Re: [CR]Sniping?

(Example: Framebuilding:Tubing)

Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 20:31:03 -0400
Subject: Re: [CR]Sniping?
From: "Fredrick Yavorsky" <fred@twistcomm.com>
To: "classicrendezvous@bikelist.org" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
In-Reply-To: <102820050002.14569.43616AA100011AC1000038E92200761394CE0D909F09@comcast.net>


One thing I have not seen in this thread is a mention of the increased heartbeat and excitement that comes while you watch the last few seconds of an auction you're bidding in. Sniping tools remove that wonderful rush. For me, the rush comes with winning or losing.

Fred ********************************** Fred Yavorsky Jenkintown, PA fred@twistcomm.com http://twistcomm.com/FredBikes.html


> From: <gpvb1@comcast.net>
> Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 00:02:41 +0000
> To: "classicrendezvous@bikelist.org" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Subject: Re: [CR]Sniping?
>
> Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 14:49:41 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Ross <dlr94306@yahoo.com>
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Subject: [CR]Sniping?
>
> Alan Lloyd wrote:
>
> "I'm missing something here: why does a sniping
> service do much more for you than eBay's own bidding
> mechanism, except submit your bid(s) at the last
> moment?
>
> Your maximum is your maximum, unless you increase it,
> either you win - or somebody else has a higher
> maximum!"
>
> To which David replied:
> I have been second high bidder more times than I care
> to count (probably a good thing, though, or I'd be
> that much poorer). It almost always happens on an item
> I want, but not badly. I'll put in my highest reserve
> near the start of the auction, and I will be the high
> bidder for most of the time. Towards the end of the
> auciton someone will start "probing" for my maximum
> bid - entering higher bids until they get one
> increment higher. That usually wins it for them.
>
> If I really want an item, I wait until the last
> possible moment to submit my highest possible bid.
> Call it non-automated sniping. I've gotten pretty
> good, and can usually get that bid in with less than
> 10 seconds to go, which will beat most sniping
> programs. I'm convinced that if I used this tactic all
> of the time it would eliminate "probing" and I would
> win more auctions. But then I would need a bigger
> warehouse. And I would have to quit my day job to
> spend more time on the 'bay.
>
> Dave "I've got $90, who will give me $95" Ross
> Portola Valley, CA
> ------------------------------
>
> As a self-acknowledged eBay junkie (I could quit anytime, honestly.....! Yeah,
> right!), this thread has been very interesting to me.
> I'll make a bold statement - IMO, 95% of the time, no one should ever bid on
> an eBay item more than five seconds before the end of the auction. With my
> cable modem, I can easily time it to the last two seconds very reliably. I
> wish I could do it at one second to go! The bad thing is that I need to be at
> my PC at that moment (unless I use a sniping tool) in order to do that.
> By only bidding at the last moment, several potentially bad things are
> avoided, and several potentially good things can happen. Shill bidding and
> newbie irrationality do exist, so if you wait until two seconds to go, you
> pretty much can't get shilled, or slammed to your max by an over-eager newbie.
> If you are a knowledgeable bidder in a country that allows everyone else to
> see what you are bidding on (ahem...), many, many people will likely look at
> all of your current bidding and catch little "nuggets" that you've found, so
> why give them that information? Watch the items until the last second, then
> pounce. Stealth and knowledge are about the only weapons in your eBay arsenal
> - absolutely everything else favors the sellers!
> Greg "gotta run, eBay beckons" Parker
> Ann Arbor, Michigan