Has it ever struck you that you aren't bidding enough? A snipe can only
be successful if it is higher than your highest bid. Most of us who
snipe do so to keep the price down, not raise it.
Example without sniping: There's some item that usually goes for about
$50. Some guy like you has a bid in for $35, but only $24 shows, because
that's all that was needed to go higher than the prior high bid. So I
put in a $40 bid a couple of hours before the end. This guy sees that,
bids $40, but that's not enough, 'cause I got to $40 first. so then he
stews about it for a bit and goes to $45. That's more than I want to
pay, so I drop out, he and some other heavy hitter who set his alarm and
got up in the middle of the night across the world duke it out up to $57
and one of them gets the item. Who's the winner? The seller. And that's
what the Aussie site is doing, aiding the sellers. How is that going to
aid you, who want to pay less?
Example with sniping: There's some item that usually goes for about $50.
Some guy like you has a bid in for $35, but only $24 shows, because
that's all that was needed to go higher than the prior high bid. So I
put in a $40 bid a couple of seconds before the end. If nobody else
bids, I get it for $36. Who wins? The smart buyer. Who loses? The seller
and the not so smart buyer. Now in a huge venue like the 'Bay, this is
not so much true. More likely is that more than 1 buyer has put in a
snipe. If they all put in the max that they are willing to pay, the one
who wants it the most gets it. The seller gets a pretty fair price
because the experienced buyers know that a low-ball bid is likely to lose.
The other wonderful thing about sniping is that you CAN compete from the
other side of the world. When I have really wanted something with an
auction ending in the middle of my sleep cycle, I have simply set a
snipe well above the usual price and go to bed. When I'm not that wild
for something, I can set a snipe at what would be a pretty good deal for
me and go out to dinner. Later I find out if I won or not.
If you really want something on the 'Bay, snipe at real price. If you
want a bargain, snipe lower and be very patient. I recently set snipes
on 2 auctions for something I wanted and lost them both. The third one
that came around I got for 20 0.000000e+00ss than the bid that had lost twice
before. Moaning about how an auction process works is just counter
productive, as is bemoaning the fact that others are willing to pay more
for something than you are.
Moose
Simon Gotlieb wrote:
Every auction I have every tried on e*bay has gotten sniped at the last second.
You just can't compete from the other side of the world.
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