Is snipe bidding killing the hobby?

[cfhofer]

Hello,

Curious on others thoughts regarding snipe bidding on ebay. Obviously this practice is a huge advantage for buyers but awful for sellers. Is it a coincidence that there are now so many sports auction sites (which don't allow snipes) and most ebay items are BIN?

Mark

[glynparson]

It has lowered the number of auctions starting at a dollar that i agree with. THe peak hobby years there was no ebay and most things were sold "retail" I think a lot of the have to sell for cash flow dealers have gone away, many during the last downturn, but I don't see the hobby going any where in fact many areas are as strong as they have been in a long time.

[vintagesportscollector]

Interesting question, but Snipe is nothing new. I agree that the dynamics of sales (i.e. fewer auctions) has changed significantly over the years, but not sure I would attribure that to Snipe nor would I say it is killing the hobby. Sellers have become more sensitive to price, with great awareness of market value, and do not wish to give items away below market - I think that has attrbuted more to the change than Snipe.

[Econteachert205]

I still get good deals off ebay through traditional bids.

[GoCubsGo32]

I mostly snipe due to the potential shill bid factor.

[packs]

I don't think sniping is all that different from how I normally bid anyway. I'll wait until the clock counts down to 2 seconds and bid on my own. I guess it would be more convenient if I just got a snipe service, but I'm doing the same thing anyway.

[megalimey]

EBAY sniping is something sellers are aware of
you have some thing desirable especially a vintage mile stone baseball ticket
listed correctly will get some action and always late near end of auction
for example Sandy Koufax first game victory ticket starting at 99 cents no reserve , with less than 5 minutes to go was at $275
at end of auction winning bid was a whopping $3765.00 an incredible increase in the dying seconds tell me that seller was not happy so bring on the snipers