30 Sep
2010
30 Sep
'10
3:27 p.m.
?However, most of the buyers on ebay are
the general public and they have this "going going gone!" mental image
of auctions. ?That mental image doesn't match ebay's exact auctioning
process, which is why sniping leaves a bad taste in most people's
mouths.
I think these days most of the bidders that matter snipe (manually or
with a service) or do not care.
Four or five years ago, I used to time my auctions so that they would
end when people are likely to be home for the evening or in front of
their computer at work. I found there were two sweet spots during the
weekdays - 2-3 PM and 9:30-11 PM EST. These would cover the US quite
nicely. There was a real difference in hammer prices if I strayed out
of these two spots for whatever various reasons. This is no longer the
case. There are no more real sweet spots, and hammer prices are not so
dependent on timing, yet the last minute bids still pile up. This is
telling me that far more people snipe today than five years ago.
And, as an informal survey in my head, it seems that nearly all of my
friends snipe, including the ones that are pretty low key.
--
Will