Julie seemed anxious and nervous.

“There’s an hour left and now it’s up to $23,” she said, pacing around the kitchen. The bid had shot up Saturday afternoon after being $12.50 for a few days.

Such is eBay, the online auction Web site that lets you buy and sell anything from antiques to computers to Christmas gifts.

And getting a Christmas gift for a friend was what brought my teenage daughter to the world of e-commerce. Julie was hoping to save some money by going through eBay on my wife’s account.

A few weeks ago, she got her eBay baptism by bidding on a music box and “winning” the bid.

And that hooked her – she’d been scouting eBay ever since, looking at other things she might buy to help her stretch her Christmas shopping budget.

What she learned is that there are a few tricks to getting what you want on eBay, such as waiting until the last few hours before the bidding closes to cash in on a good deal.

“Just figure out what the highest amount you want to pay and don’t go over that,” I told her as she headed back to the computer.

Online shopping up

The research firm GartnerG2 (www.gartnerg2.com/) released a survey completed in September that says more than 62 million Americans will go online to buy holiday gifts this year.

That makes sense to me. I’d rather click and drag a cursor than push around a shopping cart.

GartnerG2 predicts consumers, who plan to spend about $800 on Christmas gifts this year, will spend $235 of it online.

If you’re going to spend that much online, and your headed to an eBay auction, there are some services and software out there that can help you win bids.

Bidding tools

Bidnappers.com (www.bidnappers.com) is an online service that throws your bid in at the very last second before an eBay auction closes, helping you get what you want.

In online auction parlance, it’s called sniping.

According to an FAQ on Bidnapper, the service “is synchronized precisely with the official eBay clock and is continuously monitoring the connection between our servers and eBay. When the optimum time to bid arrives, usually less than five seconds before the close of the auction, Bidnapper submits your bid.”

I told that to Julie.

“Exxxxcellllent,” she said, drumming her fingers together as she plotted.

You can try Bidnapper for 10 days for free, then choose from several options to pay for the service, including a charge of $19.95 for 12 winning snipes.

The only drawback – if you don’t consider using a service like Bidnapper as unfair – is that you have to give Bidnapper your eBay username, password and e-mail address.

Other similar services are eSnipe.com (www.esnipe.com) and Auction Sniper (www.auctionsniper.com).

Sniper software

If you don’t want to use an online service, you can buy software that will serve as your own buying agent.

Auction Sentry (www.auctionsentry.com) is one of those, which automatically sweeps eBay or Yahoo to find the auctions you designate and do the bidding and sniping for you. It also will track your profit on each auction.

You can download Auction Sentry for $9.95 or try it for free for 10 days. It works on Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 or XP computer systems and requires a computer with a 166Mhz processor or faster, 16MB RAM and an 800 by 600 display.

You can find other software product reviews, including those for Macintosh systems, and tips for selling your own items on eBay, at www.webauctionsecrets.com.

What’s eBay say about sniping tools? Ebay has been neutral on the issue, probably because they figure whatever brings in more bidders, the better. Also, you can bid on sniping tools on eBay’s auction site.

Caught in the crosshairs

Julie walked into the kitchen again. She looked furious.

“I lost both of my items! Somebody just outbid me!”

A bit wiser and a little more worldly, she walked away and went back to the computer, determined to try again and hoping to fend off future sniper fire. We’ll need to talk it over before we decide whether to invest in a sniper service.

But being 0 and 2 meant she still had a lot of cash left for the rest of the Christmas season. And that reminds me. I’d better give her my list.