Sniping Does Not Require Justification!

On 07/02/11 23:49, Zane H. Healy wrote: Seconded. What you're effectively doing with sniping is turning the thing into a sealed-bid auction. Nobody knows what anyone's bid is until the very last second, when it's too late to do a thing about it. This -- in my opinion -- levels the playing field. Think about it -- in a real auction, you have people holding up bidding cards to the beat of the auctioneer's voice. Nobody knows what anyone else's maximum is until that other person drops out (if they drop out at all). eBay's proxy bidding system is far too vulnerable to abuse. Also, I have a rotten memory. Even with the "item ending soon" reminders, I've been known to miss the end of an auction I intended to bid on. What I usually do is SSH into my server, run Esnipe, and leave it running with my max bid set. Then if I do forget, at least I'll get a bid in, and I'll have bid what I thought the item was worth. Now what really pisses me off are the whack-jobs who cancel bids without rhyme or reason, apparently to get around ebay fees, then attempt to justify this with the line: "If this goes for less than I want, I reserve the right to cancel the auction." I've had this happen several times. Hint -- stay away from the guy who's currently using the Ebay UID "rainbowwarriorplanet". He's had 14 UIDs in the past five years (like that'll help!), and is more than happy to cancel bids if he thinks the item sold for too little... So much for a "legally binding contract". Just for grins, go look at the responses he's left to the negative feedback in his profile... "I live in hope that somehow things will get better, though I've resolved myself to the fact that there's more chance of pigs spontaneously evolving the ability to fly, hell freezing over, and Satan going to work on a pink snow-mobile wearing a matching dress and mittens, all on the same day!" -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/