MRR Auctions - No Sniping? What fun is that?

I sniped my first 4-4-2 Atlantic. Since then I occassionally bid on some Walthers North Shore Line cars. I dropped out when they went over list price. I haven't seen anything worth sniping that I could realistically afford or they were already over what I would pay.

Jay Modeling the North Shore & North Western C&NW/CNS&M in 1940-1955 E-mail is now open snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

That's a strange to say because there is nothing wrong with sniping. Sniping is a term to describe bidding close to the end of the auction for the purpose of winning an item. Is wanting to win the item distasteful? What part of bidding on an item conflicts with your value system? I do not understand what the problem is.

You compare bidding at the end of an auction to cheating on an exam. That's a boat load of horse dung. Cheating on an exam is dishonest and wrong. Bidding on a boxcar on eBay is just a simple transaction. It doesn't matter when one bids on the boxcar it is still just a simple transaction between a buyer and a seller.

Jim

(snipped)

Yes! Some people seem to think sniping is something sneaky, like making a deal with the seller behind everyone else's' back, a private deal so to speak. It's a method of bidding at the last moment of an auction. Period. I've never sniped myself as I've only bought three items on eBay. But I've sold over 300, and I love sniping! It's just like watching the amount on a cash register go up as I refresh my browser during the last seconds of an auction. Keep 'em coming!

Bob Boudreau Canada

Then you should love the new auction house that started this thread even more than eBay.

As I said sniping is a black and white thing. I happen to be one who finds it distasteful, and, if you want to characterize it that way, dishonest.

Imagine yourself at the checkout stand at the grocery store with a loaf of bread. Some guy comes up, grabs the bread out of your hand just before you complete the sale, and buys it himself. How would you feel?

Brian

"Brian Paul Ehni" <

Poor analogy.

With E-Bay, you don't have the loaf of bread in your hand, it's still on the shelf.

-- Cheers Roger T.

of the Great Eastern Railway

What is kill file?

Terry

I disagree. And I guess that pretty much sums up the whole thread. Some people don't have a problem with sniping and snipers, and some do.

Brian

Hi Bob, I'm with you on this one. There is no way sniping makes any sense for a buyer if you consider it logically. And that is the whole point - its more about emotion than logic and the thrill of getting caught up in the excitement of the competition in the last minutes and seconds. And yes that is good for the seller. I think where the sniping haters lose perspective is that let down at the end when after days of being more and more assured in their own mind of winning (at that price) they are suddenly jolted back to reality. If you carefully set your upper limit on an item (and have the discipline to stick to it when emotions go nuts) you can't lose. You will either get the item for what you pre-determine is a fair price or less (even better!!). If it does go for more than your max you really don't care. And that is what proxy bidding is all about - logical disciplined bidding that removes you from emotion that clouds your judgement at the end.

Lynn

It's a way your email application applies rules to delete posts from people you choose to not receive mail from.

Can also be used to weed out spam and other unwanted mail.

Brian

Disagree with what? The item is up for bids, it's not yours until you are the high bid and the auction ends.

You don't seem to understand the flow of ownership at an auction.

If you think you own it before the bidding ends, of course you don't like sniping. How long before the end of the auction does another bidder have to make their "more than you bid" bid so you don't think it's sniping?

Paul

I don't think I own it before bidding ends. I do object to people who have shown absolutely no interest (i.e. have never bid on the item) showing up at the last second to put in a high bid. I'd say five minutes before the end is fine. At least I have time to react, decide if I still want in, and enter a new bid if I choose. Placing a bid with one second left denies me that option. My view is that if eBay held their auctions as MRR states they will, the seller does better than on eBay overall, and I, as a buyer, have to option of staying in it or getting out.

I'm done with this one.

Brian

I've sniped, and I didn't get caught up in the "excitement".

I saw something that caught my eye. Yes, I only have one. :-)

Set E-Bay's auction settings so that E-Bay would contact me 30 minutes before the auction was up. Yes, E-Bay makes sniping easy, so if it's OK by them, it's OK by me. A few days later, E-Bay lets me know there's 30 minutes left on the auction. I checked on the price, still below what I'd seen advertised, (Also including postage, handling, exchange, Canada Post "handling Fee" etc.) and I then waited until about five minutes before the auction was up.

Yep, price still lower than the best I'd seen advertised so I bid one dollar over the highest bid.

A few minutes later, I get a message from E-Bay that I was the successful bidder.

Next time I tried, did the same thing, bid my dollar and the price immediately went one dollar higher than my bid. Ah ha, proxy bid in effect. Bail out of that auction. There's always next time.

And that's the way it goes.

-- Cheers Roger T.

of the Great Eastern Railway

I go to Google newsgroups to view the postings I don't use an e-mail application other than Yahoo.

Terry

Brian,

That's a terrible analogy. That's not representational at all of how bidding works. Feelings should not be taken into consideration in this argument. It is business - period.

But I do think it sums up the emotions of the anti-snipers. They think they own the item when suddenly out of nowhere someone comes by and takes it away from them. To put it bluntly IT ISN'T YOUR ITEM unless you are the highest bidder - period. It has nothing to do with you before the auction is over regardless of your current high bid. It is still in the possession of the seller. He holds it. He has put it up on the auction site and said "at exactly 11:20pm this item will go to the highest bidder and quite frankly I do not care who has been the highest bidder all week."

As much as I think anti-sniper argument is cuckoo I wish everyone but me had the anti-sniper mentality because I'd win so many more auctions.

I believe the anti-snipers suffer from Kakorrhaphiophobia and perhaps even a little Zelophobia.

CBix

"You are so young, my son, and, as the years go by, time will change and even reverse many of your present opinions. Refrain therefore awhile from setting yourself up as judge of the highest matters." Plato

That Plato was one smart dude huh?

Nope. You entered your highest bid, and let the proxy system work for you. If you didn't bid your maximum, why comp[lain when you get outbid?

Is it also unfair if your computer crashes, or your ISP blinks at six minutes before the end of the auction? You are denied there, too...

Yep. That's it - vote with your wallet.

Jeff Sc. Losing Bid, Ga.

Bummer.

Brian

I'd say this shows a very keen interest.

You had days and days to decide if you wanted it AND determine a monetary value that represented your "wanted" level.

Clearly you do not understand proxy bidding.

Things can certainly be done differently. It remains to be seen if the seller does better.

Paul

Good Morning!

I'd simply go back to the shelf, get another loaf of bread, and pay the fixed price. Somebody wants to grab the bread and pay more - that's HIS problem!

1.>-- If it is dishonest, then::::::: eBay is dishonest, and a court could make this determination and force eBay to change its bidding rules. 2.>-- If it is distastesful i.e. unethical, then eBay is unethical and again, a court case could determine this.

These assessments of Dishonest and Distasteful are Personal_Opinion without legal precedence.

In a court case, Most Judges admonish that we are to

*Rule__According__to__the__Law* concerning the evidence presented in the case ---- we Are NOT to rule on personal feelings even when our personal feelings oppose the law, which most definitely can be the case in many instances.

Until a Law is found to indicate that bidding on eBay is Dishonest and//or Unethical, we cannot level judgment against the Bidding Procedures on eBay -- we can Only render OPINIONS!

Waiting for a bus is about as thrilling as fishing, with the similar tantalisation that something, sometime, somehow, will turn up. George Courtauld

James B. Holland

Holland Electric Railway Operation....... ___"O"--Scale St.-Petersburg Trams Company Trolleycars and... ______"O"--Scale Parts mailto: snipped-for-privacy@pacbell.net

______Pennsylvania Trolley Museum

Railways Company (PRCo), 1930 -- 1950 N.M.R.A. Life member #2190;