Ebay auctions

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Posted By: barrysloate

Bob- I know, there is no foolproof answer, but look at it this way- if the card is pulled before you bid, your chance of winning it is zero. In another scenario even if someone tracks your bidding pattern, your chances are at least somewhat north of zero. I guess you need to evaluate- or just do what I did, and tell the seller not to pull the lot, as you anticipate spirited bidding in the end. That's not perfect either, but every plan has some downside to it. Face it, ebay is the wild west in more ways than one. It's every man for himself.

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Posted By: Dave

IMO every auction should be set at a 99 cent starting bid...and run until the end. If you want to end it early, stick a freaking BIN along with the auction. And in my experience, no matter what it is starting it a low bid amount as opposed to closer to what you want for it garners more action and usually results in higher winning bids.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Somewhat repeating what was said above, I beleive that snipe bidding
is a major reason why auctions end early now days. Especially with a unexperienced seller,
when he sees zero to no no bidding in auction over days, he is more likely to take what
seems to him to be a decent offer. As there is almost no bidding, he may not
feel that that there is much interest in the item. Without healthy bidding all along,
meaning no snipe bids, sellers are less likely to end auctions.

Snipe bidding is a bidder's technique to subvert the traditional auction format in
order to get the lowest price possible. It should not shock that sellers in turn
will try and find techniques to counter this. People may feel that ending an auction
early is unethical, but snipe bidding used to also be considered unethical.

Do I find ending an auction early a subversion of the traditional auction process?
Yes, I do, and I'm against it. But I find irony in snipe bidders complaining about
people subverting the traditional auction format. For every action is a reaction,
so they say. The reaction against bidders placing last second snipe bids, which leaves
lengthy durations where the nervous seller sees no bidding or interest, is the seller
ending auctions early to get a perceived reasonable price.

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Posted By: Steve M.

There are ways for a seller to assess auction activity without active bidding. 1. Look at the number of "hits" and 2. check your My Ebay for the number of "watchers". Both should give a seller some indication how the auction may play out.

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Posted By: barrysloate

But ebay permits a seller to shut down without penalty, and that is part of the problem. One of the things a bidder should evaluate is if someone outside the hobby finds something great and puts it on ebay (typically a rare card, ungraded, and with a description revealing the seller has no idea what he has), that will be the person most likely to get bombarded with offers to close early. A professional dealer with ebay experience knows how things find their level at the end.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

As an occasional eBay seller, I can tell you that number of hits and
number of watches is minimal relation to the final auction price. You can
have 17 'watchers' and receive no bids. Also, other than the bidder
telling you, the seller has no way of knowing when a snipe bid has been
placed. If one million snipes have been placed, the seller will have no
knowledge that even one has been placed. If one million snipes have been
placed and zero bids, the seller will only see that no one has placed a bid.

Barring bidders emailing you and telling you that they will palce a bid, the seller's
only concrete indication of interest in an item is the number of bids. If
there's one bid, one person has placed a bid. If there are two bids, two people have
placed a bit. If there are no bids, no one has bid. That's what the seller knows.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I'm an occasional ebay seller, but even I know not to worry if a lot seems low on the last day. Some cards go less than I want, but others go higher, so I certainly don't go into panic mode even if the bid is low with five minutes left.

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Posted By: Max Weder

Dan if I understood your post correctly, you made a reference to ending the auction early as being allowed under the ebay rules. As I read the ebay rules, it is not okay to end an auction early to sell to someone outside of ebay, other than ending the auction at the current bid price to sell to the high bidder:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/rfe-spam-non-ebay-sale.html

"Offers to buy or sell listed items outside of the eBay site are not permitted. Offers of this nature are a potential fraud risk for both buyers and sellers and circumvent eBay's fees.

Some examples of offers outside of the eBay site include:

Using member contact information obtained from eBay or using any eBay system to offer to sell any listed item outside of eBay

Canceling a listing to sell to a buyer who became aware of the item through eBay

Ending a listing early to sell the item at a higher price to the winning bidder

Offering to sell an item to a bidder in a Reserve Not Met listing without going through Second Chance Offer

Offering to sell duplicate or additional merchandise to under-bidders without going through Second Chance Offer

Sending unsolicited (without prior permission) commercial email offers to bidders for the same or similar products that they have bid on in the past

It is acceptable for sellers to end a listing early in order to sell an item at the current bid price to the high bidder. Bidders are permitted to contact sellers with requests to end a listing early and sell at the current bid price; however, sellers are under no obligation to honor the request.

Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:

Listing cancellation

Limits on account privileges

Account suspension

Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings

Loss of PowerSeller status"

The practice certainly exists and sales are routinely ended early to sell at a higher price, but ebay certainly doesn't condone it.

Max

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Max, I stand corrected. It happens so often that there realistically is no way for ebay to police this. It's not like ebay can force a seller to continue with a listing all the way to the end. What if my dog eats the item up for bid?

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Posted By: Max Weder

Dan,

I don't know your dog, but my dog only collects items in chewed condition, whether or not they are slabbed.

If an item is destroyed or otherwise unsaleable, the auction can be ended early; the ebay policy is meant at stopping people from arriving at deals to lower the commission that should have been paid to ebay by arranging a sale off-ebay.

Max

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Posted By: davidcycleback

As a seller, I never end and auction early if there is one bid, even if the bid
is one penny. However, I will end auctions with zero bids. I do this considering
that that the person who places the minimum bid is the only who can can win it
at the minimum bid-- meaning, there is no reason to not place the minimum bid on
an item if you want it. If bidders are concerned with saving money (which is
presumably the reason they snipe) and have seen the lot and the minimum bid is low,
if there are no bids after four days this is an indication to the seller that there is
little to no interest in the lot. Again, if bidders have serious interest
there should be a rush to place the mimumim bid, as only the first bidder can get it
at that, the lowest possible price. By placing the mimimum as the maximum, the bidder
has no worries about being shilled.

Also, I will switch lots with zero bids. Meaning, if I have a Steve Carlton signed
ball up for auction with 0 bids after four days, I will switch it to a Tom Seaver,
or even a lesser value ball, figuring "If no one is interested in a Steve Carlton,
maybe someone will be interested in a Tom Seaver." If it plays on the minds of people who
didn't place the minimum bid on the Carlton, that's fine by me. I love for people
to bid, I would love for people to bid 1 second into the auction, so if people
didn't take the 10 seconds to bid $9.99 on the Steve Carlton ball for 4 days,
they can't claim it was because of my choice or influence.

As a seller, my loyalties are with the person who places the single, minimum bid
on the Steve Carlton and goes on to win it for the great $9.99 price. My loyalties
aren't with people who don't bid or who have launched Machiavellian space ships to place
secret infrared bids in the year 2025 so they can save $5 on a Barbie Doll. If their
bid goes off in one of my eBay uctions in 2025, I will then gladly honor the bid. But,
for now, Billy Joe has has the high bid at $9.99 on the Steve Carlton ball.

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Posted By: DR

With snipers, if an item has a low bid or let's say no bids, why not raise the opening bid from $.99 to X? This would be a wake up call when a sniper is in reality bidding against an opening bid or reserve (that was not present when first viewed). If no bids exist, technically, an auction is able to be modified. This would for sure upset the sniper and doubt many would agree to the purchase, due to the modification. However, this technique would level the playing field and require snipers to pay much closer attention! I bet 10% of snipers would be hurt under this scenario. I place my snipes closer to the end date for this reason and others. How long before eBay offers sniping?

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I often start with a really low bid and, if there are no bids afer a couple of
days, I raise it to the normal minimum bid. The point for me is to induce someone
to place the mimumum bid. After a couple of days with no bids, the mimumum bid
is raised from say $5.99 to $29.99 as no one was willing to bid at $5.99 and I see
no point in keeping it that low. That snipers or non-early bidders lost out on the intentionally
undervalued mimimum is entirely their fault as my whole point of offering the
$5.99 was for someone to take the unusually low offer and place a bid.

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Posted By: sagard

Ebay could help themselves avoid all this stuff if they allowed straight bids.