sniping should be made impossible

Now, I never said that nibling should be made impossible. By the same token, sniping should not be made impossible. To each their own style of biding, and for their own reasons. That is what makes auctions so much fun. It is so much fun to get the pile of boxes in the mail.

"Shop" and My Snipes

Ok, here's another thought.

If as you people say, sniping is fine, good, moral and ethical, and simply an alternative to proxy bids...

then

WHY DON'T YOU SIMPLY PUT A PROXY BID IN?

what have you got to hide?

Ok, if ebay allowed sealed bids, then this would solve the problem.

Paul
(just stirring up the hornets' nest again :-)

By putting in a proxy bid early in the auction, it gives another bidder a chance to outbid me and brings the price higher than what I'm willing to pay. By sniping, I have a chance of getting the widget for the price I want to pay because the bidding hasn't reached my max. amount yet. (if it has then I simply won't snipe it) A proxy bid is hidden. There's no way of knowing what someone's max. bid is unless another bidder nibbles away it it til they're the high bidder. And it really doesn't matter what someone else's max. bid is, only what yours is. I only bid what I'M WILLING TO PAY. If another buyer's proxy is higher than my max. bid, then they win and I move on to another auction and try again.

And, another advantage is that if I change my mind and find a better deal or I just saw something in that auction the seller said and I missed, I can cancel..at least up to the 2 min. wire! I find sniping no more tackless than bidding on an auction myself at the last possible moment. I've, and I suspect most of us, have done that many times.

I think it's better, easier and simpler for buyers that the auction time doesn't get extended. Less emotional biddings (which sellers love to see that in their listings tho.) as well.

Placing bids in the last minute (manually..) is my only strategy of biddings on eBay ever since my first few biddings which I lost of course. :P The beauty of this strategy is that it doesn't give bidders (including yourself depending on when you place your bid) enough time to raise their bids again.

You either win or lose - simple as that, no second chance. Like sudden death, no overtime.

Bidding in the last minute is also risky as you may not be able to place your bid in time. I have had problems with lost my connection, computer crashed, phone calls...etc in the last minute hence unable to place my bids. So bidding in the last minute or sniping does NOT guarantee that you will win the auction.

Only the higher bidder will win! No magic about that.

That is what eBay keep emphasizing - the one who wins the auction is the one is willing to pay HIGHER price.

btw, a buyer won one of my listings with AS.. hence I am here. No more manually sniping for me.

I also scored a bargain with AS yesterday although I was watching the auction live. But again, there were about 10 snipes that didn't take place as my max bids were too low :P.

[This message was edited by CK on November 27, 2003 at 05:54 PM.]

[This message was edited by CK on November 27, 2003 at 05:55 PM.]

Ck, you are 100% right!


to our forum! Hope to see you often!

quote:

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what have you got to hide?

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My max bid that is. I don't show my last card in the last minute.

It's also fair as I don't know what other bidders' max bids either - until the last minute.

I don't like to see bidders placing many bids with small increments everytime. I have seen a competing bidder placed 15+ bids and each increase by a few cents or dollars before I was outbidded.

The golden rule for auction - do your research and work out your max bid before bidding. Never go over that limit. Unless you keep losing with that max bid for the same item of course.

Yo Rick. That is too cute for words.

"Shop" and My Snipes

CK, you are so right. By the way, welcome and enjoy the fun.

"Shop" and My Snipes

There is so much stuff on e-bay I have yet to not find what I am looking for within 3 months for rare items. Ubid seems funny to me it just didn't "feel right" when i used it so I quit.



Sniper rating <-FG->

I found this guy lurking in the loft!

Mrs. M. I love your little snipe. I still will keep my two little snipes however.

"Shop" and My Snipes

I don't see why us snipers have to constantly defend ourselves. Sniping is not illegal, Ebay (Australia at least) accepts it.

Many, many, times I have read the valid responses of my fellow AS users, and if you fail to see the advantages, then I will be looking forward to beating you at more and more auctions.

If E-Bay ever adopts that approach I will stop buying things on E-Bay. U-Bid uses that approach and I find it totally frustrating and I finally gave up on that site. I was bidding on a computer once that went almost an hour over the end time. Why would anyone want to sit at their computer for an hour upping a bid to win something. I have a lot of much better things to do with my time.

quote:

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Originally posted by Mardi W:
Why would anyone want to sit at their computer for an hour upping a bid to win something.

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It's a mystery to me, and probably to other snipers.

I actually bought the computer I am using on Ubid. I must have bid on 20 of them over a month before I finally got a bargain, well below retail. Everytime I thought I had one bought right it would go over forever until it was out of sight. I wouldn't want to do that often. It wasn't much fun, but in the end, I did save several hundred dollars.

How come there is always a seasoned (50+) bidder in the nibble process?

Some are just slow.

Agree with everyone above, sniping just makes bidding easier - but it's not the be all, and end all.

You still have to detrimine how much you're willing to spend then put it in as a snipe - there's lots of things that can still go wrong -
- Lose to a proxy bid
- Lose to another sniper that puts in in after you
- Not really putting your highest bid in and then wondering if you'd have won if you did.

Put eBay is a great place to find almost everything, and sniping is just the easier way to bid.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ShoptillIdrop:
Sour Grapes of some sort.... QUOTE]

Me Thinks you are correct!


B-Man

~ If It Ain't Broke, I Can Fix It ~

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