WHAT EBAY CAN DO TO STOP WHINERS GETTING SNIPED

So what's the point in sniping under those rules? You'd have an auction that never ends.

The whole point of sniping is to avoid "bidding wars" where two or more bidders keep trying to top one another and end up driving the item price out of sight. Your idea would cancel this crucial benefit of sniping.

steve, a true auction is an auction till it is over.i think that sniping is not to stop a bidding
war, but to be able to place a bid on an item and not have to be there to watch it go off.a great feature for me. as for the bidding wars as you call them, are greattttttt for me as a seller and great for ebay and someone won an auction for an item that they wanted.something is worth what TWO people are willing to pay for it. i think an auction extension would be great for buyers, sellers, and ebay.

Yahoo used to offer that as an option on their auctions. It's designed to replicate more an "online" auction. I believe there are some other online auctions which also have this feature. Yet eBay's market share is massive. Methinks neither sellers not buyers actually like this feature.

There's actually some serious research at http://vwl3-10.ww.uni-magdeburg.de/anmeldungen/konferenz_2002/data/85.pdf.submit entitled "An Experimental Analysis of Late-Bidding in Internet Auctions" looking at the relationship between early/late bidding and whether an auction is extended automatically. The authors note than on Amazon, which has automatic extension, there's much less late bidding than on eBay, which does not. I think their conclusion was that the Amazon model produces (slightly) lower prices than the eBay one, but it's very technical.

Mcdads, please go back and read my comment again. I did *not* say "stop" a bidding war. I said "avoid" a bidding war, and sniping certainly does do that. Sniping also AVOIDS encouraging bidding wars.

The rest of my comment also stands as written.

i love a bidding war. it means more money on my auctions. and ebay has to love it. means more money to them. the object of an auction is to get the absolute maximim amount for an item when it sells.an auction extension would make this possible.

Any experienced eBay user quickly learns to bid the right amount. Even if the current price is $20 and the auction ends in 5 seconds, I will bid $60 if I know that the item is worth this price. And of course, I use AuctionSniper for this. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. I recently lost an auction that stayed at $26 during one week. I bid $51 five seconds before the end of the auction and lost the auction because the previous bidder had put the right value.

mcdads, the research paper to which I pointed shows that a bidding extension does not flame a bidding war. Simply, with extendible auctions, people bid earlier the amonut they want to pay and stop. ftfr is right

McDads, as an eBay buyer, I use the site in order to find bargains, not to engage in bidding wars. Your success as a seller and Ebay's success in general depend on the interest and goodwill of buyers. If eBay were to adopt the system you suggest, the result would be to discourage many buyers from participating in the eBay community. An eBay auction is not the same as a real-time, in-person auction and should not be treated as such.

McDads' attitude is precisely the reason why I started sniping. His greed is showing.

Steve i think you hit it right on the head.pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.set the maximum amount you'er willing to pay and then walk away.either you'll get it or you won't.i find the present system works quite well,thank you very much.