quick poll : Ebay sniping ...

danr

... acceptable way of getting what you want, or the equivalent of strutting round the streets, dropping litter and behaving like a vile dickhead?

(ps - by "sniping" i mean the automated method, using a program to do it for you while you kick back in the pub or something. The manual method requires a certain amount of talent, this i have no problem with)

skrubbles

actually I love ebay.... mainly cause I'm cheap whore

MoP

Using a program to do it for you is just an ass-tastic method of getting stuff. It doesn't happen at real auctions, it shouldn't happen online either.

skrubbles

whoops... misunderstood.

so, yeah I agree with what Mop said

oXYnary

[ QUOTE ]
It doesn't happen at real auctions, it shouldn't happen online either.

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought you could hire people to bid in your place at real auctions?

danr

MoP - my conscience is agreeing with you, but my practical side (as well as my body clock) is screaming that i'll never be able to wake up (or stay up) for 3am

that's the problem with these international auctions for the *really good stuff, they never finish at a convenient hour for us limeys. And in my experience, hefty safety-bids always end up nearly being matched if you submit them before going to bed (oh for christs sake, i didn't MEAN it when i said i'd pay $100 for it - didn't you realise i merely put that on to make sure i'd get it? And didn't you realise you were STILL going to be outbid when you frantically tried upping yours by $5 every 5 minutes for a full hour? And why did you give up at $95, you fucking CHEAPSKATE??)

so, yeah ... i'm torn by not wanting to be a twat (i've been stung by snipers horribly in the past), really wanting the piece but not having limitless funds to guarantee it, and being so knackered that even concentrating on this message is getting hard. Am i rambling? It's likely

ElysiumGX

what do you mean automated? either you're willing to pay the most, or you're not. you place an amount, and ebay bids for you until you are outbid.

What I hate is being the highest bidder until the last 2 seconds. And then suddenly being outbid by several hundred dollars.

ScoobyDoofus

Well, personally I think its more than fair. To do otherwise seems a little retarded. There is nothing against the "rules" or illegal about it. So...they are simply playing the game better, or more efficiently than you.

Of course, I've not really bought much from ebay, so I can't say this has ever effected me.

MoP

Actually, ElysiumGX makes a very good point. Just think what the absolute maximum you think the item is worth, then put that in. No more, no less. That way, you either get it for the price you want, or you don't get it at all.

AstroZombie

Yea, I only put down what I am willing to pay. So if what I'm bidding on gets "sniped," they are paying more than I was willing to pay for the item anyhow.

gauss

i do manual sniping on almost all the time... the automated program stuff is a little skeezy though.

flaagan

i do it, but then, i dont go bidding on ebay every day. i've bought maybe 5-10 items over the past few years, ranging from $30 to $500+, and i'm pretty particular about how much i'm willing to pay for what i bid on, so sniping becomes a necessity. also.. you dont see who you're bidding against on ebay, so there really isnt a comparison to in person bidding in my opinion.. you can't intimidate someone who doesnt see you.

ElysiumGX

plus, ebay has an unlimited number of items, with an unlimited number of users, and is online all day everyday...unlike a real auction. i mostly use "buy it now" if the item is listed for cheaper than I could find anywhere else. especially "without box" items. i always lose when bidding because for some reason I believe I'll get the item for 1/4th the retail value when clearly I can't afford to spend more than half.

danr

well, the point of bidding on the non-retail stuff is that you really CAN buy the item for a fraction of what it's worth. That's the gamble the sellers take when they don't set a reserve, they rely on a good auction to get the full amount.

Take last night. In the end, i didn't use the sniping program - i just put my maximum bid of $50 in, cos that's what the item was worth, and went off to bed with a clear conscience. This gave the other interested party 2 hours to keep trying to outbid me, all the while upping the actual purchase price from the original £10 (remember, you don't pay your maximum bid unless someone matches is). The price i'm paying is $47, whereas if i'd sniped it (either manually or with a program) i could have won it for $12 - quite a difference.

KDR_11k

Ebay offers the option to bid for you up until your max amount is reached, I use that. A sniper will have to pay more than that to get it anyway, whether he bids at the beginning or end of the auction.

What I'd like to see on eBay would be a bidding queue, you add a number of items to thequeue, define a max bid for each and you won't start bidding on the later ones until the first got outbid (i.e. bid on one, if outbid bid on next one, if not outbid stop). That way you could say you want e.g. that game for 30 and give it a list of auctions that sell what you want, then you don't have to do search a new item and bid for that each time you're outbid. Reduce the interaction you have with the site to give everyone a fair chance, even those that are just on for five minutes.

As for the reserve, that should be abolished, if you're not willing to sell under a certain price make that your starting price, don't make everyone believe you're selling for whatever they pay and then go "nuh uh, I want more!".

danr: What you don't know is how many snipers would have joined in if the price wasn't that high towards the end of the auction.

hawken

I miss ebay.