Subject:
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Re: How to snipe on eBay
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.market.auction
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Date:
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Wed, 26 Jul 2000 22:12:00 GMT
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Reply-To:
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MPRATT@CIXnospam.CO.UK
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Viewed:
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1471 times
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In article <FyB0K4.Ery@lugnet.com>, rob.doucette@york.com (Rob Doucette)
wrote:
> FUT: market.theory
>
> http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/zd/20000725/tc/how_to_snipe_on_ebay_1.html
>
> Tuesday July 25 09:15 PM EDT
> How to snipe on eBay
>
> By David Coursey, ZDNet News
>
> Inside tips from successful eBay snipers.
>
> As a public service, I will now reveal my secret plan never to get
> sucker-punched on eBay again.
>
> I feel some duty to share this information because it comes from the
> hundreds of messages I've received about my two previous eBay columns --
> many from snipers who, while admitting the situation sucks, were happy
> to
> share what they have learned.
>
> "eBay forced me to become a sniper," was the tone of many of these
> e-mails.
> They didn't like having to become "pros" in the eBay "game" but said
> it's
> necessary if you want to "win." This seems to make eBay the hot action
> sport
> for couch potatoes.
>
> How did we live before the Internet made all this possible?
>
> Step by step
>
> I will now share the mainstream of the advice I have received. Follow
> this
> advice and you will win more auctions and pay fairer prices. The
> downside is
> you really must be online when the auction ends. And the more people
> who do
> this, the less effective these tactics become.
>
> Note: This is the point in the column when a really evil columnist would
> attempt to regain the upper hand by telling you he never really got
> beat by
> the snipers in the first place and did this all either to a) learn
> advanced
> sniping technique, or b) just stir the readers. But I, as several of you
> pointed out, am not that cunning.
>
> Here goes:
>
> 1. Never put in an early proxy! Don't be a fool, like I was, and enter a
> proxy bid early in the battle. The conventional wisdom is early proxying
> only results in higher prices.
>
> 2. Know what an item is worth. Set a maximum for yourself. Research
> previous
> auctions and other sources of information to determine what is a fair
> price.
> Then decide what is the top dollar you'll pay.
>
> 3. Never put in an early proxy for this amount. Why? Because if you bid
> on
> multiple items you certainly won't get all of them -- but if you do,
> your
> potential exposure could be bigger than your pocketbook. This works
> against
> setting a few $1,000 proxies on $10 items just to make sure you win.
> Not to
> mention what happens if someone (like the seller) catches wind of this
> and
> drives you up just to raise the price.
>
> 4. Watch the item. Keep an eye on the items that interest you, but never
> bid. Don't do anything that might create interest in the item. Let the
> early-bidding stooges be asleep when you win the auction.
>
> 5. You must be there at the end. I am convinced that sniping is the
> only way
> to win in the environment eBay has created. Not sniping makes you a
> sucker.
>
> I think this is bad for eBay, but that's eBay's problem. It also means
> you
> need a good alarm clock and calendar to keep track of where to be and
> when
> to make those final winning bids. I am vaguely aware of software that
> will
> automate this process, but my correspondents didn't consider it nearly
> as
> effective as doing the work yourself, in person, at closing. This might
> involve a last-second proxy.
>
> 6. Delayed closings might be a good thing. There are some auctions that
> automatically delay the closing until 10 minutes have passed without a
> new
> high bid.
>
> My new sniper friends were divided on this. Most didn't seem to like the
> last-minute frenzy before the close, which added a large amount of
> randomness to the outcome. Automatically delaying closes would make the
> process a little more civil, most said. This is probably a good idea,
> based
> on the arguments I've seen.
>
> I have not spent any time as a sniper, so I am merely reporting what I
> have
> been told. I do not know, for example, how eBay's system response time
> and
> other factors might affect the effectiveness of a last-second proxy vs.
> a
> last-second fixed bid.
>
> 7. eBay might consider sealed-bid auctions. Sealed bids would end all
> this
> sniping stuff and might be a way to level the playing field. Or maybe
> not.
> It is probably worth a try. It would encourage people to bid at their
> leisure, which sniping kills.
>
> I appreciate all the comments I have received. Especially the friendly
> ones -- whether you agreed with me or not. I did not appreciate the ones
> telling me that everything was fine because people who proxy their
> highest
> bid imaginable don't lose so often. But they, as I have learned, are
> also
> suckers and force up prices unnecessarily by taking on all comers with a
> "now beat this" response from the proxy.
>
> Like I said, I am not terribly interested in having to be online at
> specific
> moments to play the auction game. It's like one reader asked me: "Isn't
> this
> what the Internet was supposed to avoid?"
Another thing to remember when selling is to ensure people the other side
of the pond will be awake, or when buying not awake as the case may be !
Michael Pratt
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