Overstock.com Auction with no sniping

[dapperdan]

http://auctions.overstock.com/cgi-bi...CID=2&FAQID=62

In the past I thought about this same concept and thought that would be cool if ebay allowed the seller to have the option of doing something like this so it was a true auction.

[mr. fixx]

I am all for this.. I have been the unfortunate victim of several snipes.. Auctions that end at rediculas times in the morning. Being sniped is frustrating to say the very least..

I have seen auctions go up by several hundred dollars within 30 seconds.. Its just not right.. A person enters a bid, and is winning the auction for DAYS until the last second when some moron snipes..

This policy actually makes the bid price an accurate reflection of what the item is going to go for since its useless to SNIPE..

my 2 cents,

Fixx

[monaghj]

A snipe only works if they are prepared to pay more than you. Enter in the max you are willing to pay and if some fool wants to pay more then its their perogative. If you are feeling cheated because someone puts in a bid that was 1.50 more than yours and you feel you would have been willing to put out another 2.00 for the item...well then you should have done it the first time.....its a Free market get over it.

[Tulsa]

10 minute extension is silly. So someone hits you by $1 and it goes for 10 more minutes, then another $1 for another 10 minutes and so on. You could have to sit there for another hour waiting for an auction to close.

Na, may the best sniper win.

[gwarzin]

If I was selling I would much prefer Overstock's method as it will result in the highest possible selling price. As a buyer, I find it much easier to get bargains using sniping.

There is absolutely no reason for someone that bids sensibly to lose an eBay auction to a sniper. In fact, the very reason to BE a sniper to is avoid people that bid emotionally and drive prices up.

On eBay, if you simply put in the highest price that you are willing to pay, it is impossible for you to lose an auction to a sniper. You either win because you are are willing to pay more than anyone else (just like you would have on the Overstock system), or you lose because someone was willing to pay more - NOT because you got sniped.

The only question you should have is: When do I place the highest bid that I am willing to make?

Logically you place it in the last few seconds. This eliminates some of your competition - those people that bid emotionally in reaction to other people's bids, rather than basing their bids on their evaluation of value of the item.

Since it is so easy to snipe - using very inexpensive and readily available software - I see absolutely no reason why everyone shouldn't place all their bids via snipes.

I challenge anyone to construct a case where it would NOT be better for the buyers if they did snipe bidding - keeping in mind that all the snipe bidders have to understand how to do it:

1. Set your snipe as the highest price you would be willing to pay.
2. Time your snipe with an understanding of your Internet connection. That is, if you are on a cable modem you might snipe at 5 seconds. If you're on dial-up you might snipe at 3 minutes.

In the end, it comes down to this - if you don't snipe you are not only hurting yourself, you're hurting every other buyer on this forum.

[arbycoffee]

You could have extension for ever and the auction would never end.

[Firewire]

As a seller I would have to agree. The extension would bring a higher price!

[arbycoffee]

Or no partiapatsion, I know I would not screw around will online auction that didn't end at a set time. and I speak from over 4,000+ auctions I have been in (easyly over 3/4 were snips). May the best sniper win. The best price is when you got two or three snipers hitting the same auction. the price goes up.

[minnesotabrad]

All extensions will do is have people bid more than they really want to pay. Great if your selling, but may be more non paying bidders on higher priced items after they think about what they did. If you put in the highest you are willing to pay then you don't get sniped, you get outbid! If you let an auction get emotional you may pay way more than you want or can afford. That's what can happen at live auctions, people get so caught up in the excitement and not wanting to lose an item to someone else for a couple of bucks, the next thing you know they have spent a lot more than they wanted. I have even seen items at an auction that no one bids on for the opening bid and they keep lowering the starting bid until someone bids, even as low as $1 then the next think you know the item sells for well more than the first opening bid. One reason I like ebay is that you know when the auction is ending.

[dapperdan]

Very good comments from everybody.

I do agree that as a seller, you would be able to get more money. 10 minutes does seem very long though. It should be 2 Minutes max. It would also make sense that you would have to bid in $5 or $10 increments (depending on what the current price is) so auctions do not go on for hours.

I think the only person it would not be good for is the person trying to get a bargin. Using the extended auction would drive prices up but it would allow someone a 2nd chance to get the item before saying "to much for me". It would be like a real auction.

There are Pros and Cons of each method. How ebay currently runs is fine with me.

[luckydog]

as a long time seller and buyer on ebay i like the sniper idea both ways.

i've sold items at the last few seconds and had selling price go higher because of them.

once i awhile i take a loss, but other items with higher bids make up for it.

as a buyer i've gotten great deals on just about everything by sniping.

plus it give me a rush!!!!!!

ebay the drug of choice!!!!!

[dapperdan]

What sniping software do people recommend? Looking for a program the runs on your local computer, not a sniping service.

[gwarzin]

Auction Sentry Deluxe.

[logicprobe]

There's an advantage to the seller in an extended auction... but also an advantage to the auction house. Final ending fee!!!
They're counting on emotion... that's the reason they do this... NOT for their "valued buyers".

I'm surprised eBay hasn't offered this. Yahoo used to offer it as an option, and still might. I haven't sold on yahoo for a while.

Being outbid in the final moments simply means your proxy bid wasn't set high enough. If you've got the high bid and REALLY want an item, place another bid with your new max. You won't outbid yourself... it just resets your proxy to the higher amount.

I'm with the snipers.... SNIPE ON!!!

[arbycoffee]

camo paint, please

[Utopia1dc]

Snipe one, snipe two, snipe three, you're out!