Snipe bidding on Ebay,your opinion? 2 2

[Sensei Ryan]

3 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

Which 95% of all sellers have done but E-Bay keeps pushing to get the number of auctions up and running.  If they want to increase the number of low starting auctions then I think a big step would be to institute extended bidding for the very reasons you stated above.  Higher closing prices helps e-bay and sellers. Will it scare away buyers?  Possibly but the casual buyers who will fill in for the missing low ball bidders will make up for the slack.

Also, I 100% agree with you that I'd hate to see extended bidding come to eBay but a happy medium would be a one-time extended bidding thing so it wouldn't keep happening over and over like on MCS or CC so that way you can still 'snipe' just not till after the first wave of extended bidding.  TBH I'd hate that, too, but it would be better than the change.

I also hate it when people let about 2:45 pass on the 3 minute extension and then bid...it's almost like it's done to 'taunt' the other bidders when they could just save everyone the time of waiting and do it immediately.

[1Cool]

1 minute ago, Sensei Ryan said:

How have the auctions died away on eBay?  Are you just saying there are a lot less auctions compared to BIN fixed price listings?  I ask because I see auctions all the time - I just see many of them start at higher prices and not the .99 cent ones (those I have definitely seen tons less of).

E-Bay gives away a ton of auctions if you own a decent sized store so people have switched over to running auctions which start at the price they want for the book.  Is it really an auction or a BIN in disguise?  True auctions start at a low price and the market or mores so the number of bidders looking at that particular time dictate the price.  The number of true auctions has essentially dried up over the last 10 years.  My opinion is snipe programs and mass transition to everyone sniping facilitated the death of the true auctions on E-Bay.

[1Cool]

3 minutes ago, Sensei Ryan said:

Also, I 100% agree with you that I'd hate to see extended bidding come to eBay but a happy medium would be a one-time extended bidding thing so it wouldn't keep happening over and over like on MCS or CC so that way you can still 'snipe' just not till after the first wave of extended bidding.  TBH I'd hate that, too, but it would be better than the change.

I also hate it when people let about 2:45 pass on the 3 minute extension and then bid...it's almost like it's done to 'taunt' the other bidders when they could just save everyone the time of waiting and do it immediately.

There are games even in the extended bidding format but at least it promotes a bidding war which in my opinion is the only good thing about risking an auction.  People wait to the last second to bid again in the hopes the other guy gets distracted or pulled away from his computer.  Low ball bidders will do anything possible to prevent a bidding war in the hopes of getting a deal - nature of the auction game.  But extending the end time at least gives the best chance for a book to go for full market price and possibly set a new high with a bidding war.

[Get Marwood & I]

47 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

Which 95% of all sellers have done but E-Bay keeps pushing to get the number of auctions up and running.  If they want to increase the number of low starting auctions then I think a big step would be to institute extended bidding for the very reasons you stated above.  Higher closing prices helps e-bay and sellers. Will it scare away buyers?  Possibly but the casual buyers who will fill in for the missing low ball bidders will make up for the slack.

I think it's hard enough to get comics for reasonable prices as it is. Any policy which moves the goal posts and puts more money into ebay and the seller's pockets is bad for the less well off end of the collecting community. It would be another nail in the coffin for the collector with a lower budget. Great for sellers and ebay of course. One off sellers trying to get the most for their collection would benefit I'm sure, so there would be some swings and roundabouts. But overall, I'm for leaving things as they stand.

So it will likely change tomorrow! 

[Get Marwood & I]

9 minutes ago, Arf Art Arf said:

Oh goody, another 20 year old discussion  

It's called recycling FartStuArt. If we had a ban on old topics the place would be empty.

 

 

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

3 hours ago, 1Cool said:

This is the real reason almost everyone snipes in an E-Bay auction.  I find the only way to get a steal on a nice book is to snipe which makes auctions a terrible idea from a sellers perspective on E-Bay unless you just need the cash and don't want to sit around waiting for a decent BIN offer.  I don't have any evidence but i believe sniping killed the e-bay auctions since it scared away the casual thrill bidders who kept getting beat at the last second.  The casual bidder liked the back and forth of an auction and most were ignorant of the fact that they could bump up their bid preemptively and they just got bored of the last second dash to a sell price.  The economic landscape also changed but I really blame sniping and sniping programs for the death of auctions on E-Bay. 

eBay killed auctions on eBay. Since the arrival of John Donahoe in 2008, the focus of the company was to build the "Buy It Now" program into the focus of the site, claiming that "people didn't want to sit around waiting for auctions to end." They stopped supporting the auction format in any meaningful way, and started heavily promoting the BIN format. Their goal? To become Amazon.

That, more than anything, killed the auction market on eBay.

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

Edited April 15, 2019 by RockMyAmadeus

[Get Marwood & I]

 

[Callaway29]

Gixen for the win

[RockMyAmadeus]

6 minutes ago, Callaway29 said:

Gixen for the win

How much does it cost?

I'm finding EZsniper's "$11.99 a month, all you can win" service is pretty good. 

[Callaway29]

7 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

How much does it cost?

I'm finding EZsniper's "$11.99 a month, all you can win" service is pretty good. 

I use their free version.

[1Cool]

37 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

eBay killed auctions on eBay. Since the arrival of John Donahoe in 2008, the focus of the company was to build the "Buy It Now" program into the focus of the site, claiming that "people didn't want to sit around waiting for auctions to end." They stopped supporting the auction format in any meaningful way, and started heavily promoting the BIN format. Their goal? To become Amazon.

That, more than anything, killed the auction market on eBay.

I don't think E-Bay could have killed auctions if they tried if the realized prices would have been there.  E-Bay is great at wrecking stuff but if sellers could make more via auction then a vast majority of sellers wouldn't have switched to BIN.  The bidders left in droves (the cause is up to debate) which prompted the change not any changes E-Bay instituted.  You can only sell a $10 book for your $0.99 starting price for so long before you switch your selling strategy.  From my memory the biggest gripe I heard a decade or so ago was the snipe bidders driving away the thrill bidders and realized prices tanked.  But it's been awhile so maybe I'm remembering incorrectly.

[Aweandlorder]

eBay got us all figured out the moment we walked through their door. If you dont think they have researched our shopping habits, likes, searches, trends... EVERYTHING by now, youre wrong.

If sniping wouldve cramped their style or put a hole in their wallet, they wouldve cracked down on it. Just like they did the second we offered a seller to exchange emails/numbers.

They LOVE the fact that buyers take advantage of sellers lack of knowledge of product, or listing skills. Dont forget that they charge for listings, promotions and stores. They make their money before you even click "publish my listing"

They want the BUYER to be happy and make money off the sellers

But that doesnt mean that auctions are dead. If you know how to sell as well as you know how to buy, you will make a pretty penny off auctions. Just learn how to create desirable auctions. There are plenty of buyers who will cut you a check for nice lots of drekky books. Theyre out there. Its just that most sellers dont wanna spend the time in moving lots and shipping them and I get it.

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

4 hours ago, 1Cool said:

I really believe E-Bay should institute an extended closure policy similar to ComicConnect.  The small number of people who would stop bidding would be far overshadowed by the number of people who would come back for the thrill of the bidding frenzy.  E-Bay makes more money when an auction gets pushed up and collectors would quickly adapt their bidding strategy.  If you saw a hot book you wanted would the extended bidding time scare you away?  I doubt it for most people.

The problem with extended bidding...what has always historically been the problem...is that eBay has millions of listings on the site, every day. If they were to extend listings, it would have, back when auctions were the focus, completely crashed the site. For a site like ComicConnect, which only runs a few hundred auctions at a time, this isn't a problem. For eBay, it would have been disastrous. That may no longer be the case, but it likely is. 

Once people get over the annoyance factor of being sniped, they tend to adapt. I did. Every valid bid place, no matter if it's the first second or the last, is legitimate. When people know that the listing has a set ending, they decide what they want to pay, and that's that. With extended bidding...just like in in-person auctions...bidders can get caught up in it, and once they cool off, and realize they paid $567 for an item they could have bought outright at $297...you'll see a marked increase in non-payers.

[1Cool]

1 hour ago, Aweandlorder said:

eBay got us all figured out the moment we walked through their door. If you dont think they have researched our shopping habits, likes, searches, trends... EVERYTHING by now, youre wrong.

If sniping wouldve cramped their style or put a hole in their wallet, they wouldve cracked down on it. Just like they did the second we offered a seller to exchange emails/numbers.

They LOVE the fact that buyers take advantage of sellers lack of knowledge of product, or listing skills. Dont forget that they charge for listings, promotions and stores. They make their money before you even click "publish my listing"

They want the BUYER to be happy and make money off the sellers

But that doesnt mean that auctions are dead. If you know how to sell as well as you know how to buy, you will make a pretty penny off auctions. Just learn how to create desirable auctions. There are plenty of buyers who will cut you a check for nice lots of drekky books. Theyre out there. Its just that most sellers dont wanna spend the time in moving lots and shipping them and I get it.

 

Show me some example of what you are talking about.  I've got a few long boxes of dreky Bronze Age Books that I'd love to move out the door but I just don't see any random sets moving at the moment.  If you are talking about sets of ASM 200 - 230 then you can of course so well selling them as a set but most of the time I even see higher BIN results for a nice set like that.  There are almost 3.7 million comic book listings under BINs on E-Bay right now.  The total number of auctions is 200k or about 1/20th the total number of BINS.  The funny thing is the total auctions that have sold is about 500k over the last 3 months and there has been 637K sold in BINs.  Only a slight drop with 1/20th the material.  I'd love to sell more in auction format but my results have always be abysmal. 

Now that I think about it's not as crazy of numbers as I first thought.  Assuming the average auction is for a week you will have 12 sets of auctions end over a 3 month period.  So the total auctions is 2.4 million over the 3 months or 1.5 BINs listed per auctions and there is 1.27 BINs sold vers auctions.  Still a higher percentage of auctions sold but nothing dramatic.

Edited April 15, 2019 by 1Cool

[lou_fine]

6 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

The thrill of the bidding frenzy is fine if you're rich. For those that aren't, extending the closure time just gives richer / lazier people more time to outbid you. It also encourages people to bid higher than they would otherwise want to - it can be addictive. I believe an auction should have a fixed end time. You want the book? Bid your maximum within the allotted time. Win or don't win. Extending the time works only for the seller and reduces the possibility of snagging a bargain, one of the attractive aspects of ebay bidding. If a seller doesn't want to risk that, go for BIN. 

For what it's worth, even though I might get spanked by the Mods here, this is my better half's take on the extended auction bidding format that is used by CC after she watched it in play.

If you are a bidder going after a book, every time the bid is raised during the extended bidding time period, it's almost like another punch in the gut.  

And if you are a seller in an extended auction format, every time the bid gets raised during the extended time period, it's just like another orgasm and as any female will tell you, who doesn't like multiple orgasms as opposed to just a single orgasm.  Especially if it goes on for an extended period of time which is often the case with CC.    

 

Edited April 15, 2019 by lou_fine

[Get Marwood & I]

6 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

For what it's worth, even though I might get spanked by the Mods here, this is my better half's take on the extended auction bidding format that is used by CC after she watched it in play.

If you are a bidder going after a book, every time the bid is raised during the extended bidding time period, it's almost like another punch in the gut.  

And if you are a seller in an extended auction format, every time the bid gets raised during the extended time period, it's just like another orgasm and as any female will tell you, who doesn't like multiple orgasms as opposed to just a single orgasm.  Especially if it goes on for an extended period of time which is often the case with CC.    

 

 

[LordRahl]

It's not feasible for eBay to go to extended bidding. Auction houses have a few hundred auctions all ending within a tight window of time (several hours per day for 3-4 days). Ebay is 24/7. Imagine trying to keep up with that if you are a bidder as opposed to blocking off 2 hours of time on a Wednesday night or whatever. Also, as RMA said, you would get a marked increase in NPB's if people start "over-paying" because of bidding frenzy. Ebay has no consequences for NPB's. CL, CC, Heritage can and will kick you off the site if you start doing that. Ebay not so much.

[Aweandlorder]

2 hours ago, 1Cool said:

Show me some example of what you are talking about.  I've got a few long boxes of dreky Bronze Age Books that I'd love to move out the door but I just don't see any random sets moving at the moment.  If you are talking about sets of ASM 200 - 230 then you can of course so well selling them as a set but most of the time I even see higher BIN results for a nice set like that.  There are almost 3.7 million comic book listings under BINs on E-Bay right now.  The total number of auctions is 200k or about 1/20th the total number of BINS.  The funny thing is the total auctions that have sold is about 500k over the last 3 months and there has been 637K sold in BINs.  Only a slight drop with 1/20th the material.  I'd love to sell more in auction format but my results have always be abysmal. 

Now that I think about it's not as crazy of numbers as I first thought.  Assuming the average auction is for a week you will have 12 sets of auctions end over a 3 month period.  So the total auctions is 2.4 million over the 3 months or 1.5 BINs listed per auctions and there is 1.27 BINs sold vers auctions.  Still a higher percentage of auctions sold but nothing dramatic.

Not sure what proof youre looking for?

a quick search on eBay will show you hundreds of lots selling for anything from $20 to $100s with no particular key book attached to those... If you need more proof that drek is selling in massive quantities look at fb.. Youd find what people have been doing on eBay for years on end, only in a different platform (since of course youre saving the 10% ebay fee).. plenty of examples around

[LordRahl]

1 minute ago, Aweandlorder said:

Not sure what proof youre looking for?

a quick search on eBay will show you hundreds of lots selling for anything from $20 to $100s with no particular key book attached to those... If you need more proof that drek is selling in massive quantities look at fb.. Youd find what people have been doing on eBay for years on end, only in a different platform (since of course youre saving the 10% ebay fee).. plenty of examples around

What he really means is he isn't seeing these types of lots moving for guide because he doesn't want to sell for what they will actually sell for, which is generally well below guide because OSPG is out of touch with reality when it comes to online selling. Of course stuff moves on ebay, even really drekky stuff, as long as you are willing to price it so it will move.