To buy on Ebay or not?

The twelve bidders weren't knowledgeable enough to spot the variety when when it looked like just another common coin auction. The $76 bid drew their attention to the auction, and once they were paying attention, they spotted (or suspected) the variety.

Any clearer?

 

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"What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach."
-Cool Hand Luke

 

Nice! May I edit that for you?

"E-Bay (IDI)adult: Sees that he is getting outbid constantly by people" - FOR WHATEVER REASON (most likely the simple fact that he was outbid) either never placed the bid of what he was willing to pay, or can't come to grips with the fact some else was willing to pay more. In any case, for anyone to lose to a sniper, sniper has to be willing to bid more. Why does it matter his method in achieving that? If the sniper had simply placed that higher bid earlier, E-Bay (IDI)adult still lost since he only bid what he was willing to pay or failed to bid what he was willing to pay.

The simple fact remains that you were the high qualified bidder for the auctions you 'won' and were out bid on the ones you did not. No snipe bid will ever win if a higher qualified bid is made.

I am the one that bids what I am willing to pay and only that and ends up either purchasing the item for that ( or less), or gets outbid. No reason to be frustrated about that.

I suppose some people get frustrated when they go to the free market and think the prices other people are paying for things is too high and therefore are priced out of their own reach.

Which are you?

 

Really? 12 out of say 15 total bidders engage in that way? How do you know this. Pretty amazing work. This whole thing so much more complicated that I ever imagined.

 

Case in point.

 

If you don't think the ratio of clueless to knowledgeable bidders on eBay is high, how do you explain all those high closing bids that you started out complaining about?

 

Ridiculous? Do you even know what that word means? How about the rest of the words you used?

Jeff, with whom I have no quarrel, fabricated and then proffered those scenarios to suit his concept which he puts forth and argues (poorly).

Can anyone prove (or even show incontrovertible evidence towards the concept) that anyone ever paid less than they otherwise would have, by anything other than having made a winning bid? You either bid the most or you didn't.

One needs to assume that they some how magically know what the other guy bid or would bid, to think it matters. Say you sniper bid $100 on an item and win. That means you had the highest qualified bid. That is not attributable to the method of bid. Had you lost, would you say it was because of method? Turns out his bid was larger. Should you have bid more? Would you have bid more had you actually known what the other guy bid or would bid?

What definition do you use for ridiculous? My examples are irrefutable fact. And yes - valid. Not to mention real.

Try to come up with something 'actual factual' and relevant to the issue at hand.

 

Last things first - you do not pay your maximum unless you get pushed up, so that was not at risk nor even at play the way you try to use it ^.

And here is the part of your idea that requires mystical magical intervention: ".if I had thrown in my bid at that point, the bidders would be notified and would probably up their own bids."

You know for a fact what others will do, and in fact can predict the future under varying scenarios. That is what you have to 'believe' to make your idea work.

I predict that you are in for a spell of cognitive dissonance disorder when you are able to understand it clearly.

 

Did I do that?

 

BTW I didn't make any claims about clueless bidders, the people walking the streets or even posting on the web. However, I do recognize that what people pay is the market. Just like people buy cigarettes, unhealthy foods, do drugs, and believe in sky friends. It is what it is, and we are stuck with it, but not have to do that or be that.

 

I have no clue why a sniper would do that, do tell?

In this case there were 2 bids, my marker bid, and the sniper. $8.88 is the amount my winning bid was larger than his. Read my post again and perhaps that will be enough. If not get back to us.

My argument, in whole or in any part, is NOT "based upon the predication that bidding wars don't exist on E-Bay." What ever gave you that idea? Please point out where I did that so I can fix it for you.

No I don't understand that. But if you tell me which post (of mine) put that silly thought in your head I'll have a gander.

 

I don't get frustrated at all. I freely admitted that sniping does not guarantee that you will win the auction in my very first response to your continued lunacy (post #43). All I said was that it will make a bidding war impossible.

 

Trust me, if anyone has proven that they don't know how to read, it is you.

Jeff gave a hypothetical scenario that any experienced E-Bay coin buyer can identify with. Your examples were about buying motor vehicles on E-Bay which are generally big ticket items with very few bidders. If you want to provide examples, then they should be about coins, since that is what we are discussing.

 

What the hell are you talking about? Sniping involves entering your maximum bid. There is never a reason to need to know that for $8.88 that you could have won since it is above your maximum bid. You claim the guy would have been upset when he found out that for $8.88 that he could have won. Why, the sale price was higher than his maximum bid. What reason would he have to be upset?

Your argument is that sniping is useless. Everyone, and I mean everyone but you recognizes that bidding wars exist on E-Bay. By placing your bids with time left in the auction, you create the conditions to start a bidding war. By sniping, bidding wars become impossible.

It does not mean that you will win every auction by sniping. It does not mean that you will save money every time by sniping. But it does mean that you will always avoid a bidding war. The result is that you will win some auctions for a cheaper price and you will win some auctions that you would have otherwise lost due to a bidding war.

But hey, you keep trolling since you know you are wrong and the only way to save face is to just keep posting nonsense.

 

I can see and agree that you will not become embroiled in a bidding war that way. But, neither will I. Unless someone defines a war as my having bid and then later having been out bid. Seems not even a battle nor hardly even a skirmish. So where is any advantage to utilize another level of complexity?

As an aside, it just might be that it is not well understood (in general not @anyone in particular) that someone's maximum bid is not the price unless you are pushed up. In an "old fashioned" bricks an mortar auction your bid is the price. Tad different. In that case large increment bids make a particular statement in those 'wars'. ebay's concept has ALREADY allowed for the possibility of avoiding wars - for those so inclined.

I am not exactly sure what form of Eubonics this is: " I freely admitted that sniping does not guarantee that you will win the auction in my very first response (post #43) your continued lunacy. " But at least I can cipher that you claim I have displayed lunacy. Please do show what you claim backs that up, or I claim you are full of it. BTW did you enjoy the Perseid meteor shower this morning?

 

I was unaware that my inquiry about sniper bidding in this thread which has been so entertaining so far was limited to coin auctions. Further, I was unaware that it is separable, or that there is some logical reasoning behind the idea that it works differently depending on what is being auctioned, which you proffer ^ disqualifies my arguments. Your proffer ^ is a logical fallacy unto its own. 'Nuff said.

How many bids do you think automobile auctions get v coin auctions? Start a car auction at 99 cents no reserve ( a real auction) and see what happens. Selective memory about big $ coins?

And thanks for making my point. Hypothetical v real. " that any experienced E-Bay coin buyer can identify with " the underlying assumed conclusion being if you don't you are somehow not experienced. I forget what that is called, so I beg to question you about it?

You might benefit from reading things like this before you try to argue (for real): http://www.logicalfallacies.info/

I'd be happy to take you on but I'd have to get prior secure and irrevocable permission from site management first.

 

When I say bidding war, I include those where you just let the other guy win. If a guy puts in a $100 bid on a coin and you place a max bid of $125 before the auction ends and the guy you outbid wins with a $126 bid because he increased his max bid, that is a bidding war. If you had sniped the auction, he would not have been able change his max bid and would have been locked in at $100.

Again, that doesn't guarantee that you would win. Another sniper could outbid you. Another bidder could start a bidding war with the current high bidder. But by sniping the auction, you increase your chances that the high bidder will not increase his bid. That alone provides a financial advantage to those who use sniping software no matter how much you want to deny it.

 

First off I will suggest you reread my post slowly. What I actually typed, not what you think I typed.

"By placing your bids with time left in the auction, you create the conditions to start a bidding war." <--- LOL god forbid someone bids once


If I still need to explain it in smaller words just say so, I'll do it for you.

And yet again people are telling me what my argument is. Go find where I said "sniping is useless" then get back to us. I am supposed to defend from make believe? Bidding wars might exist. I never said otherwise yet you claim I don't recognize it.(pure make believe on your part ) Do you have NSA watching me or something? Your logical fallacies involve (in part) imputing things on to others.

"By sniping, bidding wars become impossible." and "But it does mean that you will always avoid a bidding war."<--- now those are a gems. You can't avoid a bidding war that other bidders engage in. Go try then get back to us. Your best hope is to not participate. What you really want is a sealed bid type auction, unfortunately that is not an option on ebay - far as I know right now and you can't force the others to do it your way. You might have a good idea there, start an auction site that does that, and remember me when then profits roll in

" The result is that you will win some auctions for a cheaper price ( than? ) and you will win some auctions that you would have otherwise lost due to a bidding war." <--- that sounds great. How do you propose to prove it? Seems like we are back to the failed mystical magical belief system, again.

"But hey, you keep trolling since you know you are wrong and the only way to save face is to just keep posting nonsense." <--- I stand my ground and claim you are full of it for calling me a Troll. Period. I have no loss of face nor any reason to suspect it will be in any way diminished, nor that sort thing would be even a remote possibility regards this thread.

What do you think I am wrong about? Go look at post #42 where I first asked " Can you explain the logic of why sniper bidding is the only way to have any chance? ".

And please, try to keep it about the topic rather your unsubstantiated beliefs about posters. It hardly matters to me, I have thick skin, but I think CT management frowns on it.