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quote:
Originally posted by pig:
Wouldn't it make sense to compare the bids and fire just the bigger one?


This was left by amh (forum member) on 5/23/03 at 2:19 AM:
Ringing

Ringing is a system whereby a group of people proposing to bid at an auction get togetehr and hold a private auction to see who will win an item on the basis that thereafter only the "winner" will bid at the real auction. The aim of course is to keep the price low for the benefit of the ringers.

In the UK at least, this is a serious criminal offence and fraud.

The suggestion is basically for AS to be an automated auction ring. It will not fly!


It is uncertain whether "ringing" is illegal in the U.S., but I suspect it is. But even if it isn't illegal, if ebay discovered that AS was ringing, they would shut AS down, either electronically or legally for restraint of trade. Just off the top of my head, you may want to research the Sherman Antitrust Act.

I'm sure you, like the rest of us snipers, would not want to see AS put out of business. So, that's why forum members, AS staff, and anyone that doesn't have a surreptitious purpose of destroying AS would energetically reject this.

As a side note: I find it fascinating that since 5/6/03, that this is the fourth person (clarkhawkins-5/6/03; sonofagunk-5/21/03; scottopoly-5/28/03) to purpose this, and yet, since the forum has been in existence, no one else has ever suggested this. I am not drawing any conclusion, nor am I inferring anything from this fact. I just find it interesting.
Re: recapping a few more of scottopoly's statements:

***JUNE 05, 2003 02:48 AM***:
" ... But it is somewhat bad to outbid someone at the last minute specifically because then they will not be able to rebid ..."

" So, in conclusion ..."


***JUNE 05, 2003 03:55 PM***:
"... all that's left is putting 2 and 2 together and sending a warning or displaying a warning when I load the my snipes page ...'


***JUNE 07, 2003 04:36 PM***:
"... I'm somewhat against AS in the first place cause it gives an unfair advantage to those who use it .... it screws some poeple over given the current bidding mechanics, but only stupid people, and who cares about them. ...."

"This is why his (sonofagunt) idea was a practical one, and would save money, (although somewhat illegally and immorally)..."

"ya, people seemed bothered that AS might ever consider canceling THEIR bid, I mean, the horror! ...."

"because it IS underhanded to bid late specifically with the purpose of not giving poeple time to outbid you. ... Ebay should try to regulate or outrule underhanded systems..."



***JUNE 08, 2003 01:51 AM***:
"sorry to outlive your attention span ..."

"the snipe always screws someone ...."


Scott,

Based on the statements you made above (as well as your other statements I recapped on 5/5/03 4:12 PM), it sounds like you see something wrong in sniping ("bad", "against AS", "it screws, "it IS underhanded", "Ebay should try to regulate", "the snipe always screws someone"), but then you want AS to tell you about previously placed snipes ("would save money", "displaying a warning"). Wouldn't the change you are purposing make AS even more "underhanded"?

You state that sniping lowers the ending price, but then you suggest that AS not place, or warn about, competitive snipes. Wouldn't that lower the ending price?

You say, "it screws some poeple ... but only stupid people, and who cares about them." Does that mean the "bad", the "against", the "screws", the "underhanded" is OK if it only happens to "stupid people"?

The comment about attention span was uncalled for. The reason I continue to summarize your statements, is to point out that you seem to continue to contradict yourself, thereby, putting an unfavorable light on your attention span.

Here's an idea that one of my learned associates suggested: Maybe you take "an opposite side just to get discussion started" and your "playing 'devil's advocate'".

"Yes of course that's obvious, but unless Ebay changes their system, people will never all bid max. (Therefore, the snipe always screws someone (maybe someone not great at bid-theory))" [6/8/03 1:51 AM] - Since that was your 30-word-statement, I'll assume that is the issue you have been trying to make, and not that you would like AS to make any changes that would ACTUALLY "screw" someone (the seller).


PIG: I thought you might appreciate my thoughts to another one of you.
If you want my opinion, I believe that sniping is bad, it's not fair to the seller. I'm also sell something sometimes and want to have a good auction and better money out of it. Why am I using sniping? Because if it exists it would stupid do not to.

Anyway, back to the first question. Why the hell I've lost that auction? Some sniper placed the bid 30s before the end time, I had 15s lead time and better bid...
quote:
Originally posted by pig:
If you want my opinion, I believe that sniping is bad, it's not fair to the seller. I'm also sell something sometimes and want to have a good auction and better money out of it. Why am I using sniping? Because if it exists it would stupid do not to.



Help me to understand - you think sniping is bad and it's not fair to the seller, but because it exists it would be stupid do (sic) not to?

Your posting times remind me of your others.
Found it. It was in your account in a bid group. I forgot to set the filters to show all snipes.

Yep, looks like we missed it. We do bid from 3 servers. So generally a miss from all 3 servers, espeically with a 15 second lead time would mean eBay wasnt accepting bids at that point, or there was a fairly bid internet hiccup of sometype since all our servers hit eBay from different networks.

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