[CR]eBay sniping (please correct me if I'm wrong)

(Example: Component Manufacturers)

Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2006 19:25:49 -0400
From: "Erik Jos Olsson" <sparklinglime@mac.com>
To: CR List <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR]eBay sniping (please correct me if I'm wrong)

I'll risk making myself look naive. Can't a bidder just defeat a snipe

by bidding a ridiculously high amount in the last 30 or so seconds,

counting on the fact that all of the snipers' bids couldn't possibly be

THAT ridiculously high? I mean assuming that the item in question

would obviously be extremely desirable, and the non-snipe-advantaged

would already be prepared to pay a ridiculously high amount for it

considering that it is an auction. Or does sniping software do an end

run around this counter-measure? As far as I know, sniping isn't just a

convenience for people who are at work. Also, why wouldn't eBay extend an

auction by a minute or two after every bid, it seems that it would generate

more interest in the whole game (which is what it really is most of the time

anyway), making sniping irrelevant in the process. Think cash ripping contests

fools sometimes engage in. And, if a timed auction is such a miracle of the

modern age, why don't auction houses just fire all of their auctioneers, and do

it like eBay? I will very gratefully take any responses off-list if you so choose.

Erik Olsson
Rochester, NY