jema
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posted on April 23, 2001 11:38:45 PM new
Esnipe will soon be charging fees. Are there any other FREE sniping tools out there?
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mcbrunnhilde
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posted on April 24, 2001 01:06:29 AM new
http://www.esnipe.com/Services/
Guess I'll have to try vrane.com (unless they charge as well!).
Without eBay, I might have a real life... 
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envy
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posted on April 24, 2001 02:33:15 AM new
They must have hit the golden number of members. I guess one of these days all the free service sites will be charging. Seems to be the norm to offer FREE until they hit a certain customer base then they drop the whammy on you.
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bitsandbobs
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posted on April 24, 2001 02:45:14 AM new
Before long we'll have 105 services we use all charging at least 1%.
Cheaper to to send money to sellers and not bother bidding on anything!!!!!
Bob, Downunder but never down.
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tabbinosity
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posted on April 24, 2001 03:17:43 AM new
Lucky me--the site owner never did get around to fixing the glitch that kept me and some other users from being able to use the service.
Can't miss what I never had in the first place.
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lkc19
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posted on April 24, 2001 04:12:29 AM new
I use vrane for sniping. They're still free. Go to "free services", then "public snipe box". Be sure to snipe big on all my auctions....LOL!
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JSmith99
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posted on April 24, 2001 07:33:59 AM new
Esnipe will soon be charging fees. Are there any other FREE sniping tools out there?
If there are, they'll only be free for a little while.
I've been expecting fees from eSnipe ever since they were bought a few months back. I do have a few objections to their proposed fees:
Tiered fees based on amount of final bid price - This makes no sense. I'm willing to pay reasonable costs for services I use, but charging me different costs depending on auction price has no relation to the service I receive from eSnipe and is totally unfair.
No percentage fee unless you win the auction - That's a recipe for their own disaster. Their costs are the same for any bid that is successfully processed, whether it wins, loses, or can't be placed (because it's too low, the auction was ended early, whatever). A reasonable business model would charge for these costs and do away with the tiered percentage fee altogether.
$.50 fee if you do not have enough BidPoints at the time the bid is placed - This is going to make a lot of customers very mad, very quickly. Their fee system is fairly complex (see it in all it's gory at http://www.esnipe.com/Services/).
Instead of shcheduling the bid into their system and then charging people a 200% markup after the fact, it would make more sense if they assess the fee when the bid is scheduled, and if there aren't enough funds at that time they don't even let the person set it up (until the necessary funds are added).
Anyway, those are my thoughts. I actually use eSnipe a lot, but mostly as a convenience or a backup against my own pc or internet service going down at that crucial time. If I don't like the business model they actually put into place I don't think I'll miss them too much.
edit to correct error pointed out by capotasto
[ edited by JSmith99 on Apr 24, 2001 08:58 AM ]
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capotasto
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posted on April 24, 2001 07:55:55 AM new
JSmith you are wrong about the charge. It is 1 percent of the winning bid, with no charge under 25.00
You have to buy points based on your max bid, but only the 1 ercent of winning amount is subtracted from your "account"
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commentary
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posted on April 24, 2001 08:13:39 AM new
One of the most complex and dumb pricing plan for little money. They should charge you a flat fee per snipe or an annual membership fee. What difference does it make what price an item sells for?
The 1% charge seems to be greedy and yet may generate less revenue overall as snipers will not use the service for the more expensive item.
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JSmith99
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posted on April 24, 2001 08:56:08 AM new
You're right capotasto, but that only makes it less unreasonable. There's simply no justification for them basing their fee on the auction price.
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toke
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posted on April 24, 2001 11:25:18 AM new
LOL! Maybe they got the idea from AW charging FVFs for auction listing services...
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gawilson
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posted on April 24, 2001 02:02:04 PM new
http://www.auctionstealer.com is very similar to esnipe and is still free. Who knows if they will stay that way.
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abacaxi
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posted on April 24, 2001 05:36:56 PM new
1% of the winning bid? That sucks bilge water!
Their cost to process a snipe on a $25.99 item and their cost to process a snipe on a $24,999.00 item are the same. So what makes them think they deserve $250 for their efforts on one and not the other.
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jrb3
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posted on April 24, 2001 06:38:58 PM new
That Fees Structure Gave Me A Headache WTF Were They Thinking.
I May Not Be A Rocket Scientist But Why Not Speak English And Use Dollars ?
I've Always Used VRANE And Been Very Happy
Joe B
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Microbes
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posted on April 24, 2001 07:01:33 PM new
abacaxi:
>cost to process a snipe on a $25.99 item and their cost to process a snipe on a $24,999.00 item are the same. So what makes them think they deserve $250
I mostly sell, but you could compare this to eBay's FVF's. Why does ebay charge more to sell a $24,999.00 item than a $25.99 item? Same logic applies...
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JSmith99
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posted on April 24, 2001 07:23:27 PM new
Why does ebay charge more to sell a $24,999.00 item than a $25.99 item?
They provided server space and a variety of services that helped advertise the item and generate the bids, so it's reasonable for them to get a percentage of the final price.
eSnipe's service is not analogous.
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Microbes
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posted on April 24, 2001 08:06:38 PM new
JSmith99:
eSnipe provides server space and a variety of services that helped (so conventinal wisdom says) keep the final price to the buyer lower, so it's reasonable for them to get a percentage.
The better job they do, the less you pay
This service has started nickle and diming buyers, thats the only real difference.
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JSmith99
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posted on April 24, 2001 08:13:45 PM new
eSnipe provides server space
For their use, not for the bidders and not that does anything that can be shown to have affected the final price in the way you suggest.
and a variety of services
One service is a variety?
Sorry, nice try. They place a bid, period. What they do isn't in the slightest comparable to what eBay provides a seller in the way of effecting the final bid price.
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paperfan
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posted on April 24, 2001 08:16:19 PM new
>>>1% of the winning bid? That sucks bilge water!
Their cost to process a snipe on a $25.99 item and their cost to process a snipe on a $24,999.00 item are the same. So what makes them think they deserve $250 for their efforts on one and not the other. <<<
There is a $10.00 cap per successful snipe on the fees (for snipes of $1,000 and above). Also, successful snipes under $24.99 are free.
Edited because UBB and I aren't getting along well tonight.
[ edited by paperfan on Apr 24, 2001 08:19 PM ]
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Microbes
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posted on April 24, 2001 08:32:47 PM new
JSmith99:
>They place a bid, period. What they do isn't in the slightest comparable to what eBay provides a seller in the way of effecting the final bid price.
If proxie bidding and snipe bidding are equal, no one would use this service. If they are not equal, it stands to reason, the more expensive the item, the more valuable the snipe. (by the same logic that says eBay should get more $ on more expensive items)
abacaxi mentioned "Their cost to process a snipe" is the same no matter what the cost of the item, and under *that* logic, eBay's cost to run a 7 day auction and process the bids is the same no matter what the final price is.
You can look at it either way, but both companies are going to do what they can to maximize their profits. Vote with your wallet
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JSmith99
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posted on April 24, 2001 09:47:22 PM new
If proxie bidding and snipe bidding are equal, no one would use this service. If they are not equal,
In order for your argument to be valid the next words need to be "if they are not equal, everyone would use this service". Neither is currently true, therefore your argument must be invalid. In the first case you assume all bidders will behave exactly the same way given an either/or proposition; In the second case you set up the opposite of that proposition, the only logical result is that all bidders will behave in the opposite way.
abacaxi mentioned "Their cost to process a snipe" is the same no matter what the cost of the item, and under *that* logic, eBay's cost to run a 7 day auction and process the bids is the same no matter what the final price is.
Only because you persist in equating the two services when what they do is substantially and materially different. As I said to you earlier, eSnipe provides a single service. It is apples and oranges (or, more appropriately, apple and fruit cart) compared to what eBay does.
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laptopper
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posted on April 24, 2001 11:18:22 PM new
Semi-solution:
Many, including myself, use e-snipe as a backup in case their ISP goes down or their computer freezes up. Given that, if it is at all possible I usually sit in and do a last second bid anyway---right on top of my e-snipe bid. Something tells me that if you place your own bid with a higher maximum than your e-snipe bid, your higher bid will win and render your e-snipe bid incomplete or outbid. Make sense?
Again, this only pertains to those of us who usually only use e-snipe as a backup while we're watching the auction end.
Just a thought.
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humber2
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posted on April 24, 2001 11:38:35 PM new
It's back to using a second-hand clock for sniping.......
So all the e-snipe cheapskate bids will be $24.98?
That's a good reference
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figmente
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posted on April 25, 2001 08:10:01 AM new
ebaY can charge high fees because they own the playing field. Others can, and do, set up alternate auction sites, with similiar basic functionality, but it is not at all the same as they do not have the attention of millions.
esnipe does not have any such (defacto monopoly) market control. Others can easily offer the same service and using such alternate offerings will be just as effective. As such I think that they can successfully maintain only very minimal (if any) fees.
esnipe may offer a premium service here, as they recently upgraded to increase reliability and allow safely using a really tiny time buffer, but I do not believe that 10 seconds versus 1-2 seconds makes much difference in auto snipe bid effectiveness.
esnipe is a very useful service and I'll miss the free ride there. I can accept paying for such a service. But believe that competition will keep such fees much lower than those outlined in esnipe's announcement.
There's nothing to stop ebaY from completely whiping them out by adding an equivalent "hidden proxy" feature. I doubt they will, but auto-extend has long been discussed. If added it would eliminate any difference between minutes and seconds on a snipe bid.
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allykat
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posted on April 25, 2001 01:04:53 PM new
Wow it is hard to keep up over here! Someone said"$.50 fee if you do not have enough BidPoints at the time the bid is placed "...so that I don't have to go in there and read it all, can someone explain this to me? Thanks.
>^,,^^,,^<
MEOW pft pft
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