eBay anti-sniper idea

But then you are asking me, as a bidder, to have to make time to attend this auction "in person". Sorry, I do not have the time nor the inclination to have to make time in my day, (or get up at 3 am), to attend a "live" Ebay auction. I will do this for a serious auction, but I sure as (heck) am not going to reschedule my day for one or two items on Ebay.

Bottom line, if they did this I and many others like me, sure have a lot better things to do with our time than babysit insignificant Ebay auctions. As such, if they change the rules and require me to babysit at a computer, I will just walk away. As an aside, I am usually, though snipes, the underbidder on 20-50 auctions each week. Without just me, sellers would be receiving lower prices in areas I bid in today. Multiply my habits times thousands like me, and I very much would see selling prices declining.

Just my opinion.

 

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IMHO, the differences you guys are missing is Heritage and DLRC are REAL auction sites. Meaning GOOD material auctioned off in a short timeframe. I bid on those all of the time, and make time for those. I am simply unwilling to do so 30 times a week. I do not have the ability to track that many auctions, and make time for all of them. Change Ebay coin sales to end all on one day, maybe that would work, maybe not.

 

Yep.. it's hard to compare "live" auctions with eBay. Maybe if they added a synthesized voice during the last minute asking if anyone wanted to bid higher (in auctioneer speak of course), then a loud "SOLD" to end it. Yeah... that's what I want to see.

 

I don't think it would make much difference.

 

The advantage is convenience. People pay for that all the time...

Of course they could do this too, and I wouldn't put it past FeeBay for a second, but I don't think they should.

I think another advantage for this is security. FeeBay should be concerned that there are thousands of users out there who have provided their login credentials to third party bidding sites. The first concern is obvious. The second concern is more subtle, but just imagine you were running a third party bidding service with thousands of active users. It wouldn't be 100%, but there would invariably be times where there could be an item you're interested in that one or more of your customers has set up a snipe on. You could easily outbid that user, or you could make it so his bid doesn't go through and blame it on FeeBay.

In a perfect world, we wouldn't have shill bidders. In a semi perfect world, eBay would introduce this as a free option in the bidding process in an effort to help cut down on shill bidding. In the world as we know it, FeeBay could step in and provide this service for a nominal fee.

 

i think it is ridiculous for that kind of rule on ebay. for other auction houses it might work. i have been a buyer and seller on ebay for over 12 years. one thing i notice is that the majority of bids on a hot item always come within the last 30 seconds. a lot of it isn't from sniping but from people that really want an item. i know for my auctions i have seen certain items jump anywhere from 150-250% within that window. i too would leave ebay if they implemented that rule.

 

Yup. I think it's important to recognize that FeeBay is different than the traditional in-person "Going once... Going twice..." type of auction. In that sort of auction, people typically have a short amount of time to examine the item and do their research, and then a very short time to place bids. The typical auction on FeeBay is 7 days. Plenty of time to view the item, do your research, and place your bid (or set up your snipe).

I used to buy on ubid because they seemed to have quite a few lot type auctions and I could get good deals. But I left when there got to be an increasing number of bidders who seemed to want to draw the auctions on forever. I'd usually just place my max bid and check back after close. But when I'd expect an auction to be finished at a certain time, it would sometimes drag on for several hours. It was usually one bidder waiting till the last minute to make an incrementally higher bid, then my automatic bid would outbid him, then he'd wait again. One large auction went on through the entire night. I went to sleep at 10 or so and when I woke up, the auction still hadn't closed yet. (It did feel kinda rewarding that I got a good night's sleep and the guy bidding against me stayed up all night.)

I don't really like sniping, because I feel it robs others of a chance to reconsider how much they're willing to pay, but if FeeBay is going to continue to allow obvious shill bidders to retract bids and not do anything about it, then sniping is one of the only tools we have to help cut down on shill bidding.

 

I suppose "shill bidder" is a bit of an understatement for the type of scam I'm looking to avoid by sniping. I'm more concerned about the ones who incrementally bid up an item until they become the high bidder, and then they cancel their last bid. If you place your bid even in the last 30 seconds, they don't have time to cancel their bid and they risk becoming the high bidder. If they win the item, and then cancel their bid, then the most the seller can do is send you a second chance offer.

 

The way I see it is that snipers put in their highest price and beat what the item was going to sell for, by one more bid increment, this is more money for the seller than they would have gotten for the item a second earlier. The person with the previous bid had already put in their max and the sniper either beats it or not, and that was their max. Any good coin will have perhaps multiple snipers and the item will go for what the highest offer is going to be. So what is the problem with snipers if they raise the final sell price in every case. Sellers just hope to get a tit for tat bidding war going on, and people have figured out how to avoid that, but nevertheless the highest sell price is still being realized.

 

The only minor problem I see with manual sniping is it favors the more experienced users who are able to decide in advance what their max bid is going to be. The old guy sitting at his computer trying to do things the old fashioned way by watching the price to see if he's been outbid and then manually entering a higher bid doesn't stand a chance. Nor does the hesitant guy who doesn't know how high he's willing to go until someone else outbids him.

 

Problem with this thought process Doug is the seller does not want to not sell the item. If I bid $100 days before the item closes, a shill has ample time to drive my price up to my max, undo the max bid, and stick me with my highest possible buy price. Do all of this in a few seconds, and there is no ability of shills to jack up your final pay price relentlessly. They didn't know you would be bidding, so how could they?

 

If you're the type to enter your max bid and walk away, then whether eBay implements an auction extension policy or not should not change your behavior. You don't have to get up at 3AM to enter your final bid because you already have. It doesn't matter if someone snipes you at 3AM or the bidding extends to 4AM due to a continuation process, you're still not changing your bid, right?

 

But it does. If they have an extension policy, then I won't know exactly when an auciton ends and I can't make plans to be out of town or off the grid for 12-24 hours after the scheduled close of the auction. Sometimes the bidding activity happens before the close and the auction end as scheduled, but like I said in an earlier post, sometimes they drag on forever, especially cars or large lots that sell for $10,000+.

One of the things I do l like about FeeBay is if I have a bid in on an item that closes at 10:00 PM, I can log in at 10:05 PM to see if I've won the item and arrange payment if I did.

 

I just have emails sent to my phone.

 

Of course this is possible, but if they do this when I'm sniping, then it represents more risk and hassle for them and less for me.

If a shill bidder wins an item, then the seller is on the hook for the final value fees until he jumps through FeeBay's hoops and files a non-paying bidder report, etc. It's much easier for them if they don't actually win the item in the end, but can just cancel their last bid and leave you on the hook at your highest bid.

 

1. I don't have a smart phone and I don't want one.
2. There are many places I go on the weekends here in MT that don't have any coverage, and that's part of the reason I like going to those places. :yes:


But really it all boils down to convenience. I want to know when an item I'm bidding on ends so I can have closure right then and there.

 

well i use to do my own "sniping" before the programs were even around. i would just bid on the item with a few seconds straight through ebay. i always just put what my max i wanted to bid. if i won i won. if not on to the next auction

 

If Heritage tried this with their coin auctions and then did away with it, it must have had a negative impact on business. EBay knowing this, will learn off of this mistake and not even try it.