eBay sniping

From: jim <jwstephens_at_cox.net>
Date: Thu Apr 24 18:00:00 2003

Ebay's auctions are like what I have seen called "silent auctions" I once
frequented coin shops that held these auctions, and at friday night at 7pm,
they would close the shop for 10 minutes clean of the auction board, and
then collect the proceeds. You could consign your stuff, or buy theirs. They
had the coins in bags stapled to bid cards. you wrote your # and bid on the
back. had to exceed the previous by a percentage. sound familiar?

only thing was, sniping went on in person and with some heated arguments.

but it just made for a really smelly loud 20 minutes before 7pm, and lots of
frantic scribbleing as the auctions ran down. and you could cuss the guy who
was bidding on your 1960D proof silver dime.

anyway, point being there is no ethical reason to ban sniping. And the format
is a monitored silent auction (no auctioneer) so there has to be a way to call
the bidding, since the auctioneer is not there to force it to a close.

Jim
Received on Thu Apr 24 2003 - 18:00:00 BST