Auction canceled with no time left?

KenzoT

Don't know how to link it, but E Bay #1393696469.
Starting bid, $.99, NO RESERVE, then cancels the auction at the LAST SECOND because he did not get his price.
Checking his E Bay record, seems he is willing to buy slabbed coins for a few bucks, much less than the slabbing fees alone, but he will not sell if he doesn't like the price.
Joeyeboy just got my last bid for any auctions.

Luvdawgs

LINK

ajaan

This is one thing I dislike about eBay. A seller shouldn't be able to cancel an auction unless there is more than 24 hours left. Just my opinion.

Dog97

I always say it's the seller's coin and he can do with it as he likes but that doesn't mean that I like it.
If the seller is selling common junk then he probably knows he's gonna lose $$ if he lets it end and cancels but if it's something good he is hurting himself because most of the good stuff on eBay is sniped @ the last second or 2.

flaminio

I was having a discussion with a software developer about six months ago about the feasibility of an "anti-sniping" program. As we know, sniping software monitors an auction and automagically places a bid with a few seconds to go. The Old Skool folk will dismiss this as wussy, but when I want to snipe an auction that ends at 2:00am, I'd much rather have the robo-sniper do it than wake up in the middle of the night.

So we were talking, what about an "anti-sniper" for sellers? The traditional way of guaranteeing a certain price is to set the starting bid appropriately, or set a reserve. These options are suboptimal for a couple of reasons. High starting bids and reserves tend to discourage bidders. Many auctions can generate higher final prices by simply starting at 1c/NR due to bringing in more bidders, and hopefully starting a bidding war. However, it's risky -- if the bidders never show, you could end up selling a valuable item for cheap. Furthermore, on eBay higher starting prices and setting a reserve price costs more in listing fees.

Enter the "anti-sniper" program. You start all your auctions at 1c/NR. This program would watch your auctions, and with seconds to go, if it hadn't met your pre-programmed price, the anti-sniper would go in and automatically cancel all bids and end the auction. Sneaky and rude, yes, but entirely legal according to eBay's current rules.

From the looks of the linked auction, it appears that someone might have developed the sucker. If so, it's one more thing to watch out for in eBay-world.

Loki

<< <i>A seller shouldn't be able to cancel an auction unless there is more than 24 hours left. >>

I definately agree on this one, but I would tailor the time left to something like 12 hours.

As far as anti-sniping SW goes, why bother when you can just cancel the listing? Personally, I like sniping but to level the playing field just a bit, eBay should change it's SW. If a bid is entered within 1 minute of end of listing, the listing is automatically extended by 5 minutes. This scenario repeats until no bids are received within 1 minute of the end of listing time. A repeat bidder who bids against him/herself within 1 minute of end of listing cannot be allowed to extend the listing time. This change can only benefit the seller AND the buyers as the auction will be fairly won and will realistically emulate what happens during a "live" auction.

onthespot

THAT is the best solution, and it would only be good for Ebay, they would only make more dough, which is what they want in the first place...

flaminio

<< <i>As far as anti-sniping SW goes, why bother when you can just cancel the listing? >>



That's fine for one or two auctions. What if you were running hundreds, with all sorts of various desired prices and ending times? You would need a software solution to effectively manage such a case.

This of course assumes that such a piece of software is a viable selling strategy, which is debatable.

fcloud

Wow, software to snipe and software to prevent snipe. Pretty soon we won't even have to bid the stuff we want will just automatically be sent to us with a bill--lol.
Anyway this person has a rating of 40 with two negitives. I wouldn't bid on the stuff just for that reason alone.

relayer

Well, they are his coins and he can keep them, but I can't figure out why he would want to?


I think eBay should just change the way people enter information and eliminate their proxy system.

Buyers would select "Bid $xxx.xx within xx.xxx seconds of close"
Sellers would select "Cancel if the bidding is less than $xxx.xx within xx.xxx seconds of close"

The price would stay at a $1 and the buyers and sellers instructions would all take place automatically. (We'd have to use fractions of seconds, so there would still be a challange for snipers)