eBay hurts my caveman brain

[prog]

Just took everything but the Wii game down from eBay. In the early part of the decade I was quite comfortable with eBay but I clearly don't understand this system any more; after four days my PS2 games each had zero bids but several "watchers". I am not sure what that means - I assume they were using an internal bookmarking service? - but whatever these "watchers" were doing they couldn't be bothered to make a $1 opening bid on any of the games, and that's just odious. No game for you. (Present company excluded, of course.)

The Wii game has nine watchers but three bids so that's OK. Seriously, though, is it just sniping? Has it advanced to such an art in the last few years that nobody bids like normal anymore?

This system would be less broken if any bid extended an auction's cutoff by an hour. I have been saying this for years. Bah.

Comments

[keimel.livejournal.com]

Typically things don't really "sell" until the last day when all the watchers come out of the closet.

Unless it is a 'hot' new and cool item (and I don't mean HOT!!!!!!! L00000000000KKKK!!!!!!!!!) you rarely see bids from the start of an auction.

Yes, that's how it works these days.

[keimel.livejournal.com]

You could also just try selling them at a fixed price. Not sure how teh rates work, but I notice tons of people doing that now instead of the traditional auction.

[jaq.livejournal.com]

In my experience, people will watch items they are interested in, but most bids come in the last few hours or minutes (or for those using sniping tools, seconds) of the auction. People want to leave it late so they avoid getting into a bidding war and pushing up the price.

[toonhead-npl.livejournal.com]

Yeah everyone snipes on eBay. You won't see much action until the very end. Patience, patience ...

Also it helps to have the auction end at a time most people are home, like a Sunday night rather than a Wednesday morning. And supposedly setting no minimum bid does better than setting one.

[radtea.livejournal.com]

Auctions are a game of information, where if you don't bid until the last minute you have the advantage of seeing everyone else's bidding behaviour, including increments and response times. Ergo, everyone snipes. The possibility of sellers withdrawing no-bid items adds an interesting twist, though.

The optimal (for some definition of "optimal") auction system is a blind auction in which the second-highest bid wins. This encourages buyers to estimate a consensus fair price, which people are extremely good at. And no one gives away any information to anyone else.

However, auctions like this don't make nearly such good spectacles as the early eBay auctions did, which I think was critical to the rapid growth of the company. In the early days it was dead fun watching the bidding, especially in the half hour before the end.

A system that extended the auction by an hour on every bid is an interesting idea, but it would be pretty susceptible to DDoS attacks. Anything that allows a third party to influence a transaction is a conduit to a protection racket, human beings what we are.

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

I know at times I've 'watched' a few items and then went 'ooh shiny' and completely forgot about them until it was too late.

I agree and have advocated it myself -- extending the end time to 5 or 10 minutes after the last bid would totally kill the concept of last second sniping. I don't know if it's true (i haven't looked and really don't care) but I suspect there are people out there with special 'snipe-bot' programs so they don't have to be at their computer to snipe.

Somewhere I heard that the 'ideal' starting bid for an e-Bay item is about 60% of what you wish to sell it for. I don't know if this is true but this is generally the philosophy I take.

Another thing that bugs me about eBay is their association with PayPal. The rules are set up really flakey for sellers using PayPal when it comes to regular vs premium accounts. The problem goes something like this:

Regular account:
- You can receive money via PayPal WITHOUT a fee .. up to $500/month
- You can only receive money if the other PayPal user has their account directly connected to a bank account. If the buyer attempts to pay via credit card you can accept but ONLY if you upgrade your account to premium.

Premium account:
- You can accept payments via credit cards.
- ALL money received encounters a PayPal fee, not just money from credit card payments. (no limit per month)

eBay rules regarding receiving payment via PayPal:
- If you use the built-in 'accept PayPal' options you're supposed to accept all incoming payments, credit card or not.
- You're not supposed to state in your description that you won't accept credit card payments if using PayPal.

...
-- In short. you CAN use a regular account to accept bid money via paypal but it's impractical to do so because if some schmuck breaks out his credit card you're supposed to upgrade to premium.
-- Loophole. don't state you can pay via PayPal until AFTER the auction is over.

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately PayPal is one of the best ways to go.

Personal checks aren't very trustworthy and besides, who uses checks anymore (I pay most of my stuff on line or via debit card and maybe use about 5-to-10 checks PER YEAR).

Bank Checks and Money Orders are more trustworthy (unless they're from Canada) but people are lazy and they'll wait until you complain about nonpayment to drag their ass to the bank or post office to get one. You won't get your money until about a month after the auction. You also have to put up with lying excuse after excuse about little Timmy needing an operation and how you can trust them because they're so Christian.

[prog.livejournal.com]

The one failed sale I ever made was when someone bid a healthy amount for my Sega Genesis + all games, won, then lowered their offer to $20 for just one of the games, citing their ailing grandmother.

[toonhead-npl.livejournal.com]

In 2001, I had one guy offer me less than half to what he agreed to because of 9/11. Unfortunately he didn't even bid until after that date.

Other than that, I've had a few "I'm sorry I hit the bid button by mistake!!!!" people (yeah right) who want to back out. What can you do? You risk getting a false bad recommendation otherwise.

[jaq.livejournal.com]

There are indeed 'snipe-bot' programs around. Lots of them. An ex-colleague used to use one, after he got fed up of being out-bid.

[jtroutman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it is all last second sniping these days,except when it is "buy it now" ending the auction. It does make good sense to time the auctions so that they end on a weekend or at a time when people who are likely to buy that item are going to be browsing and looking.

It seems to me that that the auctions processes themselves are not setting market prices anymore, but the overall market forces on ebay. When people offer stuff for insane prices with high reserves, no one bids on those auctions. When the prices come down to what the market thinks is reasonable, there are bids.

[toastifer.livejournal.com]

Why extend the auction? That just forces you to be at the auction at the end. So instead of getting rid of snipers, it makes EVERYONE a sniper. It eliminates the possibility of sniping software, and ties up your money and bid for longer...preventing you from bidding on another auction that may also be ending soon. I wouldn't want to accidentally win 2 items...or none at all.

Its not the last bid that wins, it is the highest, no matter when it is placed. Having someone else bid does not increase an item's value. My budget doesn't increase because someone else placed a bid. eBay's proxy system allows anyone to place a bid...and only the amount needed to stay in the lead is used. If you only bid the minimum needed to take the lead, you will lose to someone who bids later than you EVERY SINGLE TIME.

So, why bid at the last minute? It prevents your bid from being nibbled up by indecisive bidders...or artificially (and illegally) boosted by a dishonest seller, or his friends, on a secondary account.

I bid once. At the maximum I'm willing to pay. At the last moment possible. I win, more often than not. I never pay 'too much'. And if I lose, I remember there's always two of any 'one of a kind item'.