On 11 Jul 2005 08:39:53 -0700, jim rozen wrote:
In article , Dave Hinz says...

People who are sniping are doing it so they can outbid the guy with the
top bid, at the last minute, so nobody else can do the same thing to
them that they're doing to others.

Dave, consider 'sniping' as such (putting ones maximum bid
in at the last second or two) to be the moral equivalent of a
sealed-bid auction.

But, it's _not_ a sealed bid auction. The sniper can see what's in the
other envelopes, or at least, who else is bidding. They're looking at
some of the other guys' cards, without showing any of theirs.

But ebay has decided that those are the rules of their game,
and eveyone follows them. There are other auction houses online,
and real, live auctions, that extend bidding times once that
'one last bid' shows up, so folks have the chance to trump it.

Yup.

If sellers really felt that ebay were screwing them out of
money, they would sell some other way.

And in fact, I have decided that, and am selling on other sites, for
that reason.

I like ebay's rules
as they are now, and would not bid in online auctions unless
there were a set time limit. So I don't.

Well, like I said, if there was a seller's option for automatic
extension following late bids, I'd use it. If it's visible, and the
snipers decided not to bid on that item, well, that's just fine.