That is a great idea! I wish they would offer an option like that. Called the "Extending Auction" this type of auction keeps extending the time limit until no bids have been received for 10 minutes after the 'closing time'.
Re: weeeeeeeeell Henry, That sounds very similar to what I stated... bid your max if you can't be there in the last seconds. If you can be there in the closing seconds... bid your max (knowing you get only one shot). If you bid anything less than the most you'd buy it at a store down the street, and lose, then your max just isn't enough. That s the auction way. Retail stores are a different story. They can put a single price on an item and hold if forever if the MUST get that price. Thank god for the "pay it forward" section of this board. I'm still kicking myself for not having seen the "Buick Motor Division" emblems. I missed by minutes on them, and I would have paid more than free for them... Hmmmmmmmmmmm... was I sniped??? :Brow:
dan... maybe this will make you feel better. A month or so ago I had an auction set for sniping with 10 seconds left. I was high bidder til 2 seconds left when I was sniped by someone else! Only difference was I didn't cry about it. Matter of fact I emailed the winner and congratulated him on a hell of a job. ( I guess according to your standards I, or even the guy before me should of won that one, ha?) I think the problem is you are looking at sniping like it's cutting in line at your high school caf. Like peeping toms looking in your moms bedroom. Start thinking about in like a race. A COMPETITION. TO WIN. In real life the patiently waiting employee doesn't get the raise or promotion. The aggressive, quick moving employee does. Sniping isn't cheating or stealing. It's using the system to your advantage to win. Either learn to do it or expect to continue your losing streak. Steve
The snipers STILL HAVE TO PLACE A BID HIGHER THEN YOURS TO WIN...... so bid what you're willing to pay, if you get it fine, if not oh well, you weren't willing to pay that much, just like walking through a swap meet & the guy on the other side of the table wants more then you're willing to spend, you don't buy the part.
Everyone who plays the Ebay game has had this happen. It is simple, snipe or get sniped. If you don't do it you will never get anything good off Ebay.
"Don't hate the player, hate the game." I couldn't stand sniping; I lost numerous auctions for things I would have payed more for because I was sniped in the last few seconds. I haven't bought anything off of eBay in probably a year and half (roughly the time I have been an addict of this board) because it is such a hassle, I would rather buy things from people I know here on the board and same goes with selling. But, if you are going to get what you want on ebay, you have to snipe. Remember, the snipers would rather win the part paying a $1 more than you, even if you are at your max bid. Bottom line, it probably didn't matter that you would have paid more, because even if you had bid higher it still would have been sniped. There is only one way to get anything on ebay anymore. Changing the rules would do no good; no matter what they do people will find a way to use the system to their advantage, and if you aren't willing to do the same, you're gonna lose. My advice: play eBay to win or stick to the board and buy/sell/trade with people you can trust. :TU:
dan, i'm on your side. i don't like sniping. but, you know what is worse than that, is somebody buying it and then turn around and selling it for a higher price. example, there was a 73 stg 1 on ebay and it sold for around $3200. bought by a chrysler guy in ohio. he turns around about a month later or so and wants $8,000 for it. now that sucks. if you don't want to keep, don't bid on it and take it away from somebody else. now that worse than sniping!!! john
I attend auctions for arcade machines. The bottom line is...the person who bids the most $$$ wins. If you dont bid your max dollar that you want to spend on such said part,your not going to get it. I`ve been sniped,and didnt feel bad about it,somebody else wanted the part more than me,and was willing to put up the $$ to do it. I seen a NOS marker light jump $200 in the last 15 seconds of an auction. There was no way in hell I was going to pay $200+ for one marker light,someone wanted it bad enough,and they got it,enough said
in the past i have bid on auctions early. then after the auction was over , noticed that someone had out bid me and then retracted their high bid only to come back and bid just under my max right before the end of the auction. im sure it was a "helper"of the seller trying to get the most money out of me. i am a 100% sniper :blast: now. my bid usually hits within the last 7 seconds.
the item does not necessarily go to the person who wants the most. it goes to person willing to pay the most.:Smarty:
There are people on ebay that have their friends bid up an item, to falsely inflate the value. for that reason, I do not bid on an item until the last possible second. Many times, my last minute bid is not enough to win the item. such is life . Being sniped is not a personal attack on bidders. If you bid too early, this gives other bidders too much time to think about overpaying, because they dont want to be outbid. There are people out there bidding on items , where "money is no object". Dont fall in love with something on ebay that you just "have" to get. Chances are, you might find a better one next week. :Smarty: Personally, If I sell a buick part, I'll try this forum first. :beer .Frank
yuk , you're right, thats a shill bidder hey yuk if someone outbids you, then retracts, then rebids just under your max, that is clearly a shill bidder which is a crime in most or all 50 states. if that ever happens again, report it to ebay & let them take a look at it. chances are that the seller will be naru'ed and you wont have to pay for the auction. the porential for shilling is just one argument for sniping. i think shilling is nowhere near as common on parts as people believe, but on vehicles it happens far more often. ebay says they will naru all shillers, but they dont. i've known of powersellers getting away with it while the little sellers will be naru'ed. lets face it, ebay didnt get rich by kicking people off. even when they do kick people off many will just form a new I.D. with new contact info & be back in a day or so. i once caught a guy shilling about a 1/4 M dollars worth of vehicles, i reported him and all his auctions disappeared but thats all they did to him. more later. henry white
Sniping is a fact of life on eBay........ you know it and I know it. if you don't like it, don't go and bid on anything...... I bid the MOST I WANT TO PAY for an item........ if I don't get it, I don't get it. I don't sit and wallow in self pity and say that might have paid a dollar more....etc. If you know how the game is played, quit bitching about the game. They aren't gonna change the game to suit you. Snipe, or be sniped! The real bidding all happens in the last 1/2 hour anyways. You got beat.......find another item. Mike
Shill bidding is becoming a way of life for many of the people who sell things on ebay. Many people get reported, few get thrown off. Of all those people that get thrown out, they just register under a different name and do it again. It's something that you have to watch out for. Here's a question. If I'm searching for something on ebay and I click the "ending today" button, does that mean I'm sniping? I'm sure that's how alot of people find items. That's the first thing I do when I'm looking to buy something. I'm one of those type of people that needs the gratification of winning an item and don't like waiting 7 days for it to end. Shill bidding is one of my biggest pet peeves. I hate it and I know that there are people on this board that do it. Shame on those people (you know who you are). Sniping is a way to win auctions. If someone wants a part bad enough whats wrong with doing what it takes to win it? Just be glad that the seller didn't relist the item a couple days later because the high bidder was himself. I'd rather be sniped then shilled. There are so many things on ebay to watch out for, sniping is just one of the many. If you can't play the game, dont ask the coach to put you in.
There is another bulletin board I frequent that has it's own auction section. Their auctions end at a given time OR five minutes after the last bid. This cuts down the sniping. When I sold an item there I was very glad they had it set up this way. The auction went about 30 minutes past the original closing time, and I got about $75 bucks more for the item. However, on ebay, sniping is about the only way to get a hot item. Hell, it's half the fun. You have to look at it as Steve said, a competition/race. That is unless you honestly bid your max, and let it go. I have been known to go in with a minute left, just to give the other guy time to chime in and go a couple rounds until the buzzer. If the sniping bugs you, you may want to look somewhere else for your much needed parts, like a nice calm classifieds section.:grin:
I don't know man. I personally think it's a little rediculous to cry about sniping. As someone else earlier stated, sometimes I snipe sometimes I don't. I have been known to concede to a fellow Buick nut, then on the other hand there have been times I've outbid them too. I take offense to the "proper" thing to do is bid high early and forget it. Why should I be limited to bidding high early? The auction has 5, 7, 9 or whatever days to run, I can bid whenever I want. In the first 10 seconds or last 10 seconds, regardless of who I'm bidding against. Whatever the "psychology" of the moment seems to be....and that's just what ebay is, a game of psyche. What's the next guy gonna do and when is he gonna do it? It's an auction, I don't necessarily expect anything "brotherly" about an auction. Would I be pissed if I lost in the last seconds? Sure I would, but I'd be more pissed at myself than I would at the high bidder. Dan, I liken the sentiments you have against sniping to a school system which has done away with winning and losing because it's demoralizing to the loser. All it is, is whining because you didn't win in my opinion. Ebay is a somewhat intangible necessary evil with which we obtain parts we'd never have the chance to otherwise. I'm not an a-hole, anyone who knows me can tell you that. If I have the chance however, of having an NOS grille, I'm gonna do what I need to do to win and I would expect you to do the same, Buick owner or not. Why should I be happy with looking at someone elses beautiful NOS grille when if I bid just a little higher at the end of the auction it could have been mine? It simply means I wanted it that much more than he or she, and I was willing to put up the cash to make it happen.
This is my take on the whole sniping thing.If you REALLY need the part then it it just winning the auction. I just think that there are a couple characters out there that have more money than morals and snipe just to get thier sick little kicks. Peace and LOVE to all! WildBill P.S Dan i will pm you that # for the guy that may have a shifter!
All of you that bid at the start of the auction are causing the price of the item to be higher, if everyone waited until the last second the price may be lower :Brow: Most times if you wait until the last minute to bid you have a better chance at getting the part at a lower price. I think that I have been "sniped" more than I have "sniped" but that is only because I have a slow dial-up modem...:Brow: Is "sniping" an official e-bay term..o No:
QUOTE]BuickStreet said:That is a great idea! I wish they would offer an option like that. Called the "Extending Auction" this type of auction keeps extending the time limit until no bids have been received for 10 minutes after the 'closing time'. [/QUOTE] Dovebid offers auctions like that. They also change the "next minimum bid" based on the high bid. I've been party to a few rounds of equipment buying. We only bid on items if they have more than 10 minutes left in the auction, unless they are a 1 of 1, and we really need it. We often bid with 11 minutes left :Brow: . Personally, sniping is the only way I'll bid on ebay. I don't leave anything on the table either. You only lose if you don't bid high enough, that should be obvious.
I too snipe I'm sure this story might not help how people feel about me as an ebayer, but.... If I am going to snip an auction, I always make a point to place a incrementally higher bid during the auction. Then when you look at bid history my id is on the list. If the other parties want to see what or how I have bought at other auctions, they can see by my other purchases and their respective bid history on how I won the auction. I bid once for informational purpose to all other bidders I'm interested, then, I bid at the end "snipe it" with my maximum I'm willing to pay. Sorry if I buy something you needed! I guess I needed it worse. Troy
