Would it be ethical for ebay to bid on.....

darktone

Would it be ethical for EBAY itself to bid on auction's? say if there was a $5,000 coin that was about to end for $1,200 and ebay could make abid at the very last second and be assured of beating any other snipers since they run the system they could alway's have the last bid. mike

itsnotjustme

No. E-Bay should not be allowed to bid because they are the "trusted holder" of the bids, so they know when there is a bid that is far from its maximum out there. Clear conflict of interest, specially if they bid a price up but did not win, thus increasing their final value fee.

BigD5

I guess if Ebay had "official" buyers, that monitored ending auctions, and didn't do anything, as far as bidding, that other bidders couldn't do, I don't see a problem with it.

darktone

But Darin, what if EBAY alway's had the option of a final bid after everyone else was done- say they could put in a bid with 1/1,000,000 of a second left before the auction ended? mike

BigD5

Sounds the same as anyone with a sniper program. My answer is based on ZERO advantage to any potential "Ebay official designated bidders".

I can picture an office where the employees' job is to monitor different auctions, and have a "buy" price in mind for particular items. If there isn't any hanky panky going on, it's the same as a more dedicated bidder than I, who places a snipe bid over my bid.

mercurynut

Of course not

4thStooge

<< <i>Clear conflict of interest, specially if they bid a price up but did not win, thus increasing their final value fee. >>



eBay would be one of the few auction venues that doesn't do this now.

solid

eBay probably makes more every second in completed auction fees than
they ever could bidding on individual auctions.

I realize this is not at all what you are asking - was just pointing out
that why would they bother?

Ken

BigD5

Ken,
The simple answer would be MO Money! I agree with you, but if they see potential profits that would warrant setting up some sort of bidding company, I would imagine they would do it. I also agree they would ever bother though.

As 4thstooge mentioned, all the traditional auction houses have buyers who will bid on items if they feel they can make a buck on the resale. I only have a problem with this, if the "assigned" bidders have an advantage somehow over the other bidders.

MrEureka

what if EBAY alway's had the option of a final bid after everyone else was done- say they could put in a bid with 1/1,000,000 of a second left before the auction ended?

It wouldn't matter. Think about why and how sniping works. The snipers don't want to bid earlier because they don't want to educate other bidders and give them a chance to rethink their bids. Snipers don't get a second chance to bid, so they have no choice but to enter their true limit bids. (In that sense, snipers calculate their bids as they would in a mail bid auction ( ) in which they believe winning bids will be reduced to one increment above the second highest bid.) If eBay had the opportunity (and inclination) to outsnipe the snipers, it wouldn't influence the snipers' bids, and therefore eBay wouldn't save any money on their purchases by sniping last. Unless eBay's plan was to identify the smartest bidders and always outbid them, the final snipe power would have little value.

route66

Sounds like a previous topic. I'll pass on commenting. Maybe a lot more opinions will show up. JMHO Steve