eSnipe hones Web auction tools

eSnipe, whose Web site allows customers to place last-minute bids on eBay, plans to launch an updated version of the site on Sept. 1, company president Tom Campbell said Monday. New features include a notification service that e-mails customers when they have been outbid, and a service that monitors and issues bids in a group of related auctions until it wins one. As part of the launch, the company is redesigning the site, and will allow customers to place last-minute bids on Yahoo auctions.

Bellevue, Wash.-based eSnipe has some 100,000 registered users, more than half of whom have used the service to bid in the last month, Campbell said. The site's customers place more than $1 million worth of bids on eBay each day, he added. eSnipe charges customers a fee equal to one percent of their final bid on eBay.