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Subject: 
Re: Good things about E-Bay ...
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Thu, 11 Feb 1999 02:08:35 GMT
Viewed: 
234 times
  
Lee Jorgensen wrote:


A really good thing for EBay would be to extend the auction by 15 min
for every bid within the last hour.  So, if I place a bid at :45 left,
then there
is now 1 hour left ... if I attempted to snip someones bid at the last
seconds,
there would be a 15 min buffer for someone do the same thing to me.

That would cut down a lot of 'bad' feelings about the auctions of EBay.


Lee has beaten me to my two cents, which is to bring up the one easy way
for ebay to escape their reputation of being a sniper haven.  If anyone
else has participated in an Onsale auction they have experienced this
"extension" rule at the end of auctions.  Onsale auctions (from what I
remember - haven't participate since last Fall) do not end until there are
no bids entered for a period of time, usually 5 or ten minutes.  So if
someone bids with 10 seconds left, there is suddenly 5:10 left - and if
that time winds down again but someone places another bid then 5 more
minutes are added.

The auctions I have participated in are computer hardware auctions, usually
things like monitors or hard drives - and they are usually Dutch auctions
so all in all it is a different scenario than ebay.  But ebay could still
implement such a rule, or a variant at the very least.  The one problem is
that there is no set end time and this creates the potential to require
even more time commitment from the interested bidders.

And now for the other 3 cents to make a nickle...

Just for the record, I have participated in many ebay auctions, and I have
been known to "snipe" on occasion when there is something I am very
interested in.  The system that ebay operates under does encourage this to
an extent, and consequently I have fallen victim to it.  But as Adam Yulish
previously outlined, it is possible to escape/avoide sniping, I'm just not
the personality type that can do that :-)  I believe Adam is in the
minority, most ebay bidders are not able to operate with such a clear head
and straightforward mentality.

I have also used ebay to sell certain Lego items.  As a seller I have had
to make decisions regarding where and how to sell/auction my sets.  There
are certain things I feel better about selling on Lugnet/RTL and others
that are better suited for ebay.  Example is the Main Street I am currently
auctioning along with some other early 80s Town sets.  I felt that I could
probably get the best price on the majority of my sets by offering them on
the newgroups instead of ebay.  As a side bonus, I know that there will be
no sniping of my sets and the winners will be the people who were willing
to offer the highest bid.  On the flip side, I have a 6080 to sell with no
instructions and many wall pieces that are discolored/faded with minifigs
that have worn off torso paint.  Not many people here are crazy for such a
set, but on ebay I'm likely to get a decent price for it (currently at
$56).

Again, as a seller ebay works fine - if you can get past the fact that you
are giving your stuff up to potential sniping (which I can and have).  As a
buyer it can work if you Adam Yulish, but it can also work if you choose
very carefully what items you go after and if time permits resort to
sniping.

Not very organized, but it's my thoughts on this topic none the lesss.

--
Michael Ulring
ulringmc@email.uc.edu or ulringmc@columbus.rr.com
WorldCom Advanced Networks, Software Developer
http://oz.uc.edu/~ulringmc    http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/2436/



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Good things about E-Bay ...
 
(...) But is 5-10 minutes really enough time to make a true difference? What if you're sleeping, or eating dinner, or in a meeting at work, or really really constipated? Or what if you're on a modem and your connection drops a couple times? BTW, (...) (25 years ago, 11-Feb-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Good things about E-Bay ...
 
(No this is not intended to be flame bait) I recently sold several older toys that I had obtained about 15 years ago, and I had _NO_CLUE_ on a value of these. (BTW, they were Zoids by Tomy) The _ONLY_ reason I decided to go with EBay v. direct (...) (25 years ago, 10-Feb-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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