OK, two questions, actually.
I spent a couple of weeks bidding on an item that I needed for work which was usually priced $800.00- $1000.00. There was a lot of competition for similar items and I ended up purchasing off of ebay and not in an auction of any kind. (It turns out that I got a much better deal on a much better version of said item.)
One particular auction brought up a question; the seller was clearly a dealer (meaning retail hours) in the Central time zone. I bid $ 560.00 and won over a previous bid of $505.00 with an amount of $515.00 (exact numbers sketchy in my memory, but exact numbers aren't the point here). At two in the morning Central time, I was outbid with a new total around $570.00. Two minutes later, I got another e-mail stating that a bid was retracted, making me the current winner (because, the bidder stated "unable to contact seller" AT TWO O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING?!) Then a couple of minutes later, the same bidder placed another bid that didn't beat my max bid. Obviously, they were trying to feel out my max bid. Near the end of the auction, I was beaten again, I won once more, then subsequently THAT bidder retracted their previous bid (to bring the total down) and finally won with a lower top price because her retraction let me temporarily win with my first, not second and higher bid. Got all that?
The question this brings up, is; What if I lost one auction because I am outbid, so I buy the same item on another auction. Then the bidder who outbid me on the first auction retracts their bid. Now I've won the same item on two auctions when I only need one and they're really expensive (meaning no way I'm buying two to prevent negative feedback.)
I assume the answer to this is that a bid is a bid until the end of the auction, right? Even though the bid retractions on this item were bogus, I would feel like I still have to stand by a bid even if another bidder doesn't. The problem is that a bid retraction is one thing, but reneging on an auction is another. SO IS IT OK TO RETRACT A BID ON AN AUCTION I'VE LOST BECAUSE I'VE WON THE SAME ITEM ON ANOTHER AUCTION? (whew!)
The second question is purely theoretical. The reason I looked up Auction Sniper is probably the same as everyone else's. I lost on an item that had only two bids for something like eight days, only to lose in the last seven seconds.
So what happens when everyone is using some kind of Auction Sniper-type device? Or more realistically, when two Auction Sniper users are competing for the same auction. I guess it becomes a kind of Meta-Ebay, doesn't it. Of course we'll beat everyone else to the punch, but it becomes a normal auction between the two Auction Sniper users, doesn't it.
Thanks,
cooper
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