6 May
2014
6 May
'14
4:03 p.m.
I sometimes receive surveys from EBay. My consistent comment is that they
should put an end to rules that encourage sniping. Perhaps if everyone said
the same they might actually do something. Trouble is they have close to a
monopoly on this market, so they are unlikely to listen.
I have tried to look elsewhere but there just does not seem to be the
critical mass to make it worthwhile for a fairly niche area like ours. I
sometimes try Craigslist, but you can't have a single search that covers
multiple locations (ie I can't cover the UK with a single search), unless
someone can tell me what I am missing? VCF does not have critical mass in
the UK either. Also, although it has been a while since I looked, I don't
think Craigslist or VCF offer anything like EBay's saved searches, but I
might be wrong on this.
Regards
Rob
On 6 May 2014 23:34, jwsmobile <jws at jwsss.com> wrote:
On 5/6/2014 11:57 AM, Richard wrote:
JUST LIKE A REAL AUCTION.
Ebay is not real auction. It is most similar to a silent auction and the
fixed deadline for the end of bidding changes the psychology.
Yes you can bid against people as the auction runs, but the auction won't
extend as long as there are willing bidders in the room. That is a key time
for any auction. At any time during a REAL AUCTION the gavel will go down
when there is a gap of bidding pre determined by the auctioneer. Continued
bidding in an auction with an auctioneer in small increments is totally
reasonable because the auctioneer will terminate the bidding when the room
goes quiet.
That simply does not exist in either EBay or silent auctions. The last
bid (which by ebay rules has to be the highest) wins, but it is at the time
of the end of the auction. Therefore the sniping works.
I don't agree that the practice of coming into an auction mid term and
placing a bunch of 5 or 10 dollar increment bids has anything to do with
'REAL AUCTION' .
That is the only practice I"m critical of, and I'm not even critical of it
if the person wins the auction. But a single bid of x amount or a couple
of bids is not equivalent to 20 silly small bids. I apparently didn't
explain that was my only complaint.
You can do any strategy you like, but as has been pointed out the last
one that is accepted wins, an there is no reason to place it till as close
to the end of the auction period given ebay rules. All the arguments here
just make the case that if you want to bid and win it and have the least
affect on the auction other than winning it a snipe is the way to go.