eBay anti-sniper rule proposal?

beefcake210 · December 9, 2003 5:30AM

What would you think of requiring anyone who wishes to bid in the last 5 (or 10, or 15, etc.) minutes of an auction to have placed a bid before that time? Kinda like a major catalog auction requirement - place bids before 6PM to ensure you can bid after that time? It would encourage a lot more bidding, and perhaps more activity would keep items from being ended early, etc.

BEST OF ALL - for sellers, it would eliminate the possibilities of 0 feedback guys coming in at the end and screwing up an auction - you can check with 5 minutes to spare and block anyone you don't want bidding on an auction.

That's one of my biggest fears when I run bigger auctions - what to do if a 0 bidder bids with a minute left - I don't want other bidders jerked around, and want to make sure I get paid!

carew4me · December 9, 2003 5:43AM

Takes the premium away from sniping.

I do not want some folks to know I am going to bid on an item.

Previous bid would show my hand.

As a seller i have not had enough of a problem with 0 bidder's to warrant such a change for all or myself.

aconte · December 9, 2003 5:46AM

A good idea if your a seller. But since I am more of a buyer on ebay I say

I find ways to sell.

aconte

Vargha · December 9, 2003 6:06AM

Bad idea for buyers.

schr1st · December 9, 2003 6:07AM

If you are a seller, why would you want to discourage snipers?

murcerfan · December 9, 2003 6:11AM

it won't happen.
lot's of folks just watch the auctions that are about to end, at least from e-bay's viewpoint.
remember sportscards are but a fraction of thier market.

...they really should shut down the search function that allows snooping on other bidders, that's something i never understood, certainly no good comes from it.

40ozman · December 9, 2003 6:14AM

I never want to bid up an item to earlier. I don't see it hurting sellers all that much, If the bidders want it they will set there snips up to what they are willing to pay. I love it when a snipper buys item's I'm selling. They are usually great buyers, that pay with paypal within 24 hrs. People that bid up items early tend to always take forever to pay me, and always with a check

Griffins · December 9, 2003 6:27AM

good for shillers, bad for buyers.

dude · December 9, 2003 6:33AM

Here's a safe prediction. eBay will do whatever it takes to generate more money.

Vargha · December 9, 2003 8:17AM

That seems pretty safe to me.

CW · December 9, 2003 11:05AM

Regarding 0 feedback bidders screwing up high dollar auctions, I wish
ebay would have an option where high dollar auctions are allowed to
block bidders that don't meet a minimum requirement for feedback.
This could be clearly stated in the auction so people don't waste their
time, and bidders would feel safer bidding on the cards. Ebay could
even make some dough by charging a small fee for these types of auctions.

I know that if I'm looking at an expensive card and see bids from brand
new ebay users with 0 feedback, I'll either avoid the auction or bid
lower for fear of some goofball just driving the price up (which can
happen even if you snipe).

toppsgun · December 9, 2003 11:35AM

Don't count on that ever happening.

As for blocking low or negative feedback bidders, that's easy. State so very clearly in the auction description. Then if the guy (who can't or won't read) bids and wins, don't sell it to him. If he alerts ebay that you're a no-good seller, refer ebay to the description and the bidder gets a warning shot fired over his bow. Three of those and he's history.

PistolPete · December 10, 2003 12:18AM

Just have a system where those with less than 10 positives cannot bid withing the last few seconds of the auction. Small price to pay for the new members, and it encourages getting some feedback so they can go after the better stuff.

Noname · December 16, 2003 2:15PM

I like the idea. This way you know what you are up against and can bid accordingly. There isn't much more annoying than putting a nice sized bid in the last 15 seconds thinking the item is yours, then all of a sudden a snipe steals it away. The sniping has hurt auctions because you can no longer find out why the bidding is low. I think ebay should privatise all auctions so that only the seller and ebay can see the bidders. This is the only way they can be true auctions.

NickM · December 17, 2003 4:51AM

Spoken like a true shiller, Apu.

Attempting to prevent bidders from bidding at the end unless they had placed some earlier bid would be a disaster for eBay and for sellers. Unlike a standard catalog auction, eBay does not have a fixed number lf lots all ending at the same time, which bidders can review and plan accordingly. On eBay, the same or similar items may be up for auction multiple times (especially on modern cards) ending near each other. An anti-sniping rue would ensure that most of these lots went off with very few participating bidders.

In fact, most in-person or catalog auctions are not truly private. People holding a bidder card in the air are obvious to everyone else present, and catalog auctions that post online (as most of them do) often list the high bidder number along with the bid. This enables bidders to be anonymous, but not private, as anyone can see what Mr. 6725 is bidding on.

Nick

murcerfan · December 17, 2003 12:55PM

There isn't much more annoying than putting a nice sized bid in the last 15 seconds thinking the item is yours, then all of a sudden a snipe steals it away.

tunnel vision??

The sniping has hurt auctions because you can no longer find out why the bidding is low.

tunnel logic ??

I think ebay should privatise all auctions so that only the seller and ebay can see the bidders.

but then you wouldn't be able to go off on your little tirades e-mailing the sellers of auctions where I have outbid you.

..remember ? ........lying about how I will stiff them and they should just sell to you instead.

jmullen · December 17, 2003 2:34PM

If everyone sniped ... higher prices would be realized on auctions.

Jeff

eBay anti-sniper rule proposal?

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