Wow, I missed a lot today. Stupid business-use-only Internet rules... Assuming the rest of you haven't already beaten the subject to death, let me add my own thoughts here. I can understand where Pedro is coming from, though I disagree with his view. Let me use an extreme example to illustrate mine:
I would really like a shrinked saucer. I've lost the last three shrinked saucer auctions I've seen on eBay, because I chose not to bid as high as the winner. By your rules, the next time one goes up, I can e-mail everybody I know, call "dibsies" on it, and they're not allowed to bid. I end up with a mint, wrapped saucer for the minimum bid of $9.99. That's *ludicrous*! It'd be stupid to *not* outbid me in that instance. Yet by your rules, if someone does so, they're a backstabber. If I lost to you in this instance, I certainly wouldn't hold it against you. Actually I'd feel a bit guilty taking a mint saucer for $10 (not to mention worried about getting screwed over... witness the misfortune Dave Aston went through when he used BuyItNow on a Suspended mask for $5.00). And if people can get away with calling "dibsies" on an item before the auction is over, what's to stop them from claiming the next rare item *before* it goes up? Could I not say to all the other collectors, "Hey, it's MY turn. The next shrinked saucer to go up on eBay is mine. No one else may bid on it." This would incite far, far more accusations and fights than sniping, not to mention no one would respect the request. Keeping prices down is a nice thought, as noble as they come, but not everyone is going to want to help someone get a rare item for less. It only takes one serious opponent to drive the price into the stratosphere. You can't prevent this, so why sit out because of it? Plus, the fact is, e-mailing everybody about a great auction one plans to snipe isn't a very smart thing to do. The sole tactical advantage of sniping is to avoid drawing attention to the item you want to win. Why spoil that by proclaiming the auction number to the world? If someone can't keep a secret until the auction is over, how can they reasonably expect someone else to exercise similar restraint by not bidding? The best way to keep someone from bidding on an item they don't know about would be to... not tell them in the first place! I think this all boils back down to snipers versus non-snipers. Think about it: If every one of us bid on all of our auctions in the last 10 seconds, we would never know whom we were bidding against until it was all over. No hard feelings, because any outsniping would be intentional. I'm not saying we should all adopt this method, I'm just saying, if sniping can drive *that* much of a rift between collectors, maybe their friendship wasn't all that strong to begin with. There is *always* another copy of a game out there. I've outsniped friends, I've been outsniped by friends. I've never held a grudge over losing an auction. You guys are great. I *love* being able to call you my close friends. But I am first and foremost a collector. I was a collector before I met all of you, and a collector I will always remain. As a collector, my Prime Directive is to complete my own collection. B-) Of course, there are self-imposed barriers against using tactics such as thievery, fraud, etc., to accomplish this goal. But sniping is not one of them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
