Is ebay about to end all sniping?

[dekeuk]

Guys, this thread is getting way too heated. I hate to see people with the same hobby at each others' throats. I say to each his own.

 

Yes, I started this thread to point out yet another dumb move ebay was probably about to make in their long line of dumb moves they have made in the last 5 years.

 

The intent was not to start a heated debate on whether sniping was ethical or not.

 

 

[armydoc]

The only real problem I have with sniping, and it honestly really sucks, is false hope that I might actually be getting a bargain. I have actually gotten one or 2, but most of the time I get sniped and out bid. As long as I'm aware of this factor, I'm fine.

 

Sniping is just a sad paranoid's waste of time. Set your max bid and go do your stuff.

 

That "sad paranoid waste of time" seems to be beating out all of your crappy low ball bids.

 

Oh, and I'm sorry your feelings get hurt and it makes you sad when you get sniped. Many services offer free trials, why don't you try it out and come back and tell us how it goes for you?

 

Why would I want to do that? I'm going to bid the same max (when maxing) whether I bid with a snipe or not. I'll still lose to other snipers. Sniping is a waste of time and resources.

 

And someone seems to be enjoying a bit too much that he can "beat out" a lowball bid with his l33t sniping tool. Maybe that's the real thrill of the snipers. Sounds like typical PvPers in MMORPGs.

 

 

 

I'm doing the same thing (placing my max bid and letting it ride), I'm just doing it in the last 5 seconds. WTF is I33t? Is that some kind of insult?

This isn't a video game to me. I'm spending real money.

Sniping doesn't really take a whole lot of time or resources.

 

 

I guess life isn't fair, sorry.

[Fan4Fan]

Sniping is a waste of time and resources.

 

 

Whose time and resources are being wasted exactly?

[Fan4Fan]

I don't understand why people think sniping takes some huge effort. You open the program and enter your max bid. That's it. Life is just as simple, you just don't lose money when people bid up the max bid you placed two days before the auction ended.

 

 

[goldust40]

Sniping is a waste of time and resources.

 

 

Whose time and resources are being wasted exactly?

 

In a nutshell. Never has a statement been more wrong on these boards. If the guy who posted it had read this thread, he might've spotted why....

[Mr. Zipper]

Sniping is a waste of time and resources.

 

Whose time and resources are being wasted exactly?

 

Right. Especially if you use an online service. Placing a snipe bid through an online service is FASTER than setting a bid in ebay and it requires no software on your computer. The snipe service cost 1% of the final value only for auctions I win.

 

What's all this nonsense about wasting time and playing videogames?

[armydoc]

People fear what they don't understand

[Transplant]

wiki for l33t Basically a boast for gamers/hackers.

[armydoc]

Thanks transplant.

[DrWatson]

Sniping is a waste of time and resources.

I find it to be exactly the opposite. That is one of the most erroneous statements ever made on these boards.

[The Black Hand ®]

I occasionally bid on other things beside comics and I seem to notice a pattern with large sellers who sell high volumes of electronics, among other things, (say DVD's with an 8-10 dollar flat rate shipping fee) and that is a price threshold which always seems to be met by lower feedback bidders. I think that if you're smart, you'll never get caught having families and friends shill for you. Which is why I both snipe and never get into bidding wars anymore, especially on common items. Of course if there were a mislabeled Pep 22 and only me and 2 other collectors knew about..... but otherwise there is nothing I need bad enough to go crazy over and it is my right to bid in the last ten seconds of an auction. If it is an auction then I have that right. Everything about ebay heavily favors the seller already that it would be a shame to restrict a buyers rights anymore than they have already been. Another major scam on ebay is, of course, shipping charges, which seem to be profit motivated and with the disclaimer that if you don't like it, buy elsewhere. Well, there is once again, nothing that I need bad enough that I'll happily line the pockets of a greedy and unethical seller. Now just like with Heritage and their buyers fee, one can always bid accordingly to compensate for high shipping charges, but there comes a point when I'd rather not play that game and the ethics and honesty of the people I deal with becomes a factor.Shipping fees can make the difference between buying on ebay or buying elsewhere. Everyone on these boards are pretty savvy, so they already know that ebay is not the bargain that it used to be.

[OldGuy]

....people with the same hobby at each others' throats.

 

[The Troll King]

Not sure if this has already been stated in this thread as I've only read about half of it.

 

I know I've stated this before elsewhere in talks of my letters to eBay.

 

Sniping isn't what bothers me...

 

It's the fact that an auction is an auction only when all bidders at the designated moment have been given an opportunity to bid. If I'm at a live auction bidding, they will not close that auction until me and the others bidding have decided we want to stop it.

 

eBay on the other hand with their set in stone closing time does not do this.

 

I sound like a parrot on this subject:

 

Extending the end times based on when the last bid is placed would make sellers happy because prices would be higher on many things.

 

Also, buyers would be happy as well because they would have been given plenty of time to decide whether they wanted to bid again or not.

 

Auctionuniverse.com (which was around before and during early eBay) use to do this.

 

Before everyone blows up about max bids Consider this... sure you can say that the max amount you want to pay for that jar of air obtained at latest celebrity sighting is $100 but with sniping, someone can easily win that item for $101. Now, let's say you really want that jar of air, and that you're disappointed that it went for only $1.00 more. Well... $1.00 in relation to $100 is nothing moneywise but it frequently means the difference between winning and losing on eBay.

 

In a live auction I have the opportunity to decide whether that $1.00 really is worth the difference between winning and losing. Most of the time, it would be. At the same time, the person that originally placed the $1.00 more bid, now has the opportunity to decide if they want to continue as well.

 

Fair for EVERYONE INVOLVED! Even eBay makes higher FVF's and everyone can be happy!

[Stannum-migration]

Heh,

 

Not trying to be heated about it.

 

But I do love that my statements are said to be "erroneous", yet no data or logical arguements are presented, when I presented a decently long counterargument.

 

Time wasted: Going to a website/downloading software. Opening said software. Switching between eBay and said software to identify lot numbers on which to bid. Not a whole lot of time, but if, every time you left a parking lot, you went to the right three times instead of just left, you wouldn't be wasting a whole lot of time either.

 

Resources wasted: Time is a resource, so sorry about the redundancy there. Money is a resource. If you're using a free snipe program, then fine, nothing but time wasted. Otherwise you're paying for a useless service. Wasted resource. Wasted bandwidth from all these sniping programs connecting to eBay and spamming last second bids.

 

And unless somebody proves to me that they save money by using a sniping service, I will call such services useless. And these mythical "shills", and "punishment bidders" that are so abundant that you have to look around every corner before bidding really don't count. If they're so common, point me to 5 auctions where somebody, anybody, lost money by regular bidding instead of sniping.

 

If you want to snipe, go ahead, waste your money. Like everyone is saying, this isn't a game, it's the real world. If someone wants to spend money on metorite insurance coverage for their scooter, that's fine by me. It gives me more real money value over them.

[ShoNuff-migration]

And unless somebody proves to me that they save money by using a sniping service, I will call such services useless. And these mythical "shills", and "punishment bidders" that are so abundant that you have to look around every corner before bidding really don't count. If they're so common, point me to 5 auctions where somebody, anybody, lost money by regular bidding instead of sniping.

 

How do you keep the sand out of your nose when your head's constantly buried in it?

 

 

[Aces]

Sniping is a waste of time and resources.

I find it to be exactly the opposite. That is one of the most erroneous statements ever made on these boards.

Ha!

I bet I've made dozens even more erroneous.

[DrWatson]

Sniping is a waste of time and resources.

I find it to be exactly the opposite. That is one of the most erroneous statements ever made on these boards.

Ha!

I bet I've made dozens even more erroneous.

I said erroneous, not stupid.

[chromium]

And unless somebody proves to me that they save money by using a sniping service, I will call such services useless. And these mythical "shills", and "punishment bidders" that are so abundant that you have to look around every corner before bidding really don't count. If they're so common, point me to 5 auctions where somebody, anybody, lost money by regular bidding instead of sniping.

 

Fantastic ! You had me going there for a while, I really thought you were serious (thumbs u

[Stannum-migration]

And unless somebody proves to me that they save money by using a sniping service, I will call such services useless. And these mythical "shills", and "punishment bidders" that are so abundant that you have to look around every corner before bidding really don't count. If they're so common, point me to 5 auctions where somebody, anybody, lost money by regular bidding instead of sniping.

 

How do you keep the sand out of your nose when your head's constantly buried in it?

 

 

Nice proof... Get your doctoral from statements like that?

[Stannum-migration]

And unless somebody proves to me that they save money by using a sniping service, I will call such services useless. And these mythical "shills", and "punishment bidders" that are so abundant that you have to look around every corner before bidding really don't count. If they're so common, point me to 5 auctions where somebody, anybody, lost money by regular bidding instead of sniping.

 

Fantastic ! You had me going there for a while, I really thought you were serious (thumbs u

 

As I said, if it's so common, 5 quick links shouldn't be a hassle. :shrug: