Wouldn't eBay be better if ....
Discussion
Sorry if this has been raised before - it's a pretty obvious point but wouldn't eBay be better if it worked like a proper auction where the auction ends once the rate of bids decreases until there are no more bidders prepared to pay more.
As a seller, that would be more attractive for me.
As it is, we are all pushed towards sniping which can be fun but hardly the best way for the seller to get the best price.
Only the other week, I sniped an item with my maximum bid of £150 to end up getting it for £82. He then had eBay and PayPal fees to pay on an altogether crap deal for him.
Yes I was pleased to get my bargain buy but it must turn sellers off.
As a seller, that would be more attractive for me.
As it is, we are all pushed towards sniping which can be fun but hardly the best way for the seller to get the best price.
Only the other week, I sniped an item with my maximum bid of £150 to end up getting it for £82. He then had eBay and PayPal fees to pay on an altogether crap deal for him.
Yes I was pleased to get my bargain buy but it must turn sellers off.
It's all about price determination.
In a formal auction, you have a bunch of people looking at something, and when the bidding stops, that's the end of the auction. On eBay, you stick something up, there is no catalogue, so the auction duration is basically enough time for the interested parties to find it. It actually works incredibly well for things that are sold reasonably frequently - there are very few bargains.
For something that is sold infrequently, is the fact that there are no more bids because the market price has been reached, or is it because no one has had the time to find it? E.g, I'm in the market for an Alfa 3.2 engine. I don't check every hour, I probably check every day or so, generally in the evening. If you stick one on, and get one bid in 2 days, you'll have missed out on half your bidders if you stop the auction.
The best way to eliminate sniping is to vary the end time of the auction by +- a few hours. So you say "it will end around 20:00 on Sunday evening. Might be 18:00, might be 22:00. That would force bidders to bid promptly.
In a formal auction, you have a bunch of people looking at something, and when the bidding stops, that's the end of the auction. On eBay, you stick something up, there is no catalogue, so the auction duration is basically enough time for the interested parties to find it. It actually works incredibly well for things that are sold reasonably frequently - there are very few bargains.
For something that is sold infrequently, is the fact that there are no more bids because the market price has been reached, or is it because no one has had the time to find it? E.g, I'm in the market for an Alfa 3.2 engine. I don't check every hour, I probably check every day or so, generally in the evening. If you stick one on, and get one bid in 2 days, you'll have missed out on half your bidders if you stop the auction.
The best way to eliminate sniping is to vary the end time of the auction by +- a few hours. So you say "it will end around 20:00 on Sunday evening. Might be 18:00, might be 22:00. That would force bidders to bid promptly.
It's good as it is now, especially since unlike regular auction it's a 24/7/365 market. People know how it works and those interested act accordingly. I rarely see bargains (unless it's a very niche product with very little interest) and when I sell prices are always close to what I want.
rxe said:
The best way to eliminate sniping is to vary the end time of the auction by +- a few hours. So you say "it will end around 20:00 on Sunday evening. Might be 18:00, might be 22:00. That would force bidders to bid promptly.
Any bid within the last 5(?) minutes of an auction should extend the auction by another 5(?) minutes. But realistically, ebay isn't really an auction site any more, it's just a general marketplace for professional sellers.
bobtail4x4 said:
It would be better if bidders had to actually exist, rather than some of the shill bidding/no feedback tossers.
I went to a real auction recently, bidders had to front up £1000 ( refundable) just to be able to bid.
That's a good point. Again, I would imagine that would be transferable to an online equivalent. I went to a real auction recently, bidders had to front up £1000 ( refundable) just to be able to bid.
I must be lucky with bargains or otherwise just want stuff nobody else does.
Having said that, I was bidding on a spares car. Worth £2K max to me and it just went for £3.3K so clearly I was wrong.
nyxster said:
The easiest solution to end sniping would just be to extend the auction duration + 5 minutes after every last bid, which gives other active bidders time to respond until the active bid pool is exhausted, and ends the auction promptly 5 minutes when no more bids are received.
Sounds a bit too sensible. hyphen said:
Pistom said:
Yes I was pleased to get my bargain buy but it must turn sellers off.
It wasn't a bargain. Unless their was a mistake in the listing, it was the market price. You overestimated its value.I guess I just picked the right day to buy.
I only put stuff up for auction if I want to get rid of it.
Buy it now for almost everything. I do local pick up only and cash on collection. Takes a bit longer, but generally less dicking about from buyers.
Occasionally you get the odd person who misreads and expects free delivery somewhere obscure, but this can usually be easily resolved.
Buy it now for almost everything. I do local pick up only and cash on collection. Takes a bit longer, but generally less dicking about from buyers.
Occasionally you get the odd person who misreads and expects free delivery somewhere obscure, but this can usually be easily resolved.
Auction is not for me. I prefer just to order the thing I need. Last time I ordered a board game on Amazon, unfortunately because of my inattentiveness I missed one digit in the postal code. Now I have to deal with the seller and the delivery service. So in the future I will check twice zip code on https://worldpostalcode.com/ finder.
I put my stuff on auction only when I want to get rid of something that maybe other ppl need.
I put my stuff on auction only when I want to get rid of something that maybe other ppl need.
Edited by Greys0n on Monday 16th April 09:53
Greys0n said:
Auction is not for me. I prefer just to order the thing I need. Last time I ordered a board game on Amazon, unfortunately because of my attentiveness I missed one digit in the postal code. Now I have to deal with the seller and the delivery service. So in the future I will check twice zip code on https://worldpostalcode.com/ finder.
I put my stuff on auction only when I want to get rid of something that maybe other ppl need.
Are you a real person or just a bot? You always come up with some very odd replies to threads.. I put my stuff on auction only when I want to get rid of something that maybe other ppl need.
nyxster said:
The easiest solution to end sniping would just be to extend the auction duration + 5 minutes after every last bid, which gives other active bidders time to respond until the active bid pool is exhausted, and ends the auction promptly 5 minutes when no more bids are received.
..which is the moment you put your snipe bid in...Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff