eBay "sniping"

IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
No-one has really provided any reason why sniping is immoral, it just seems that people are annoyed by losing at the last minute and by a small amount. Of course that is annoying but I think that it evens out, I get some bargains and I lose some I really want, same as all of you I imagine.

"What trademe does to prevent sniping, which I think is rather smart, is give the seller the option to extend the auction if a bid is made in the last 5 minutes. You select this option when you advertise your item, and the auction automatically extends to finish 5 minutes after that bid."

I guess that that is the equivalent of saying "going, going gone" and it would prevent sniping. Also it would tend to increase prices (and ebay profits as you say) so as a buyer I'm glad that ebay don't use that method. Please keep it under your hat in future.

“Anyone want to venture a few million in a rival site www.realtimebidding4rarerecords.com?”

Sounds interesting but I can’t get the link to work, what is it?
 
D

dHarry

Well-known member
IdleRich said:
"What trademe does to prevent sniping, which I think is rather smart, is give the seller the option to extend the auction if a bid is made in the last 5 minutes. You select this option when you advertise your item, and the auction automatically extends to finish 5 minutes after that bid."

I guess that that is the equivalent of saying "going, going gone" and it would prevent sniping. Also it would tend to increase prices (and ebay profits as you say) so as a buyer I'm glad that ebay don't use that method. Please keep it under your hat in future.
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keep it under my hat, in case eBay read this thread and change their policies?! I'm not convinced it would increase prices, it might keep them to a minimum before the closing stages, and make the whole process more transparent.

IdleRich said:
“Anyone want to venture a few million in a rival site www.realtimebidding4rarerecords.com?”

Sounds interesting but I can’t get the link to work, what is it?
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I just made it up :p
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
dHarry said:
John - which sniper servive/software are you going with? I'd love to know how you get on.
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Seems to work fine. I've won two auctions with it, one of them for a penny. :D
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
“Keep it under my hat, in case eBay read this thread and change their policies?!”

That was a joke.

“I just made it up”

That would explain it I guess. Shame, it sounded as though it was going to be my new favourite website.
 
M

mms

sometimes
ebay to me just looks more and more like a place where you get an evaluation judgement on something, watch the item.see how much it comes up for on ebay, get it much cheaper somewhere else with this in mind via the technique of googling. ebay has reached critical mass now i think.
i've saved about £50 quid on items i would have bought on ebay otherwise this month.
 
D

droid

Guest
Dunno about that. I saved over €250 on a brand new mixer before Christmas...

Theres always bargins to be had, and Ebay tends to give the cheapest price on things if your careful and do the research.

But then again, I do live in the rip-off capital of Europe, where everything is about 20% overpriced... :mad:
 
B

bassnation

the abyss
droid said:
Dunno about that. I saved over €250 on a brand new mixer before Christmas...

Theres always bargins to be had, and Ebay tends to give the cheapest price on things if your careful and do the research.

But then again, I do live in the rip-off capital of Europe, where everything is about 20% overpriced... :mad:
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having said that, i bought a motu 828 soundcard from there - lovely piece of kit, 8 ins and outs plus optical, superb sound. normally they go for 600 quid and i got it for 250. 3 days later it just stops working, wouldn't even power up. sent it back to the bloke who then accused me of taking it apart - "all the screws are mashed up, what have you done to it?"

i guess i was unlucky, but at least with a shop they have definite return policies and most of the time you can avoid these kind of arguments.
 
D

droid

Guest
bassnation said:
having said that, i bought a motu 828 soundcard from there - lovely piece of kit, 8 ins and outs plus optical, superb sound. normally they go for 600 quid and i got it for 250. 3 days later it just stops working, wouldn't even power up. sent it back to the bloke who then accused me of taking it apart - "all the screws are mashed up, what have you done to it?"

i guess i was unlucky, but at least with a shop they have definite return policies and most of the time you can avoid these kind of arguments.
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Thats always the risk though innit? I hope you left some very nasty feedback...
 
Grievous Angel

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
In some categories, eBay is ludicrously overpriced, or rather the sellers. Books and DVDs are often more expensive than Amazon -- WTF???

CDs usually tend to be dirt cheap.

Hifi usually offers "value" if it's OK kit -- i.e. a reasonable 15-20% discount over new kit, sometimes less, enough to pay for the risk.

I think eBay motors has blown the second hand car market wide open, but of course there's a lot of structural influences there...
 
F

Freakaholic

not just an addiction
I dunno if Im good at sniffing out the honest ones, or was just lucky. I got a Pioneer DJM-600 for $650. Retail in the states is $1200-1500. This one was in perfect condition, and actually, even though I won the bid but didnt reach the reserve, he sold it to me on the side.

Now, I am very wary of this, and I told him so. But it all worked out. Months later, a friend bought one legitimately through ebay, and the guy took off with his $800.

Luckily, Ive only been screwed like that on a couple of records here n there, mostly from England or Asia.
 
P

PeteUM

It's all grist
I know I should just read their rules and regs, but what happens if you paypal someone for something and it never arrives?
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
PeteUM said:
I know I should just read their rules and regs, but what happens if you paypal someone for something and it never arrives?
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You go to "report item undelivered" in your ebay "items won" profile. They then usually give you a link to the paypal site where you tell paypal what has happened. They then open a dispute for you. If you are lucky they credit your account after a few weeks.

This just happened to me and I got the money back anyway. :cool:
 
P

PeteUM

It's all grist
Much obliged. I might just be being paranoid because I can't seem to get any emails out of the seller, but how long do you think I should leave it. It's been about 4 days so far...
 
M

mms

sometimes
i saw a business near hampstead thats actually set up to deal with ebay and other online auctions, i thought that was incredible - obviously it's not a couple of books or anything but i was suprised such a thing exists
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
PeteUM said:
Much obliged. I might just be being paranoid because I can't seem to get any emails out of the seller, but how long do you think I should leave it. It's been about 4 days so far...
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4 days is way too short I would leave it 3 weeks or a month. Tho it's worth checking his feedback to see if he is getting negs from people who won auctions the same time as you or before.
 
P

PeteUM

It's all grist
A month? A fucking month?! You reggae people are way too relaxed about stuff...


Seriously though, if i'm going to spunk a load of cash I don't have on some grime 12" I was hoping for some ugly consumer gratification situation within a week at least, or at least an email why not. I'll give matey the benefit of the doubt though, if you reckon...

Saw ACEN records fetching some cash. Wonder if that's post WOEBOT's list...
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
PeteUM said:
A month? A fucking month?! You reggae people are way too relaxed about stuff...
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Well maybe that's just me.

Actually maybe it was more like a fortnight, I dunno. But if you want to do it sooner you'll have to read all the small print and policies, eh? :D
 
B

bassnation

the abyss
john eden said:
I always assume those job lots are full of ballast...
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i was thinking of doing some job lots with some records, but only because the sheer numbers of house tunes i want to sell makes individual listings prohibitive. basically i can't be arsed.
 
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