8 Jul
2005
8 Jul
'05
6:54 p.m.
On Fri, 8 Jul 2005, 'Computer Collector Newsletter' wrote:
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.
Why should I feel dumb? I already thought about what I was willing to pay
at a maximum, so if someone gets it for $1 more than me then more power to
them. And in 99 times out of 100, if someone does get it for $1 more than
you, they probably put in a bid that is several dollars more than what
your maximum was. So even if you did bid $2 more, their max will still be
larger than yours. And this also negates the point of the sniping service
and starts to get into the silly psychological games that drive up prices
well beyond what's reasonable and sane.
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."
Again, you don't want to bid "just a little more". You set your maximum
and you are content whatever the outcome. If not, well, you have
problems.
--
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 ]