Midweek Mani & Ebay Sniping 101

       I can't believe March is only a few days away! With March comes the spring so I'm squeezing in my winter polish colors while we are in season.  

       This gorgeous frosty shimmer is Julep's "Emma," described as a seashell golden pink shimmer. It really does remind me of the inside of a seashell :)  Because it is a sheer polish, I layered two coats of Emma over one coat of Helen (Julep).  For a beautiful gloss I topped it off with the Freedom Polymer Top Coat (also Julep - can you tell I'm a big fan?).  I have to admit that the drying time on this one is not so quick and I did manage to get a few nicks and dings on my other hand.

       I actually bought this polish on Ebay and scored this for a pretty decent deal of $5.00 (retails for $14.00 or $11.20 for Maven subscribers) but let me tell you - it was a STRUGGLE! It gets really competitive and especially difficult if you are dealing with sniping.  Don't know what sniping is? I didn't either. 

According to Wikipedia:

     "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."

     It doesn't sound fair to me but Ebay openly allows it.  There is a way to find out if a particular auction involves a sniper.  On the listing, click on the bids

Click on "Show Automatic Bids" in the upper right hand corner

Once you open the automatic bids page, scroll down to the bottom. It explains that "Gray text indicates an automatic bid (proxy bid) placed by eBay on behalf of the bidder. "

       And there you are, SEVEN different snipers involved in this one auction.  If you aren't using sniping software, chances are you have no chances!