E-bay complaints: was Re: "Response" from seller with the "Apple-1"

Do these services have any kind of monetary buffer built-in? For example, let's say you are willing to pay $100 for something. Your sniping service enters that amount at the last possible second, and you lose to someone whose bid was $101. You'd feel pretty dumb about losing the item because of one dollar. How do you know that winner's bid wasn't $101 maximum? I know that's an easy trap because, in reality, you can keep going back and forth in small increments, and the next thing you know, you've bid $120, which is really more than you allotted for the item. Still, though, it's a legitimate problem with sniping services as I understand them -- you have no chance at all to say "okay, I'll bid just a little bit more." -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Vintage Computer Festival Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 1:32 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: E-bay complaints: was Re: "Response" from seller with the "Apple-1" On Fri, 8 Jul 2005, Gary Sparkes wrote: If a sniper service works like that then it's foolish and retarded. The main reason I use a sniping service is to manage my bids for me. First of all, for all the obvious reasons, bidding anytime before the imminent end of an eBay auction is pointless. Second, I submit what I'm willing to pay, and the sniper gets my bid in at the last possible reasonable second. If I win, great. If I win for less than what I was willing to pay, even better. If I don't, terrific! I saved my money for a rainy day. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]