eBay Sniping... Wrong or Right?
 

Im just wonder what "Arkers" feel on the subject.

I say neither. Although I get pissed when I get sniped on an auction, i've done it before and its an option thats available. Its not a bad thing either for those that cant be in front of their computer or phone 24X7 watching the time tick by on the auction to go ahead and bid at the last second. Good thread!

OMG....I thought this was about SHIPPING my bad....

This forum is not about shipping costs. It is about eBay Sniping. When there is a few seconds left till the auction ends and you bid on it and win (in some cases), thats sniping.


So SNIPING.. NOT SHIPPING :P

It's the smart thing to do. lol

I say snipping is fine. It's an auction. Gotta out do the other guy somehow.

ROFL.....sniping not shipping, priceless...at least he gets points for posting and is in the running for winning a prize, right???

If you go back youll see I edited it......but yes funny...Read, read, read


To be honest I dont get this "Point system" you all speak of....and I know what sniping is I agree with it and like it....

I have no problems with this. There are a lot of times where I wanted to bid on something and wasn't in front of my computer. I can see people getting annoyed by it, but really, it's all fair game.

I snipe a large majority of my eBay auctions to be honest. There are some tho, that I bid on and hope for the best.

I just wish I was better at it.

I've lost many auctions because of someone sniping it out from under me, but I've won a few doing it myself. All is fair in love and war... and apparently toy collecting.

If your a buyer its great... if your a seller its annoying! :D

I don't get it. Wouldn't sellers like to see the selling price shoot up?

Sometimes it doesn't give the other bidders time to retaliate. If there was additional time then they would bid more and then you would get more for your item.

I've done it. I don't apologize either. It is an auction. Plus it helps keep the cost down. I agree with Xcaliber037: its great for buyers and annoying for sellers.

I snipe. It's the only way to win an auction most of the time. I don't agree with it being bad for sellers. What's worse bidding or not bidding at all? If I didn't bid and no one else was gonna then the seller gets less money than he would If I tried to bid at the last second which raises the price. You can't just bid on something when you see it and hope for the best. There is always someone willing to pay too much for something.

Right on the nose, my friend.

Have to agree with pretty much everyone here. I wouldn't say it's either right or wrong, though. It's just part of the game. And sometimes it's the only way to get something for a decent price. It sucks when someone out-snipes you, but it's also a beautiful thing when you place that bid at the last second and steal the auction on the low.

And I definitely wouldn't say it's bad for a seller. They are, as miketime points out, still making their sale and for a little bit more than they were about to make for it before that snipe. But yes, it also does not allow enough time for another bidder to raise their bid.

But whatever, with the structure of timed auctions it's just a part of the game.

It's not bidding that's the issue. Its also an assumption that no one else is going to bid or that the previos bidder wouldnt raise it once he/she got the email saying that they've been outbid. It's not having time to retaliate. In a real world auction the bids keep going untill the highest bidder is reached. That's not so on eBay because it's timed. Not everyone on eBay is a sniper. Haven't you ever been sniped for a few dollars and thought I would have totally spent maybe 5 more on it to win? Hope that clears things up. It's not right or wrong. Those are the rules set by eBay. It's just... Annoying.

I have to disagree with this. Personally, I think every single time I've sniped is exactly because I knew someone would bid again if given the chance. That's the whole point, to get in that last little increment right before time runs out on the auction.

And it's for those reasons that I always kinda figured that's how eBay was (eBay etiquette, if you will). From the couple of things I've snagged over the years it was very rarely that I would just bid once when I could and walk away hoping for the best. Most of the time, if I saw something I wanted I would just watch, then jump in at the last minute for the sniping war. (I didn't even know we called it that) Never any animosity, I'm just playing by the rules they've set. I know it sucks when I see something on there, I've got the highest bid with 2 scant hours to go, but now I have to go to work and you all know how that works out. So, yeah, never right or wrong, just circumstance and happenstance.

i say if u can do it then do ut. true its fucked up but if u dont, then someone else will. and thats how i see it

I just won a comic from the Silver Age Batman line for a $1: Batman - Everything Must Go. How ironic. I didn't see the need to pick it up at first, but after seeing the salivating ridiculousness on this board I felt the need to show an example.

I think it's fine. Most people put their highest bid in at the end, anyway, so it's more like eBay on Fast Forward. It basically turns into a highest bid wins game in the last ten seconds and hell, if an auction started at .99 cents, you're probably only getting the .99 cents if that's what it ends at. Nobody wanted it, you just have to live with that. It makes no difference if people bid on it over a few days with their itchy fingers or if everyone bids in a bid orgy at the last 5 seconds. USUALLY, an item ends at the HIGHEST amount that it would have. For example, if I snipe, I don't snipe .99 cents on an action figure, I snipe the highest amount I'm willing to pay for it and if someone is only willing to pay 99 cents against me, then I'm sorry, but you should've listed your auction higher because I was willing to pay it. Once in a while, things go wrong, someone intends to bid 30 bucks against you but their internet screws up in the last few seconds of the auction and they don't have time to recover and you get the item for 99 cents or whatever it started at. In any event, it's not wrong. You list an item for the lowest amount you're willing to sell it for just as people will bid the highest amount they're willing to buy it for. Whether you're the bidder or the seller, you should know what you're getting yourself into when you hit Submit. It not the bidder's fault that as a seller, you chose to sell an item with a starting bid of 1 penny to save on listing costs. Know the risks.