Question on eBay bidding

Sniping does prevent some buyers from winning auctions. Contrary to what sniping services tell you, 10 snipers cannot bid in the last 2 seconds. If that is your max bid, why not bid that earlier in the auction?

If the seller were able to end the auction at any time, that would end sniping. The seller would get an acceptable fair market price after everyone had a chance to bid. Just like a real auction.

If I'm a seller on ebay, why would I stop the auction early when the price might double or triple in the last minute??? I'm looking to get max dollars and stopping the auction early and settling for less doesn't make sense! I just set the reserve price and wait for the auction to end.

chuck

If everyone (including you) who bitched about sniping took your advice, sniping wouldn't deprive the seller of anything, would it? Telling people to place one bid for what they think an item is worth, then complaining because snipers rob people of the opportunity to bid more than once, in the same post no less, is awfully dense.

Exactly. The people who snipe make it so the people who don't snipe are disadvantaged in the auction. Thank you for getting my point.

Face it. People bidding don't know what things are worth, and often, the sellers don't either. What's wrong with wanting to figure out the value in the traditional way - let the bids rise until the second-highest guy decides that it's at it's value, and stops bidding?

"Chuck Sherwood" wrote

I have sold hundreds of items on ebay. Most of the action is in the last 60 seconds.

Steve

I wonder how much you've lost out on over the years from people who couldn't get their bids in in that last minute?

According to you:

The people who "place their max proxy bid late" make it so the people who "place their max proxy bid early" are disadvantaged in the auction.

ROFL!

I don't spend a second thinking of such things. Whether it's ebay, or a barn sale in Pocatello, Idaho, the rules are set before hand. If you participate, either as a seller or a buyer, you accept those rules and go with it.

If an auction for a specific set of goods were held in Vero Beach, Florida instead of Pocatello, the prices would probably would be different.

If an auction is held on a Tuesday morning, the results would probably be different than if it were held on a Saturday afternoon.

Many things can affect an auction.

You may have a busload of clueless newbies show up, or just stupid people who will pay more than retail for a thoroughly used item. Then, you might have a bunch of tightwads show up and not sell very good merchandise at low reserves.

I put it up for sale. I take the highest bidder that sticks by the rules I set before the auction.

I don't sit around and play "What If?" afterward. It is pointless and an exercise in frustration for the bored or the angry.

If'n you don't like something, don't do it. Especially if you are going to sit around afterward and piss and moan endlessly.

Steve

Yes. ROFL all you want, but the reason you're doing it (hypothetically, of course) is to get the item without them having a chance to outbid you. Tell me I'm wrong. It's all about you doing it to them so they can't do it to you. Do you deny that?

I don't, because of that. As I may have mentioned a time or 3, I've taken my auction business elsewhere to avoid that problem (and eBay's "Nothing that looks like anything related to firearms" policy).

Well, people keep saying "It's not really about getting an unfair advantage on the other bidders, because it's just about getting an unfair advantage on the other bidders, you see", or variants of the same.

But yeah, the topic stopped being interesting a while ago. I'm not going to change anyone's mind, and I've taken steps to avoid it. I prefer to let the marketplace determine the price at the end of an auction, rather than turning it into a technology shove-fest in the last minutes.

Then, go and sign up for a snipe. I figure that I save money because of using bidnapper. I am happy with it.

It is far better than proxy, because a proxy can be run up by a totally clueless newbie who just wants the item at any price, and then the price is driven up early. Most times by someone who doesn't end up winning.

Sniping works EXACTLY as proxies do. You put the maximum you will pay into the system, and if you are high, you get it. It just doesn't do it early enough to allow bidding wars and clueless newbies to mess things up.

HTH, but I doubt it. You seem pretty angry about snipers. I'll bet you don't snipe. If you did, you would know what smoke you are trying to blow in people's faces.

Or you are just a troll.

I think what the whiners want, is for sellers to have the right to arbitrarily extend the bidding period if it looks like there is a bidding battle in the last few seconds. In my opinion that would be at much more slimey than sniping. A whole new can of worms that would quickly get me off of eBay bidding.

I started this thread.

The auction that I referenced had already gotten out of hand in early bidding so I never even placed a bid on that one. A few days earlier I had bid on a different 4-jaw chuck. Going into the last minute, the price was sitting at about $113. In the last 15 seconds or so I place my max bid around $144. Two other bids were higher than mine, and the winner got it at $158.80. So the poor seller had to settle for an extra $46 due to sniping bids in the last few seconds (an extra 41%).

Yesterday, I bid on a different 4-jaw chuck and got it for $89. Maybe the other chuck was better, but I think this one will suit my needs for $70 less. Only one other bid on this one.

Everybody knows and plays by the same rules. Sniping doesn't really give a bidder any advantage except against people who might have otherwise upped their bid in the last few seconds if they knew they needed to. For me it keeps me from getting emotional because there is no time to up my bid even if I suddenly think I want to. I still made my highest offer, just late in the bidding. Not sure how fast the eBay equipment works, but I would guess 5 or 6 competing max bids could easily be evaluated in the last second -- maybe more. As on the chuck of this topic, I didn't even bid because the early bidders took it so high I couldn't justify placing a bid.

So, in my opinion, this aversion to sniping is just a gut emotional reaction that doesn't really have any basis.

It reminds me of another discussion from years back. I used to ride a motorcycle. Here in CA, lane splitting is legal (driving between two cars on the road that are in adjacent lanes). At a private party one night, I got into a discussion with a guy who thought it was ok to crush any motorcyclist who he noticed doing this. I explained that it was legal. It seemed to me that his main problem was that somebody else should not have the right to go through stopped traffic faster than he could.

We almost came to a physical blows before friends moved us to neutral corners of the party.

Hinz's argument reminds me of that equally unimportant and wasted discussion.

Sinking to the level of using something I disagree with ethically isn't the sort of thing I'd do, but thanks for the suggestion.

Then use the proxy. Oh wait, you don't want to. Why, oh why, might that be? Oh, probably because it _doesn't_ work exactly as proxies do.

Translation: I am more entitled to this item than some newbie who bids the way the auction is set up and hasn't stooped to sniping yet.

No shit. It'd be pretty hypocritical to dislike and yet do it, wouldn't it now?

Smoke? Bidders don't get a chance to decide if they want to post a new bid, because the sniper comes in in the last seconds. Sellers lose out from that possible bid.

Because I disagree with you, I'm a troll? I don't think so. I'm just someone who finds what you are defending to be something I've chosen to avoid.

I'm not proposing anything arbitrary, I'm proposing "This auction has auto-extension in the event of late bids".

Exactly. That is my point...the part starting with "except against people..."

Riiiiight. Because I don't like people doing last second bids to keep others from having a chance to outbid them, I'm just like the guy who wants to kill lane-splitters. I see.

Realistically speaking, though, it *is*. For any kind of real technical goods being sold, all the real bids fall in the last few minutes. The real, real bids fall in the last few seconds.

Jim

Maybe, maybe not. Having a set time limit does provide some real advantage to the bidders, which makes folks feel better about using the service, which increases the buyer pool, which is *overall* good for the sellers.

Having a definite time limit is a trade off in this regard.

It *looks* like it's an absolute benefit to the buyers, but in practice it may not be.

Jim

Considering that ebay typically has the highest prices in town, I don't think sellers are losing anything! I frequently see things sell for more than they are available somewhere else. People are reselling HF stuff, lindsay book etc and making a profit. I don't think sellers are losing anything.

chuck

As a seller, a bidding frenzy is exactly what I want. In my opinion, I think last minute snipping drives the price up. Why; because it encourages bidders to put in a high bid knowing its their ONLY chance to get the item. So everyone is placing max bids at the very end. I still think that ebay gets top dollar and I don't think sellers are getting hurt at all. It would be interesting to compare to other sites though.

In which case my proposal would be "I'm not bidding on that stuff, no way, no how." AKA, it was nice not doing business with him.

Jim