At 18:23 24/04/2003, you wrote:
>All this garbage about
>extending auctions an extra minute, blah blah blah, is just a dumb idea.
I dispute that - the "extension" idea is what happens in a "normal"
auction. The auctioneer will take bids until all competing bidders back
out, leaving the one winner. This, naturally, maximises the sale price
(which is good for the seller & the auction house).
As for sniping itself, I personally have no real problem with it (and do it
myself, frequently). It's also interesting (from a psychological POV) as a
seller: I sell very little on eBay, but I find myself watching my own
auction(s) coming to a close & wondering how many snipe bids there'll be...
Personally, I'd like to see eBay introduce the *option* of self-extending
auctions, which continue past their deadline until 5 mins (for example)
after the last bid is placed. That way, as a seller, I get to choose
whether I want sniper bids or not. It's entirely possible that an extending
auction will /reduce/ the final sale price (since people are less likely to
get completely carried away with a top bid); but for popular items I
suspect the reverse is true, since more people are likely to bid for longer
right at the end.
Uninteresting (probably) collarary: I recenly won two Sinclair Cambridge
Programmable calcs, both in excellent condition, one of them in the
original (and remarkably un-battered) box c/w instructions, etc. Normally,
tatty un-boxed examples of these machines go for around £45 each. I got
both for £25.01. Chuffed, I was. However, the usual last second malarkey
was going on, and I'd only bid £25 at the start, fully expecting the price
to hit about £50-£60 or so before the last-second rush. Obviously, though,
the professional snipers were away that day, since there were only a few
bids upping the price towards my £25 limit. When it hit £24, though, I
panicked & bid again (with 2 seconds to spare), thus raising the price over
my own bid by 1 pence...
Duh!
--
Cheers, Ade.
Be where it's at, B-Racing!
http://b-racing.com
Received on Thu Apr 24 2003 - 14:33:45 BST