[CR]re: sniping

(Example: Production Builders)

From: "C. Andrews" <chasds@mindspring.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 20:44:40 -0700
Subject: [CR]re: sniping

ray wrote:

either way, ebay could easily offer this format and make even more money - i wonder why they don't. for all practical purposes, the auction end really only gets extended by a very short time overall. i think it would actually be more fair for both buyers and sellers, since the person truly willing to pay the most will win, without involving guesswork, strategy or third-party services.

imagine the duels we would witness in that format!

ray dobbins miami florida

*******

I've followed the sniping thread with interest. Sniping does not guarantee a lower cost, but it improves the odds of a lower cost at the end of the auction, in my experience.

I too am completely bewildered that ebay has not instituted the extended auction, as the Yahoo auction sites used to do (or still do, for all I know). I suspect ebay is afraid such auctions would scare off new customers (read: new buyers). They need to grow with new buyers, and such extended auctions might confuse newbies. That's the only explanation I can come up with.

As for the statement that sniping services would be useless in an extended auction format...they wouldn't be the same, but they wouldn't be useless. They'd just be different. I can think of a few interesting twists on the standard sniping service in the event ebay institutes extended auctions.

Classic content: I just won a super-cool early 70s Colnago-drilled chainring/crank with milled cinelli stem with a snipe..and I paid far less than I thought I would. Had I made my highest bid in advance of the end of the auction I would have paid a LOT more, I guarantee it. In addition, this particular auction was mis-labeled, so very few people saw it, comparatively speaking, although there were other bidders. Had I bid early on it, someone who might be interested in knowing what I was bidding on could have found the item when they otherwise might not have. Yet another good reason for NOT bidding in advance.

Charles Andrews SoCal

...concerning "energy conservation:"

"The government asks the peasants to sit in the cold and dark so the rich and famous can heat their olympic-size swimming pools and still have enough left over to fuel their Lear Jets for gambling junkets to Monaco..."

-- Jay Hanson. Founder of http://www.dieoff.org