Auction sniping is the practice, in a timed online auction, of placing a higher bid than the current highest public bid at the last possible moment (often seconds before the end of the auction), giving the other bidders no time to outbid the sniper. This can be done manually, or by software. The software can run on the bidder's computer or on an online sniping service accessible through a website. Use of an online service is said to decrease the failure rate of the snipe, because the website has more reliable servers and a faster Internet connection with a less variable delay in sending data (latency), thus enabling the bid to be placed closer to the deadline, even arriving within the last second.
A bid sniper is a person who, or software agent which performs auction sniping.
Read more about Auction Sniping: Legality and Acceptance By Auction Sites, Objections To Bid Sniping, Deterrents
Famous quotes containing the word auction:
“The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn’t need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder—in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”
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