Re: [photo-3d] Sniping

[William Gartin <william_gartin@xxxxxxx>]

on 2/11/01 7:34 AM, Hans Middendorp wrote:

> The phenomenon of sniping really stops me from bidding myself in most
> instances, as it means becoming involved in last-second bidding up to often
> much higher bids then I originally had in mind anyway. And stopping people
> from bidding is probably not the idea of eBay, is it?

A sniper can only win the auction if his is the high bid. Are you bidding
your max? If not, you're handicapping yourself. My max dollar amount to bid
isn't any different, only the time when I enter a bid. I've lost far more
auctions than I've won, simply because I wasn't willing to spend as much as
the high bid went to. "Win or lose, here's what I'm willing to spend." If
you're willing to spend more, I lose, regardless of the timing.
> 
> I have been wondering why eBay is not employing some variant of the
> "five-minute-rule" used in many telephone auctions (i.e. bidding to continue
> until no more bids received for 5 minutes, or whatever limit agreed). That
> would really expose the highest bid, in favour of the seller, would it not?
> It would surely counterbalance sniping, IMHO, because each snipe would again
> extend the time-limit.

The five minute extension rule would guarantee an advantage to those who
have the time to be online 24-hours. As for me, I have to sleep, a job to go
to, and a life to be lived. I probably wouldn't even bother with this kind
of auction. I suspect the same is true for other bidders, so this isn't all
that likely to be of much help to sellers.
> 
> The way it works now, there is a one-week (or whatever) advertising period
> (_for the innocents_ as George has pointed out), with a 60-second bidding
> period (and at often inconvenient times in my part of the world). Those who
> are on-line 24-hours, with access to sniping software, are defenitely
> advantaged.

Software is easy, and needn't cost a dime. I've just signed up with and
started using esnipe, so I don't have to be there for the end of the
auction, just as with any other form of proxy bidding. It's free, doesn't
require loading anything other that a link on your computer, is platform
independent (I use Mac w/Explorer), and seems to work well, but is limited
to eBay, for now. See http://www.esnipe.com/ for details. There is another
at http://www.vrane.com/ but I've only signed up, and haven't had a chance
to test it, yet.
> 
> Hans
> (prevented from spending too much on eBay by snipers)
That's probably to your benefit, in the long run! ;-)
 -- 
William Gartin <william_gartin@xxxxxxx>