How important is auction sniping to you?

[tonyo]

Until a couple of months ago, I had been out of the hobby for about 10 years (time flies) so I missed the dawn of the sniping age. I had never even heard of auction sniping until I read about it on this board. Experienced it recently by losing several eBay auctions, but had no idea sniping services even existed.

Anyway this is an interesting thread and I'm still trying to form my opinion on sniping. I'm often annoyed by it, but I understand all the pro-sniping opinions. I have learned that if I ever "really" want an item, my best odds are to decide what I will pay and wait till the last 10 seconds to place the bid. That makes me pro-sniping and the biggest reason I do it is to minimize the time I allow another bidder to decide they can go a little higher.


So, Here are some thoughts for consideration while you guys are developing the auction format.

1. If an auction doesn't end at a fixed time, those of us with lower budgets would have much less chance to win an auction. Personally if I continually lose auctions, I would eventually decide "well I'm never going to win anything here" and I would stop coming. Means less traffic, develops an elitist auction site, and reduces the chance to grow the hobby.

2. Someone wrote that they don't want the fleer and donruss rookies on the site. I understand that on the surface. However, consider this: without 2009 Upper Deck Goudey, I personally would not have found this site or developed an interest in pre-war cards. I happened upon a 34 Goudey Appling on eBay and realized I had a chance to afford it. It's been snowballing a little from there and my pre-war collection has grown from 1 to about 25 in the last 2 months. My point is, to attract the most traffic, and potential buyers, and grow the vintage side of the hobby, you would definitely need to stick with your goal to "emulate eBay (without the idiocy)" by allowing a wide range of cards to be auctioned.



In summary, If I go back and cast a vote, I would look for the option " allow sniping, but not sniping services"

Maybe in the last 2 minutes of an auction, you could require bidders to type in those squiggly numbers or words "that they see in the box" in order to place a bid. That way we could still snipe, but would have to go through the labor of love to do it if we really wanted an item.

Tony


p.s.

added: Maybe you could have a feature to allow bids to be scheduled for entry at a certain time, but not within 1 minute of auction end. Removes the "I can't be at my computer 24/7" requirement, but doesn't leave alot of time for folks to keep bidding just to beat what someone else is willing to pay.