Slightly OT: Snipe issues on eBay

[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.

[t206trader]

As an aside from the snipe issue which is frustrating... I understand the frustration but I fail to see "death" of the 99 cent auction. Ebay receives more eyes from the public than any other auction site. Generally speaking a 99 cent auction that lasts 7 days should sell at close to a true market value. The fact that sellers want more is irrelevant. Sports cards have almost always been a margins collectible. If a seller feels that the auction prices that cards are realizing aren't enough, then either they need to find a new business venture or sell for above market BIN's that will likely languish for months/years. Either way, nobody wins.

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by t206trader

As an aside from the snipe issue which is frustrating... I understand the frustration but I fail to see "death" of the 99 cent auction. Ebay receives more eyes from the public than any other auction site. Generally speaking a 99 cent auction that lasts 7 days should sell at close to a true market value. The fact that sellers want more is irrelevant. Sports cards have almost always been a margins collectible. If a seller feels that the auction prices that cards are realizing aren't enough, then either they need to find a new business venture or sell for above market BIN's that will likely languish for months/years. Either way, nobody wins.

That is all good and all, and I agree that a collectible should sell close to market value, but we have an issue here that needs to be addressed. ALOT of people snipe, especially on higher dollar, rarer cards. It hides two facets. #1 - It doesn't alert anyone that they are interested in the item until the very end. #2 - it allows them to win items on the cheap. When Ebay is restricting these snipes from coming through, then we have items selling a lot cheaper than they normally would.

If Ebay is "crashing", or doing something that is limiting these last second bids from coming through, then that is very much a problem for sellers/consignors. These items are selling for only a fraction of their market value. No different than stealing.

[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).

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by swarmee

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).

I guess a lot of us can't remember what it was like before sniping services. Before sniping, I would have evenings where my internet would slow down to a crawl, or go down completely. I still have those issues at times - I'm currently at a coffee shop because there is something wrong with my connection at home. With snipes, I am much more confident that my bid will occur. Sellers should like that.

I can remember ten years ago, having ebay members contact me the day after an auction and tell me that their computer crashed and they were unable to bid on my items. I'm sure I left a lot of money on the table because of things like that. Let my customers snipe away.

[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.

[chernieto]

Originally Posted by ATP

Perhaps ebay is planning to put together an in house snipe feature.

I receive ebay email notifications on items I am interested in. I usually miss bidding in the final moments of an auction because old cards & collectibles are not the #1 priority in my life. This thread prompted me to finally sign up with one of the snipe sights mentioned in this thread. This way when I get an alert I can set the bid and forget about it. Seems like a time saving efficency measure that makes sense for my limited time in following and bidding on items.
I fault ebay for a lot and have many issues with them but I don't believe they would intentionally have bids and higher prices not occur, unless their in house snipe feature is about to be unleashed.
In the past the more I bid long before an auction closes the greater the chance I don't win. When I only bid at the last moment my chances increase.
I'm 10 years behind signing up! I wonder what percent of folks here use a sniping service.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by chernieto

.............
I'm 10 years behind signing up! I wonder what percent of folks here use a sniping service.

The vast majority but we will see....maybe I am wrong....- yeap, I was wrong. I am surprised