Classic Rotary Phones Forum

Telephone Talk => Auction Talk => Topic started by: Greg G. on February 20, 2012, 12:32:50 PM

Title: No sniping allowed, Ebay needs this same rule!
Post by: Greg G. on February 20, 2012, 12:32:50 PM
The "15 minute" Going, going, gone rule!
Title: Re: No sniping allowed, Ebay needs this same rule!
Post by: Signguy on February 20, 2012, 05:03:12 PM
I guess I will have to respectfully disagree........ On ebay shill bidding takes place on occassion and worst then that are folks who run up the bid days before the end time. What is gained by pushing up a bid 6 days before conclusion? If bidding was to follow the rules you have posted the possibility of "hanky- panky" only increases. In a live auction a sale takes place in minutes or less for an item. If you are attending a live auction a prudent bidder knows the condition and the top price he wants to pay for an item.  If it goes beyond what he is willing to pay his bidding ceases. The same should apply to an on line auction.

One way to help curb (to some extent) the "bid puffers" and the shills is to lower the auction time allowed (no more then 3 days) and not allow "puffers" to bid on top of their own bids. "Snipping" allows bidders to make a choice of exactely what they are willing  to spend. Once they do that they live and die with their decision.  Is it perfect??? by no means but the present system is broke.

I never bid ahead of time because I hopefully know what I am willing to pay for something I want. It also doesn't allow me to get caught up in "auction fever".

Cheers..... Ell
Title: Re: No sniping allowed, Ebay needs this same rule!
Post by: TelePlay on February 20, 2012, 06:29:39 PM
IMHO, I'd really like to see eBay change their system to an item go up for bid 7 days before the auction ends but no bids can be offered until 2 days before the auctions ends. That gives everyone a chance to see what is up for bid (don't lose a desired item on a quick auction) but keeps the shill and puff bidding from jacking up the price early in the auction.
Title: Re: No sniping allowed, Ebay needs this same rule!
Post by: AE_Collector on February 20, 2012, 08:57:14 PM
Why not have the seven days be the auction preview and then the bidding should all happen in the last minue or two. If someone can't "attend" at the time of the auction they can place a bid earlier but it could be "held" until the auction (last couple of minutes).

What is that rule from Briny? Says 2007 on it. They say due to internet delays etc the reset is 15 minutes! A more accurate comparison would be a 15 second reset or maybe even 1 minute but not 15 minutes. Rediculous.

Have any of you guys in the US heard of "Quibids" I am not certain if it might be in Canada only or if it is in the USA as well. Advertising like crazy on TV these days. Not like ebaY in that only new products from one company, mostly electronic etc. Advertise 47" TV's going for $59 etc. Bids only go up by 1 cent each time there's a bid. SOUNDS GREAT, but how does it work, got to be a catch right?

You have to "buy" your bids for 60 cents each and then pay what you bid for the item if you win it.  So all of a sudden it becomes obvious why each bid only increases the price by 1 cent. Keeps the price rediculously low while they get 60 cents each time someone bids. If they get lots of traffic on the site they could get thousands of bids for a $50 item. Before long people will figure out that their purchase price is only a fraction of what it cost to actually buy the item.

Terry
Title: Re: No sniping allowed, Ebay needs this same rule!
Post by: TelePlay on February 20, 2012, 10:22:55 PM
Quote from: AE_collector on February 20, 2012, 08:57:14 PM
Why not have the seven days be the auction preview and then the bidding should all happen in the last minue or two. If someone can't "attend" at the time of the auction they can place a bid earlier but it could be "held" until the auction (last couple of minutes).

What is that rule from Briny? Says 2007 on it. They say due to internet delays etc the reset is 15 minutes! A more accurate comparison would be a 15 second reset or maybe even 1 minute but not 15 minutes. Rediculous.

Have any of you guys in the US heard of "Quibids" I am not certain if it might be a Canadian company. Advertising like crazy on TV these days. Not like ebaY in that only new products from one company, mostly electronic etc. Advertise 47" TV's going for $59 etc. Bids only go up by 1 cent each time there's a bid. SOUNDS GREAT, but how does it work, got to be a catch right?

You have to "buy" your bids for 60 cents each and then pay what you bid for the item if you win it.  So all of a sudden it becomes obvious why each bid only increases the price by 1 cent. Keeps the price rediculously low while they get 60 cents each time someone bids. If they get lots of traffic on the site they could get thousands of bids for a $50 item. Before long people will figure out that their purchase price is only a fraction of what it cost to actually buy the item.

Terry

I looked closely at that bidding system about a year ago and found it to be bordering on illegal. They make more money on people bidding than the item is worth full price. The higher the price for an item, the longer it takes to get there by 1 cent or 5 cents a bid and everyone is paying but only one person wins. It's been a while but that is what I seem to remember. And you got to be on the system constantly. It's like being hooked on a drug.

As for eBay bidding for only the last few minutes, that reminds me of my peeve in that some sellers end their bidding in the middle of a work day which means I would have bid on a lot more stuff, snipped if you will, had it not ended when I can't get to a computer. I've stayed up for 2 am auction ends but I just ignore anything between 7 am and 5 pm.

My wife likes that, though. She says I have enough phones.   ;D
Title: Re: No sniping allowed, Ebay needs this same rule!
Post by: Dennis Markham on February 20, 2012, 10:30:36 PM
This program works very well.  Just put in the item number and how much you want to spend.  It does the rest.  No need to stay up late, or worry about when it's going to end.  If the item passes your bid amount, of course it won't register your bid.

https://www.myibidder.com/

Just log in using your eBay username and password.  It's free but donations are accepted by the author.  I'm sure there are others.
Title: Re: No sniping allowed, Ebay needs this same rule!
Post by: TelePlay on February 20, 2012, 10:36:30 PM
Quote from: Dennis Markham on February 20, 2012, 10:30:36 PM
This program works very well.  Just put in the item number and how much you want to spend.  It does the rest.  No need to stay up late, or worry about when it's going to end.  If the item passes your bid amount, of course it won't register your bid.

https://www.myibidder.com/

Just log in using your eBay username and password.  It's free but donations are accepted by the author.  I'm sure there are others.

Dennis, I've seen bids placed like that but never knew how it happened. Thanks for the tip and link!
Title: Re: No sniping allowed, Ebay needs this same rule!
Post by: AE_Collector on February 21, 2012, 12:03:25 AM
Quote from: TelePlay on February 20, 2012, 10:22:55 PM
They make more money on people bidding than the item is worth full price. The higher the price for an item, the longer it takes to get there by 1 cent or 5 cents a bid and everyone is paying but only one person wins.

That's it exactly. What a scam! I think i forgot to mention that quibids OBVIOUSLY resets the end time each time there is a bid though I think it only adds maybe 15 seconds. But when a $800 TV is at $150 the bids are most likely going to keep coming in and before long the price is all the way up to $150 and 25 cents! It would be a little different if it were like ebaY with lots of people listing things but it is one company selling their stuff so they very closely control what is being listed so as not to hurt continuing bids on already listed items.

Terry
Title: Re: No sniping allowed, Ebay needs this same rule!
Post by: TelePlay on February 21, 2012, 12:58:01 AM
Quote from: AE_collector on February 21, 2012, 12:03:25 AM
Quote from: TelePlay on February 20, 2012, 10:22:55 PM
They make more money on people bidding than the item is worth full price. The higher the price for an item, the longer it takes to get there by 1 cent or 5 cents a bid and everyone is paying but only one person wins.

That's it exactly. What a scam! I think i forgot to mention that quibids OBVIOUSLY resets the end time each time there is a bid though I think it only adds maybe 15 seconds. But when a $800 TV is at $150 the bids are most likely going to keep coming in and before long the price is all the way up to $150 and 25 cents! It would be a little different if it were like ebaY with lots of people listing things but it is one company selling their stuff so they very closely control what is being listed so as not to hurt continuing bids on already listed items.

Terry

And if you watch the bidding, the amount bid jumps by 20 to 40 cents at a time because 20 to 40 people hit the bid button at the same time and each of those bids must be purchased to be placed, the clock resets to 10 or so seconds and another dozen people hit bid. I really can't see how that site can be legal. It's gambling. You have a stack of penny or nickle chips for higher priced items and you through them in the slot hoping to win the jackpot. A lot of people throwing pennies into a machine can make a big pile on the other end. You run out of pennies so you use real money to buy more of them. The winner is the last person to hit the bid button and have the clock go to zero. An auction goes on until no one places a higher bid. Scam is an understatement. I'd like to see the financial statements of the people raking in the money on that site.
Title: Re: No sniping allowed, Ebay needs this same rule!
Post by: twocvbloke on February 21, 2012, 01:45:43 AM
Personally I'd think that if they changed the auction format on ebay to that described in the first post, it would seriously push up the shill bidding and generate more fraud, by keeping an auction going until the shill bids are outbid by some poor mug once the price hits the value that seller wants...

I use that myibidder site now and then, mostly due to my irregular sleeping, so if an auction is ending that I want while I'm in the land of nod, then that tool is quite useful, although recently the thing has been very glitchy and has lost me a few auctions (the most recent being an open-type Network to go with my C4A bells to make a subset), so I'm putting a lot less faith into it than I used to... :-\

And those "pay to bid for crazy low prices", it's a scam, I would never even contemplate using those sites, just seems too dodgy to me that they can sell things for such a low price... ???
Title: Re: No sniping allowed, Ebay needs this same rule!
Post by: McHeath on February 22, 2012, 12:50:26 AM
I think that e-bay is a pretty flawed system and we all know what those flaws are.  Solving it would be tricky as an established "tradition" has developed, sniping for great prices.  Sometimes I've won that way as well, and many many times I've lost an item by a buck or less that I would gladly have raised my bid on.

The real world auction system, that has been created and fine tuned for thousands of years, is a good place to model the online one on. 

Preview times, where no bids are accepted make sense. 7 days perhaps.

Specific, and short, bid times.  Perhaps a day for online auctions, perhaps less, maybe hours instead.

The ability to win based on open and equal terms, like the bid system described in the first post of this thread.

People figured out the auction thing long ago, and created a system that works.  The online system that e-bay uses abandoned that time honored system for an ill conceived and inherently unfair scheme. 

And I think the chance of it ever being changed are about zero.

My two cents. :)