15 May
2005
15 May
'05
6:43 p.m.
On Sun, 15 May 2005 15:51:04 -0700
"vrs" <vrs at msn.com> wrote:
From: "Vintage Computer Festival" <vcf at
siconic.com>
If ebay wanted to take advantage of the sniping phenomenon correctly,
they would figure out a mechanism to bring it into their system, or
engineer the rules to eliminate it, i.e. the one-hour-after-last-bid
extension method. Though I can see real frustration if people 'game'
that to make things close long, long after the scheduled ending, too.
It's been ages since I 'rode out' a close to the end in real-time.
Third-party sniping systems have essentially replaced 'real-time'
bidding on highly contested items, in my opinion. I place my high bid,
either with a proxy service or program, or directly with eBay, and walk
away.
I attend a LOT of local auctions, where one gets to know everybody quite
closely, and where there is a lot of social protocol that keeps rudeness
at bay. There are regulars here, obviously, but let's be honest, the
names/identities don't automatically translate to 'the ring' at eBay the
same way. Would be okay if it did.
Another point- awhile back in this very forum people were talking about
protocol for auctions. The ethics of bidder-collusion, etc. Some
people could interpret a 'close community, agree not to bid against each
other, cooperative community' spirit as unethical bidder-collusion.
Isn't that wrong, too?
-Scott
> Unfortunately, Ebay's "theory"
goes against human nature. What you
> think
is
> your maximum bid, when someone else outbids
that your brain says
> "well,
if I
> could get it for just a little more, I guess
I'd be willing to pay
that".
Right. This is exactly what I used to say ad nauseum. It is the
very reason sniping is still around. It helps eBay in that it uses
human psychology in their favor (oh, and by the way, the side effect
is that it results in INFLATED PRICES).
I see this as replacing an orderly competition to determine who is
willing to pay the most with a last second scramble in which some
number of bidders get cut off by the auction deadline. So I don't see
how it drive prices up. Seems like whoever got cut off lost their
chance to drive the price up.
Since I enter snipes days ahead of time (and assume most others do
too), I think the emotionalism that drives the prices up is largely
defeated. If the minority who are hand-entering their last-second
bids had enough time to bid effectively, *that* would drive prices up.