Bugger.

[unixronin]

...that these days, it's an exercise in complete futility trying to buy anything on eBay that anyone else wants, except via Buy It Now, unless you have a multi-megabit connection or an account with one of the automated robot-bid-sniping services.

And to think that when automated bid-sniping first started, eBay banned it because it was unfair.  I guess they musta decided that fairness could go fuck itself, 'cos they made more money off the last-90-seconds bid-sniping wars.

Comments

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Why? I mean, if you want it more than anybody else, you can enter a maximum bid higher than where other people dare to tread. If your maximum bid is lower than someone else's... well, then obviously you didn't want it as much.

Now now, I understand the frustration of not 'winning' on ebay, but let's not throw our capitalist dogma out the window for some idealized 'fairness' that lets you have some material object for less than what somebody else is willing to pay for it.

If you were selling, wouldn't you want the highest bidder to win?

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

The thing is, this shit of the bid price going up $100 in the last 90 seconds doesn't give you time to think about whether you're willing to raise your bid. It turns into as much a race of who has the fastest net connection and can slam their bid in too close under the wire for anyone else to respond to, as to who's actually willing to pay the highest price. You can't get any idea of what an item's likely to go for and decide whether you're willing to spend that much when there's no bids until the last two minutes of the auction.

If you make sure sellers get the highest price, there's a fairer solution: simply make bids extend the closing time so that no auction closes until there have been no new bids in five minutes.

Auction bidding should not be a goddamn twitch-reflex game.

[attutle.livejournal.com]

I don't get it.

You have every chance to do your thinking ahead of time, place your maximum bid, and walk away. Come back later and see if you were outbid or not.

You are complaining about the twitch-game aspects, but skipping your chance to avoid that. Huh?

Is it that you don't trust ebay and figure they will jack the price up to your max, even if nobody else is close?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Is it that you don't trust ebay and figure they will jack the price up to your max, even if nobody else is close?

No. It's that if I just got narrowly outbid on something I really wanted that doesn't come up very often, I'd like to have at least the CHANCE to reconsider whether it's uncommon enough and I want it badly enough that I'm willing to go, say, $20 higher and see if that's enough, without it having to be a twitch-reflex snap decision.

Is this a difficult concept to grasp? Nobody seems to be understanding it.

[attutle.livejournal.com]

Perhaps we see something that you don't.

It will always look like you were narrowly outbid. That doesn't mean someone else doesn't have a significantly higher maximum bid set. Why does it matter to you if the system shows you were narrowly outbid at the last minute or two days earlier?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, OK, that and I'm sorta pissed at the extent to which eBay's decided it's morals and sense of fairness are available for sale where there's money to be made. All kinds of things, including bidding robots, that used to be illegal back when eBay had a soul are now considered fair play. They don't even seem to care about auction spam any more.

At least they're still making some effort on the outright fraudulent auctions.

[meglimir.livejournal.com]

I thought eBay had a built in automated bidder ... you just set whatever you're willing to pay and it up-bids for you. I generally set it at "whatever I can get it for elsewhere minus s&h".

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

See my comment to ilcylic. The current system can leave you in a position where you know you've just been outbid, and you reconsider and decide you're willing to go another twenty bucks, but you just plain don't have time, because the counterbid came from a bidding robot sitting on an OC-12 that stuffed an automatic winning bid in with, in this case, 5 seconds to go.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Well, I think that's a good thing. If I've already decided what something is worth to me, I don't want to make a split second descision that could cost me another $20. Bid in haste, repent at leisure...

I agree with what you say about the rolling auction close, though. It definitely defeats sniping. (Or at least, anything more than the most lazy, catapult accuracy sniping...)

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

If I've already decided what something is worth to me, I don't want to make a split second descision that could cost me another $20.

Well, see, that's my point. If you know you have a guaranteed five minutes to think about it, it doesn't have to be a split-second decision.

[skellington.livejournal.com]

But you do have all week to pick that maximum bid, consider what happens if someone bids $1 more than that, and if your maximum bid REALLY is $20 higher..

Cygne

[meglimir.livejournal.com]

Ah. That situation hasn't arisen for me ... I'm generally looking for a discount on something otherwise available, or I have a budget ceiling and if the bid goes over that it's just too bad and I won't go another $5 or whatever.

[anda.livejournal.com]

What ilcylic said. Bid what you're willing to pay and remember - there'll be another one just like it next week.

It doesn't matter to me if someone outbids me a day before EOA or 5 seconds before EOA. I bid exactly what I thought it was worth and I had the money for. That fool who sniped me paid more than it's worth if they outbid me! I'll get the next one that comes around.* That's why there's this great feature that lets you save searches and have ebay email you when matching auctions are within 24 hours of EOA. That's why, if I'm not sure how much something's likely to go for, I look at auctions that just ended or are about to end for similar items - so that I do have some kind of ballpark idea.

Frankly, in your position and with your budgeting restrictions, I am surprised that you've got a spare $20 to wonder "well, can I pay another $20 for this?".


* Limited time items, like tickets are different, of course.

[otherbill.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I don't buy the same types of items that you're interested in, but I:

• turn off images, javascript, etc., everything that could possibly slow down the page refreshes (have you tried using lynx?)
• set my system time to match eBay time
• keep two windows open--one refreshes the item page to see the high bid, the other is where you actually submit the bid
• set up the second window to submit what you think would be a winning bid
• refresh the first window with about 30 seconds left (which gives you time to hit back and revise your bid in the second window if need be), and
• manually submit your bid with about 5 seconds left

Granted, it's not the easiest way, but I've never lost an auction this way, even across 28kbps dialup.

Works for me, at least.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I'm nowhere near that industrious about eBay, since I so rarely try to buy anything on eBay (maybe twice a year).

[otherbill.livejournal.com]

Industrious? Heh. I first used eBay over five years ago, and my feedback rating is all of 7.

It only takes a few minutes to set up the scheme I outlined above, after all.

[smileswhf.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely on the side of unixronin here. eBay is nothing but an exercise in frustration for someone who is actually trying to acquire something in earnest. It has long since turned into a huge multi-player auction game. I know people who bid up items they don't want just for fun. I know people who revel in the ability to use a high-speed connection to get a bid in at the last second. For people who like that game, eBay is great. Then there are the rest of us who just wanted to try and buy something at a decent price....

Exactly.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Actually, I broke my rule this time: this stuff is exactly why I set myself a rule some time back not to even bother trying unless I can get it by Buy It Now.

[greyman.livejournal.com]

I've been obsessing over eBay the last few days... I've got the phone blahs and want an "upgrade". So I log in and I find a whole mess of Treo 180gs for sale. I'm having fun following the midding schedule, but there *is* a "Buy it Now" for a batch of them too. I'm keeping an eye on that, and if the # at $82.99 Buy It Now falls to low while I'm trying to buy one for less than $70 I might just spend the other few dollars to snag one. Or not.

What are you looking for?