Having promised to query a friend - I must report that he remains a friend despite being completely unable to impart any intelligible information under most stringent interrogation. He appears not to comprehend that there's a difference between a program one installs on a personal machine and a web service one signs up to. But he has one or the other and there's a button he can hit and it does something.

An article in the current PC Magazine may offer something of interest. The general article is on the subject of "How to buy stuff cheap;" but it does include a brief section on:

Auctions and Classifieds.

Brief descriptions of eBay, Yahoo, craigslist, and Tribe-net auction sites are included, and the "Tips: Auctions and Classifieds" may be of some interest.

The real stuff, though, is at:

Auto-Bidding with Snipers

The popular(?) eSnipe is not included in the review, but that is no real reflection on them.

This publisher generally keeps posted pages up for quite a while, but they seem to move them around, so links don't necessarily last to long. With that in mind, the pertinent info is:

[quote]

Sniping tools—software that automatically places bids right before an auction closes—can help even out the playing field. You can set your maximum bid, avoid the bidding wars that can break out if you bid too early, and even participate in several auctions for the same item; the software will cancel the other bids once you've won one.

Sniping tools come in Web-based (so you don't even need your PC running) and desktop versions. Here are a few we recommend.

Auction Sniper (Web-based, www.auctionsniper.com ; 1 percent of purchase price for winning bids) has a clean, easy-to-use site. The service lets you bid in groups and includes a discussion forum with advice for newbies and lists of handy eBay tips.

Final Bid (desktop, www.v-com.com ; $39.99 direct) offers group bids and advanced auction-search features. It also synchronizes with eBay's clock, so your bid is filed in the last few seconds of an auction.

HarvEX/TurboSniper (desktop, www.xellsoft.com ; $19.90 direct) lets you conduct bulk searches, group bids, and export data into Microsoft Excel. Its server component lets you snipe while off-line.

JustSnipe.com (Web-based, http://justsnipe.com ; 5 snipes a week, free; unlimited, $5 per month) is a good idea for occasional eBay users. The service is free, but you don't get some of the advanced features, like group bids, that are available from the other players here.

PhantomBidder (Web-based, www.phantombidder.com ; $6 for 10 bids, $10 for 20, $9-$12 per month unlimited) is another popular Web-based sniper that offers bid groups and competitive pricing. It also has SSL-encrypted log-on for added security, and supports eBay Motors and "mature audience" auctions.

[endquote]

For those who might be interested, the full article begins at:

Get the Best Deals on Technology

I particularly liked their description of one "close out merchandise" site who's entire warranty is "If you buy something you don't like you can sell it on eBay."

John