Think I am giving up on Ebay for the final time

[usayit]

Would never work. This relies on each buyer being in the room at the same time looking at the same piece with intent to buy. The idea would be nice but doesn't scale well internationally over the net. To get maximum gains the delay for the hammer fall would need to be quite long, and if there's last minute activity it could significantly prolong the auction.

It would work if the time period which expires the high bid to the winning bid is required to be greater than 24 hours. So the highest bid A and the count down starts. Someone comes in and bids A+1 and the countdown restarts. So on and so on.... If the final bid A+100 is made (lets assume its the high fair price) and no one within a 24 hour period makes A+101, then the winning bid is A+100. That's the true high bid... not just what happens to be sniped at the end. It is what everyone is familiar with (hence friendly to new members) and levels the playing field between those that are savy enough to snipe and those that are not.

In a live auctioneer driven event, the highest bid is made and he tries to get more bids to come in. Once he feels that there is no interest in placing a higher bid, he starts saying "Going once, Going Twice, Sold!" Its no different, simply have the auctioneer start at 24 and count down every hour.

My only guess why Ebay doesn't want to host such type of auction is that they won't be able to control the amount of data hosted per given time. An item originally placed up for auction can go on for a few days after the supposedly end of the auction. This can mean an item that was posted for 4 days can be extended several days accruing more operating/hosting costs but Ebay itself doesn't necessarily make more $$$.

Sniping should have absolutely zero effect on you if you have a reserve price and use it appropriately.

Here's the problem with the last part of your statement. This only works in an ideal world when users are all using the high bid appropriately. In the real world, people who have lives and better things to do end up feeling frustrated because of the sniping. Can you blame them when Ebay allows buyers to set the increment to $1? I can't tell you how many of these "Ebay == frustration" threads pop up all over the internet. The most often answer in those threads are simply.... "You need to snipe"... Oh and here's the website to download the app.

I have to admit.. Many years ago when I started on ebay, I too was frustrated because I was wasting time counting down the last seconds. As a seller, I was frustrated because I couldn't capitalize on the bidding frenzy that occurred towards the end. That's when I decided.. heck... just flow with it. "Bid and forget.. " Unfortunately, I don't sell much on there anymore because often I can get better return if sold locally.

 

[Shooter1]

I have no idea if the following link will be viewable for non members but it sure was and eye opener for me.

Discussion Forums @ Nikonians - Beware of eBay and PayPal

 

[Garbz]

Yes I suppose it would have an impact of sorts on the seller, but the buyer is still protected from sniping by using the system ebay has in place.

If the ability to bid by $1 means you're upset that your $100 "reserve" price was beaten by $101, then you didn't set your reserve price. If you were willing to pay $102 then the original bid should have been $102.

As a side note I have typically always bidded an odd number for this exact reason. If someone sets their high bid at $50, but I set mine at $53, well all they know is that the bid has increased to $51 and that my reserve is still higher than theirs. Good trick to do since a LOT of people will bid even numbers like $50 or $75.

 

[dhilberg]

I think people on eBay get caught up in the competition during bidding and just "have to win" regardless of the cost, which is where sniping comes into play. If you just want to buy something, set your maximum bid to the highest you're willing to pay. eBay takes care of the bidding automatically. If you don't "win" that just means you didn't overpay for something.

I don't buy much on eBay, I can usually find what I'm looking for on Craigslist. But when I do eBay, I don't bid until close to the end of the auction (within the last few hours or so). It helps keep the price down.

 

[Don Kondra]

I agree, don't bid till close to the end and bid the max you are willing to pay.

Most times I use the "buy it now" option for smaller stuff. Recently I needed just a quick release mounting plate for my ball head. Price including shipping was $34.95

In this case the brick and mortar stores did not sell just the plate.

Cheers, Don

BTW - twice I've been ripped off by sellers with a 100% rating and Paypal fully covered it.

 

[Garbz]

I'm cautious when I see 100%. In my experience there should be enough outright stupid buyers out there to drive things down to 99.something%

100% satisfaction means nothing when there's only 2 past sellers.