Sniping does indeed limit maximum selling price in many cases..
In the case of sniping, the potential buyer enters the maxiumum price they are willing to bid, then sits back and lets the electronics take over. Once the dust has settled and the item is sold to the highest bidder, a quick query to the loser is often (almost always!) that they in fact would have paid more, especially now that they have lost that auction. Some dispassionate bidders may say no, but most would have squeezed the piggie bank a little harder to take the prize. Conventional auctions use this factor to drive the prics ever upward but eBay and other "timed" inline auctions eliminate the upward spiral that emotion could play by stopping all bidding at the end of that proscribed time. Hence the logical (and legitimate) tool called sniping was created....
Some of us use a sniping tool precisely because of that, i.e. it prevents us from being stupid and impulsively bidding higher than we really should!
Dale Brown Greensboro, NC USA
-----Original Message----- From: John Thompson <JohnThompson@new.rr.com> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Sent: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 08:43:09 -0500 Subject: Re: [CR]re: first gen TA - Snipe service no Difference!
hersefan@comcast.net wrote:
> I am somewhat baffled by the assumption that a sniping service would
> result in lower purchase prices. A sniping service actually turns
> the auction into the equivelent of sealed bid auction where the bids
> are opened in the final moments.
It's frustrating. After losing out on more than a few items because of last minute sniping, I reluctantly started using a sniping tool. I don't particularly like it, but sometimes it's the only way...
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-John Thompson (john@os2.dhs.org)
Appleton WI USA