eBay Germany Bans Sniping' Services

[chromium]

Well, title says it all...

article

 

silly to ban these services if you ask me...

[Rickdogg]

Yup,

 

the main thing is, people get pissed off because they place cheapie bids in hopes of winning. It all comes down to the HIGHEST bidder. If you despise of sniping, then just place a freakin' proxy bid that you are comfortable with. If you win, you win, if you lose then someone wanted it more than you did. Plain and simple.

 

Haters usually also always claim the item as being theirs when in actuality it is not.

 

For example, "It was mine! I was the highest bidder and then with 1 second left someone sniped me. It's not fair!"

 

In actuality nothing is yours until you have won it, paid for it, & receive the item. STOP BEING CHEAP & STOP WHINING OVER IT WHEN IT ISN'T YOURS!

 

 

 

 

[aardvark88]

If u don't use sniping software, u will never win anything unless u sacrifice your recreation time & sit in front of the computer 5 mins. b4 end of EVERY auction u have your eye on. This can only be done if u don't work full-time & don't sleep (for all those foreign auctions that end when u r sleeping).

If u bid early, ppl who cyber-stalk u on eBay may bid u up.

[Crowzilla]

One of the best things they could do to stop sniping is offer an "auto-extend" feature (even if they charge extra for it) where the auction stays open until 2,3 or 5 minutes have passed without a bid (after the closing time of course).

Yahoo Japan uses this feature very successfully.

[WernerVonDoom]

My guess it was the sellers who lobbied for that. They are the ones to benefit financially by reducing sniping.

[aardvark88]

Is that a typo? Did u mean moderate BIDDERS would benefit by anti-sniping rules?

[WernerVonDoom]

Not a typo. As a bidder, the lowest price I can attain when bidding is to snipe the auction. What's to gain by bidding early? Letting another bidder rethink his/her maximum bid and up the cost?

 

If all bidders sniped, prices would go down for everyone.

[comicinvestor-migration]

That's pretty faulty logic, given that studies between EBay and other online auctions show that sniping actually increases end prices and really enhanced the number of bidders that take part.

 

If EBay outlawed sniping, I would guarantee that overall prices would fall, even though a miniscule number of high ticket items may rise slightly. Sniping is a rush, and many people are attracted to EBay because a) items end when they're supposed to (so you can estimate an ETA) and b) bidding and sniping is fun.

 

Personally, I would probably not buy on EBay at all if they auto-extended auctions, since that's the exclusive domain of the shill bidder. EBay knows all of the above as well, and have stayed the course with ending auction times and sniping because it makes them more money.

 

Do you really think if taking away sniping and auto-extending auctions would be more profitable for EBay, that they wouldn't have instituted it by now?

[WernerVonDoom]

WHAT?!?

 

Example: I bid on an item with a maximum bid of $100, and the only other bidder has a maximum bid of $90.

 

If we both bid with one second left, I win the item at a price of $92.50. (if the bidding increment is $2.50)

 

If we both bid with 10 minutes left, the price goes to $92.50 and now the other bidder has 10 minutes to decide if he/she wants to put in a new maximum bid, say $120. Now the price goes to $102.50. Now I can try to do the same, and so on.

 

So please, explain to me with your superior logic how I can spend less than $92.50 by bidding earlier?

[comicinvestor-migration]

It's pretty simple (and documented) that sniping draws bidders like flies. If EBay got rid of sniping totally, they'd be out of business the next day. You can't draw comparisons to EBay sales WITH sniping in effect, vs. the environment if EBay took away the functionality entirely.

 

I was actually chatting with an EBay exec a year or so ago, and he was laughing about Yahoo! and Amazon not allowing sniping. It's big bucks, and he knew it.

[comicinvestor-migration]

In case my previous reply wasn't clear enough, allowing sniping draws zillions of potential bidders, therefore making it THE place for sellers, therefore drawing more bidders, and so on, and so on.

 

If you took away sniping, many of the bidders would leave entirely, thereby lowering auction totals by their absense alone. EBay knows this, and will freely admit it. I'd be gone from EBay in a NY minute if they auto-extended auctions. It just wouldn't be worth my time to even bid.

 

If you read the article link that started this, it's actually an issue with automated bidding engines, not sniping and probably the old EBay angle of wanting users on their PCs viewing ads, building revenue and viewing other items rather than being offline and have a set snipe.

 

As the old saying goes, you gotta get them in the door.

[WernerVonDoom]

Ok, I'll buy what you're saying about people leaving eBay if auto-auction-extend is in place, but under the current non-auction-extended rules, sellers benefit from buyers not bidding with a few seconds left. Which implies that sellers would benefit from sniping software being banned.

[comicinvestor-migration]

I don't think so personally, as I've always believed that sniping increases hits, number of buyers, potential bids and from an overall point of view, jacks up the price of high-end, high-demand items.

 

The only reason EBay is looking at banning snipe software is that it makes use of their system and bandwidth, without viewing ads or being lured into buying something through their actual webpage.

[Crowzilla]

Example: I bid on an item with a maximum bid of $100, and the only other bidder has a maximum bid of $90.

If we both bid with one second left, I win the item at a price of $92.50. (if the bidding increment is $2.50)

 

If we both bid with 10 minutes left, the price goes to $92.50 and now the other bidder has 10 minutes to decide if he/she wants to put in a new maximum bid, say $120. Now the price goes to $102.50.

 

I think the point that CI is trying to make is that because sniping is allowed, bidder A has to think long and hard before placing the bid if $90 is really the most he would pay, or if $120 is the most he would pay, as he/she has only one shot. And the statistics tell you that a high percentage of people get caught up in the auction fever and go ahead and bid the $120 - or even a little more to absolutely make sure that they win.

 

But, if the auctions were extended, then he just bids the $90 that he/she really wanted to pay, sees that they are outbid and in the cooling off time might come to realize that there will be a perpetual cycle of bidding on this item, and it will continue to go higher, so they decide to wait until the next one comes along.

 

So, yes if you bid $100 and they bid $90, you win for $92.50 - but CI's point is that the statistics show "they" are more than likely to bid $120 - not $90 and that's why the auctions end higher.

 

I remember bidding on a rare naugahyde doll for a friend in Japan, it sat all week at $1.99 and had no bids - I was convinced no one had seen it. So with less than 30 seconds to go, I put in a bid $351 convinced I would win. It closed with 9 bids and a high bid of $356 (and the next under me was in the 200s). If there was no sniping, and the other 8 people had placed bids, I probably wouldn't have even made an attempt at it. It's kind of a catch-22, but I do see the point.

 

[WernerVonDoom]

I can see how that might be the case if they instituted auto-extend.

 

But under the current system, I do not see how I can get a lower price by bidding anytime other than "1 second left".

[comicinvestor-migration]

Like I said, no sniping = less bidders and you do the math. You can't have one without the other, as the Yahoo! and Amazon auction clearly attest.

 

The guy who started EBay is a genius, and he knows how to draw in the crowds.

[WernerVonDoom]

I must have taken my stupid pills today CI. Could you please run through how I should bid to get the lowest price? Assume that I am willing to spend up to $100 for an item (and want the item enough to make sure I'm not outbid up to $100).

[comicinvestor-migration]

There is no golden rule to "getting the lowest price" as you could get sniped to hell and back, and have the auction end at $500. Or there could be little activity and you win at $10.

 

Every single auction is different, and did you know that 90-95% of auctions end with one or no bids? I think only 1% or less are even sniped, but these tend to be the high-end items with tons of demand (hence the false-complaints from snipe victims) and would never, ever be won for low pre-snipe bids.

 

So if less-than 1% of auctions are even sniped, what's the big deal?

 

The option alone brings the snipers, sellers and buyers in like flies, even though the vast majority of sales are of the "one bid and win" variety. It's all about traffic and the 99%+ of basic EBay sales and not sniping.

[snizzenfixit]

So if less-than 1% of auctions are even sniped, what's the big deal?

 

I am afraid that the problem is that the 1% that are getting sniped are the 1% that I am bidding on

 

Phil