On Mon, 28 Apr 2003, Adrian Vickers wrote:
> The only thing I'd say, which may or may not be seen as a disagreement, is
> that we don't /know/ that the eBay fixed end-time model does - or does not
> - hurt sellers. Sure, sniping ups the ante in the last few seconds much of
> the time - but would it have gone higher with an extending auction? Until
> (if) eBay try it, we will never know...
In my experience running automatically extended auctions, no. It tends to
temper the bidding. Bidders know that they don't have any advantage
waiting until the last minute to bid. There may be a psychological factor
in waiting it out to see if the bidding goes higher than what you were
willing to pay before you submit your first bid, but for the most part it
tends to result in a more, what I would call, realistic market value.
Where sniping really jacks up the price is if the high bidder put in a
really high maximum in order to secure their win. So say the item is at
$1,000 up until the last 4 seconds, but the high bidder has a maximum bid
of $5,000 and some sniper comes in with a bid of $2,999, the price will
all of a sudden shoot up $2,000.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Mon Apr 28 2003 - 23:08:00 BST