Ebay sniping

[expat]

FFS - auctions should auto-extend if someone bids at the last moment

Did you bid as much as you were willing to pay?

Yes ==> then you lost because you were not willing to pay enough.
No ==> why not? You lost because you didn't bid enough, although you could have done.

Or: amount willing to pay <> constant, depends on what other people bid ==> why?

[TykeMerc]

No, I would have considered their bid and likely to have revised my up. The consequence of sniping is that the seller got less than he would have achieved if there was proper bidding process - you can't "snipe" at real auction by shouting new price one second before its over, the existing bidders will be given opportunity to outbid that sudden bidder - I was not given this opportunity now, so it's a sham really, not auction - ebay lost out too, can't believe they tolerate this tulip.

Actually yes you can enter a last second bid at an auction house, it depends if they run a timed bidding system.

Buying and selling on eBay is has a risk inherent to the medium of selling too low or buying too high, if you want a guaranteed price either avoid eBay or only look at Buy It Now sales.

Bid sniping is part of eBay, if you don't like it avoid eBay.

[AtW]

Did you bid as much as you were willing to pay?

I did not have the chance to outbid them, that is the point! I would have offered more than their bid yes.

As I said again - in real world such sniping is addressed via extention that will allow current bidders to consider if they want to outbid last minute buyer or not, this is achieved by a way of extending auction, something that should have happened in this case.

[Purple Dalek]

AtW ebay is a candle auction, all be it, without the candle, and that is where the problem lies. They could put some randomness into the closing time and that'd stop sniping.

[AtW]

Bid sniping is part of eBay, if you don't like it avoid eBay.

And I do avoid it - buying once a year or so, unfortunately they have got an effective online monopoly in auctions so can't be avoided totally.

[Moscow Mule]

I did not have the chance to outbid them, that is the point!

Yes you did, at the very beginning when you told ebay what your maximum bid was. If that changed whilst the auction was running, it's hardly ebay's fault is it?

Build a bridge and get over it.

[TykeMerc]

I did not have the chance to outbid them, that is the point! I would have offered more than their bid yes.

As I said again - in real world such sniping is addressed via extention that will allow current bidders to consider if they want to outbid last minute buyer or not, this is achieved by a way of extending auction, something that should have happened in this case.

If you would have paid more then your last bid should have been for the max you're willing to pay. If someone is willing to pay more write it off and look for the next one.

[AtW]

Yes you did, at the very beginning when you told ebay what your maximum bid was.

I specified fairly high bid (£20 vs £26 final price) - if I had a chance to review the situation after sniper bid I'd increase mine to £30 or more. Instead I did not have the chance so I went and found same keyboard auction endign in 5 mins and I bid and won it - no snipers, I paid only £5.

Bottom line is this - existing bidders should always have a chance to make another bid for a period of time if someone new suddenly drops in the end.

[wobbegong]

FFS - auctions should auto-extend if someone bids at the last moment

What does it matter when they bid? If they're prepared to pay more than you are, they'll win the item, whether theirs is the first bid or the last.

Bid your max and walk away. If you don't win, don't worry, there'll be another along soon enough.

[AtW]

If you would have paid more then your last bid should have been for the max you're willing to pay. If someone is willing to pay more write it off and look for the next one.

Listen, if they are willing to pay more than me why do they snipe? They could have bid their higher amount from start of the auction or after they saw my bid, yet they did not do that, why? Because clearly they did not want to pay much - their whole strategy is based around denying other bidders chance to bid, that goes against basic auction principles - it is a high anti-competitive practice and should be illegal.

Perhaps auctions should end randomly 1-3 hours before "estimated" end date.