Is ebay about to end all sniping?

[DrWatson]

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?

Just so you know, it looks like you might be gearing up for the full ShoNuff experience. I can't wait.

[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.

I said erroneous, not stupid.

Is that a challenge!

[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.

Is that a challenge!

Not for you.

 

 

[Aces]

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?

Just so you know, it looks like you might be gearing up for the full ShoNuff experience. I can't wait.

 

[armydoc]

[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.

I said erroneous, not stupid.

Is that a challenge!

Not for you.

 

 

# 5

[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.

Is that a challenge!

Not for you.

 

 

# 5

Is that all you got?

[goldust40]

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.

 

Not that I really give a bugger about any of this, but you only have to sign on for the software once a year, plus the whole process of copying and pasting numbers from one site to another takes maybe 20 seconds. And the annual fee for the software is about $40, which is kind of small in relation to how much one spends on ebay, don't you know.

 

Now for how the sniping software saves time. A lot of auctions I bid on end between 3 AM and 4 AM my time. This isn't rocket science. The software means I don't have to stay up and lose sleep waiting for the auctions to end. Maybe I'm out for the evening and can't be at my computer when the auction ends. What can I do? I know, I'll use sniping software.

 

Do you see how I save time with sniping software?

[CKB]

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.

 

The length of an argument and its potency are often inversely proportional.

 

The whole thing flew in the face of my 10 years of bidding and selling experience. It was so backwards that, like Chromium, I assumed it was a pure troll and was amused. Can you prove that it's not???

 

 

[goldust40]

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.

Is that a challenge!

Not for you.

 

 

# 5

Is that all you got?

You do realize that that was Deathlok's line, don't you?

[divad]

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.

 

Not that I really give a bugger about any of this, but you only have to sign on for the software once a year, plus the whole process of copying and pasting numbers from one site to another takes maybe 20 seconds. And the annual fee for the software is about $40, which is kind of small in relation to how much one spends on ebay, don't you know.

 

Now for how the sniping software saves time. A lot of auctions I bid on end between 3 AM and 4 AM my time. This isn't rocket science. The software means I don't have to stay up and lose sleep waiting for the auctions to end. Maybe I'm out for the evening and can't be at my computer when the auction ends. What can I do? I know, I'll use sniping software.

 

Do you see how I save time with sniping software?

 

Not to mention that that's the long way to do it . . . BidNip

[DrWatson]

Deatlok had "#5" and Bugaboo had "Is that all you got?"

[Hepcat]

Buffyfan:

 

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.

 

Excellent suggestion!

 

Other than the sniping, what I hate most about Ebay is reserve auctions. If you're not willing to sell below a certain price, you could at least show the common decency to be straighforward about it and set that amount as the minimum bid.

 

 

[goldust40]

Deatlok had "#5" and Bugaboo had "Is that all you got?"

 

Wasn't it greggy who said one of those lines? Can't believe that I've forgotten Board history here....

[Fan4Fan]

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.

 

Which was also devoid of data and logical arguments, but who is counting?

 

The snipe services I use are free.

 

The number of snipes I do in any given week are 3-5.

 

As I already have multiple tabs open in my browser for each of the eBay auction I am considering, I simply have to switch between tabs, copy the id to the on-line snipe software window, enter a max bid and OK it.

 

All told, that's about a minute... hardly a resource hog compared to the research, emailing, etc. that goes into which auctions I decide to bid on.

 

 

[goldust40]

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.

 

Not that I really give a bugger about any of this, but you only have to sign on for the software once a year, plus the whole process of copying and pasting numbers from one site to another takes maybe 20 seconds. And the annual fee for the software is about $40, which is kind of small in relation to how much one spends on ebay, don't you know.

 

Now for how the sniping software saves time. A lot of auctions I bid on end between 3 AM and 4 AM my time. This isn't rocket science. The software means I don't have to stay up and lose sleep waiting for the auctions to end. Maybe I'm out for the evening and can't be at my computer when the auction ends. What can I do? I know, I'll use sniping software.

 

Do you see how I save time with sniping software?

 

Not to mention that that's the long way to do it . . . BidNip

 

Hey Dave! Be seeing you in SF in a little over a month.

[DrWatson]

Deatlok had "#5" and Bugaboo had "Is that all you got?"

 

Wasn't it greggy who said one of those lines? Can't believe that I've forgotten Board history here....

I had to have a little help too, I couldn't remember. That is the way it was explained to me.

[The Troll King]

Buffyfan:

 

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.

 

Excellent suggestion!

 

Other than the sniping, what I hate most about Ebay is reserve auctions. If you're not willing to sell below a certain price, you could at least show the common decency to be straighforward about it and set that amount as the minimum bid.

 

 

Meanwhile while the others flame each other...

 

I don't mind reserve auctions so much. Reserves are common in live auctions as well. For those of you who haven't experienced a Heritage auction live online it's pretty straight forward. The item comes up to the block and you click a single button to bid. If someone else bids (live) or on the net, then you click again and bid. Granted, they go a little fast, but with the number of lots they have they have to otherwise it would be like the live auctions I use to go to that would last for 15 hours! Ugh!

 

I keep mentioning Auctionuniverse.com and I can't fully understand why their system was beat-out by eBay at the time. The entire thing was set-up more like real live auctions and the fees were structured a hell of a lot better than eBay.

[october]

And unless somebody proves to me that they save money by using a sniping service, I will call such services useless.

 

Two VERY common scenarios. Sniping protects against incrimental bidding, which a LOT of people use (including me at times).

Scenario one:

1st bidder: Opening bid of $1, with a max of $10.

 

2nd bidder (me): I enter my max at $50, bidding sits at $11

 

3rd bidder: Bids at $5 increments. Hits top bid with $51, max at $55 after nine bids ($15, $20, $25, $30, $35, $40, $45, $50, $55).

 

Result: 3rd bidder wins at $51.

 

Scenario two:

1st bidder: Opening bid of $1, with a max of $10

 

2nd bidder: Bids at $5 increments. Hits top bid with $11, max at $15 after three bids ($5, $10, $15).

 

3rd bidder (me): Snipe at my max of $50, hit top bid at $16.

 

Result: I win at $16, I win AND save money by not putting in my max early.

 

You assume (incorrectly) that everyone bids by entering their max first. Many don't. They bid by specific increments and stop just after the previous bidder's max has been beaten. I see it all the time.

 

 

[CKB]

And unless somebody proves to me that they save money by using a sniping service, I will call such services useless.

 

Two VERY common scenarios. Sniping protects against incrimental bidding, which a LOT of people use (including me at times).

Scenario one:

1st bidder: Opening bid of $1, with a max of $10.

 

2nd bidder (me): I enter my max at $50, bidding sits at $11

 

3rd bidder: Bids at $5 increments. Hits top bid with $51, max at $55 after nine bids ($15, $20, $25, $30, $35, $40, $45, $50, $55).

 

Result: 3rd bidder wins at $51.

 

Scenario two:

1st bidder: Opening bid of $1, with a max of $10

 

2nd bidder: Bids at $5 increments. Hits top bid with $11, max at $15 after three bids ($5, $10, $15).

 

3rd bidder (me): Snipe at my max of $50, hit top bid at $16.

 

Result: I win at $16, I win AND save money by not putting in my max early.

 

You assume (incorrectly) that everyone bids by entering their max first. Many don't. They bid by specific increments and stop just after the previous bidder's max has been beaten. I see it all the time.

 

 

The "if he is willing to pay that, I am too" bidder. I know him well.