Anti-Snipe Auctioneers

I have yet to run into any sellers like that yet. With few exceptions, most seller are happy to sell the product, no matter. <--still looking for view!!!

rsmiller40

A 5-page-topic! I can't remember ever seeing one. This is definitely an important topic.

LOL, Rick, I think I started it forever ago..I think..or maybe I just repeatably repost to the same cyle of posts!

rsmiller40

I agree that there could be harm to sellers' winning bids if everyone were sniping and there were no bidding wars. However, a sniper can only win if they bid more than the existing bids (sometimes after a bidding war).

I can say from experience that I was pleased when I saw that a buyer had sniped my auction. I had looked at it about an hour prior to closing and was pleasantly surprised when I saw that my price had gone even higher.

I guess I don't understand the objection for a seller unless he is also a buyer who only believes in "manual sniping" or is bitter that he can't win any auctions. In which case, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em--he can do the same thing.

The idea of manual being somehow better than automatic seems to beg the question of the whole e-Bay system. I mean if you want a manual auction, get in your car and go to one on the weekend. Then you can "manually" wave your number in the air and everything....

I just finished reading this post, seems that there are a few "dipsticks" that don't like snipers. Oh well, their loss.

I haven't been sniping long BUT, I tried to snipe some velvet material. Velvet is usually quite expensive unless you can get it on sale. Anyway, I set my snipe for $50. For about 4 days, this material sat at $19.49 with 4 bids. I was definitely feeling that I would win this material "hands down." Here's what happened: the seller is disappointed because the fabric isn't selling like he/she wants and the current high bidder is thinking that they are going to win. Both go to bed. The next morning the seller gets ecstatic, the high bidder gets a major shock and the sniper cries! When AS placed my snipe, the price went from $19.49 to $51 and some change. Evidently the high bidder wanted the material worse than I did. But I sure wish that I could have been a fly on their walls to see the looks on their faces!

Six inches Lord, that's all I need!

Crafty, did you research the bidding histories of the four other bidders? You might have been able to detect that the eventual winner had a habit (or technique) of posting very high maximums. But then, you wouldn't have changed your snipe anyway because $50 was your max. There'll be some more velvet coming your way sooner rather than later.

Thanks for the advice. I didn't even think about doing that. I will next time. I buy a lot of material because my daughter and I sew so much. Very good advice.

Thanks,
Crafty

Six inches Lord, that's all I need!

Sorry for coming into this late

It seems as though eBay's policy is, "anything that is not explicitly prohibited is permitted".

Meaning that if a seller lists the conditions of sale of an item as:

"You must send me a picture of your driver's license before I can complete this transaction."

That would be OK, and sometimes reasonable if you were selling adult material.

But let's take it one step further:

"You must send me a picture of your driver's license before I can complete this transaction. If I determine that you look Asian or Semitic, I will reject the transaction."

(Sorry if you're Asian, Semitic, or both -- I just wanted to add shock value). Since eBay doesn't explicitly have a rule against restricting a sale to certain segments of the population, such a term would be OK by eBay.

However, if the above *weren't* mentioned in the auction, and then you get an e-mail with the above, you have the right to nail the seller with several railroad spikes, since it's against eBay rules to refuse a transaction provided the auction's terms have been met.

In eBay's defense, what sort of rule could they have that would prevent the latter term, but accept the former (adult verification) term? How about preventing terms like, "If I don't like your face" or "If your name is Bob"?

I don't think eBay could possibly cover all the bases.

So I guess the moral of the story is, read the terms carefully. If you don't like what you see, stay away. And all terms must be mentioned in the auction listing.

Well, actually, Ebay does have reams of policies and adding to them all the time. You are right. It would be next impossible to touch all bases since the are something like 12 million auctions of who knows how many different things going all the time.

rsmiller40

why do people sell items them moan when people buy them????


we all snipe at auctions

we all have a limit that we will not go above and if the lot is still available below that limit before the hammer has come down then we bid

when i buy from a live public auction i wait untill all the bidders except one have bid then if the price is still right i start bidding

works ok for me and is exactly the same as what we do with AS (isn't it ??)

New-as-user, I pretty much agree with your statement. I am a seller and buyer and love AS either direction. It is an auction, afterall, sometimes you do well, sometimes you don't, but I treat Ebay auction about the same as I would a live auction....and welcome to our forum!

rsmiller40