Snipes are killing ebay auctions

[t206hound]

Originally Posted by sports-rings

And by the way, I hate that ebay is completely clogged with over-priced items that never sell!

I agree that there is a ton of overpriced merchandise on ebay. And I'll never understand that. It is SO EASY to determine the market value of most T206 cards (as an example), and the BINs are generally priced WAY ABOVE those prices. Just do a "completed listings" search of T206s BIN only and you'll see hundreds to thousands of unsold cards at ridiculous prices.

Personally, I've sold four BINs in the last ten days (and have a pending offer that I will likely take). All SGC60 commons in the $85-$105 range. Right now the average price of a common player/common back BIN SGC 60 T206 is $184.28... IMHO double the actual value. The median price is $200. These cards will never sell. It can't be worth the seller's time to continue to relist and manage the inventory at these prices. And ebay doesn't see (much) revenue from this practice either.

[uffda51]

As has been pointed out, ebay is not an auction house. They were founded by people who traded pez dispensers.

Any auction house publishes their bid increments, based on meaningful increases, in advance. No one can snipe an auction and win by outbidding the underbidder by a dollar or a penny. Ebay has never taken customer service seriously, nor shill bidding nor bogus items. Patient people can still find bargains there. I just don't have the patience to wade through the debris.

[insidethewrapper]

The sellers on ebay and ebay themselves would make more money if ebay would extend the auction by 1 minute everytime a bid is placed in the last minute similiar to what many of the auction houses currently do. This then would be a "true" auction. Bidders would then have an opportunity after a snipe bid.

[egbeachley]

Originally Posted by insidethewrapper

The sellers on ebay and ebay themselves would make more money if ebay would extend the auction by 1 minute everytime a bid is placed in the last minute similiar to what many of the auction houses currently do. This then would be a "true" auction. Bidders would then have an opportunity after a snipe bid.

As a buyer, I hope they don't do this. As a seller, I agree.

[ChiefBenderForever]

It seems that ebay is dying a slow death and doesn't care, so this tells me that the people at the top are cooking the books and filling their pockets with as much cash/bonus as possible so when the bottom falls out they can walk away with a mountain of cash and blame everyone else and leave any stock holders holding an empty bag of nothing.

[drc]

My feeling is sellers would use auctions more if they thought they'd get fair sales prices in return. I'm sure that after having a $200 item for for $9.99, many sellers aren't about to relay on those promises of magical snipes with 2 seconds left.

Buyers found a technique (last second snipes) to get the lowest price possible at auction, then are shocked and dismayed when auctioneers don't like selling things for the lowest price possible and choose to sell a different way.

Yes, I firmly believe that snipes are the main cause for the demise of auctions. I said this perhaps two years ago.

I also understand and appreciate that snipes help prevent being shilled, but snipes are still why auctions have died out on eBay. If you want to say snipes and shills were co conspirators, I'll go along with that.

[BCauley]

I don't blame sniping at all. I blame the problems that ebay has on ebay itself. I like to use them to dump things off quickly but actually find myself purchasing my vintage either through the B/S/T on here, dealer sites in the links above, or my new favorite, Joe's Vintage Cards.

[Hankphenom]

I'm having a hard time understanding most of the arguments being made here. For sellers, why not just protect yourself with a decent reserve? Then it's cost you little and now you can either try again or find another venue for your sale. If catalog auctions are so great, then use those even if you have to do some grouping. But now there are auctions that accept individual lots worth $100 or so. Or start doing shows. Or bring your stuff to a show and sell to a dealer. As for the argument that sniping eliminates the psychology that drives auction prices, can't you have two buyers who REALLY have to have something and leave enormous snipes that drive the final way beyond the third bid. I've seen this happen a lot in checking bidding histories on eBay. So gosh, the poor eBay sellers aren't getting what they want for their merchandise? Is it possible that they paid too much? Or that the economy sucks right now and very little moves like it used to? Or that they're pulling their stuff too early and losing some good last-minute bids? Nah, can't be those, it must be the sniping that's killing them. This just strikes me as the online equivalent of the show dealers who won't look at their customers, overprice horribly, don't know how to buy, won't work hard enough to get new stuff, then complain about what lousy shows they're having.

[Railroad Bill]

The last couple of months I've been buying 5-10 PSA cards per month. This month I've only been able to buy 2 based on the same pattern of bidding. Seems like something has happened just recently to change the bidding.

[mintacular]

When I see reserve my first reaction is that seller probably has set it too high/has an unreal expectation like most BIN sellers....therefore why participate in bidding all week and probably never reaching the reserve? I would prefer that a seller open an auction with a lower min bid rather than a reserve

[Big Ben]

Originally Posted by Railroad Bill

The last couple of months I've been buying 5-10 PSA cards per month. This month I've only been able to buy 2 based on the same pattern of bidding. Seems like something has happened just recently to change the bidding.

Have you been bidding on the same or similar number of auctions? I ask this question as I find myself saving fewer items to my watch list recently. But to be honest, I am very picky as to what I watch or bid on at EBay.