Comments on: Ebay etiquette

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 19:10:05 +0000

If you win, you got a good deal.
If you don’t you missed on a not good deal.

I’ve seen people bid stupidly high on a 10 dollar razor figuring he’ll beat all others. This fails when someone else does the same and someone ends up paying 436 dollars for that razor.

Bidding during the days leading up to the end serves only to increase the base price.

By: FrankC

FrankC — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 16:48:49 +0000

it is much like gambling, there are strategies, but the most important thing is knowing what your limit is and sticking to it.

I also find that it is, like gambling, entertaining, subject to binges and addictive.

By: bowser

bowser — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 06:08:45 +0000

When I’ve bid with a max like that, I’ve figured out what I’m willing to pay. I hope someone figures out I have a max and decides they don’t want to test my top figure and maybe get stuck with it.

I bought a router one time just because I was curious to see how far some guy was willing to go. By the time I found out I was stuck.

By: TB

TB — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 04:10:07 +0000

I’ve never been in an e-bay auction that didn’t wind up that way.

Sometimes I’m the bug, sometimes the windshield. A clever use of “maximum bids” can help, but if you do this early on, your steady matching bids at fixed increments tells the other guy what’s happening.

By: FrankC

FrankC — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 00:39:44 +0000

You are correct, if the guy had entered a higher max bid I wouldn’t have had time to make another bid.

I suspected it was okay but it is good to know.

There were numerous bidders and the guy had been bidding the item up for three days and I got it with one bid. But hey, it was a $35 item he’ll get over it.

By: bowser

bowser — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 22:49:42 +0000

I believe it’s called “slamming” and it’s an acceptable practice. If the other guy had wanted to, he could have entered a higher bid which would have been unseen. Had you come in under that, he would have won, paying the next increment above yours.

I’ve protected myself by bidding at what I would have paid and seen what happened. That’s what happened with the RV. A last minute bidder came in one increment lower than my highest bid.

Another way I try to protect myself is bidding on items which close in the early morning hours.

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 22:49:01 +0000

I’d say that your ethical calculation would usually be the right one for, as you call it, “polite society”. But an auction isn’t really polite company, Sotheby’s notwithstanding. This is eBay-on-the-Net we’re talking about.

On eBay, waiting until the very last millisecond is a time-honored tradition nammed “sniping”. And while it’s true that the somebody who loses to a sniper often feels resentful about it, sniping without computerized help is considered just a traditional part of the auction game, gunslinger style: Being faster on the trigger than the other guy.

eBay does object to the various computer programs that have come along over the years to try to either cybernetically finesse or brute-force bidding, and eBay blocks them. The brute-force tactic of flooding eBay with bids around the crucial time is indistinguishable from a denial-of-service attack, and they exclude using similar defenses.

But a quick-draw human is within the pale, Frank, and you behaved properly by the standards of the house. Your conscience should be clear.

By: FrankC

FrankC — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 22:08:54 +0000

It turned my elation at winning into sort of a bummer. It seems kind of like stepping in front of someone to get the last seat on the bus. That’s not something I would do.

It may be a common practice, but it has never happened to me. I might feel different if I had seen it a lot and particularly if an eBay regular told me, Hell yeah, that’s the name of the game.

By: Jody

Jody — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 21:51:23 +0000

but I am sure every one knows the game that shops there.

The question is will you do it again?