Subject:
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Re: Ebay sniper? you make the call
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.market.theory
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Date:
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Wed, 20 Nov 2002 20:45:23 GMT
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Viewed:
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1415 times
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John Radtke wrote:
>
> In lugnet.market.theory, Frank Filz writes:
> > The solution to the problem is to play the game the way it was intended,
> > and bid early (and often :-).
> >
> > Frank
>
> Where was it ever written or explained that the way ebay is 'intended' to
> work is by bidding early and often? I would argue just the opposite. They
> are fixed end time auctions. The only thing that functionally has any
> meaning is being the high bidder at the end. The theory of proxy bidding
> implies that you decide what you're willing to pay and bid exactly once. In
> which case all bids will wash out the same in the end so it would also no
> longer matter when you bid (yes, barring ties.)
If the intent was for everyone to submit bids at the last possible
minute, with no opportunity to react to others bids, then they could
have chosen a completely standard auction format, the sealed bid
auction. In a sealed bid auction, you may submit a bid during the
bidding period. Once the bidding period is over, all bids are opened,
and the highest one wins.
I think it's pretty clear that was not eBay's intent. I think their
intent was to create smonething more like a live auction. Some of those
even allow proxy bids in a format somewhat similar to eBay's.
> The only thing that gets in the way of this is that people want the
> opprtunity to change their mind. It is not so much last minute bidding that
> deprives you of the chance to change your mind - it is the fact that the
> auction has a fixed end time. At that moment everyone in the world loses
> the opportunity to change their mind about that auction, whether to bid more
> or bid at all. Just as everyone in the world had the opprtunity to bid at
> any time that the auction was running. None of this is more or less fair to
> one person than another. If you think it is, then I would argue that you're
> taking it too personally (or have the simple misconception that you're
> entitled to something because you were the high bidder for so many days.)
> And, that, I am pretty sure is not how it was intended to work.
I'm not taking it personally (other than perhaps the whines by snipers
that people who put in a fair proxy bid early are driving up the price).
I admit that there is a certain feeling of ownership when one has the
high bid for some period of time. The same thing happens in live
auctions, the difference there is that there is rarely a sudden death
time on bidding (in fact, a good auctioneer who feels that someone is
seriously considering another bid will prolong the "going-once,
going-twice, gone..." bit).
> (Overloading pages or bidding more than you intend to pay or shill bidding
> or whatever is unfair, but those are issues unto themselves unrelated to the
> baisc right to bid at any time an auction is running.)
>
> my 2 cents,
>
> John
> #388
> (who is not trying to be argumentative but is seriously curious where this
> bid early and often conception comes from because, based on they way ebay
> auctions work, that methodology is meaningless, unproductive, stressful, and
> needlessly time consuming.)
Why is it stresseful? It's definitely less stressfull to get your bid in
way ahead of the bid closing time. Also, auctions where you can respond
to other's bids usually generate higher bids (have you ever participated
in such an auction, and sighed with relief when you realized you really
shouldn't have bid again, but fortunately the other guy did want it
more, and outbid you).
By the way, I do not at all think sniping is unfair. On the other hand,
I think it generally reduces selling prices, but it's very hard to come
up with a system which lets people respond to being outbid, which
doesn't unecessarily prolong the auction (I remember being very annoyed
when non-serious bids on Serious Collector were delaying closing of
auctions I was bidding on - someone would bid the price up just a buck
just at the last moment - in a live auction, if someone continued to do
that, the participants would have a chance to react [the auctioneer may
speed up the count down, or the other bidder might just decide to raise
by 5 bucks or something, in hopes of scaring the obnoxious bidder off,
but I've never seen things like that go for very long on real live
auctions]).
The thing I really hate about snipers are the ones who feel they are
entitled to a ridiculous bargain.
Frank
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Ebay sniper? you make the call
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| The problem with ebay is that it is trying to simulate a live auction (as opposed to a sealed bid auction) on a worldwide basis. Now a normal auction is held in one place and all the bidders (or their agents) are present throughout the auction. (...) (22 years ago, 24-Nov-02, to lugnet.market.theory)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Ebay sniper? you make the call
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| (...) Where was it ever written or explained that the way ebay is 'intended' to work is by bidding early and often? I would argue just the opposite. They are fixed end time auctions. The only thing that functionally has any meaning is being the high (...) (22 years ago, 20-Nov-02, to lugnet.market.theory)
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