Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth
David, the fact that you can construct an example where it works out the same does not disprove the proposition that sniping provides some measure of protection. You're smarter than that. Obviously, it cannot protect against a hidden reserve, but at the same time it can protect against someone running your early bid up to see how high it is, then retracting and exposing it so it can be run up again to just under the max. Your hypothetical assumes the consignor or seller won't let it go below a certain amount. Not always the case -- sometimes the consignor or seller just wants to maximize.
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Peter, I understand what you’re saying about the difference between a “hidden reserve” (“safety bid” or whatever else you want to call it) and someone running your bid up to expose your proxy, only to retract it so someone else can run you back up. Yes, my example was based on the hidden reserve and didn’t take into account the occasional bid retractor.
But I’ll say this. In the last year, I have won probably over 1000 items on eBay. My feedback shows 784 (within the last 12 months), but many of those were for multiple purchases (where the seller could only leave feedback once within a given time period) and it doesn't account for the purchases in which feedback wasn't left. In those 1000+ purchases, I don't think I once had a bidder retract his bid on an item I was bidding on.
I'm not naive, of course I know it (bid retractions) happens, but if it hasn't happened to me in the last 1000+ purchases, I have a hard time believing it happens to others on a regular basis. And I’m not saying it’s never been done to me. I’ve been on eBay for over 12 years, of course it has (but I honesly can't remember the last time). But in those situations (which are very rare) I usually just retract my bid as well just in case so I won’t be run up.
Sure, my examples were hypotheticals, but they were
based on every day bidding habits. Your example (with the bid retraction) is a once in a blue moon type of thing because it really doesn't happen that often. My example happens way more often than your example.
I guess the bottom line is that we have different ways of dealing with bid retractors. Yours is to use a snipe, mine is to cancel my bid as well. That doesn’t make one way right and one way wrong. If a sniping service works for you, then great. To me, there are too many things that can go wrong (snipe not going off), so I'll pass.