Re: A Golden Opportunity!

From: Watson A.Name - \ (NOSPAM_at_dslextreme.com)
Date: 08/20/04 

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2004 03:24:19 -0700

"Michael A. Covington" <look@ai.uga.edu.for.address> wrote in message
news:4124c543$1@mustang.speedfactory.net...
> "Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun, the Dark Remover"" <NOSPAM@dslextreme.com>
wrote
> in message news:10i91nnhd8thocc@corp.supernews.com...
>
> > Mike, I see you're trying to make a point, but what is this supposed
to
> > do? Is it supposed to take away buyers' advantages and give them to
the
> > seller? Or is it supposed to take away the sniper's advantages and
give
> > them to the other buyers? What is this 'wrong' that you're trying
to
> > right?
>
> Simply this: Sniping is an inefficient way of doing what it does.
Proxy
> bidding by sealed bids would accomplish the same thing (concealing
> everyone's bids until the last minute) with a lot less work for
everybody,
> and with complete assurance that everyone's bid actually does get
> considered.
>
> In a typical eBay auction today, you have 3 things that I think are
either a
> waste of effort or a source of economic inefficiency:
> (1) The bids that are displayed do not reflect the bids that are
actually
> going to take place, because most bidding (not all) is withheld until
the
> last minute;
> (2) People who want to snipe have no assurance they will actually
get
> their bids in. A slight computer delay, or a slight miscalculation of
the
> time, and *poof* -- they're out.
> (3) People can't tell which kind of auction they're in, so they
don't know
> whether to conclude anything from the published bids. The published
bids
> are useful information only if the snipers haven't lined up.
>
> So if you think sniping is good, sealed-bid proxy auctions (where all
bids
> are concealed and the second highest bid determines the selling price)
are a
> better way of doing the same thing.
>
> And if you think sniping is bad, auctions ought to be snipe-proof
somehow,
> such as by automatically extending the time as long as bids are
rising.
>
> I wish eBay would offer both of these as options (alongside the
various
> kinds of auctions they offer now) and see what people actually like.
>
> In short -- We're not finished inventing the online auction. eBay
isn't
> perfect, just as UNIX isn't perfect, even though each has a large
crowd who
> think it is.

Whew, I finally made it thru the flood of followups to this point. I
guess my attitude is that I'm neither sniping-is-good, nor
sniping-is-bad, I'm indifferent. I'm kind of getting like that in my
old age. I used to be severely anti-spammer, now I see that the email
system is not perfect, and that allowed the spammers to do what they
did. But as time has gone on, the 'net has mitigated the spam problem
by developing and deploying filters to the point where the spammers are
now losing profits and have had to crank up their voilume tremendously
to get enough spam thru the filters to make money.

In other words, electronically, there has always been a noise floor, and
we've all had to live with it. The net has adapted to spammers by
filtering, and electronically, filtering has reduced the bandwidth so
that the signals get thru the noise.

Ebay has such a noise, and the snipers may be just one part of it, a
minor part IMHO. One other part is the seller who doesn't violate the
Ebay policy but sells items with excessive shipping charges, which Ebay
says is not their problem, the buyer has to beware. And Another noise
on Ebay is the keyword spammer who puts in added words into the subject
to get more search hits. This is against Ebay policy, but it isn't
enforced enough because not many people report violations to Ebay, so
many sellers get away with doing it.

As I pointed out in my original post that started this thread, Ebay has
added a search option that lets the buyer filter out clueless,
inconsiderate sellers who continually flood the listings with dreck,
making it harder for the buyer to find what he wants. I consider this
another filter to help reduce the noise.

I try to do my share and complain to Ebay about violations I see, and if
more people complained, it would be a better place. I think Ebay and
the users in general have accepted sniping as a very minor problem, and
have more important things as I've mentioned above that need their
attention.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: All the sniping, we have to run our auctions backward. Ebay is broken.
    ... Because *everyone* is sniping? ... It's pretty unusual for any bids to be shown in ... my ebay. ... I try hard to be the only one selling the items I sell. ...
    (alt.marketing.online.ebay)
  • Re: ebay buying/selling questions
    ... find the whole ebay selling process to be so stressful that I rarely do ... price even though I hadn't given one! ... Is there such a thing as Ebay ... It'll get no bids.) ...
    (alt.fashion)
  • HOW I EARNED OVER 500 POUNDS WITH RPOINTS - YOU CAN TOO - READ HOW INSIDE>>>>
    ... Here you can win points everyday for searches, ebay bids ... Making Ebay Bids: ... Just type Money in the rpoints search bar and then click MONEY ... The other great tip is GODO. ...
    (misc.consumers)
  • Re: WTF!
    ... Don't assume that because the bids went that high, ... hijacked account) and then try the Nigerian "I sent you a money order ... If the seller isn't made ... Ebay should put that in a prominent place on their website, ...
    (rec.bicycles.tech)
  • Re: PayPal: Steer clear of Safari
    ... There is so much phishing seeming to come from Paypal and its parent eBay, ... If I get something out of the blue, then I go to ebay directly and check the mail there. ... Actually, the filters I use are very effective, and I seldom get more than three phishing expeditions a week getting through the filters. ... The price of liberty from SPAM is eternal vigilance. ...
    (comp.sys.mac.apps)