How to Win Auctions with Anuko Auction Sniper

Get Familiar with Auction Sniper First!

• Before you snipe on important targets make sure to get familiar with the product first! Understanding how it works is critical for your success. Spend some time reading the documentation, especially How Sniper Works and Sniper User Guide.
• When you are ready - practice on small, non critical targets first to get used to Anuko Auction Sniper.

One-Time Bid or Bidding War?

• Decide whether you want to do a one-time bid or engage into a bidding war with other bidders. One-time bid strategy requires you to make a tough decision about your final price. This means you will need to be prepared to lose the item if the price goes slightly higher due to a bid from another user. For example, you see a used car and place a maximum bid of $3,000 (not $3,001, $3,005 etc.). You are saying: "I will NOT bid on this item if the price goes above my FINAL price".
• Bidding wars occur when multiple buyers fight for the same item during auction closing time. Some auction sites automatically extend auction closing times when bids are placed near the end. Therefore it is possible to fight forever and the price may grow indefinitely. All but the winner wear out eventually. Experienced auctioneers claim that a bidding war may be useful in some situations and increase your chances to win without significantly increasing your final price. For example, there is little difference between $3,000 and $3,001 but a slightly higher offer may win your auction.

One-Time Bid Strategy

• Decide on your final and ultimate price. Think hard. Think twice. Relax. Avoid auction pressure, decide very well in advance how much you are going to spend, AT MOST - which means that at any price above your limit and you are not getting that item. Period. Somebody else gets it.
• Set up your Auction Sniper to fire at a time a little bit before auction end. 1 second before the end is a bit too short. 6-15 seconds for eBay targets is probably okay. eBay does not auto-extend auction end times, so for auto-extending auction sites use a higher value like 1 or 2 minutes or so, because the exact timing is less important.
• Use the Autobid feature on sites that allow it. The Autobid feature automatically increases your current bid to a value slightly above your closest competitor's bid but still below (or equal to) your price limit.
• Make sure your computer and Internet connection stay on, and Auction Sniper continues running.
• Do not attract unnecessary attention to your items by placing early bids.
• If there are many similar items to choose from consider sniping at one which is not likely to end in a bidding war. For example, sniping at items that end during working hours will probably attract less bidders and greater chances at winning.

Bidding War Strategy

• You can snipe at the same item with slightly different prices and at slightly different times. You can schedule your bid parameters in advance. But if you use Auction Sniper for bidding wars one question still remains - how much? Where do I end? What is my FINAL, and ULTIMATE price where I simply abandon my auction? With the car example above one may set subsequent bids of $2,000, $2,500, $3,020, and more. For example, snipe at $2,000 1 minute before the end, $2,500 1 minute later, etc. Just make sure that your final offer truly reflects your price relationship with the item.
• Scheduling a bidding war with Anuko Auction Sniper involves setting up multiple targets. This process is manual and may look a bit awkward. It is probably not for beginners. Practice a one-time bidding strategy first before trying bidding wars.

Commodity Item Strategy - Winning at Low Cost

• If you are after a mass-produced commodity item, have plenty of time, and there is a constant supply of such items on the auction website of your choice then the Commodity Item Strategy may help. The idea is that you use demand fluctuations on the market to find the perfect timing to win at the price you set. Basically, you trade time for lower price, and snipe at identical items from different lots, with the same bid amount. You will lose some auctions but for one of them a lucky combination of market conditions may occur when all higher bidders are already satisfied. Practice and statistics show that if you are patient enough you can win with significantly lower bids. Typical savings are about 10-50% after 4-5 sniping attempts at commodity items.