1. "Smarter than the average poster" indeed. Indeed.
2. There are tons of explanations and people are still saying "I still don't get it"
3. The never lose feature. I just read about this in the tips section, and I am willing to bet people are actually requesting it. "Shut up and take my money!"
4. Sniping when there are two hours left and I bet you're going to watch the whole time.
Rather than try to make how bid enhancements work subjective, I'll weigh in on why I think they are supposed to work.
Ever want to bid up to $50 on something but bid $50.02 as a tie breaker? It seems that rather than try to snipe a bizarre number, you could just bid the nice round number you planned on, but add a bid enhancement just in case someone outbid you by a penny. I think the key here is to curb winning by less than one increment.
And honestly, call me a nibbler, but it doesn't make much sense to say "the most I'll pay is $600, not a penny more" and really mean it. I think most people who lose my such a negligible margin regret it. I know I would have been willing to add one increment in most cases if it meant sure victory. It's kind of silly to sit and think of the absolute most you'd be willing to pay. I'd pay $300. Would I pay $325? I suppose so. Would I pay $330? Okay, I guess. How about $331? ...and so on. That's how bidding wars start in the first place. It's that really annoying hand in poker where you figure you'd call one extra chip because you have a pair, but then the guy after you re-raises.
As far as adding more than the minimum amount of increments to get in one last bid, now THAT'S some serious nibbling. You need to seek professional help right away.
I don't bid till the last minute because of what someone said earlier about people gauging their bid on other people. It seems that once you bid others are more likely to run you up. Personally I'm the opposite. If something has a bunch of bids I often don't bother because I feel like it's just going to be a frenzy. I LOVE seeing something with zero bids at the end. Whatever happened to silent auctions, anyway? It's the same principle, don't just sit there and see what others think it's worth. Half the time people assume a product is high quality because it's expensive (speaking of which, I'm sniping a snap-on cab right now
). It's the anomaly to supply and demand. If you're not selling much of it, perhaps raise the price and you'll sell more. The best example of this that I can think of is artwork, but I digress.And thus, AuctionSniper was born.
It's just a matter of time until ebay makes the auctions five minutes long. Perhaps the listing fees will be per day, then it could be like more like auctions where they showcase it for a week and you go on the last day to actually do the bidding. I guess it's kind of like that already...