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Auction Bidding Sniper for eBay with sniping watchList

 Do’s and Don’ts  ↓Go to the do's and do nots part of this web page
 App FAQs  ↓Go to the FAQs of this web page
 Instructions  ↓Go to the instructions

Seeing an important eBay auction is one thing, actually winning is quite another.

iPhone/iPad app:

if you are on an iPhone or iPad,  eMail yourself link to Mac app:

important info:

These two things will vastly improve your experience using the app:


1) limit the number of snipes you have running.  If you have more than ~ 8,  you can over do your network’s capabilities.

    each snipe checks it's assigned auction often to make sure the auction is running, and price is still below your snipe.

2) Very important: When you sign into eBay, check the 'Stay signed in' box. (An ebay change has made this necessary.)

•  Terms of Use & Privacy Policy  •Privacy_Policy.html

Play your cards close to your vest, and your eBay bids even closer by doing your own eBay Auction sniping.  Got something important you want to remember to bid on near the end of the auction?


Now it gets interesting.  This app actually makes eBay useful again.

This Mac App has two modes, You can either have the app automatically snipe/(bid) for you at the last moment on an eBay auction, or you can set custom alerts so that you can snipe/(bid) in person at the last moment.


To have the app snipe for you automatically, follow the steps 1,2,3,4 at the bottom of the App window.

(also see: "How to set up your Macintosh" below)


To snipe in person, first go to your preferences in the bottom right of the window and set up the alert times you want triggered before an auction's end. Then go to an auction with an end time.  A new button in the bottom of the window will light up, click on 'Add to Calendar' and you've added that auction to your Device's Calendar with the preset alerts, and with iCloud, you've added it to all your devices.

What exactly are these Apps?

they create scheduled events that will Automatically put your bid amount into an eBay auction at the last moment of the auction so that you have the best chance of not being out bid.  If someone doesn't see your bid in time, they can’t out bid you by a small amount.


All Sniping of Auctions is Free for Life.

no more paying a service for each auction,  no more ANY fees of any kind.


How do you use these Apps?

log into eBay with this app,  that sets your credentials,   go to an auction you are interested in,  fill in the “bid amount” you want to win at.  And that is it.  You get alerts when your bid is successful or not. The best part is you can be away from your computer,  use the iPhone app to snipe an Auction,  and this new snipe communicates directly and nearly real time to the companion Mac App,  even while the Mac app is not in the foreground,  so that it can snipe for you at the proper time.


What about Calendar Alerts?

besides being able to bid for you, this app also lets you snipe that auction personally if you wish, by having your choice of set up alerts to tell you when to get in that chair and watch the last few moments unfold in front of you.  Tap on the “preferences” tab and set up to three alerts for any new events that follow.  Go to an auction you are interested in and click on "Add to Calendar". And that is it.



What do the color icons mean in the Snipe list?

Green: Snipe is running and will bid.
Blue: Snipe is running and will bid, and has less than 1 hour to go.
Yellow: Snipe's Maximum price has become lower than current minimum bid needed to enter a bid.
Purple: Auction ended early, or something went wrong, delete snipe and re-enter.
Red: Auction ended with no bid.
Red "X" : Sniping bid was entered but was not accepted. (usually because the bid was too low, but can be other, ‘seller requirements’)
Green with a red "X": Sniping bid was entered and was accepted, but not high enough to win when compared to all other max bids.
Green "checkMark": Sniping bid was a winner of an auction.
Green with a red "\": Sniping bid was canceled due to a win of a similar item in a cluster. (see ‘Show Clusters’ button in the app)

Grey: App is set to ‘client mode’ (Mac version), or you are not logged into eBay, (iPhone/iPad version).

FAQs in common with both the iPhone/iPad app and the Mac app.

  1. you have two alternatives for setting up your Mac, see the "How to setup your Macintosh" below. but one of them must be followed.

  2. do Not remove or move the special calendar events in your Devices Calendar app,  The app uses these for your "in-Person" sniping mode. (‘Second mode’ below.)

  3. questions?  click/touch on the “email Support” link near top of page.  We’ll get back to you faster than ASAP.

  4. both apps have the same functionality,  however the iOS app can not bid when it is in the background,  so it must either rely on the Mac App to do the final bid,  or it must be brought to the foreground in the last part of the auction.   An alert goes off to let you know and get your iPhone app in the foreground if you are exclusively using your iPhone/iPad to create snipes.

  5. Go to your 'system Preferences' app, then the 'Date & time' tab, make sure your checkbox is checked for 'Set ... automatically', otherwise your bids will not come in at times you expect them to.

Do’s and Don’ts

To have the app snipe for you automatically, check off these items below.

(you can have the app on all of your iPhones, iPads, iPods, and Macs (iCloud has a limit of 10 devices). However on Macs the app should have client mode turned ‘On’ for each device, except one that will become the “server”, the “server” Mac acts like a clearing house of the auctions, and will take over all of the other device's auctions and will do the final bid.)


  ◎  1) (optional) get the iPhone/iPad app available in the App Store.  (installed on as many of your devices as you wish)

  ◎  2) iCloud turned on for all devices (with same iCloud account).

  ◎  3) Calendar access turned on for the app on your devices.  (if using ‘second mode’ for Mac sniper app)

  ◎  4) the Mac app available in the Mac App Store.

  ◎  5) go into your new sniper app’s Preferences, set "Power on or auto wake" to 'on' and click on the "Read instructions"
             (see "How to set up your Macintosh" below) or ‘off’ and also read the ‘How to...’ area below.


Then just follow the steps 1,2,3,4 at the bottom of the window in the app.

  ◎  step 1) log into ebay to set your credentials.  (this step only needs to be done once per app installation)

  ◎  step 2) go to an auction with an "end time".

  ◎  step 3) enter your maximum bid for that auction in the provided input text box at bottom of the sniper app window.
                3.a Only the amount needed to win will be placed, (app will never over pay!) but see eBay required 'bid increments'.
                3.b the currency is what ever the live eBay auction is using. Enter amount as if you were making a live bid.

  ◎  step 4) click on "Add new Snipe" and you are done. (easily changed or deleted later)


(both the iPhone/iPad and the Mac apps have same functionality,  and all the snipes are shared through iCloud between the two companion apps near real time.)


If you do not have the Mac version of the app, the iPhone app needs to be running in the foreground of your device in the last couple minutes, just follow the steps 1,2,3,4 at the bottom of the window, and you will get an alert to leave the iPhone/iPad app running in the foreground in the last part of the auction. If at any time you have the Mac version running, it will take over the auction from your iPhone, and your iPhone will not bid, unless two things happen, your Mac version is off, and you happen to have the iPhone version running at the time of the auction.  (setting iPhone/iPad app to ‘mode 1’ removes those alerts)

Instructions

▪ ▪ First mode ▪ ▪ ▪

  • You can make the set up process as simple or as complex as you feel comfortable with. Simple, as in one step: Just set your machine to "Never" sleep, then you do not need these instructions below. If you have a Macbook that you carry around though, where the lid is closed most of the time, and/or it is not connected to wifi many times, that Mac probably is not a good candidate for your new eBay sniper app, where snipes need to connect and snipe at specific times.

    And now for a more complex setup:

    You can set up your machine in two different ways, but at least one of these ways must be used.
    But first a couple of items: If you use eBay's optional 'two-factor authentication', you will defeat the sniper app's ability to log in along with any other automated process, the sniper app will have no way to send your bid to eBay when it is time to snipe, so if you have this turned on, you will lose your snipe bids. (if you do not know what 'two-factor' is, then it is not something you need to worry about, nor will it affect you.) The second item is that you must allow the app to have access to 'keychain' when your system asks. This is where your eBay password is securely stored, so that nothing has access to it. (not even the sniper app, if you remove the item from 'keychain', or turn off 'keychain'. Without this access your sniper app will fail to place eBay bids when eBay asks for a password, which they do at various times.)

  •   ◎  1) go to 'Preferences' in your Sniper app and set the 'Enable' auto-wake switch to “on”.  Then read up on the instructions by clicking on the "read instructions" button in the same area, (see below for the same link to those instructions). Read ALL of it, not setting up your Mac properly will mean lost sniping bids. (it is important to know that if you close a MacBook's lid it enters a sleep mode that your MacBook will not wake up from for these wake or power events) if you have a Macbook, and you prefer to close the lid much of the time, you will want to also either do research on a few ways of keeping a Macbook from sleeping when lid is closed, or use the 'Second mode' below to set alerts to remind you to open your MacBook lid at some given time of your choice before any Auction.

    ‘read instructions’ Link: http://www.pictureenginecompany.com/BidSuccessOSX/powerOnInstructions.html


  •   ◎  2) go to 'Preferences' in your Sniper app and set the auto-wake switch to “off”. Then always keep your new Sniper app running, at a minimum running in the background of your machine. To do this, go into your machine's 'System Preferences' app, then the 'Energy Saver' tab and set your 'Computer sleep' to Never (for both battery and plug power, if a Macbook) and your 'Display sleep' to what ever you want, (in some Macs this is worded differently, turn on the 'Prevent computer from sleeping...', instead). Also make sure you never turn off your computer. An important thing to remember when deciding which setup to use, the display of your computer uses the most energy, leaving your computer running takes fairly small amounts of energy when the display is sleeping, and your display sleeping has no effect on the sniper app. Now also place this sniper app in your ‘Login Items’ in the ‘Users & Groups’ tab of your ‘System Preferences’ app in case your computer restarts. This ensures that the app will always be running so it can do it's work. (it is important to know that if you close a MacBook's lid it enters a sleep mode that the app can not function from) if you have a Macbook, and you prefer to close the lid much of the time, you will want to also either do research on a few ways of keeping a Macbook from sleeping when lid is closed, or use the 'Second mode' below to set alerts to remind you to open your MacBook lid at some given time of your choice before any Auction.


  • The take away here is if your machine is off or asleep, there is no way for the app to do it's work. So you must organize around a method that makes sure that the app is available to snipe.

  • Always, ALWAYS test your setup after you finish setting things up, no matter what setup you use, here is an easy way to test:

  • go to eBay home page, do a search for "iPhone" on the eBay search bar,  (set to "auction" only filter and "ending soonest") also in the left hand column check the box for "free shipping" only, also $0.50 max,   and you will see lots of junk for $0.50

    a link that does this: 

    http://www.ebay.com/sch/15032/i.html?_from=R40&LH_Auction=1&_sop=1&_udlo=&_udhi=0.5&_nkw=iphone&rt=nc&LH_FS=1

  • (check the resulting page to make sure it is what you think it should be searching for)

    Then do a test snipe bid on some $0.10 cent item that ends in about 20 mins. (if you are using the helper app, then put your mac to sleep and see if it wakes up at 12 mins or so before end of auction.) And for a more realistic test you could do an auction that ends in the middle of the night.

    Then you can see if things are working correctly.

  • ▪ ▪ How to set up your Macintosh ▪ ▪ ▪

    To snipe in person, first go to your preferences in the bottom right of the window.  If you are in the iPhone app,  turn on ‘mode 4’ there.  Then for both apps, set up the alert times you want triggered before an auction's end. Next go to an auction with an end time.  A new button in the bottom of the window will light up, click on 'Add to Calendar' and you've added that auction to your Device's Calendar with the preset alerts.


    With iCloud, your new Calendar events will also sync to all your other devices and Calendars for seamless alerts automatically so your entire digital arsenal is alerted.


    A link back to the listing is saved with your alerts, so when an alert appears, simply touch on "view" and you'll see a link to the listing for immediate action.

    ▪ ▪ Second mode ▪ ▪ ▪

    You will be pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to do a snipe, or set ‘personal’ alerts, after getting your Mac setup and tested.