I don't get why people let this work. Can someone explain the mentality to me?
Because it's allowed. Any auction with a hard time limit is bound to have so-called snipers if the bid for what's for sale is underpriced. As an eBay seller myself, I welcome bid snipers.
It's better for the winning bidder because he pays up to what he thinks the widget is worth, which would clearly have to be more than other bidders think it's worth. And it's better for the seller as well, because sniped bids mean a higher sale price. And no, you don't need a sniping program to snipe an auction; the lag involved makes it possible for a well-timed or desperate enough human bidder to outbid or out-snipe a bot.
The only alternative I've ever seen is to let an auction go until a pre-determined time after the most recent bid, and that's grossly unfair to the seller because a slow, drawn-out bidding war can needlessly delay the close of the auction for hours or even days after the seller wanted it to end.
There is software out there that makes sniping easier, confirm/deny?
>>3
Confirmed, based on second-hand accounts and Google searches, not experience.
> The only alternative I've ever seen is to let an auction go until a pre-determined time after the most recent bid, and that's grossly unfair to the seller because a slow, drawn-out bidding war can needlessly delay the close of the auction for hours or even days after the seller wanted it to end.
Just make it a minute or half-minute. Not much of a problem, I think.
Er, not let from the administrative side, but why it's a big deal from the bidding side. It seems really stupid; why not just put in the max value? Are people afraid of "overpaying"?
>>5
It's still a hotly debated topic, but eBay has still decided on the hard time limit auction format. I know online auction sites that discourage sniping by extending auctions like you propose do exist, but the only one that immediately comes to mind is the furry commissions auction site FurBid.
>>6
In fact, that's what you're supposed to do anyway. Put in a bid equal to what you're willing to pay, and the server bids up to that amount for you. It bids the smallest amount that'll win the auction for you, even if that smaller amount gets outbid, unless the outbid is more than you put in.
And Google pulls through with the most disturbingly ugly ad I've yet seen from AdNonsense.
Yes. The thing is, people don't do that. Sniping does work. And I don't know why.
Sold online auctions had a feature where they time extended. They were later bought out by Yahoo but perhaps the feature remained. It's a damn useful feature... snipers are annoying.
I think this illustrates my point. Why are snipers annoying? Why do they have any relevance to you at all, as a bidder?
Yep, Yahoo has that feature. I would know, being a bid sniper myself.
Why do it? Well, it's a way to get stuff cheaper. Say you and "Guy A" want a certain item. "Guy A" bids a max of $20. You know if you bid higher than that and he sees you, he'll bid higher as well (since that's how good the item is priced.) Your best bet would be to wait until the next to last second, and then bid your max. Either you get it at what you would pay for it... or you don't, and "Guy A" pays more than what you think it's worth.
The only way you would dislike snipers is if you're a buyer and have the "Guy A" mentality.
It probably doesn't need to be said, but I hate the "add on extra time" feature.
Also, Don't trust Yahoo auctions. I've almost been ripped off quite a few times there, but luckily caught them (sometimes just before I had to pay.) Not sure if they're still that bad though...
>>12
yup, I do snipe myself for the same reasons stated.
I see nothing bad on it. Either way the seller gets to sell his item, and he gets more than he'd get normally from guy A.
>>13
I never used ebay or anything but it seems like Guy A doesn't get the chance to bid higher because of sniping and therefore the seller doesn't get more for the item.
This is why I've never understood online auctions. If there is a set ending time, sniping is the optimal strategy. If the ending time moves forward as people bid, there's still no use in bidding before the very end - all it will do is drive up the price.
So bidding before the very end is just throwing away your money in either case, yet people still do it. Is the whole concept of online auctions built on this kind of idiot tax?
>>16
Yes.
>>15
If the guy A bids $50 in the beginning and the auction is at, let's say $20, you can't snipe him with 30bucks and he will always win (auction will finish on something like $31-$35) .
If he bids a $20 maximum and you snipe with $30, auction will finish on ~ $21, it was his fault for not bidding more.
age for sniping. It's the only way.
Thread summary: Sniping works because people are dumb.
To put it another way, sniping works because eBay permit it. If they extended the end of auctions after a new bid, it would never happen again.
Sniping definitely results in the seller paying less, but only if it's successful. What I've found in the past couple of weeks (sniped about 4 items) is that there are always other snipers. So at the end of the day, no snipes were really successful and the amount I paid was basically the same as what I would have paid anyway.
>>18
There's something you're not taking into account. If the person bids a $20 maximum and then another person leisurely comes in and bids $30, the first person sees that they were outbid, and they might get the impression that the item is worth more than they thought.
On noticing this, the original bidder may choose to bid $40.
If you snipe for $30, however, you deprive him of this chance to reconsider the value of the item.
I'm fairly sure it's all psychology. If you're naive (which most eBay users seem to be) and you come to an item which is valued at $10, you might suspect it's shittier than the same item valued at $100 since more people bid on one item. In reality, two identical items are more or less identical, and the first item simply has snipers camping on it instead of leisurely bidders.
snipers....camping hahaha OMG it's ebay CS HAX!
Fuck CS! It's DooM!