This Is Why Sniping Makes Sense

Unless, of course, you're the person selling it. Don't forget, you're posting on a forum owned by people who feed their kids from the proceeds of ebay auctions - there's two sides to every story.

I never snipe and I win plenty of auctions. I put one bid in and walk away. If I win, good, if I don't, so what. Most of the auctions that I lose, it is not someone trying to take small bites at a time, but a person placing one, stronger bid than mine.

As a seller, I really don't like the sniping because I feel as though my product doesn't reach it's value. It has happened too many times that I've actually lost money on an auction.

Overstock.com I believe has a moving window. If someone snipes in the last 5 (?) minutes, additional time is added onto the end of the auction to give other people a chance. It also gets the final price closer to where it should be. It's a nice idea, but it also is perhaps too open-ended.

Just my opinions.

It gets annoying losing out on bids all the time by snipers. I normally bid what I want to pay and hope for the best. %99 of the time I lose and I'm not lowballing people either. I usually laugh at the people that just overpaid for the coin and move on. The only time I really win is if I'm really interested in the coin and snipe in and overpay a bit. I like the Overstock idea.

Nothing against sellers who want to make a living, that of course is fair enough. However, as a buyer you want to buy what you want at the best price you can get. If a seller wants to sell at a certain minimum price then they should set the start price at that amount. They can't complain because someone wins it for the starting price that they themselves set.

The reason I snipe is 3 fold.

It prevents me being tempted to put in higher and higher bids if my first bid is not successful. (I too have kids to feed!)

It ensures I get the coin at the best possible price, as there is no time left for counter bids from people I have outbid. I outbid them because they did not want to go higher. I am saving them bidding up when they really did not want to pay more anyway.

It means I don't have to be at the computer 24/7. I sometimes would set my alarm and get up at 4am if a good coin was ending.

Ceaton - If you have already put in the most you are willing to pay with your first bid, it makes no difference if someone bids 2 seconds after you, or at the end of the auction. You still would have lost. Unless you were planning on going back and re-bidding higher. You've got the right frame of mind, they overpaid (by your calculation) so let them get on with it.

I have been bidding on coins from 1963, and so was a guy in Canada. He regularly outbid me in the last few seconds on loads of 1963 coins over the course of months. Every time he did I made a note of the coin because I knew the next time one came up he would not be bidding. I got almost every one of those same coins the next time around for less than he paid. I don't know if he noticed I was always the under bidder or not. But if he did he probably chuckled to himself that I had lost again. I figured I made him pay over the odds for every coin he outbid me on.

Chequer - if you are bidding in the final seconds, that is sniping. Whether or not a computer is doing it for you or not. You have to look at it that you saved money if you didn't want to pay more than your bid anyway.

What they should do is make it so that any one person only gets one bid on an item. Then people really would put in their best bid. That would stop the silly bidding up in $1 increments, and make sure sellers got a fair price. It would be better if everyone sniped. You would have to put in your best bid then and it would do away with the whittlers

I feel sniping is honest bidding with your best price. If you win then good luck to you. If you don't then someone wanted it worse than you did.

As always this is just my own opinion.

Seller shouldn't be bothered with snipers because in the first place they are the ones who push up the prices to the last second. If there are no snipers then the seller only gets the second to the last highest bid. I think the one who dislikes the snipers are the buyers themselves and not the sellers.

Don't get me started on sniping! I don't bid on ebay often, I only bid when there is something I really MUST have . Suffice to say, I have been sniped out of one too many items... What irritates me the most is that you always lose by a few cents.

I will perhaps incur the wrath of some here by saying I typically do most of my ebay bidding as last second snipes. I do this because I have too often been the victim of a weak bidder who runs the price up in small increments until they beat my bid. They are not bidding their maximum, they are bidding to beat my maximum. I also snipe to limit the possibility of shill bidding.

To address the issue of sniping being bad for the seller, I completely disagree. In the auctions I snipe in, I am almost always either the winner or I set the final price (i.e., I finish second). I always bid a reasonable price I am willing to pay and typically a fair price for the item; sometimes the item goes over my maximum and I just let it go.

If not for my bid, the seller would have realized far less out of the sale since my bid would not have been there to set the price or win the item.

Of course, all sellers would like an endless bidding war - by extending auctions or what not - but I avoid those situations and if ebay worked that way, I probably wouldn't bid. I know when I have sold things, I'd love for it to work this way - but it doesn't always.

I typically see coins going for what I think are fair prices. If you are a seller who is consistently losing money on ebay sales, your costs per coin are probably too high or your listings are not generating maximum interest.

Best regards,
Ken