Subject: [Harp-L] Sniping on Ebay

[Wayne Stennett <waynestennett@xxxxxxxxx>]

M. Erikson wrote:

E-Bay should make bidders aware of sniping programs. It should be in big
bold print. Otherwise, the whole bid process is fraudlent. I only found
out about snipe programs by watching items myteriously bid out from under
me, and then doing a google search and finding a whole array of e-bay
cheat programs. It's BS, and E-bay has a resonsiblity to let it's
customers know. I've wasted a lot of time on e-bay thinking I was engaged
in an honest, open auction.


I have nothing to do with ebay, other than getting things there every 
once in a while, but here is their (ebay's) take on sniping.

A note on sniping, from the ebay website:

"Sniping means placing a bid in the closing minutes or seconds of an 
auction.
Any bid placed before the auction ends is "legal" on eBay.  There is a 
way to protect yourself from snipers and prevent being outbid at the 
last moment. If you bid the absolute maximum you are willing to pay, our 
proxy system will do the work for you.  Human nature sometimes makes us 
resist making the highest bid within our spending limits, but proxy 
bidding *does* work.  There is a common misconception that snipers 
always win. The truth is that they don't. To win, they must outbid you. 
By placing a proxy bid at your maximum limit, someone else can outbid 
you *only* if they are willing to spend more for the item than you are.  
If someone places a last-second bid that isn't high enough, they almost 
never have enough time to get back in and place a winning bid before the 
auction ends."

My experience: If you are bidding on an item on ebay, and place a 
maximum bid for what you are willing to spend, no sniping will get the 
product out from under you, unless that person is willing to spend more 
than you.  That is what proxy bidding is all about.  If I want a 
harmonica and am willing to spend 30$ on it, and I bid 30$, if nobody 
else wants to spend 30$, I'll get it.  If someone wants to spend 32$, 
they'll get it.   Where is the problem with this?  Unless I change my 
mind on how much I'm willing to spend, I'm covered.

Wayne