Ebay is a wonderful place

AllenBomber

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Just picked up a tested (and hopefully still working when it arrives) NEO GEO MVS board (1 slot) with an Art of Fighting cart for 45 bucks. Hooray for multi-game #2 in my collection.

Ebay makes us crazy though... First, I'm of the opinion that those ebay snipe programs are a bunch of crap. I do it the old fashion way.

It will be like 1 am, and I'll stumble across something finishing in like an hour. Of course when I find it, the bid is either low or nobody has even touched it yet, so I sit and stalk the item. I'll tell myself that I'll lay down a bid if it looks like it will finish low, but I'm always convinced that someone will run up the price within the last 45 seconds. Despite this, I always hold out in the hopes that it's one of those rare occasions (like tonight) where nobody else can find the deal that I've found (or they've just forgotten about it). I start by casually observing the price but begin refreshing the auction at an exponentially increasing rate as the clock clicks down. I'll try to find other things to do, but there's nothing worse than getting distracted and forgetting about a snipe, only to find that your item finished WAY cheaper than you expected. I end up staring it down for about the last 2 or 3 minutes, debating over exactly when the right moment to make my bid will be. The bid has to be late enough that "outbid" emails don't have a chance to make it through the servers (so only another sniper would notice my bid), but early enough that you have a few seconds to consider bumping your bid if it wasn't enough. 40 seconds... too soon. 30; things are getting really tense, and my heart starts pounding. 20... 15... Okay, time to pull the trigger. Then refresh second by second from 10 to finish just to be sure that the sniper hasn't been sniped. God, this site makes me insane. Anyone else share my insanity?
 
I used to be like that,but I save the headache and put a limit bid of exactly what I'm willing to pay for it.If someone wants it for more,go ahead.

And ebay calling itself an "auction site" is somewhat of a joke as in a traditional auction you compete with other bidders and the auction doesn't end until the last bid is not countered.That's how it should be.Sniping....psssh.
 
And ebay calling itself an "auction site" is somewhat of a joke as in a traditional auction you compete with other bidders and the auction doesn't end until the last bid is not countered.That's how it should be.Sniping....psssh.

While I agree with you, the last "traditional" game auction I went to was out of control in how much people were paying for games. A Simpsons arcade (in CRAP condition mind you) sold for like 550, and that was probably one of the lowest finish prices of the day. Not only that, the auctioneers were assholes; making you feel bad if you didn't continue to bid on something. Hate sniping if you like, but I'm still the proud owner of a NEO GEO.
 
Yeah you can pick up some deals that way and I am happy for you,but I just put up the limit bid in hopes that the item does slip under the radar and I win it for cheap anyway.That way I won't feel like I didn't give it my best shot to win the item and if I lose it it's because it went for more than what I was willing to pay.

I got many of my CPS2 boards this way.I saw many of them go for $80-$100 and was outbid (usually sniped) on every one until I finally won several at a fraction of those prices.I guess timing IS everything. :)

And if you're talking about the Super Auctions,you gotta watch those guys.A lot of the auctioneers are in cahoots with some of the sellers and they shill bid on their own items,which I think shouldn't be allowed.
 
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While I agree with you, the last "traditional" game auction I went to was out of control in how much people were paying for games. A Simpsons arcade (in CRAP condition mind you) sold for like 550, and that was probably one of the lowest finish prices of the day. Not only that, the auctioneers were assholes; making you feel bad if you didn't continue to bid on something. Hate sniping if you like, but I'm still the proud owner of a NEO GEO.

The auctioneer's job is to get people bidding. If you're gonna go to voice auctions, you have to turn off your 'be nice to people' filters with respect to the auctioneers. They will use most any trick to get you to pay more, including trying to guilt you into it, acting like you're a jerk if you don't, etc, etc.

Sniping on Ebay: Do it if you want, but if you know what you want to pay, you'll do no better than simply placing that bid early and letting it ride. Sniping only helps you if people don't bid what they are willing to pay.

For my part, you'll NEVER get an item I want for less than I want to pay, because I bid my max early. You can pay more and get it, but you could do that early and save all the hanging around for the auction to end.
 
I wish ebay was more like yahoo.jp auctions. If you put a last minute bid in, it adds another hour to the auction. I hate it when I put a bid on something 2-3 days before the auction ends just to have some douchebag outbid me with 2 seconds left in the auction. Wish yahoo had a usa auction site :\
 
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If you bid before the last few seconds, all you are doing is giving the seller a chance to shill bid and everyone else a chance to bid it too high. Why would you want to give people days to decide if they want to bid against you? I just don't get it.

I used to snipe manually, and it was fun sometimes, but ultimately it is just a waste of time. I have lost auctions because my connection slowed down at the last second. After minutes of constant speed refreshing, it would take four times as long at the last minute. The sniping sites have better servers than we do, and now my bid is always placed with 4 seconds left.

Other than the timing, I guess I agree with the anti sniping people. I put in a bid (in eSnipe) and forget about it. If I win; great, if not; someone payed more than I was willing to. I just don't give people time to decide that they want to bid against me.

I think we had this conversation not too long ago; seems familiar... :)
 
I used to be like that,but I save the headache and put a limit bid of exactly what I'm willing to pay for it.If someone wants it for more,go ahead.

And ebay calling itself an "auction site" is somewhat of a joke as in a traditional auction you compete with other bidders and the auction doesn't end until the last bid is not countered.That's how it should be.Sniping....psssh.

Do you really feel that way? I had put that question out when I started GameGavel because I can use what it calls dynamic bidding. So that if a bid is placed at the last second it adds a determined amount of time to the auction like 20 seconds or 1 minute and it will continue adding time until there are no more bids placed. Most agreed that this would not be a good feature, but it was something I wanted to try at least in the beginning. Not sure how it would go over now though.
 
The auctioneer's job is to get people bidding. If you're gonna go to voice auctions, you have to turn off your 'be nice to people' filters with respect to the auctioneers. They will use most any trick to get you to pay more, including trying to guilt you into it, acting like you're a jerk if you don't, etc, etc.

I know what you mean, but it's still hard to ignore a 70 year old guy yelling in your face "Come on, COME ON!!! You started this!" And yes, it was a Super Auctions event that I was speaking about. I prefer ebay. Even with all the shady stuff that goes on in that worldwide garage sale, I still like how it turns consumerism into a game.

Didn't mean to re-open a topic... I was more interested in sharing that I got a NEO GEO MVS board to add to my collection. Now I've got to start sorting through all the reviews on the NEO GEO Multi carts to find the one I like the best. The ebay rant was secondary.
 
I'm a sniper too. The argument that you bid early what you'll pay and that it won't cost you any more $ is ignorant. If you put your $ down and you are bidding against someone with no ebay experience, value knowledge, and or endless $ he will keep jacking you up. Sometimes it is just the two of us. By sniping I know I have saved myself money. Type in what you are willing to pay as you snipe at the end. Don't let the other guy get to your max bid and let him think about jacking it up for 2 days! And besides, the f'n rush is awesome. I love checking the time of my bid vs. the time it closed to see how close I got.
 
Ebay makes us crazy though... First, I'm of the opinion that those ebay snipe programs are a bunch of crap. I do it the old fashion way.

It seems as though you go through a lot of unnecessary work to bid, as if you know that using an automated sniping solution would be much easier and convenient, but you see it as the 'sissy' way to bid?


Sniping on Ebay: Do it if you want, but if you know what you want to pay, you'll do no better than simply placing that bid early and letting it ride. Sniping only helps you if people don't bid what they are willing to pay.

If people were completely rational, that would be true. People are people however, so early bidding will usually result in a higher final price, because of the added attention it would bring.


If you bid before the last few seconds, all you are doing is giving the seller a chance to shill bid and everyone else a chance to bid it too high.

Excellent point, and one that many ebayers aren't aware of. Shill bidding definitely occurs on ebay, costing bidders $. If you see a bid retraction, especially with the reason for the retraction being 'entered the wrong amount', be wary of the seller. It was probably him or his buddy that made that bid/retraction.

A couple more benefits of sniping are time saving, (hopefully) $ saving, nerve saving, and the ability to cancel a scheduled snipe, rather than having to file a bid retraction if you bid early and then decide you no longer want the item.

Some people like the excitement of manual sniping, if you have the time, go that route. Bidding early seems not to be the best strategy.

Here's a link to a study done on sniping:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/2006-06-25-physics-of-ebay_x.htm
 
I've been on ebay pretty much since it began.I started out as a big time sniper,but have since become a limit bidder.I see stuff all the time that I want and instead of trying to snipe it and constantly worry about it I just put my max bid up and forget it.

For people who bash the limit bidding,I would rather get outbid on something knowing I bid the max of what I was willing to pay instead of getting caught up in a snipe war and possibly overpaying for something that I know will pop up again at some point.99.9% of the things you see for sale on ebay you will see numerous times.

I tried to win a Vampire Savior board 3 times.First try I got sniped at the last second,put a limit bid of $85,board when for $86.Second try I put a limit bid of $86,got outbid.Someone sniped it for $100. Third try,limit bid of $86...not much action on the board,won it for $46. Cha-ching!! Who needs sniping?! :D

I used to get pissed about snipers.I even ranted on here not too long ago about getting sniped.I don't really mind now.If I get sniped,oh well....congrats to the winner!
 
If people were completely rational, that would be true. People are people however, so early bidding will usually result in a higher final price, because of the added attention it would bring.

I had trouble figuring out what was wrong with this statement, then today it finally hit me - I've NEVER won an auction where I've bid early and had a sniper come in late. So while yes, the auction DID go higher than it might have (which is good for the seller), I didn't pay that extra money - the guy sniping me did.

So while you are certainly correct, I don't think that it matters to me - I didn't pay more for the item (because I only bid what it was worth to me). And if I'm not going to get it, I have NO problem with the next guy having to pay more for it than I'm willing.
 
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I used to buy stuff on ebay a lot but never anymore. but when I did I used esnipe.

enter my max bid amount (the most im willing to pay for the item) and set it to check/bid at the last second.

I used to like esnipe, just set it, and forget it. Theres no point in bidding on something anymore until the last minute of the auction cause that's where all the bidding happens.
 
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