Ebay now tells you when you are "near" to being ou

[Vroomfunkel]

Just noticed that on the auction page now, if the auction prices is within the current minimum increment of your max bid, eBay now displays a message saying:

"You are one bid away from being outbid. If another user places a bid, you will not win. To increase your chances of winning, enter your highest maximum bid."

Gah, this is annoying for me ... I count on people not increasing their max bids when their bid gets pushed near, in order to get some of my bargains!

Vroomfunkel

[kevin_psx]

"You are one bid away from being outbid. If another user places a bid, you will not win. To increase your chances of winning, enter your highest maximum bid."

Gah, this is annoying for me ... I count on people not increasing their max bids when their bid gets pushed near, in order to get some of my bargains!l


You can ignore the message-- Nothing changes.

[Zing]

Ebay has probably been flooded with complaints about "snipers" for years. Maybe this will get the point through some thick skulls.

[NintendoMan]

Ebay has probably been flooded with complaints about "snipers" for years. Maybe this will get the point through some thick skulls.
Who is the thick skulls here? The snipper bidder, or the person that just lost because of getting snipped by someone else?
I am guessing the person GETTING snipped is the one with the thick skull.

[rbudrick]

Who is the thick skulls here? The snipper bidder, or the person that just lost because of getting snipped by someone else?
I am guessing the person GETTING snipped is the one with the thick skull.

True. Say what you want about sniping, but it has saved me thousands of dollars. I'm not sure why I'm supposed to care that I won the auction, as opposed to the other guy, and I paid less for it. It's all win-win for me.

-Rob

[MachineGex]

I always wondered why Ebay didnt extend the auction by 1-5 minutes after every bid, kinda like a real auction does. Now I realize this sux for snippers, but Ebay is all about the mighty buck and it would get them and sellers more $$$. Before I get slammed, I am not saying I am for them changing it, I just never understood why they dont set it up that way.

[Vroomfunkel]

I always wondered why Ebay didnt extend the auction by 1-5 minutes after every bid, kinda like a real auction does. Now I realize this sux for snippers, but Ebay is all about the mighty buck and it would get them and sellers more $$$. Before I get slammed, I am not saying I am for them changing it, I just never understood why they dont set it up that way.

On a physical auction, fine. On an online auction - too open to abuse by unscrupulous selllers trying to push up the price of their goods - especially with the 'max bid' proxy system that ebay works on, which can be manipulated in certain ways if you know how. Even as it is, you can use the system to your advantage against bidders who place max bids .. with an auto-extend, it would turn into a nightmare.

And I would imagine more people would end up bidding more than they intended to, and then not paying up - something that eBay does not want, because it results in extra administration (=cost), refunded seller fees (=lost revenue) and ultimately more users getting booted (=loss of future revenue potential).

Vroomfunkel

[XianXi]

That message has been there for a while now. Only pops up at certain times though so not many people have seen it.

[Steven]

agreed with vfroom (sp?) on why eBay doesn't extend auctions.

And sniping is the only way to go to get bargains. I hate how people bitch and whine about being sniped. It's part of eBay. Don't like it? Then go elsewhere, or stick to BINs.

[chaoticjelly]

I think some peoples bidding habits on ebay are funny.. I often see people bidding a LOT of money before the end.. surely they realise that its slowly pushing the price up?

Funny thing is, most of these people are re-sellers!

If your looking for "rare" games, search for what they've bid on days early first.. LOL

[XianXi]

I always wondered why Ebay didnt extend the auction by 1-5 minutes after every bid, kinda like a real auction does. Now I realize this sux for snippers, but Ebay is all about the mighty buck and it would get them and sellers more $$$. Before I get slammed, I am not saying I am for them changing it, I just never understood why they dont set it up that way.

If the bidders are only bidding in $1 increments the auction could go on for months for certain items.

[kevin_psx]

I always wondered why Ebay didnt extend the auction by 1-5 minutes after every bid, kinda like a real auction does. If the bidders are only bidding in $1 increments the auction could go on for months for certain items.
Is there a site that extends time +5 minutes after last bid? Is it Yahoo Auctions?

I'm a sniper. Wait until 1 minute & bid a ridiculous amount like $100. The other guy has no chance to outbid me.

[Griking]

I'm a sniper. Wait until 1 minute & bid a ridiculous amount like $100. The other guy has no chance to outbid me.

Unless of course he has the same plan as you do and bids a rediculous amount as well. In a situation like that someone is going to seriously over-pay for an item. I'm sure it's plans like this that leads to a lot of those "WTF O_O " auctions we see from time to time.

[Austin]

I always wondered why Ebay didnt extend the auction by 1-5 minutes after every bid, kinda like a real auction does. Now I realize this sux for snippers, but Ebay is all about the mighty buck and it would get them and sellers more $$$. Before I get slammed, I am not saying I am for them changing it, I just never understood why they dont set it up that way.

I think a lot of sellers, too, use eBay as a sort of pawn shop. I have, on occasion.

Have a bill to pay by the end of the month? Set up a few auctions, make sure they end a few days before your money is due. Bingo, case solved.

If the auctions kept extending, who knows how long it'd be before they ended.

[kevin_psx]

Do other auction sites use the +5 minutes auto-extension?

I'm a sniper. Wait until 1 minute & bid a ridiculous amount like $100.Unless of course he has the same plan as you do and bids a rediculous amount as well.
Yeah happened once. I bid $100 for Mario DDR.
Other guy had already entered $101 as his max.
I let the other guy have the game. *

But most buyers are newbies. They enter reasonable bids like $20.50-- my $100 bid easy beats it & they don't have time to enter a higher bid. I get the game for $20.50 or 21.50.



*which he never paid. The winner bid $101 --never paid the Seller-- and broke his contractual obligation. Creep.

[johno590]

But most buyers are newbies. They enter reasonable bids like $20.50


So I'm a newbie buyer if I do that? LOL. Ok. Hey I put what I'm willing to pay for an item and if I don't win it, big deal, there will most likely be another auction on ebay just like that one in a few days.

Why take the chance that you might accidently end up paying 100 dollars... If you ask me, that is newbish.

[kevin_psx]

But most buyers are newbies. They enter reasonable bids like $20.50
So I'm a newbie buyer if I do that? LOL. Ok.
My sentence does not say that. "Newbies enter reasonable bids" =/= "People entering reasonable bids are newbies". Did not say that.


Why take the chance that you might accidently end up paying 100 dollars... Never have. Besides tme is more valuable than money -- I invested 1-2 hours on that auction. I want it. If it costs me $100 for Mint Suikoden 2 so be it.

[Daria]

I always wondered why Ebay didnt extend the auction by 1-5 minutes after every bid, kinda like a real auction does. If the bidders are only bidding in $1 increments the auction could go on for months for certain items.
Is there a site that extends time +5 minutes after last bid? Is it Yahoo Auctions?

I'm a sniper. Wait until 1 minute & bid a ridiculous amount like $100. The other guy has no chance to outbid me.

1 minute? Are you on dial-up? Hell even 30secs leave you open for retaliation.

[kevin_psx]

1 minute? Are you on dial-up?
uh huh