Reply 20 of 23, by sliderider
- Rank
- l33t++
wrote:Hahaha, that post made me laugh, reminds me of when i was sniping manually. I did not have the real time update so i had to reload by hand all the time and my internet was from an overworked network and not very reliable so it could take lots of time to reload, i seldom dared bid below 30-20 sec.
I remember when i lost that crazy cheap 15 Nes consoles + 30 controllers lot by about 10$ from a sniper that appeared at -3 sec. This is actually at that point that i got interested in automated sniping services.
I would still snipe manually nowadays for something that costs a substantial amount as the auto snipe fees are 1%, but for anything below 100$ i would not bother.
I found an auto refresh plugin eventually that I used to program to update in 2 second intervals so I didn't have to worry about clicking the refresh button all the time and that helped a lot. Ebay actually made it easier to snipe by auto updating the timer and price in real time even though so many people complain about sniping.
Some auction sites add time to the auction when a bid is entered in the last few seconds to give everyone time to respond but that sets up a situation where if there are enough people interested, the time could theoretically extend indefinitely as long as someone keeps entering a higher bid. It also gives sellers more time to shill up the high bidder.
Most sellers choose a 7 day running time for listings, which is more than enough time for anyone interested to get their bids in. If someone can't get their bid in during the 7 days, they shouldn't be given more time at the end when they get sniped. If they put the maximum they are willing to pay in at the start then they don't have to worry about it. If they win, they got a good price: if they lose, the other guy overpaid. Putting in a ridiculously high bid to guarantee the win might get you the item, but could also end up costing you a lot more than it's worth when it gets shilled or the snipers drive the price up in the last few seconds.
I would guess that the only people who complain about snipers are the ones who enter only the minimum bid they have to to become high bidder with no room for being outbid. The guys who look for 1c or 99c listings then bid that and hope it finishes with no other bidders or the ones who see something then make multiple bids in the minimum increment until they get on top then neglect to bulk up their bid in case the guy they outbid decides to fight back or someone else wanders into the room and decides they want the item, too. Those people deserve to lose.
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