A better well-known online auction site?
Discussion
Ebay is complete carp really, isn’t it? Beyond than the fact that it is overpriced, badly run, ugly, and for the most part stuffed with tat sold by dreamers and spivs, the whole concept seems flawed to me. I’m talking about the fact that anything decent is invariably sold via a last-minute snipe. And that’s not the way an auction works - in an auction, bidders keep bidding until nobody wants to pay any more, rather than up until an exact moment in time.
So I was trying to think of a more sensible and engaging auction-like format for an online auction site. Clearly you can’t have items running indefinitely. I was wondering whether it could work so that you list an item so it runs until X time - maybe the buyer could set that - then each time someone places a bid, the ending time is extended by a minute. I suppose the last-minute snipe-thing has the appeal that it’s quite exciting, but it doesn’t seem very fair. You need a system which is less open to abuse, but still has an element of excitement. I don’t know - just thinking… any other ideas?
So I was trying to think of a more sensible and engaging auction-like format for an online auction site. Clearly you can’t have items running indefinitely. I was wondering whether it could work so that you list an item so it runs until X time - maybe the buyer could set that - then each time someone places a bid, the ending time is extended by a minute. I suppose the last-minute snipe-thing has the appeal that it’s quite exciting, but it doesn’t seem very fair. You need a system which is less open to abuse, but still has an element of excitement. I don’t know - just thinking… any other ideas?
Last minute sniping only works because people think that by bidding just enough to outbid a current bidder is the best way to save money on an auction. If they actually bid their true maximum for the item then you would only pay just enough over the current or future max bids to win the auction. Also if the seller actually paid (and having to pay for a reserve is the real reason most do not) to put on a true reserve for the item then getting a true bargain should be next to impossible.
If you want to remove last minute sniping without addressing either of those behaviors then extend the auction time if a bid comes in x minutes before the end of the auction. I would increase the size of the extension period directly in relation to the value of the item, so for say a car being valued at £20k I'd add a whole day on, for something around £20 I would add on an hour.
If you want to remove last minute sniping without addressing either of those behaviors then extend the auction time if a bid comes in x minutes before the end of the auction. I would increase the size of the extension period directly in relation to the value of the item, so for say a car being valued at £20k I'd add a whole day on, for something around £20 I would add on an hour.
Limit the number of bids per person to for example 3 - the idea is that each bid has value attached to it and discourages the bidder for wasting with low opening bids.
Then during the last 5/10/15 minutes revert to normal auction mode but only those who have submitted at least 1 bid can participate.
Then during the last 5/10/15 minutes revert to normal auction mode but only those who have submitted at least 1 bid can participate.
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