Re: [photo-3d] Sniping

["Jay W. McGuire" <PigsOnTheWing@xxxxxxx>]

Tony,

> With Ebay, if you initially bid that amount, they will slowly increase
> your bid until it reaches your maximum.

Which is exactly what you *don't* want to happen! I can tell that you know
very little about how eBay works! eBay is *not* the same as a live auction
where the bidding continues to go up until there are no more bidders...and
then it's suddenly over ("Going once..."). Rather, eBay works on a 3/5/7/10
day clock, and the auction doesn't end until an exact hour, minute, and
second have been reached. Because of this, there is absolutely *no reason*
to bid on an item until that very time actually rolls around. To bid any
earlier does nothing but invite competition...and higher prices!

Let's say there's a packet of View-Master reels that I'm interested in.
Someone has already bid the open of $5 (poor fellow!). No one else appears
to be interested...and the auction doesn't end for six more days. Let's see.
I could bid $6-10 right now...and all that would do is alert this person to
the fact that someone else is interested. He'll then likely up his bid to
$7-$11 so that he's on top again. If I were stupid...I could then bid
higher. If he were really stupid (and it looks like it!)...he'd up his bid
even more. The week continues on...and we've both managed to raise the price
on this View-Master packet to God-knows-what! On the other hand, I could let
this guy sit there all week long thinking he's won this set of reels for $5.
I show up at 2 seconds to close...bid the absolute maximum I'm willing to
spend (maybe $20 in this case)...and wind up taking the item for $5.25
(because this guy never bothered to increase his initial bid--he thought it
was going to be his!). Gee. Let's see. Do I want to pay $5.25? Or
$19.50...because I was an idiot and fought with this guy all week long over
an item that wasn't going to be sold until an exact hour, minute, and
second...six days later?!

Regards,

Jay