Is snipe bidding killing the hobby?

[vintagesportscollector]

Originally Posted by cfhofer

Just depends on if you think eBay is/was vital to our hobby. 10-15 years ago the pieces that were coming up for auction on eBay was simply amazing. EBay made our hobby accessible to everyone, even the non-collector. People who didn't have a clue about sports memorabilia were listing items daily. Collectors didn't need to look elsewhere for quality pieces. I think we can all agree those golden days are gone.

EBay is now a huge dumping ground, with a rare diamond in a sea of turds. With 98% of sports memorabilia listed at a fixed price eBay's auctions (and snipe bids) have become irrelevant to the hobby. Either the pieces have dried up (which seems the majority opinion here) or sellers have just abandoned eBay auctions (my hopeful opinion).

Not sure what your agenda is, but you seem to have a lot of hatred toward ebay - albeit much of it I agree is justified. You make good points, but for me ebay auctions are far from being irrelevant to my hobby/collection. It certainly is harder to search and find items, and requires more patience, but I am still purchasing many items on eBay through auctions. Maybe not all gems, and mostly smalls, but still adding valued items to my collection. It seems many people on here are continuously posting some quality items that they picked up on eBay. Golden Days gone? Yes. Irrelevant to the hobby? No, not in my opinion, at least for my hobby.