Ebay sniping

[BrilloPad]

Maximum bids change depending on competition - thats the nature of auctions. Sniping goes against this nature by avoiding actual competition in bidding process - this is, like counting cards in blackjack in Monaco, should be banned illegal practice.

Practical way for solving this is extending auction or ending it randomly so that nobody wait till last second to make bid.

I vote with my money - I won't be using ebay again unless I am totally desperate.

they drop their capitalist principals

HTH

[Moscow Mule]

Maximum bids change depending on competition

Grrr.

[EternalOptimist]

what is this ebay ?

[expat]

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.

You have spotted the reason for sniping, but misinterpreted it.

It is not to deny other bidders the chance to bid (that is not within their power, it is you yourself who did that), it is to take advantage of other bidders who foolishly do not bid as much as they are willing to pay.

Their strategy is optimal: your strategy of not bidding as much as you are willing to pay is sub-optimal, because it can lead to your losing an auction at a bid less than you are willing to pay. You could have prevented this by using the optimal strategy of bidding your max at the start.

The problem is error on your part (confusing the type of auction with another type). The solution is not for eBay to change their type of auction, nor for the government to make sniping illegal; the solution is for you to change your behaviour to an optimal strategy.

[ratewhore]

Jaysus - what a crazy concept...

Not if you're the owner it's not. Plebs buy bids at 50p a pop, each bid on an item increases the price by 7p. So,for example, if a PS3 goes for £70, thats 1000 bids at 50p plus the £70 for the eventual winner = £570 going to swoopo.

All the winning plebs see is the £70 they picked up a PS3 for. All the losing plebs just see their 50p bids down the toilet.

I hear people are losing money hand over fist on this site...

[AtW]

It is not to deny other bidders the chance to bid (that is not within their power, it is you yourself who did that), it is to take advantage of other bidders who foolishly do not bid as much as they are willing to pay.

No, the primary reason for bidding at the last minute is to deny ability to respond to the bid. Additionally by NOT bidding during auction this depresses other bids as other people don't bid as much - the end result is that the final sell price lower than it would otherwise be. Therefore such approach will hit:

a) sellers as they won't get as high sale price as they would in case of honest bidding
b) ebay gets less money
c) honest bidders like me tell ebay to fook off until they sort this problem out

Winners? Snipers. Losers? Everyone else. Not exactly a balanced marketplace.

[DodgyAgent]

what is this ebay ?

It is where northerners go on holiday

[ratewhore]

No, the primary reason for bidding at the last minute is to deny ability to respond to the bid. Additionally by NOT bidding during auction this depresses other bids as other people don't bid as much - the end result is that the final sell price lower than it would otherwise be. Therefore such approach will hit:

a) sellers as they won't get as high sale price as they would in case of honest bidding
b) ebay gets less money
c) honest bidders like me tell ebay to fook off until they sort this problem out

Winners? Snipers. Losers? Everyone else. Not exactly a balanced marketplace.

Enough already. FFS, that's how it works. Deal with it...

[expat]

No, the primary reason for bidding at the last minute is to deny ability to respond to the bid. Additionally by NOT bidding during auction this depresses other bids as other people don't bid as much - the end result is that the final sell price lower than it would otherwise be. Therefore such approach will hit:

a) sellers as they won't get as high sale price as they would in case of honest bidding
b) ebay gets less money
c) honest bidders like me tell ebay to fook off until they sort this problem out

Winners? Snipers. Losers? Everyone else. Not exactly a balanced marketplace.

What we have here is not exactly a balanced bidder IMHO

"Additionally by NOT bidding during auction this depresses other bids as other people don't bid as much" - this is presumably the reason why you do not bid as much as you are willing to pay right from the start. I.e. you are playing the same game. You're just sore because you lost that game.

[AtW]

Deal with it...

I did - I bought what I wanted for £5, rather than £20 that was outbid by sniper. On my part I am pleased to have increased price closer to fair value so that the sniper paid far more than I did for exactly the same item from I think the same seller - the **** should have sniped the other item