eBay testing "Extended Bidding"

soolin

savergrant said:

soolin said:

I'm just pleased I don't do auctions, I hate extended bidding for last minute bids. 

The last time I bid on an auction I won, only to find out the seller had already accepted an offer for the item and sold it. That put me off auctions.

It's very rare for a seller to forget to remove an item from sale if it has already sold elsewhere. 

soolin

PocketWatchMan said:

Do people honestly 'snipe' on ebay? wow.  
In my experience anyone who is the least bit serious will bid on an auction, or BIN (or make an offer) very early on, usually within a couple of days max. 
I haven't come across sniping I recon in about 20 years.

It's very very common, although I suppose with auction style listings becoming rarer now people don't come across it a lot. 

Pollycat

soolin said:

PocketWatchMan said:

Do people honestly 'snipe' on ebay? wow.  
In my experience anyone who is the least bit serious will bid on an auction, or BIN (or make an offer) very early on, usually within a couple of days max. 
I haven't come across sniping I recon in about 20 years.

It's very very common, although I suppose with auction style listings becoming rarer now people don't come across it a lot. 

I do it.
Usually on items like silver jewellery or expensive shoes.
I decide what I'm willing to pay and then bid about 10 seconds before the auction ends.
Sometimes I win, sometimes I don't.
But as I've set myself a maximum price, it doesn't bother me if I lose.

I recently bought a brand new pair of shoes that retail around £150.00.
Starting bid was £7.99.
One person had bid.
I decided I'd pay £20.00 and bid that amount at the last minute.
Turns out that the bidder had just bid the minimum amount so I got the shoes for 50p more.
I believe that if I'd bid £20.00 days before the auction ended, the first bidder may have tried to beat my bid and I'd have ended up paying more than I did.

So, yes.
WOW indeed.
I'm very serious about what I bid on.
Works for me.

strawb_shortcake

We put all our stuff on as auction, we are currently selling some quite retro items, and we're always getting last minute bids in the last few seconds. 

soolin

I suspect the paid for snipers that many people use won't be happy with this change. Some go in at the last second to bid- and they often get mentioned on here.

se2020

Sniping is best for buyers.

Extended bidding is better for sellers and ebay.

It's the same as how real life auctions work. Someone bids, the auctioneer waits a bit to see if anyone else wants to bid.

It might annoy some sellers not knowing exactly when an auction will end but maybe ebay could let sellers choose if they use it when listing an item?

I can't see it dragging out auctions for days on end.
I think the minimum bid increment on a £1 item is 20p so if there is a 2 minute extension the seller could get £6 rather than £1.20 just for letting the auction run for an extra hour. 

There may be sell who have timed the auction to finish just before they go on holiday but those sellers have no guarantee the buyer would make payment instantly anyway. 

Pollycat

soolin said:

I suspect the paid for snipers that many people use won't be happy with this change. Some go in at the last second to bid- and they often get mentioned on here.

I don't use paid for snipers (not really sure what they are).

If I'm watching an item that I intend to bid on, I set a reminder on my phone for the time the auction ends so that gives me 30 minutes to get ready.
I'll watch the countdown from about 5 minutes in and bid - either on my laptop or phone  15-10 seconds from the end.

prowla

PocketWatchMan said:

Do people honestly 'snipe' on ebay? wow.  
In my experience anyone who is the least bit serious will bid on an auction, or BIN (or make an offer) very early on, usually within a couple of days max. 
I haven't come across sniping I recon in about 20 years.

I've had it happen to me, but I've never considered it wrong in any way.

I'll bid what I think the item is worth to me, rather than to "win".

se2020

Pollycat said:

soolin said:

I suspect the paid for snipers that many people use won't be happy with this change. Some go in at the last second to bid- and they often get mentioned on here.

I don't use paid for snipers (not really sure what they are).

If I'm watching an item that I intend to bid on, I set a reminder on my phone for the time the auction ends so that gives me 30 minutes to get ready.
I'll watch the countdown from about 5 minutes in and bid - either on my laptop or phone  15-10 seconds from the end.

A snipe service basically does what you are doing for you.

At any convenient time you go onto the snipe site/app, enter the item number,  your bid, and how many seconds before the end you want the bid placed.  It then bids for you 
So saves you setting an alarm  and handy if you are busy or asleep when the auction ends. 

Some of then notify you if the item gets any bids before the end. 

Another useful feature is 'item groups'
Say you want to buy a pair sunglasses,  you can add 12 auctions into a group and bid on them all but once you have won one pair it will stop bidding on the others.

Or, set spend limits.  Add 20 auctions and a spend cap and it will stop bidding once you hit the cap.

The downside is you have give the snipe site your eBay login details/password.  
The reputable sites normally charge fees.


If ebay introduces extensions to the finish time bidding in the last few seconds will become pointless. I'd guess that is the majority of business for the snipe sites although some users might stay with them for some of the other features. 

se2020

prowla said:

PocketWatchMan said:

Do people honestly 'snipe' on ebay? wow.  
In my experience anyone who is the least bit serious will bid on an auction, or BIN (or make an offer) very early on, usually within a couple of days max. 
I haven't come across sniping I recon in about 20 years.

I've had it happen to me, but I've never considered it wrong in any way.

I'll bid what I think the item is worth to me, rather than to "win".

No, there is nothing wrong with it.
If an auction has an end time then any bid at any  time before the end is perfectly acceptable. 

The idea of sniping is to outbid the next person without giving them time to raise their bid.

At the end, the highest bid always wins so it only affects those who are trying to get a bargain.
They can't even complain that much as, if they did have time to get in an extra bid the price would be above the bargain price they wanted to pay anyway.