Slightly OT: Snipe issues on eBay

[ATP]

Wow, that really stinks. It already takes nerves of steel to run regular auctions on eBay having to wait until most of the action in the last few seconds, and then tonight...no action hardly at all at the end...I was expecting a little slow as it's a holiday weekend...so thank goodness I had a very very modest reserve on two large items, the reserve was only one third met on one and one half met on the other. I had assumed both reserves would easily be met. Multiple people not getting their snipes through on them. Just image If I hadn't put a reserve on those two and they had gone off at one third of a very low expected price. At this point I probably only left a few hundred on the table, but that is only according to those who contacted me about it.

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by ATP

Wow, that really stinks. It already takes nerves of steel to run regular auctions on eBay having to wait until most of the action in the last few seconds, and then tonight...no action hardly at all at the end...I was expecting a little slow as it's a holiday weekend...so thank goodness I had a very very modest reserve on two large items, the reserve was only one third met on one and one half met on the other. I had assumed both reserves would easily be met. Multiple people not getting their snipes through on them. Just image If I hadn't put a reserve on those two and they had gone off at one third of a very low expected price. At this point I probably only left a few hundred on the table, but that is only according to those who contacted me about it.

I had a card I paid $1,050 for recently with a VCP average of $1,200 sell last night for "only" $800. I had around 33 watchers at the time of closing, yet only one snipe appears to have went thru at the last seconds. The card was a rare card, appears to have been undergraded, and at the VERY LEAST should have been close to what I paid for it! This is NOT GOOD at all now that I found this out!

[bobbyw8469]

On top of the that, the winning bidder already paid! (I guess he paid quickly because he knew he got a steal on the card). I am torn as what to do. I think blocking snipes is a pretty shitty way for EBay to treat their customers! And yes, the sellers are really Ebay's customers, NOT the buyers.

[bunst]

I had 2 snipes set on Gavelsnipe that did not execute last night. In both instances I would have been the winner. I will be bidding manually from now on until I know it is fixed.

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

On top of the that, the winning bidder already paid! (I guess he paid quickly because he knew he got a steal on the card). I am torn as what to do. I think blocking snipes is a pretty shitty way for EBay to treat their customers! And yes, the sellers are really Ebay's customers, NOT the buyers.

Why are you torn? The bidder won the auction based on the parameters you put forth. You should send the card. Most of my auctions at least start at the money I have into the item. That way I never lose money.
I am AGHAST that a winning bidder would pay immediately!!! How dare he!

[jp1216]

WOW - I'm just glad I didn't have any snipes set this week.
Been using a couple different free services for 10-15 years now - never once had a snipe not go through. I've come to rely on them and never doubted the reliability.

[gnaz01]

Yup, missed 1 last night and am pissed, as it was a piece I really would have loved to have

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by gnaz01

Yup, missed 1 last night and am pissed, as it was a piece I really would have loved to have

Please tell me it wasn't a 1954 Bowman Ted Williams card!!!

[gnaz01]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

Please tell me it wasn't a 1954 Bowman Ted Williams card!!!

No worries, Bobby, it wasn't. The 1950's stuff is too new for my taste

[prestigecollectibles]

Does anyone know if it is an Ebay issue or sniping program issue? I use esnipe.com and had no problems the past few days.

I often bid on the Yahoo Japan auction site. The seller can list the item using an option that extends the auction. If there are no bids within the final 5 minutes the auction will keep extending so sniping is not an option. Most sellers use this feature.

[itjclarke]

It looks like there may have been some more issues on eBay tonight. I was trying to bid/snipe 4 items, all ending within seconds of eachother. To help counter their ending times being the same, I had 3 devices open- computer, tablet, phone. I was able to enter bids on each, but when trying to confirm the bids, all three screens froze up for several minutes (buttons didn't work, counter/clock froze, etc). Two were using my wifi, but one was 4G so it is doubtful is was just a home wifi issue.

Once my screens started working again, all items had closed. They all sold for less than I'd expect, so not sure if anyone else had similar issues.

[Scott36153]

Wow. Just DDOS attack the servers that the snipe software is on and bam win auctions at low price.

[itjclarke]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

I had a card I paid $1,050 for recently with a VCP average of $1,200 sell last night for "only" $800. I had around 33 watchers at the time of closing, yet only one snipe appears to have went thru at the last seconds. The card was a rare card, appears to have been undergraded, and at the VERY LEAST should have been close to what I paid for it! This is NOT GOOD at all now that I found this out!

My snipe didn't go through on this card ('54 Bowman Williams).. I'd have won it. I had several other (4-5) snipes that did not go through either, however my snipe in the early AM did.

I did have the Williams auction open on my phone at the end, but didn't pull trigger since I'd already made a couple purchases earlier in the day. I was surprised by the ending price and bummer for everyone that left money on the table

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by itjclarke

My snipe didn't go through on this card ('54 Bowman Williams).. I'd have won it. I had several other (4-5) snipes that did not go through either, however my snipe in the early AM did.

I did have the Williams auction open on my phone at the end, but didn't pull trigger since I'd already made a couple purchases earlier in the day. I was surprised by the ending price and bummer for everyone that left money on the table

I hate I heard that Ian. Someone earlier stated that for high dollar items, just set a reserve or set the bid higher. I am taking this advice. There is absolutely no way I can lose this kind of money and stay in business long. For items that have been in my collection for so long that I don't care what I get for them, then 99 cent auctions can suffice. However, when I get a card for the sole purpose of flipping and basically just hand it out - well, that isn't going to fly. By the way, the winning bidder is a very famous dealer. He has bought from me before. I fully expect to see this card in his store, and sell for $1,200+. I was able to be robbed with the full help of Ebay. Never again.

There are just too many alternatives. Huggins and Scott, Goodwin and Co, Greg Bussineau all come to mind.

[yanks12025]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

I hate I heard that Ian. Someone earlier stated that for high dollar items, just set a reserve or set the bid higher. I am taking this advice. There is absolutely no way I can lose this kind of money and stay in business long. For items that have been in my collection for so long that I don't care what I get for them, then 99 cent auctions can suffice. However, when I get a card for the sole purpose of flipping and basically just hand it out - well, that isn't going to fly. By the way, the winning bidder is a very famous dealer. He has bought from me before. I fully expect to see this card in his store, and sell for $1,200+. I was able to be robbed with the full help of Ebay. Never again.

There are just too many alternatives. Huggins and Scott, Goodwin and Co, Greg Bussineau all come to mind.

Lol. Your posts are too funny.

I'm glad peoples snipes didn't work. That's what they get for using them instead of ACTUALLY BIDDING!!!

[itjclarke]

Originally Posted by yanks12025

Lol. Your posts are too funny.

I'm glad peoples snipes didn't work. That's what they get for using them instead of ACTUALLY BIDDING!!!

I said I was live on the auction. I saw my snipe didn't go through but decided not to bid in the last 2-3 seconds. When I have the time, I always bid live.

Bobby and I'm sure many others definitely left money on the table through no fault of their own and it sucks for them. I'm sure most all of them will honor their sales, since I don't really see an alternative.

I won a few items for what I thought were very good prices, however do wonder now if they were affected by this.

[bobbyw8469]

Lol. Your posts are too funny.

I'm glad peoples snipes didn't work. That's what they get for using them instead of ACTUALLY BIDDING!!!

Ebay actually condones sniping. They tell you as a seller that all of the bids come in the final seconds. Trust me, as a seller it is nerve wracking. To see an item that is worth x amount be only a fraction of that with mere seconds to go. If anything, this will help speed up the death of the 99 cent auction for the small seller. The only two people that will be left will be Probstein and PWCC for 99 cent auctions. And both of those sellers have their own different problems that I won't get into here because they have been rehashed to death elsewhere.

I was trying to be a different type of seller than those two. By bringing back the 99 cent auction WITHOUT some of the issues that plague those two gentlemen. I'm going to do some soul searching to see if I want to go down that route.

Too many people complain about the lack of auctions and the overabundance appearance of overpriced BIN's that plague Ebay. Most sellers have had a little help, namely the ineffective bumbling by Ebay themselves, in regards to why the auctions are disappearing with bloated BINs in their wake.

[ATP]

Obviously there isn't much that can be done and I am not one to let things bother me for too long, but I agree in that for larger dollar items I don't think I will be doing straight auctions if at all, and I usually do quite a few a week. The chance of an outage, error, something else happening and preventing the last second or snipe bids is just too risky. For fun I am going to go through some of the high end items that ended on straight auctions last night and see what else was picked up for a good price.

[GasHouseGang]

Originally Posted by yanks12025

Lol. Your posts are too funny.

I'm glad peoples snipes didn't work. That's what they get for using them instead of ACTUALLY BIDDING!!!

I don't understand the disgust directed at people that use a sniping service. I got tired of constantly being outbid by $1 at the last second and decided to try a free snipe service. I could just as easily set a maximum bid on ebay, and I wouldn't be sitting there punching buttons to bid. Whether I bid in person or via a snipe I AM BIDDING. So what's the problem?

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by GasHouseGang

I could just as easily set a maximum bid on ebay, and I wouldn't be sitting there punching buttons to bid. Whether I bid in person or via a snipe I AM BIDDING. So what's the problem?

Snipe bids can serve a good purpose (not allowing for shill bidding), but there is no difference to putting in a bid with five seconds to go at your maximum compared to setting a snipe. The main problem, IMO, is expecting a free third-party site to be 100% reliable when working with a huge engine like eBay.

I don't have a problem being outbid by a snipe bid, because it just means that someone else was willing to pay more than I was. If there's an auction I care about, I'm there when it ends (especially now that I have a smartphone with the eBay app).

[ATP]

I don't think there is anything wrong at all with the concept of sniping. In a lot of cases, it probably allows bids to come in that might otherwise be forgotten or if you didn't want to bid early and weren't able to be sitting right at the computer at auction. I don't personally use a snipe serice, but if I did there probably would have been a few more items I would win, and a better price for the sellers. But if a snipe service in not reliable then it can cause issues for both buyer and seller. Perhaps ebay is planning to put together an in house snipe feature.