Off topic and distasteful!!!

Re: Off topic and distasteful!!!

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>I agree completely with you, Todd (Hughes).

With everyone, buyer, seller, and auctioneer in the same place, things can go more quickly, but they have to, because the auctioneer can only handle one item at a time. With eBay, the Net can handle thousands, or even millions, of auctions at the same time, and no one has to drive to or from the auction, or wait around for the auctioneer to get around to the item he is selling or buying while a lot of teddy bears and tupperware are sold first. The buyers don't have to stand around in the rain, or in the dark, or in the blistering sun, or with icicles hanging from their noses. No one has to worry about misunderstanding an auctioneer with a speech impediment, and no one has to deal with yellow bellied saw thieves and their ilk, or scoundrels who move stuff from the bottom of one box lot to another when you aren't watching, either. A couple of minutes to wait for a final decision seems to me a small price to pay for the conveniences of eBay.

Net based and PC based "beat the gavel" programs and services shouldn't be any more difficult to design and implement than sniper and proxy services, should the need arise for them. I suppose eBay could even offer both kinds of auctions (seller's choice, of course), just like they offer "buy now" service to sellers now. I'll bet I know which type of auction the vast majority of sellers would choose, even the slow heads :^)

There are still shills to be dealt with, but the experience gained developing Net based pattern recognition algorithms that are currently fighting the War on Spam should be adaptable to recognize and prosecute a lot of those shenanigans as well.

Re: Off topic and distasteful!!!

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native in FL. Exile :~(

>Not to continue to beat a deadhorse (no pun intended towards Todd ;~) ) I simply see it this way:

1) I am a buyer, so I speak from a buyers perspective.

2)Sellers want to make as much $$$ per item as possible, which I can fully understand

3)I forsee that if e-bay where to go on accepting bids for 1-5 minutes after the posted auction time expires that the Seller will make more $$$ per item, HOWEVER I forsee in the long run that overall e-bay sales will drop. I see this akin to cutting open the golden egg laying goose.

4) I'd be willing to bet that there is a direct coralation between the state of the economy and e-bay sales. The economy turns down,(as it is now) e-bay sales drop, or at a minimum $$$ per item decline. And vise versa.

5) Now add in this additional hazard of e-bay accepting bids after the posted time has expired and I'm willing to bet that lots of folks just walk away from it. I, for one, can easily admit that I've never bought anything from e-bay that I really NEEDED, or couldn't get from other sources at a pre-set price.

6) Seems to me that if 5 0r 7 or 9 days isn't enough time for for all interested bidders to get their bids in that what's another 1-5 minutes gonna matter? Seems to me to be just another form of sniping

7) I'm not trying to pick any fights, or lose friends, just speaking my thoughts on the subject. Would be interesting to hear the views of more buyers. Without buyers, what good is e-bay anyhow?

Todd O.

Todd O.

Re: Off topic and distasteful!!!

Steve Kubien

>Go ahead, beat a dedhorse. He can take it.

Well Todd O, as a buyer, I set my own price limit on an item and I don't exceed that. Another 5 minutes , in either direction, is not going to change anything. If 2 (or more) people really want to duke it out over something and drive the price through the roof, all I can do is sit back and chuckle. 5 extra minutes or not, my top price will stay the same.

My 2 cents but remember, it's a Canadian 2 cents.

Steve Kubien

Ajax, Ontario

Re: Off topic and distasteful!!!

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native in FL. Exile :~(

>What I've learned to do is to sit here until the last second and pop in my high bid so as to prevent somebody from creeping up on me. It's a do or die technique, but so far has been about 99.5% effective.

Todd O.

re

glh

>In the terminology of game theory, there is a dominant strategy for bidding on ebay. That strategy is to bid the maximum amount your willing to pay for the item. If everyone followed this strategy then it wouldn't matter when you actually made your bid, so sniping wouldn't pay.

However, just in case some competitive bidders might not be following this strategy, your never worse off if you withhold your offer until very near the end of the auction--so that someone who didn't bid his max. doesn't have time to up the bid. Your never less likely to win an auction by sniping, and may end up winning some you might have otherwise lost if you'd placed the bid earlier.