Since their introduction several years ago, online auctions, such as eBay, have been one of the hottest destinations on the World Wide Web. Auction sellers are attracted by the prospect of a broad venue for their products and the possibility of high profits resulting from emotion-driven bidding wars. Bidders on online auction sites are drawn to the unique shopping opportunities and potential to purchase hard-to-find items at low prices. One technique many successful auction bidders employ is called sniping.

Auction sniping is waiting to place your bid until seconds before the auction closes. In most cases, the last-minute bid precludes competing bids and assures the sniping bidder the winning bid at the lowest price. Some web sites estimate that sniping occurs on 5 percent of all eBay auctions that close with bids.

While this technique is not without controversy - mostly from disgruntled sellers or competing bidders - it is permitted on most online auction sites including eBay. In fact, an eBay Community Development representative related eBay’s position on one of eBay’s message boards:

From: daphne

Topic: Re: Snipers How To Workshop

Just for the record, contrary to what some people think, there’s no rule against “sniping,” or bidding in the last moments of the auction. You will hear all kinds of debates about which method (proxy bidding or sniping) is more effective, and eBay would recommend proxy bidding, but bidding at the last moment of the auction is perfectly acceptable and legal.

Daphne

eBay Community Development

There are several advantages to sniping on auctions. The first is that the sniper prevents counter-bids and is more likely win the auction. The most significant advantage is that sniping prevents emotional bidding wars. These are events that auction sellers dream about - two or more bidders start running up the price of a listed item because they get caught up in the excitement of the moment. More often than not, the sniper will win the auction at a lower price if they do it correctly.

There are some problems associated with sniping manually. First, you must be online to bid when the auction closes. This may not be convenient if the bidding for that PEZ dispenser you’ve been drooling over ends in the middle of the night or while you are at work. Second, depending on your connection speed, your last second bid may be submitted too late. The auction might close before your bid reaches eBay.

Not to worry though, there are several software and web-based solutions to automate the sniping process for you.

Sniping software programs, such as iSnipeIt reside on your computer. You simply enter the item number you wish to bid on and input your maximum bid. At the appropriate time, the sniping software connects to the internet and places the bid for you. This requires your computer to be on, the sniping program to be active, and a connection to the internet. One advantage to having sniping software resident on your computer is increased security. Most desktop applications don’t require your eBay ID and password to reside on servers continuously connected to the internet. However, the timeliness of your snipe depends on your connection speed and your internet service provider. This can be a problem for some people.

Online services such as http://AuctionInsights.AuctionStealer.com mitigate these connection issues. They have high-speed connections to the internet and can place your last second bid regardless if your computer is on or not. While web based services are generally more expensive than a desktop software application, their reliability is remarkable. An advantage to online sniping services is that they respond quickly to frequent changes in eBay’s web site that can disable a desktop software program. The hapless auction sniper who is attempting to use a desktop solution is often out of luck until the programmer modifies his or her code and the user installs the update.

Sniping online auction sites such as eBay can be of great benefit to the bidder. It saves them money and greatly increases the chances that they will win the auction. Give it a try on the next auction you bid on!

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Doug Feiring publishes “AuctionInsights.com”, an all-encompassing FREE resource guide that provides nuts-and-bolts strategies, ideas, and tools to build a successful eBay online auction business from the ground up, visit http://www.auctioninsights.com

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There are many different ways to search for your office chair and purchase through eBay. You can use the eBay search keyword box and enter “office chair” or for more specific styles, you can input a variety of additional words. Mesh chairs, executive traditional, leather and ergonomic are all popular search terms. Simply press the search button and eBay will automatically show you a variety of choices and models to choose from with the option of buying from an auction listing or from a fixed price listing in an eBay Store.

Today, December 8,2005 when inputting the term office chair on eBay’s Homepage, I was able to pull up 735 different listings and 1365 listings in eBay Stores with 216 different online eBay stores carrying office chairs. Some of these eBay Stores had hundreds of models to choose from in chairs alone, not to mention the furniture and supplies also offered on most sites.

Even when searching for a chair on eBay, it is apparent that with the upgrades made to this top auction shopping site, there are even several different ways to shop. You can try the auction style listings and bid on an item and hope that in the end you are the winning bidder and have placed the highest bid closest to the end of auction. This can be more time consuming, can lead to prices going higher than normal due to aggressive bidding wars and delays the shipping of the chair to you.

You do need to remember that sometimes, if you have the time, while no one is paying attention, you might find that great auction deal and not be outbid, winning your chair at a small fraction of the regular price. So it is said that auction style listings and the thrill that can come from bidding on an item has it’s charms too.

Another method of search on eBay is to use the eBay Store Pages. With easy to search listings, custom ordered items, and purchase now, pay now options, these sites have the look and feel of any online shopping site. Each eBay store has their own store home page and site with store policies. You can find these stores on the left hand navigation bar on the eBay Home Page or at the bottom of the regular lisitngs in a display box.

These stores, while also having more listings and products than the standard auction ads on eBay for office chairs, also have the highest in feedback ratings and customer service satisfaction guarantees. You can compare prices, purchase directly through the Buy It Now option, pay directly through Paypal immediately and have the item shipped to you quickly. Most stores feature a chair guarantee and should have a return policy clearly stated on their listing.

Ebay stores tend to be run by eBay Powersellers, which puts them a step above the rest when it comes to proven customer satisfaction and high sales volume with the best shipping prices available. Many different pricing discounts can be found on eBay and with quoting from eBay sellers for quantity discounts, you should be able to find the best price possible for what you are looking for. No matter which search method you use, auction or stores, to find that perfect chair on eBay only takes a little time and effort.

Amy Lieberfarb has been in the office furniture and interior sales industry for 11 years and currently runs two online websites dedicated to Office Chairs and Furniture. Providing information on how to pick the right ergonomic chair and featuring hundreds of different chairs, the site is very informative.
http://stores.ebay.com/liebswholesale
Specializing in Office Furniture and Ergonomic Chairs.

http://www.liebswholesale.com
Amy Lieberfarb is an expert in most things office chairs and is an eBay Powerseller with years of experience and great positive feedback from all of her loyal customer base.

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