"Stephen S. Lee" wrote:
>
> On Fri, 24 Aug 2001, Jim Leonard wrote:
> [snip]
> > 1. Why do you snipe when you can just enter in a maximum and walk away?
>
> * If you bid early, and you bid primarily on game software, bidding early
> says loud and clear, "look! cool stuff!" (I actually find some of the
> stuff I get by searching for certain early-bidders. It's actually a
> good way of finding things.)
Why is this an issue? Is it because you "draw attention to yourself?"
If so, why is that a bad thing?
> * If you have only so much money to spend, and want multiple items, you're
> better off waiting as long as you can. For example, you have $100 to
> spend; there are 10 games that you want; on each, you're willing to pay
> as much as $20. You can't bid $20 on all of them right away, as you
> could be driven above your limit. It's better to wait on these as long
> as you can, and see how the first auctions go before you decide what to
> do with the later ones.
But that isn't sniping -- that's just waiting a while before bidding
your maximum. I'm talking about intentionally waiting until seconds
before the auction.
> * Bidding early has a tendency to get you into a bidding war with newbies
> (who have a tendency to pay too much). If you don't tip your hand you
> minimize this risk from those people with low ratings who are willing to
> pay WAY over value.
In my experience, these people rarely pay up and, being the second
bidder, I get the item anyway. And using proxy bidding the way it was
meant to work means that you *don't* get into bidding wars.
> * Bidding early puts you at risk of ye olde bid-and-retract trick.
> eBay has moved to reduce the viability of this trick, but it's still
> something to keep in mind.
Huh? What's that? I'm unfamiliar with that practice...?
BTW, thanks for the detailed responses. I still haven't been given an
acceptable proof for the legitimacy of sniping, but I appreciate the
willingness to help me understand why people do it.
I'll reiterate that sniping doesn't really bother me from the *auction*
standpoint -- when I bid my maximum, most of the time I see people
bidding at the last few seconds and losing because the proxy bids me
closer to my maximum by a buck or two. What bothers me is *why* people
do it. I guess I'd need a degree in psychology to try to understand...
--
http://www.MobyGames.com/
The world's most comprehensive gaming database project.
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