Re: [CR]Re: was: concerning that Rene Herse frame...; now: Sniping (IP Merkin)

(Example: Humor:John Pergolizzi)

Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 13:43:00 -0400
From: Don Rogers <turning.pedals@gmail.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: Re: [CR]Re: was: concerning that Rene Herse frame...; now: Sniping (IP Merkin)
In-Reply-To: <8C826E80781C9EF-1DF4-1A7D@FWM-M09.sysops.aol.com>
References: <8C826E80781C9EF-1DF4-1A7D@FWM-M09.sysops.aol.com>


On 4/5/06, ipmerkin@aol.com <ipmerkin@aol.com> wrote:
> ... While sniping is an effective practice, it's also downright sneaky, e specially when done by somebody who comes in with his or her first and only bid in the last ten seconds of an auction.
> ...
> To those of you who get some sort of rush (whether you admit it or not) b y winning eBay auctions with snipes, I offer no apologies.

To me, with a limited budget, sniping is a practical technique to actually have a shot at getting items I'm interested in at a reasonable price. Say, for example, there's a vintage part offered that I have been looking for. There are 3 days to go, current bid $25. It's worth up to $65 to me.

I can bid my $65 early. The current price works up to just above the last bidder's max right away, say $45. They see they're outbid, and come back with more means or priority than me, bid it up to $70 and I'm out. Fine with me, it wasn't worth that much to me. But I lost my shot. Or maybe I get a little crazy, lose my Zen detachment, take personal offense, and charge forward above my own limits, bidding up to $85, then $100, and beyond. One of us will win, but at a silly-high price.

If instead I save my $65 bid for the final seconds, then I get it for $46. In the end, I simply committed a higher value to the object than the other bidder.

If I'm particularly interested in the item, or if it seems rare at all, I will put in an early bid just a bit above current, maybe $37, which gets my name in the ring, and lets the other bidders know there may be competition. Also, it keeps the seller from pulling the auction after selling the item to a neighbor instead, or because they're unhappy with the progress of the bidding. I then hold my real maximum bid for snipe time. If nobody else comes around in the meantime, then until the final seconds the current bid is just above my placeholder, at $38. I snipe in at $65 max., and get it for just over the other bidder's max, so $46.

I will admit there is some adrenaline flowing in those last seconds, but that's not why I snipe. It's a pragmatic matter of effective tactics and keeping the price down. Further, to me it makes the auction more of a contest of 'to whom is it worth more' rather than a political game of one-upsmanship. If it was worth $70 to the other bidder, really, they should have entered $70 as their max, and they would have won, though admittedly at a surprising price jump between 5 seconds to go ($38) and close time ($66). If they didn't enter $70 as their max. in the first place, then either it wasn't *really* worth that to them, or they weren't confident enough to commit.

I certainly lose my share of sniped auctions from an earlier bidder having a higher maximum bid than my snipe offer. But, because of my own timing, I have no opportunity to develop emotional over-commitments, bidding the item above my own pre-considered maximum value. I have a single bullet, and either it makes its mark or doesn't.

Is there really a lack of honor here? To me eBay is less of an auction house like Sotheby's and more of a vacant-lot flea market. The vendors are packing up at 3:30pm sharp; whoever's there with a bigger offer at 3:29 gets to take it home.

Don Rogers Admitted Sniper with a Heart of Gold Shivering right along with M. Merkin in Providence, RI