home wrote: ↑7 Jul 2022, 1:16pm
They didn't sell a car, he sold a motorcycle. But the point still stands, why do you pay far more commission if you sell a bicycle?
For somebody who demands that other people use quotes in the way you prefer, you are remarkably poor at doing so yourself. This stuff about a car/motorcycle seems to be a response to somebody else. Perhaps you think that readers should trawl the entire thread to find exactly who you are responding to, and what the precise discussion is.
home wrote: ↑7 Jul 2022, 1:16pm
As somebody so experienced in eBay, and with so much to say about it, I'm surprised that you don't seem aware how they work.
I know how they work, in principle, but I asked a specific question that you missed. Are they adjustable down to 10ths of a second because, obviously, if 10 people all set it for 5 seconds, what's going to happen? I remember when they first came out but never had the need nor desire to use one.
And again, you quote me, but without reference to the post or poster. Maybe look at your own ability to use the quotation tags before ordering others to quote the way you want.
Anyway, I didn't "miss" your question about sniping times. I read it and didn't bother to reply. Given that your attitude to eBay is so negative, as evidenced by the high proportion of your posts being about eBay, I assumed your "question" was actually rhetorical. A quick search on your username shows that you have commented at length, and in several threads, on eBay issues. You seem to present yourself as an expert. You certainly know all about the various charges and policies. As somebody who has run some sort of eBay business, did you not think it worthwhile investigating how "sniping" applications work? But as you haven't bothered to, I'll do the work for you.
Okay, I just set up a dummy snipe. It wouldn't accept a lead time of one second, too short, I assume. But it would accept 2 seconds. And 2.7 seconds, which answers your "10ths of a second" question. The maximum lead time was 120 seconds. There is also a "second shot" option, which enters a second bid if the first one fails. I've never used that, it defeats the whole purpose, for me. I have always just left the lead time at the default 5 seconds.
I imagine that if 10 people have all set 5 seconds as the lead time, then the highest bid will win. Just as though 10 people have all bid at the same time. I can't be sure though, as I'm just one person, so can't test the scenario you ask about. The reason the sniping services exist is to allow people to post a bid at the last possible moment. Using a machine to bid faster than a human can. Part of that is, I think, technical - the sniping services have high speed connections and servers, whereas a human on a domestic connection might not be able to place the bid in time.
home wrote: ↑7 Jul 2022, 1:16pm
In a way, I see them as cheating for those too inept to operate the site manually. I like to play the game fairly, not up against some bot.
Well, I'm perfectly happy with eBay as both a buying and selling market. Whereas you have nothing but complaints. So I'm not sure who is "inept" here.
When I buy or sell something on eBay, I'm not playing a "game" as you put it. I'm buying something, or selling something. One of the reasons I usually use a sniping service when I'm buying an auction item is
exactly because I don't want to play a "game". I don't want to sit glued to my computer with adrenaline rising with every successful, or failed, bid, tempted each time to bid higher and higher. I use a little bit of self discipline, decide the most I'm willing to pay for something, put that amount in my sniping service, and let that do the rest. Sometimes, if I happen to be free, I'll watch the auction end, sometimes I won't. But the 5 second lead means I haven't got time to increase my own automated bid. But often I won't bother watching (another advantage, I don't have to be around), so just get a "you've won" or an "outbid" notification.
It's worth pointing out that eBay's auction system doesn't work like a live auction room does. If you're bidding for chest of drawers at J Bloggs and Sons, Auctioneers and Valuers, then you wave your card and bid $3,000, telling the auctioneer that that is your
current bid. Especially if you're Cary Grant -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amczmjuhwXI. But in your mind you might have a higher amount you are prepared to go to.
But on eBay you tell eBay what your maximum is, and they bid up to that for you, but only by enough to beat any other, lower maximum bids. So eBay auctions aren't like traditional ones.
home wrote: ↑7 Jul 2022, 1:16pm
Again, don't just make this about me. There are/were 10,000s of people who depend/ed on eBay for a small living, or even just survival (that's a trend the company has noticed due to COVID and recession), and 1,000s who have been screwed by changes they didn't ask for. You may be an "I'm all right Jack-eline" type, but I'm speaking up for them about the realities of it.
You are the one posting. If you are the Chairperson of the Association of Hard Done By Ex-Ebay Traders, then please declare so. But at the moment you appear as somebody with a chip on their shoulder, imagining that they are speaking up for the dispossessed.
home wrote: ↑7 Jul 2022, 1:16pm
You may have got your nicknack, but at who else's cost?
Apart from selling a very old piece of hi-fi equipment, and buying some clothes, you have little idea what I buy or sell on eBay. Though some of it is, indeed, cycling equipment. But well done with your attempt to trivialise my eBay activity with the word "nicknack". What were you selling on eBay, jet engines? satellites? complete main-frame computer systems?
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