[Coco] [Color Computer] Re: Bid Sniping

[Mark McDougall]

Alex Evans wrote:

> It is irritating.  It isn't really 
> unethical, but it is rude.

I must confess I tend to agree with Frederick but can appreciate Alex's 
frustrations, having lost a few auctions myself.

Another argument for *not* bidding the absolute maximum you'd pay for it up 
front is the opportunity for unscrupulous sellers to add proxy bids to drive 
up the price.

Also, it's sometimes the case that a buyer doesn't really know what the 
'going' price is for an item, for example, collectables. You may make a 
conservative bid up front, and when you see that you've been out-bid by a 
factor of two - you may re-consider in light of the 'market price' and 
decide to up the ante. Sniping prevents this - again both buyer and seller lose.

Having said all that, I also believe that "all's fair in love and eBay 
auctions".

I for the life of me don't understand why eBay don't implement the simple 
solution chosen by GraysOnline - namely that an auction won't actually end 
until there have been *no* bids for, say, 10 mins. IMHO *everyone* is the 
winner here. Buyers can't be sniped. Sellers get a fairer price because 
they're basically getting what people are truly willing to pay.

That's all in the original spirit of an auction!

Regards,

-- 
|              Mark McDougall                | "Electrical Engineers do it
| <http://members.optushome.com.au/msmcdoug> |   with less resistance!"