Post #44643 by Reever on Sat, Jul 26, 2003 7:53 AM

Wow, Hipster, I'm with you.

Not wishing to pick a fight, I can't believe what I'm hearing. I've been a web designer forever, and have been on eBay since the first week it opened for business. (Why I'm not a stock-holder is beyond me. My lack of foresight is astounding, especially since I've turned on hundreds of people to the great worldwide garage sale that is (was?) Ebay...)

Who knew "sniping" was a bad thing? First of all, I didn't know it was called sniping. I thought it was being a savvy bidder. I am not a devious person. I would never try to work out a deal with the bidder to take the auction offline, although a few times, when no one has bid on an item and that aution has ended, I've talked terms with the seller.

The way I see it is this: in every financial transaction, there is a winner and a loser. Hopefully, the buyer and seller both come out happy with your transaction, but, honestly, someone's getting the better deal. That's business.

So explain to me why there are 10 bids on an item when there's a week to go in an auction? Folks do nothing but raise the price on themselves by bidding early. This was a fact I learned in the first couple of auctions I participated in. Ebay isn't like shopping at a thrift store, where you better make your offer because you don't know if the item will be there when you come back. You know the EXACT moment an item will be off the auction block in Ebay, and I've always thought if you really wanted something, you needed to be there at the last second to make your best offer. Sure it's risky, scary, intense and uncertain. But that's also the sheer fun of it. You lose some auctions, sure, but the victories are sweeter, and CHEAPER.

If you think sniping is wrong, does that also mean it's playing dirty pool to search for tiki mugs than an unknowing seller has posted under "vases"? Or Witco bars that a seller has posted as "hand-carved teak bar"?

Ebay is a game. To the wise and fast bidder, goes the spoils.

I think Ebay is being ruined by bidders so eager to stake their claim that they are bidding on the same item 10 times in the first day of something being posted. The prices are so rediculous and no one seems to understand why. Hello? Take some risk and you might win a price for your efforts. Hold off on bidding. Be patient. Shop wisely. If you don't win it, it wasn't meant to be. And where that came from, no matter how rare, it will come around again. That's the magic of Ebay.

As far as I'm concerned, as long as your not cheating, you're playing the game fairly. You're supposed to find advantages. I am totally against using software as your advantage, or under-the-table negotiations. But using your patience, your wit, and your WATCH are not illegal, immoral, or innappropriate.

Phew! Off the soapbox. I love you all! :)

I could get into lots of other peeves about Ebay, such as bidders who use a hidden "reserve" instead of just making the reserve their opening bid... what is UP with that???... but I'll save that discussion for another time.