deals there.

Now I will admit if you don’t know what you are doing on eBay, you might want to borrow “eBay for dummies” first - because there are tricks and tips that pay off big-time. Seller ratings, buyer ratings, different types of auctions - all these factor into the likelihood of buying something below a discounter’s price.

If you do use eBay already though, you probably know that many successful bidders use software to monitor auctions and place bids. The most common pitfall for buyers is the fact that auctions often appear to have little interest until close to the end.

At which point bidding can become fast and furious. Bidding at the very end of an auction is a practice called “sniping.” Sniping is a tactic used to grab the lead close to the end of the bidding, hopefully leaving other bidders too little time to respond. So it’s no surprise that in these situations it pays to have software help.

eBay itself provides tools such as the ability to set a bid maximum, without bidding at the max all at once. Advanced users make use of third-party tools. JBidWatcher is one such tool, with a special twist. It’s currently the only tool which will monitor multiple auctions as a related group.

It enters the bidding close to the end of an auction, and bids to keep you in the lead only until you win the first auction in the group you set up. JBidWatcher is a free, open source cross-platform JAVA application for Windows, Linux and OS-X. It’s been around awhile, without much upkeeping until very recently when 2.0 was released (alas, as beta) with many enhancements. Check for the download here.

Install per your platform’s requirements. Once configured with your username and password, the tool easily imports your eBay watch list.

You can set many auction bid options - including maximum bid, how close to the end to enter (for sniping), related auctions. You can even use the Buy It Now feature from within the application itself (although this seems unnecessary).
The special “multi-snipe” feature works in straightforward fashion. You select the items you want in the bid group. These should be the same product, and you only wish to purchase one. Using the menu Auction -> Multisnipe, JBidWatcher will snipe the first auction to get to closing, and if it wins the bidding it will stop action on the other auctions.

If it loses, however, it will repeat the sniping on the next auction to close, and repeat until it wins the bidding at or below your maximum price, or until all auctions have been lost.

If you already use an earlier version of JBidWatcher, certain other enhancements will be appreciated. Particularly, it now handles auctions from eBay Motors (which has a unique URL although sharing certain data with eBay itself). As well, additional currencies are supported - such as the rupee.

So for you eBay-savvy techies out there, this is one tool to check out.

Pete Kushmeider, writer and blogger

Technorati Tags: auction sniping, JBidWatcher, bidding management

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