quick poll : Ebay sniping ...
interpolator
... 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)
(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)
Replies
so, yeah I agree with what Mop said
It doesn't happen at real auctions, it shouldn't happen online either.
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I thought you could hire people to bid in your place at real auctions?
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
What I hate is being the highest bidder until the last 2 seconds. And then suddenly being outbid by several hundred dollars.
Of course, I've not really bought much from ebay, so I can't say this has ever effected me.
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.
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.