Another reason to dislike Ebay

[rajagra]

Sniping should be irrelevant on eBay. You can't out-snipe the automated proxy bidding process.

eBay now refers to proxy bidding as 'automatic bidding.' Looks like they realised people don't understand it.

 

[gegarrenton]

Sniping should be irrelevant on eBay. You can't out-snipe the automated proxy bidding process.

eBay now refers to proxy bidding as 'automatic bidding.' Looks like they realised people don't understand it.

I think it's more the win or lose mindset they don't get. The rationale is if you set your max price, and someone goes .01 over, then you feel sniped, because obviously you would pay that much more. People seem to think the max is a moving number tied to impulse.

 

[rajagra]

Hehe yes. I hate it when my last-second snipe is beaten by an earlier well placed bid. How terribly rude of them to do that to me!

 

[gegarrenton]

lol, bastards!

 

[Paul L.]

Hehe yes. I hate it when my last-second snipe is beaten by an earlier well placed bid. How terribly rude of them to do that to me!

See? You just need extended bidding time to adjust your snipe appropriately.

 

[GreekGuy]

FWIW, prices for shaving stuff is not always going up on ebay. It may seem that way but the market waxes and wanes based on season, the economy, and whats "in" at the moment.

 

[imfallen_angel]

Meh, I prefer those that have both the bidding and a buy-it-now.

The worse thing is the shipping, where many will put a very low price, but have shipping at 10x more than they should, as they are trying to circumvent the fees. (or really trying to make as much as possible, hoping the buyer will bid low and win, without noticing the really high shipping costs)

 

[Lexicon Devil]

The only reason I can think of to dislike eBay is that they keep tempting me with affordable vintage razors.

 

[Lexicon Devil]

+1 on the shipping thing, that is just crap.

 

[BBrad]

Old habits die hard, and some sellers never change . . . for the past year or so eBay has been basing their fees on the total price including shipping because so many were selling at artificially low prices and gouging on the shipping to evade fees.

I take shipping costs into account and bid accordingly. If I "lose" an auction because I only bid $2 on a razor with $10 shipping . . . oh well!! On the other hand, even if my total price paid is fair, I will lower my "star rating" in feedback if the seller's shipping charges are out of line. Nothing more aggravating than an $8 shipping charge for $2 worth of postage and a 50-cent padded envelope!

 

[nobolowski]

Meh, I prefer those that have both the bidding and a buy-it-now.

The worse thing is the shipping, where many will put a very low price, but have shipping at 10x more than they should, as they are trying to circumvent the fees. (or really trying to make as much as possible, hoping the buyer will bid low and win, without noticing the really high shipping costs)

Absolutely.
If I buy something from Ebay USA I load up a currency converter and decide how much I want to pay in total and cut off when I reach it. I've found that some things are way cheaper over there than here in the UK. My favorite was an M65 combat liner for the field jacket. Over here they were about £30 ($48), I got one on Ebay for around £11 ($18) including postage. I have trouble with razors though, mostly lose them.

 

[Dalejr]

on the subject of ebay, what is the private listing all about, where no names are shown, is this a way to get a mate to bump up the price without the same name showing up on the listing.

I'm no fan of these as well, completely pointless and fishy....

 

[Luminose]

Sniping should be irrelevant on eBay. You can't out-snipe the automated proxy bidding process.

eBay now refers to proxy bidding as 'automatic bidding.' Looks like they realised people don't understand it.

Technically you can. The purpose of the snipe is to bring your bid to the top and not give another bidder the time to raise their bid higher than yours. You don't raise your bid a couple dollars at a time, you come in at the end with a bid much higher that current price and take the chance no one else bid near or over your max.

Of course you may run into a situation where the previous bidder has a disposable income and bid crazy high and no one goes over it.

If people bid high in the beginning of the auction all it does is drive the price up and make the seller happy as people have time to think about outbidding each other.

 

[rajagra]

Technically you can. The purpose of the snipe is to bring your bid to the top and not give another bidder the time to raise their bid higher than yours.

Which is irrelevant if the other bidders have already bid what they are willing to pay, like they are supposed to. Sniping only works against bidders who ignore the proxy bidding facility, and choose to 'nibble' away with multiple bids instead.
Nibbling is a stupid tactic unless you are doing it for fun rather than keeping the price low. Nibblers create the motivation to snipe. They are also the ones who complain about it.