posted on February 3, 2001 07:09:26 PM new
Why would a seller be against someone using this technique? Isn't the object to sell your item which is listed? If a bidder places his or her bid ten seconds after the auction starts or ten seconds before it ends, what's the big deal..... Am I missing something here?
posted on February 3, 2001 07:13:43 PM new
Most sellers would rather have buyers proxy bid, driving the price of the item up for auction up with each new proxy bid. Snipers wait until the very end of the auction and while that usually raises the end of the auction total, it probably isn't what would be the outcome if the auction was proxy bid the entire time. Did I make any sense?
I personally don't care how my auction ends as long as it ends and I get paid for it.
posted on February 4, 2001 05:46:12 AM new
It’s really more a matter of disappointment on the part of the seller. While sellers love that first bid, it is the second bid that makes it an auction. By not bidding until the end they feel that they have somehow been “cheated” out of the opportunity to have their item bid up.
I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. There are always emotions in the sniping process:
If you snipe an auction with no bids – the seller may feel cheated because they didn’t receive the benefit of your proxy bid.
If you successfully snipe an auction the “losing” bidder can get emotional because they were already imaging ownership of the item and now it is snatched out of their “high bid” clutches with seconds to go.
And of course there is that heart-pounding, back-of-the-neck-sweating, finger-twitching, giddy euphoria of you, the successful sniper, when you beat out that proxy with seconds to go!
posted on February 4, 2001 07:03:53 AM new
I love snipers! My best auctions have closed when there are 2 or more snipers. Snipers tend to bid high since they only have one shot, and when the unexpected 2nd sniper enters the field the closing bid can be a lot higher than expected.
posted on February 4, 2001 07:11:38 AM new
Sniping is alright with me. I start my auctions with what I think is a fair price. If someone likes it they will bid that and then it sits for others to see and at the end there is probably more than one sniping.
I was bidding on an auction yesterday that someone sniped 10 seconds before it ended. Wow, they sure were good. In the last two hours of the auction it went from $11.00 to $46.00. That was a good auction and also fun to watch. I snipe for someone and we both usually bid so one of us usually gets it and most of the time there is someone else doing the same. Almost every seller thinks there item should go way higher, but I am satisfied if I get my opening bid and the rest of the bids are gravey. Good luck to the snipers.
posted on February 4, 2001 10:09:35 AM new
Thanks,
You all made good points and I can see how it affects sellers differently. In my mind the only scenario which would hurt a seller would be one where you start verified $20.00 item at $1.00 and for whatever reason receive
no bids until a sniper hits it at closing. That would be a risk you would have to be willing to take as a seller.
posted on February 4, 2001 04:44:19 PM new
Snipers are GREAT!
Those tightwad buyers who set on Ebay and hope to buy something far below its value all of a sudden lose it at the end. Isn't that to bad. It has increased bidding prices on my auctions because bidders are uncertain what might happen in the last few seconds.
Here is to all the Snipers!!
posted on February 4, 2001 05:51:52 PM new
OK, time to start the perennial debate.
Most buyers who use sniping as a bidding technique (excluding those who snipe just for the h*ll of it) do so because they find they pay less for an item that way. Early proxy bidding tends to encourage others to bid, etc., etc., thus *usually* ending up with a higher price. Thus, to save money, smart bidders generally bid near the end of an auction (if its convenient, etc).
Thus, smart sellers have realized that sniping (as a bidding technique) means their item will *usually* sell for less than had the buyers used early proxy bids, and this tends to irritate some sellers.
Sellers who don't care how much their item sells for, of course, don't care when people bid. Sellers who prefer higher bids to lower, of course, will prefer buyers to bid early.
Anyone who disagrees that sniping *tends* to result in a lower final price, by the way, is welcome to do so, as long as they can explain why the "millions" (well, ok, hundreds or thousands) of buyers have said time and time again it does so. And please no "but I had an auction last week where snipers doubled the price at the last minute" examples. I have no doubt that, in the millions of auctions at ebay, anyone can find at least one example that "proves" me wrong, but for every such example, we have hundreds of testimonials from buyers about how sniping is a great way to pay less for an item.
And also please no "but every bid raises the final bid" "logic" ..since we are comparing early to late bids, not no-bids versus late bids. Snipers (note the -er at the end of the word) always raise the bid, just like any other bidder (note the -er also). But we are comparing sniping (note the -ing) versus early proxy bidding (note the -ing also)
So, to summarize, if the "object" of a seller is merely to sell an item, at whatever final price, then no, they shouldn't object. However, most sellers prefer "more" to "less" when it comes to bid price, just like most buyers prefer "less" to "more", so most sellers who understand the power of sniping as a bidding technique prefer people to bid early rather than late.
posted on February 4, 2001 06:07:19 PM new
Couldn't disagree more-captainkirk-
I am not sure of your selling experience but my sales of over 1500 and feedback of 1150 on Ebay says "no way"
posted on February 4, 2001 08:23:01 PM new
I love to snipe!!!
As a seller, I don't care if people proxy or snipe. I set my starting price high enough to make a modest profit and cover expenses. So therefore, a bids a bid.
As a buyer, if its convenient, i'll snipe everytime. I don't like to put in a bid with 6 days to go on an auction. It makes me feel like a I have committed myself too soon. I try to adhere to a budget and always think that maybe something better will come along while I have my money tied up in a proxy bid.
However, the snipe is the way to have no commitment to the auction until the last minutes. I love to hit an auction with no bids in the final minutes and be the only bidder. Especially when my proxy would have been much higher. Not that that should matter to the seller, it's not really an auction until you have two interested bidders.
Does anyone follow this convoluted logic, or is it just me?
posted on February 4, 2001 08:58:22 PM new
As a seller with feedback of 3000+, I agree with captainkirk. As a bidder I snipe because it usually saves me money. As a seller, I'd prefer an early bid over a late bid. And, who knows how many bids are lost due to snipers mistiming their bids or having their connection slow down. I know I've missed some items that I wanted because my connection slowed down at an inopportune time. That certainly can't help the seller.
Since the goal of a bidder is to get an item as cheaply as possible and the goal of a seller is to get as much as possible, there is no way a strategy can help both parties.
