Other cool things eSnipe can do

The advantages of using eSnipe are not nearly as compelling with Dutch auctions as with conventional auctions because eBay's Dutch auctions do not use the proxy bidding system which makes eSnipe so valuable. If you want to use eSnipe with eBay's Dutch auctions, though, you can.

Dutch auctions can seem a little confusing, but they're actually easy to understand.

A Dutch auction is one in which the seller offers more than one of an item, and the high bidder can take as many or as few as desired. If any are left over, the next bidder can take some of them, and so on.

Exactly how does this work?

You identify Dutch auctions by the Quantity field in the auction description, which tells you how many items are offered. If the Quantity is greater than 1, it's a Dutch auction.

You bid on a Dutch auction the same way you'd bid on a regular auction, except that you specify the quantity you want along with a maximum bid: any number from 1 to the quantity offered.

The bid prices in a Dutch auction are per item. If you bid $6.00 in a Dutch auction and request quantity 20, you've bid a total of $120.00 for twenty items—$6.00 each.

When the auction closes, the high bidder is allocated as many of the items as he or she wanted. If any are left, the next highest bidder is allocated as many as he or she wanted, up to the number remaining, and so on.

Every winner pays the same amount per item, though. If every bidder got the quantity he or she wanted, everyone pays the seller's minimum bid. If any bidders got less than they wanted (or got none), everyone pays the amount bid by the lowest successful bidder.