Sniping (was Re: Vax 4000/90)

[Scott Stevens]

On Sun, 15 May 2005 15:51:04 -0700
"vrs" <vrs at msn.com> wrote:

> From: "Vintage Computer Festival" <vcf at siconic.com>
> > > Unfortunately, Ebay's "theory" goes against human nature. What you
> > > think
> is
> > > your maximum bid, when someone else outbids that your brain says
> > > "well,
> if I
> > > could get it for just a little more, I guess I'd be willing to pay
> that".
> >
> > Right.  This is exactly what I used to say ad nauseum.  It is the
> > very reason sniping is still around.  It helps eBay in that it uses
> > human psychology in their favor (oh, and by the way, the side effect
> > is that it results in INFLATED PRICES).
> 
> I see this as replacing an orderly competition to determine who is
> willing to pay the most with a last second scramble in which some
> number of bidders get cut off by the auction deadline.  So I don't see
> how it drive prices up. Seems like whoever got cut off lost their
> chance to drive the price up.
> 
> Since I enter snipes days ahead of time (and assume most others do
> too), I think the emotionalism that drives the prices up is largely
> defeated.  If the minority who are hand-entering their last-second
> bids had enough time to bid effectively, *that* would drive prices up.
> 

If ebay wanted to take advantage of the sniping phenomenon correctly,
they would figure out a mechanism to bring it into their system, or
engineer the rules to eliminate it, i.e. the one-hour-after-last-bid
extension method.  Though I can see real frustration if people 'game'
that to make things close long, long after the scheduled ending, too.

It's been ages since I 'rode out' a close to the end in real-time. 
Third-party sniping systems have essentially replaced 'real-time'
bidding on highly contested items, in my opinion.  I place my high bid,
either with a proxy service or program, or directly with eBay, and walk
away.

I attend a LOT of local auctions, where one gets to know everybody quite
closely, and where there is a lot of social protocol that keeps rudeness
at bay.  There are regulars here, obviously, but let's be honest, the
names/identities don't automatically translate to 'the ring' at eBay the
same way.  Would be okay if it did.

Another point- awhile back in this very forum people were talking about
protocol for auctions.  The ethics of bidder-collusion, etc.  Some
people could interpret a 'close community, agree not to bid against each
other, cooperative community' spirit as unethical bidder-collusion. 
Isn't that wrong, too?

-Scott