eBay trying to remove sniping

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

A lot of people value and appreciate the hard closings of eBay auctions. This system has been in place for 30 years and has made them ungodly amounts of money. As others have noted, yes, they'd be changing this in an effort to make more money for their sellers, but the bottom line is always to make more money for themselves. They are doing just fine without being even more greedy. We're all their customers, whether we're buying or selling.

There is something great about seeing "Item ends at 10:02 a.m. on July 8" and knowing that at any time after 10:02:01, I can hop on there and be given a definitive answer if I have won or lost an auction. After that time, I can move on with other matters in my life.

As to auction house end times:

In my younger days, I might stay awake until stupid o'clock following along, or going to bed at a normal hour, but losing sleep, wondering if I had won anything and not being able to sleep as a result. Frankly, as gentle a version as it may be, these late hours are an unwelcome form of torture on the part of auction houses, especially when a hard close could give everyone who puts food on their table and pays for their children's educations a better night's rest. Not to mention, the auction house staff could also turn in at a decent hour! But, follow the money. Always the money.

Fine, keep your 15 minute rule, but finalize everything by 10:00 p.m. EST. Done. Finished. Customers/consignors can know what they bought or sold and can get ready for the coming day. This is fair to both coasts and those in the middle. Practically everybody has a smart phone so they can view and bid wherever, whenever. 7:00 p.m. on the west coast is good enough. If it isn't, then fine, how about 8:00? Not a nanosecond later. Nobody seems to be doing this, why? What are the reasons for these super late closings, again? Can't we move past this, please? Oh yeah, I guess we can't. They wouldn't want to miss out on the late night overbidding of all the Joe Imbibers out there.