eBay: Tiki Bowl

http://cgi.aol.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3231423785&category=35801&rd=1

I am not the seller or bidder(s).

Are there many of these, or is it a more "rare" item? Thanks.

Jeezis, the prices these days...one day I'll get my vengeance, I'll make a buttload of money and outbid everyone! Aaahahahahhahaaaaah!!! I'll show them all!

(Mrs. emspace enters computer room, carefully administers sedative, covers emspace with blanket, leaves quietly).

:), emspace.

P.S. that doean't answer your question, does it Suzy? Yep, it's rare, I think anything from the Luau is regarded as rare. It helps too that it's a damn good-looking piece...$228 eh? That's $314 Canadian. That's not too horrible I guess, just my monthly strata fees, cable, power, and phone bills...

:), em

I just gotta say: it was an interesting battle there between meowprincess and yoho-yoho...until Beachbombjim bid up two and a half bucks 6 SECONDS before closing. This is exactly the way I have lost the majority of my auctions.

Anyone feel like weighing in on the topic of people who bid up just enough to win, within seconds of closing? Cuz I'd like to slowly strangle them...

:wink:. em

I am not sure how it works, but his high bid may have been much higher than what you see. There is a bidder who lives here who gets what he bids on 99% of the time, and even though a certain figure shows up, his "high" bid is way, way over the final price.

jimbomb probably "sniped" the item.

Thanks for the reply!

Tell me about "sniped" - definitely these people who watch the last few seconds of an auction have the sniper mentality IMHO...

em.

Mike, "Sniping" is the practice of waiting until the last seconds of an auction to place your bid, usually a high one. The idea is that when the time runs out, it is too late for anyone else to outbid you. I personally don't have a problem with it (unless someone is using that "sniper software program" and not actually watching the auction and doing the "work" of sniping themselves---just my opinion). My reasoning is, if someone who was shut out of the bidding was willing to bid higher, they should have bid high upfront in the first place. I can see where this is frustrating for the seller, though, but e-bay is heavily weighted to the seller's advantage anyway, and sniping is one of the few advantages a buyer has in the game. I will snipe from time to time, although if I know another TC'er is bidding, I'll often do it with a few minutes left in the auction rather than just a few seconds----that way if they really want the item and are being vigilant, they still have a chance. I know alot of you hate sniping----just my two cents.

[ Edited by: suffering bastard on 2003-07-13 16:21 ]

Thanx sb - I know all is fair in love and eBay, but "sniper software"? God, what a world the Net is becoming...blech!

:roll:, em

You don't have to download the software anymore. It's VERY easy. And, the first 3 are free. After that, it's only like 1% or something.

I was watching this one to see if Duosonic would snipe it. I know he (?she?) snipes from time to time, and is a collector of the Steve Crane stuff, judging by past auctions. I sometimes try to guess what other tiki collectors are looking for on e-Bay. No last minute Duosonic bids, though....maybe he already has the Luau bowl.

Sniping is "officially un-cool". That said, I've done it occasionally for something I just HAD to have. Sniping software sounds evil at first, but I've sometimes wished I'd used it for auctions that ended at 2am or when I just couldn't be near my computer at the close. Its primary function seems to be to snipe, but it would also work as a proxy bidder, right?

But I like to watch the bids rise so I can constantly re-evaluate my desire for the object and how much I can afford. I suppose snipe-ware works for power-re-sellers and the like, but I'll hold off for now.

I sniped twice in my life - once for a record I once had as a kid and desperately wanted again. I was willing to pay 300 bucks (thats the amount I entered) but because no one else bid I only had to pay 9.95. The other things were some chairs to match my diningroom set. I sniped, but someone else out-bid me anyway. SO sniping isn't necesarily just a high rollers game, nor is it always successful.

I tend to not use it though unless I am desperate for something, as is seems slightly unsportsmanlike. I've bought many things, but only sniped twice, as I said. So I guess I feel sort of ambivalent about it.

Gentle reader,

If I don't care enough about an item to snipe it, it's not something I would care to own. Sniping is a noble art that doesn't deserve the harsh rap its been given. It takes patience not to bid on a treasure that you desperately want as soon as you find it. It takes dedication to clear your calendar for the exact time the auction will close. Knowing that you will have only one opportunity to place a snipe it takes self-awareness to determine exactly how much you are willing to pay without reference to other bids. It takes nerve to wait to the final three or four seconds to place that single bid.

If you've never snipped in the last three or four seconds of an auction you've missed out on the adrenalin rush of wondering whether (1) you got your snipe in on time (I've had a couple 1 second snipes), and (2) whether your highest bid was high enough to get you the widget you'd been coveting for the past week. That final refresh when I learn if the auction went my way always gets my heart pumping even if it's only a $5 widget.

For some sniping isn't just a lifestyle choice, it's a calling.

signed,
Officially Uncool in Virginia.

ON the down side of sniping. Anyone see the complete Witco Bar set w/ 2 stools, sconces and picture. I deleted out of my ebay as I was waiting till the last day when the seller got itchey and sold it for the current high price 2 days too early. $125 :(

Tacky Techie Tiki Bar

[ Edited by: Turbogod on 2003-07-14 14:55 ]

But someone asking a seller to end an auction early is not what we mean by sniping. Asking to end an auction early is a plain old dirty trick, often discussed in these parts. I don't know what you would call it, but it's not defined as sniping.

Snarping? Snoping? Snapping?

There was a lot of 3 PMP "praying monkey" style mugs that I just Haaaaaaad to have, to complete my PMP Monkey Trifecta(sp?) but I thought I had to be out of town for awhile, so I asked the seller if she would accept $28 plus shipping. She responded saying she never ended early, but wished me the best of luck. Well, now I'm glad she did'nt bite, I ended up getting them for $16.
Anyways, as far a sniping, I have bid high near the end, but since I'm on a dial up connection, it's always been with like 2 minutes left, leaving someone else the chance to sneak in.

On 2003-07-14 15:21, tikifish wrote:
I don't know what you would call it, but it's not defined as sniping.

Snarping? Snoping? Snapping?

Snipping?

Dude, you're gettin' a Tiki!

[ Edited by: TikiMikey on 2003-07-14 17:17 ]

An advantage of sniping is that it prevents shill bidding. Shill bidding is the practice of the seller bidding on his own item to drive up the price. Of course the shill bid is placed through another account. The only way to detect it is to look at all the sellers other auctions to see if there is a pattern. However, even if you catch someone shill bidding eBay won't do anything about it.

I believe sniping is what needs to be done if you truly want something. It is just one of many strategies employed in auctions. I will say that BeachBombJim is a pain in the ass, as I have lost "even in the snipe" to him a few times. I've also seen him pay way to much for something that was mis-labled, but have'nt we all.

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.

Well, I can now definitely see the other side of the argument, thanx all for weighing in. It's the truth: I didn't have the means to buy the Luau bowl in the first place, so thought I'd bitch (only half-heartedly) about the auction.

The fact is, if I HAD the bread, and I REALLY wanted the bowl, I'd have been on it like stink. I agree "sniping" is an unfair term, probably originally applied by people without the cash and/or tenacity to grab the item they wanted - plain old sour grapes.

aloha,
emspace.

Em, I hear ya. I really really do.

How about we talk about something we can all agree on, like when the same person beats you out of just about every single auction you go after. It's one thing to lose to a bunch of different folks, but when it's the SAME person every time?

How do people have that kind of time AND cash????

KILLS ME!!!! :)

The solution to the sniping "problem" is completely in the control of eBay, they should keep auctions open until 2 minutes (or some other short interval) after the last bid. This makes it a real auction, not a hardware or software or connection contest. I suspect they dont do this because there resources might not be capable of handling it.

Why isnt sniping software fair? granted, it aggravates the sniping (I dont want to call it a problem)

On 2003-07-27 12:33, Reever wrote:
How do people have that kind of time AND cash????

KILLS ME!!!! :)

Gawd, no kidding! Are there actual RICH, as in, independently wealthy, Tiki heads? "Hmm, take another grand out of the Tiki War Chest honey, there's a Luau bowl up on eBay"...must be nice.

But that's just my sour grapes again.

:), em.