On Tue, 28 Aug 2001, Jim Leonard wrote:
> "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 draw attention to yourself, that increases competition, meaning
you'll have to pay more on average. You know, increased demand and all
that. Actually, lately it looks like you're a good target for this, so
maybe I'll intrude on your auctions (just because what you bid on tends to
be cool stuff, and it's easier to search for your bids than to search for
300 things I want individually).
There's a specific example given somewhere at YOIS (the photograph of
Meretzky & Adams).
> > * 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.
Right, but (at least when I have money to spend, which I don't until my
next paycheck rolls in) often this means waiting until the last hour or
so, given how close many auctions end. Often, if the auctions are by the
same person, and you're interested in several of them (which happens
often), the auctions end only a couple minutes apart, and you *do* have to
snipe in order to do this.
> > * 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.
Huh? Proxy bidding makes automatic bids. If you place an early high bid,
and a newbie wants a particular item badly, a newbie who has no sense of
value will often keep placing successive bids until he's got your proxy
bid of $60 beat. If you wait (and newbies often don't know about
sniping), you can easily overtake his tentative bid of $10. You can save
a LOT of money this way, because you are not tipping your hand that you
value a particular item highly.
Also, in my experience I rarely get these items. Getting the item as
the second-highest bidder has happens to me twice in about a hundred or so
lost auctions (if I lose an auction I'm bidding on seriously, I'm almost
always second).
> > * 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...?
Place a high bid, and retract it, so you know what the other's bid is
exactly. (This isn't legal on eBay, but it still happens.)
Also, bidding early leaves you open to people who drive up your bid just
because they can.
-- Stephen
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