Just about everyone has been on Ebay and purchased something,so this article is not a beginners article on how to buy stuff on Ebay.  I assume you already know how to do that and that you already have an account on Ebay and have bought items there before.  We will get right to the nitty gritty - how to snipe on Ebay and literally steal auction listings out from others - saving big in the process.

Sniping on Ebay is not new and has been around for quite some time - probably as long as Ebay has or close to it.  Basically when you try to buy something competative on Ebay there will probably be quite a few bidders and you can easily get overtaken if you place bids in a regular fashion (ie. place bids like most others and keep placing until you win or are outbid).  Well, sniping changes that.  bid sniping has two benefits:

1) You will stand a 99% higher chance of getting the item - especially if you have a high speed internet connection.  This is very helpful in auctions on merchandise that is rare or limited and in great demand.

2) You will keep the price down more often then not.  This is because by not placing your bid in the regular fashion you are less likely to drive the item farther up in a bidding frenzy.  A bidding frenzy may still occur, but you won't be apart of it.  This means a greater chance of not overpaying and getting a better deal than with regular bidding.

Now, how do you snipe?  First you need to do a little homework.  Determine the highest reasonable price you are willing to pay for an item by researching Ebay and elsewhere.  Remember, Ebay is a great source and has a tremendous selection, but may not always be the best price or even have your item if you are looking for a rare, niche item.  Look at local stores, newspaper ads, etc... Once you've determined that Ebay is the right route, watch several listings and also look at completed listings (you can do this under the advanced search tab and this is a tremendous help).  Searching completed Ebay listings for the item you wish to bid on will tell you what others are paying, how competitive it is, if certain days of the week are less competitive and therefore better for bidding, if prices are coming down or going up and so on.  Come up with a range of from where you would reasonably like to pay for it to the maximum you will pay.  This is called doing your due dilligence.

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Now with your range in mind, open 2 windows in explorer, firefox or safari.  One will have the current listing you wish to bid on.  This is important so you can watch the time left and be ready to snipe.  The other window you will take from the same listing and go to the bid on item page.  Enter the highest bid you are willing to pay here.  Enter through until you get to the screen where it asks if you wish to finalize your bid (it says you are entering into a legally binding contract etc...)  Then what you do is wait.  Let all the other bidders place their bids and play around.  Hopefully by staying out of early and regular bidding there won't be too much action.  In some cases there may be no interest as people are more likely to bid if others have.  If a listing gets close to the end with no bids buyers are likely to think there may be something wrong with the listing like a bad seller, scam, etc... - this would be great as that means you will get a great price on the item.

Now, when the time left gets down to 5 seconds or so hit enter and seal your bid.  There is virtually no way anyone can beat your bid as there will be no time left for them to react and change or alter their bids.  Your winning bid will end up being whatever the highest bid was at the moment yours was entered.  Most times by sniping you will get far better deals than with regular bidding.  As long as there isn't a reserve price set up on the auction, the item will be yours. 

Sniping is not new, and has been used at all sorts of auctions for generations.  Many real estate investors currently use sniping to keep prices down and get great deals on foreclosed real estate (for more on this be sure to read our great article on how to make big money in foreclosure real estate investing).  Ebay does not recommend or condone sniping, but nor does it condemn it either.  Use this information to watch for lower interest auctions and days with patterns of less activity (Sunday nights are usually the highest) and snipe that great deal on whatever may interest you.  Good luck, and if you've found our articles and tips helpful please provide a link back and add us to your favorite social network (Digg, Del.icio.us, Stumbled Upon, etc...) so we can keep providing this great resource and that others may benefit as you have.  Be sure to check out our hundreds of other helpful articles and useful pages loaded with free tips you will find no where else.