[photo-3d] Another argument for sniping....

["Dr. George A. Themelis" <drt-3d@xxxxxxx>]

>All I'm sure of is that the pro sniping arguments I've 
>seen thus far are too overly simplistic and fallacious 
>to be taken as gospel.

Okidoki, then listen to this one: From time to time
I search under "buyers" to see what "competitors" in
the field are buying.  This search option will show
me all the items that a specific person has a bid on.

For example, let say I collect View-Master items.
Everyone knows that Mary Ann Sell is one of the biggest
collectors in the field and, occasionally, she is even
bidding in low-priced rare items that she already has.
So I check to see where does Mary Ann have her bids
now.  Hmmm... interesting... I had missed this very
nice VM collectible (it was under the "vintage junk"
wrong category.)  Thank you Mary Ann for finding
it for me!  To show my appreciation I will try to
outbid you!!!

Specifically, I know a few buyers who are clearly 
buying for resale.  Whatever they are bidding on
must be a bargain so I mark it down for future
reference (to snipe, of course).  You see, by showing
me their interests early, first save me time from
finding the good deals and second alert me to the good
buys.  Every one knows that DrT buys from ebay
undervalued items to resell.  By seeing DrT's name as
the highest bidder, they can be sure that this is
a good value and that's why he is bidding on it.  So, 
they think "If DrT is willing to pay X amount of money
for it, I will pay X + y".  This of course would have 
been impossible if DrT was sniping that why HE IS sniping.

BTW, I noticed that you cannot search Germans.  You
get a message that this is against the German laws.
You cannot search their bidding history (all the
items they have placed a bid the last month or so).
But, apparently, it is fine with the American laws.

LONG LIVE EBAY AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!

George Themelis