Auction Sniping Services

[SwiftDeath]

Originally Posted by Redmagster

Since these snipers bid from your account there is no way (without extreme effort) it can be proved that you didn't just place a vey late bid...

While I agree you couldn't prove it 100% you could see where the bid data came from so for instance if ebay collected data on our bid behavior which I'm sure they do they could see where on the Internet out bids are coming from and the sniping behavior

When you aggregate the data across individuals, if quite a few snipers all use the same IP address (or range) to bid you could red flag that as a sniping service and block it

That being said I doubt ebay Germany does that as they like money

So their policy is certainly in place to discourage the practice rather than actually stop it

[Redmagster]

Originally Posted by SwiftDeath

While I agree you couldn't prove it 100% you could see where the bid data came from so for instance if ebay collected data on our bid behavior which I'm sure they do they could see where on the Internet out bids are coming from and the sniping behavior

When you aggregate the data across individuals, if quite a few snipers all use the same IP address (or range) to bid you could red flag that as a sniping service and block it

That being said I doubt ebay Germany does that as they like money

So their policy is certainly in place to discourage the practice rather than actually stop it

That's true enough and eBay does employ some pretty powerful algorithms to monitor for repeated strange behaviours such as repeated cancellations, ended items, 'I haven't received my item yet' reports. I'm quite interested sometimes what they do pick up when you consider the daily activity on any single site...

[Ayiu]

yea, ebay Germany banned automated sniping services completely but it was declared as illegal so they had to revoke it. That's why they made it part of their policy and threat people with bans. Don't know how it works maybe they ban your home address, too?

[Lemur]

I bid $10,000 for items I really want so I win them for sure. No need for sniping

[HIPPEEDUDE]

Originally Posted by Lemur

I bid $10,000 for items I really want so I win them for sure. No need for sniping

Wow,thats so logically ingenious,i dont think anyone thought of that one before One small problem,you enter $10,000 on something you really want but some other bidder who really wants it as well enters a bid of $9,000,so you end up paying $9,001 for something worth possibly a few hundred dollars

[Lemur]

Originally Posted by HIPPEEDUDE

Wow,thats so logically ingenious,i dont think anyone thought of that one before One small problem,you enter $10,000 on something you really want but some other bidder who really wants it as well enters a bid of $9,000,so you end up paying $9,001 for something worth possibly a few hundred dollars

That's a danger but has not happened at all. But the key is to win it then I can decide if I really wanna pay that price. If you don't win you don't have that option at all.

[twistedsymphony]

Originally Posted by Lemur

I bid $10,000 for items I really want so I win them for sure. No need for sniping

unless you've got $10,000 in the bank that could be dangerous, you could get screwed over by shill bids or by someone else employing the same strategy as hippie said.

I can see if you really want something "no matter the cost" but I still wouldn't bid more than I could actually pay.

...unless of course you're actually good for $10K in which case I'd like to point out that I have a good many CEs for sale right now

[Lemur]

Originally Posted by Twistedsymphony

unless you've got $10,000 in the bank that could be dangerous, you could get screwed over by shill bids or by someone else employing the same strategy as hippie said.

I can see if you really want something "no matter the cost" but I still wouldn't bid more than I could actually pay.

...unless of course you're actually good for $10K in which case I'd like to point out that I have a good many CEs for sale right now

i) Bid $10,000 -> win at $5,000 -> I think "Do I wanna pay $5,000?" If I'm not willing to pay at least I had the chance to let it go.

ii) Snipe $500 -> item sells to someone else at $520 -> Bang head on wall

In (i) I have the option whether to pay the final price, in (ii) the choice is no longer in my hands.

[SwiftDeath]

Originally Posted by Lemur

i) Bid $10,000 -> win at $5,000 -> I think "Do I wanna pay $5,000?" If I'm not willing to pay at least I had the chance to let it go.

ii) Snipe $500 -> item sells to someone else at $520 -> Bang head on wall

In (i) I have the option whether to pay the final price, in (ii) the choice is no longer in my hands.

Right but with unpaid cases and the like don't you worry you might screw up that ebay account if you don't pay enough?