Topic: BID SNIPERS MUST DIEEEEEE AAAARRRGHHHH

[decoyman]

I was bidding on something on ebay, and I was going to get a great deal on it, and with 2 seconds left, someone outbids me by $2.50 (it was a hundreds-of-dollars item).

TWO FREAKIN SECONDS LEFT.  

[BlackNMild2k1]

Now you've learned your lesson, don't bid until the very last second, and up the bid by $3.50 over the previous one.

[Pale]

This is a pretty serious flaw with Ebay that I've hated for ages.  There is a really simple solution that they really need to implement.  It would only make them more money.

Auctions should end at the preset time OR ten minutes after the last bid was placed, whichever is later.  Bamf.  Solved.

[Arbok]

Quote
Originally posted by: Pale
Auctions should end at the preset time OR ten minutes after the last bid was placed, whichever is later.  Bamf.  Solved.

Everyone does it the preset time way, it's the same situation with Yahoo Japan. I mean, I would have a problem with it under the old way eBay bidding worked... but since you set a maximum, and it bids for you up to that, I don't see whats wrong with "sniper bidding".

Yes it sucks when you get outbid at the last minute, which has happend to me countless times, but if you really want an item just make sure your maximum bid really reflects what you are willing to pay for it.

[decoyman]

Yeah, I'm not gonna send any nasty e-mails to the winning bidder or anything... though the prospect is tempting

You know, it's funny though, the shoe is on the other foot now: whenever I'm selling something and it's not going for as much as I'd like, I always hope for snipers to come in at the end...

Pale, that's a pretty good idea. I think I've heard of some other auction site that runs that way, though I don't remember which one. ubid.com or something maybe?

[S-U-P-E-R]

Why not just set your maximum bid as the highest you are willing to pay?

[Shecky]

Government auctions are run that way.  They end at either a set time or 15 min after the last bid which ever comes last.  I don't think they autobid for you though, which can thus tie you to the computer for a long time if your in a bidding war.  (autobid being where you set your max and can walk away)  

[matt oz]

Quote
Originally posted by: S-U-P-E-R
Why not just set your maximum bid as the highest you are willing to pay?

I agree with this sentiment.

If someone's willing to pay more than you, why are you mad?

I always wait until the last minute of an auction to bid, for 2 reasons:
1. I don't want to drive up the price of an auction by bidding early
2. I want to be the last person to bid on the item, so I win it

I've actually been in sniping wars with friends over certain items, and there's no hard feelings there.  We all put in our highest bids at the last second, sometimes I win, sometimes I don't.

[KDR_11k]

I use a bid and forget strategy, if I get outbid someone's paying more than I would. And remember that you don't see how much he actually bid, he may have set it to 50$ more than you did.

Ending a few minutes after a bid wouldn't work for internet auctions, it works for physical ones because you know everyone's present and knows the timeframe it happens in but on the internet someone could e.g. bid the starting amount at nighttime, noone else is up and the auction ends even though they may have been people interested but busy at the time or just asleep. To cover most of the users you have to make the auction run at least 24hours to account for all timezones and times at which people can actually browse the internet for private purposes, probably more than that because most people don't check every day. Longer auctions let more people bid which means the actual maximum someone out there is willing to pay gets bid and the seller gets more money than he might have gotten had the auction ended prematurely.

Ebay is meant for common people who check the site maybe every other day and don't want to be kept busy by it. I wish it had a queue feature so you can give a list of items with maximum bids and if you get outbid on one it bids for the next one so you can participate in multiple auctions without having to manually place the next bid once the first is outbid. Often there's more than one auction selling what you want and you can't bid for more than one at a time since you might end up winning multiple...

[UncleBob]

Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
Ending a few minutes after a bid wouldn't work for internet auctions, it works for physical ones because you know everyone's present and knows the timeframe it happens in but on the internet someone could e.g. bid the starting amount at nighttime, noone else is up and the auction ends even though they may have been people interested but busy at the time or just asleep. To cover most of the users you have to make the auction run at least 24hours to account for all timezones and times at which people can actually browse the internet for private purposes, probably more than that because most people don't check every day. Longer auctions let more people bid which means the actual maximum someone out there is willing to pay gets bid and the seller gets more money than he might have gotten had the auction ended prematurely.

I think the idea is this:

I put a GameBoy Player, sealed in box, on eBay.  I set the auction to end at Noon a week from today.  From now until then, everyone can bid like the normal eBay process.  However, if anyone bids 10 mins or less before the auction is set to end, *then* it extends the end time of the auction by ten mins from the last bid... This combines the ability to have long auctions *and* allows people to bid a higher amount than they originally wanted to go when they get caught in the buying frenzy and the *"thrill" of the win...

[KDR_11k]

Now add people with joke accounts running a script to increase the bid by the minimum value every 14 minutes...

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Then let's require credit cards =D

[KDR_11k]

So I would no longer be able to use Ebay?

[decoyman]

Nah, KDR, you wouldn't have to go that far (referring to adding 24 hours to auction)... 15 minutes would be fine to eliminate sniping that occurs when there are literally 2-3 seconds left – not enough time for anyone to respond, even if they wanted to.

As for me, yeah, you can always say to bid higher if you're really wiling to pay more. But like Matt Oz said, you risk inflating the auction too early... Bidding in increments (instead of one "mega-bid" of your absolute max price) is like throwing speedbumps into a straight street to slow people down. It will generally lead to you getting the item for cheaper because you can somewhat stifle the start of an all-out bidding war.

UPDATE: As a strange bit of irony, I was awarded a 2nd chance offer on this item. Good news, right?!

But wait – the plot thickens! I took the offer and paid, only to have the seller contact me the next day and say he's unable to complete the sale – Paypal issues, he says. So now, my money is in limbo, and I have to find another item to buy.

Oh, lovely ebay sniper, I never appreciated you until it was too late! (goes to change the title of the thread)

[UncleBob]

How about, you can only bid on items during the last 15 mins if A) You have a credit card associated to the account or B) You have a feedback of X/X%...  Bidding during the last 15 mins will extend the auction for 15 mins.

[18 Days]

Got nothing, how to lose at ebay.
Look at this Molky loser. he's a great example of someone who fails terribly. I mean a bid of $1? What was he even trying? This cheapskate will never touch my maximun price. He's still bidding right now.

[ShyGuy]

*Out-bids Rabicle with great fury*