E-bay complaints: was Re: "Response" from seller with the "Apple-1"

Fri Jul 8 12:44:17 CDT 2005

Do these services have any kind of monetary buffer built-in?  For example,
let's say you are willing to pay $100 for something.  Your sniping service
enters that amount at the last possible second, and you lose to someone
whose bid was $101.  You'd feel pretty dumb about losing the item because of
one dollar.  How do you know that winner's bid wasn't $101 maximum?  I know
that's an easy trap because, in reality, you can keep going back and forth
in small increments, and the next thing you know, you've bid $120, which is
really more than you allotted for the item.  Still, though, it's a
legitimate problem with sniping services as I understand them -- you have no
chance at all to say "okay, I'll bid just a little bit more."

-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org]
On Behalf Of Vintage Computer Festival
Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 1:32 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: E-bay complaints: was Re: "Response" from seller with the
"Apple-1"

On Fri, 8 Jul 2005, Gary Sparkes wrote:

> I don't rely on snipe services - unless they jack you to your max
> *instantly* instead of in incriments, nailing your highest at the last 
> minute and having the snipe program check and raise and check and 
> raise takes time, and it most likely won't hit your max during that 
> last single minute, heh

If a sniper service works like that then it's foolish and retarded.  The
main reason I use a sniping service is to manage my bids for me.  First of
all, for all the obvious reasons, bidding anytime before the imminent end of
an eBay auction is pointless.  Second, I submit what I'm willing to pay, and
the sniper gets my bid in at the last possible reasonable second.
If I win, great.  If I win for less than what I was willing to pay, even
better.  If I don't, terrific!  I saved my money for a rainy day.

-- 

Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer
Festival
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