I want to thank AuctionSniper for helping me win an auction with my first try.

I've used Ebay for several years and more often than not lost auctions when a bidding war started at the end of an auction. This was particularly difficult for me as I have only dial-up internet connection.

But whatever the reason, Ebay auctions are hard to win. This time, I found and antique camera lens that I've wanted for some time. It's true value is something like $400.00 and there was one listed in "Camera Accessories", rather in the specific category where it belonged. With a day left on the five day auction, the only bidder ("0" Feedback = DANGER time-waster) had bid only $30.00 or so. I did bid through Ebay, but with two hours left another bidder had topped me at $52.85, and a look at his Ebay feedback showed that he was a professional in the photography field. So my two adversaries were the worst kind: a possible gamer, and an experienced Ebayer who knew what he was after.

So I remembered I had subscribed to AuctionSniper and decided to try it, with the three free snipes I'd gotten for signing up. The same seller had a less expensive item that was due to close half an hour earlier than the lens, and was at only $4.25. So I went into the AuctionSniper site and put in a bid for that with a maximum of $11.67. It's the usual type of bid one needs to make -- a limit that is a little over the minimum bidding increment, which is often $1.00.

What struck me was the ease and thoroughness of the AuctionSniper site -- it seems to operate and update in real time, even! I adjusted my maximum bid before settling on $11.67 -- and once again the site responded very fast and with no complaints. So I watched that first auction through, and sure enough my bid remained hidden until the last seconds of the auction. $4.25. That was the price with 10 seconds left. I refreshed the page (which can take up to 30 seconds with dial-up: you never know...), and there it was: I had won!

So with confidence I went ahead and bid the same way on the more expensive lens.

The auction was almost the same. The lens stayed at $52.85 into the last minute. Timing as best could, I refreshed the page: this would have been bidding instead of refreshing had I not used AuctionSniper: WITH NO WAY OF KNOWING IN THOSE LAST SECONDS IF I WOULD BE ON TIME. The page came up "Time left: 4 seconds", with me as the new leader. One more refresh: I had won again, buying the lens for $103.13 -- about 25% of it's real value!

In all, my experience with Ebay makes me sure that even if I had been able to win this auction without AuctionSniper it would have cost me at least twice as much to buy what I wanted. Newcomers should know -- not only is AuctionSniper a great idea, it's also a beautifully crafted and accurate tool. Both EASY TO USE and EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE!

- wawafoto