Thread: Sniped...

Well I hope that if I ever get around to listing any razors/shaving gear of mine, that the gentlemen put on their gloves.
It would be so disappointing to see an item do poorly just because of the "I saw this first & I am going to snipe xxx amount of $$$, so would you all kindly step back and let me win this sucker for as little as possible".
Hell, if an SRP member didn't want anyone to know he was going to snipe on anothers claim ~ he'd just create a new Ebay ID & just go for it!

Bugger the gentlemen, give me a caveman any day ~ or better still a "barber ian"
......momma

I have been going to auctions as lon as I remember. My mother loved to go to auctions we went every weekend to sales and flea markets. I love to go "junkin" as we called it. The thrill was in finding a treasure hiden in a box of junk they were throwing together at the end of the sale and selling for one money. This said the person who looses at the end of the sale is the person with either less money or less desire to own the item.

As for sniping I hate it. I think the true sprit of the auction is to watch and bid. I realize that people cant just sit ad wait for a given item to end but proxy bidding helps with that. I sometimes end my auctions early to foil snipers. I like the idea of the floating finish. Extend the sale a given time past the last bid. This gives a true auction end. Going once, Going twice, sold to the higest bidder.

Don

Originally Posted by ByronTodd

Gotcha. I guess what I was trying to say is that part about 4000+ members and with ebay security measures, there's just no way to tell who is bidding. I guess I was taking issue with the "member gloating" part. I would have stated that they were showing off what they got - whether or not they actually intended to gloat at the person(s) who lost.

Fair enough-as many will tell you (who knows perhaps you got your start over there too) the yahoo group was a little different. I recall posting I was going after a certain razor and then when another member won it I was offered the chance to "borrow" it. Today it's hilarious but at the time I didn't see the humor.
I'm also "chat"phobic most of the time; I can't login to chat portions of sites unless I am at home (not too often) as they are blocked by the Gov't controlled intranet we use. (Other Navy types know what I'm talking about, good 'ol NMCI) but it seems we agree in principle at any rate (if I knew someone was on the chat posting about something, unless I REEEAAALLLLY wanted it (e.g. didn't already have 6 of them) I'd back off.)

Originally Posted by AFDAVIS11

Prices have risen but I remember a few years ago when I might have had RAD, which never infested me, when a guy on Ebay was a collector. I forget his name. This guy was very wealthy and he bid $1000 on every razor on Ebay. He would win every razor and then throw it into his collection. He had endless amounts of money. The only reason any of us are winning any razors today is because he lost interest. Either that or the ricin powder I shook all over the one razor I sold on Ebay.

My earlier comment about collectors with deep pockets was in direct reference to this guy. I remember it seemed no matter what price we bid, the "good" stuff would go to him for ridiculous sums of money. Who knows, he may even be a member these days, but I remember hoping that people would bid him up enough that he'd let the rest of us have a chance once in awhile....everyone should have a *little* good luck. I guess if I were *selling* him razors, he'd have been my best friend, but I have a hard time actually parting with razors I've put effort into....

John P.

I SNIPE. I love it too. I don't always win, but it helps. Really no matter what kind of auction it is or when it ends waht it comes down to is who is willing to pay the most for an item. I used to complain about snipers until I looked into it myself and found how easy it was.

And Junkin, by ending your auctions early, you only hurt yourself. Your items would probably sell higher if you let it run until the end. High winning bids are kind of the point of auctioning your items.

Yep being perfectly honest here, I snipe every thing... and I think those of you that don't, drive up the prices worse than the e-bay newbies.... sorry that's just the way I see it....
I however don't usually target pretty shiny razors I target potential....

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Yep being perfectly honest here, I snipe every thing... and I think those of you that don't, drive up the prices worse than the e-bay newbies.... sorry that's just the way I see it....
I however don't usually target pretty shiny razors I target potential....

exactly.
There was a time I hated snipers. Now if I really want something I snipe it. I've paid 4 prices for something in my earlier days at this stuff, just because of a bidding war...and guess what. The next one or two of those? went for a higher price.
It's how prices go up. That, and for some reason if Lynn even thought about a razor more than twice the prices went up on the things.

John P.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

So you might value a particular razor, not unreasonably, at $60 dollars, put a max.bid on it of $80 (just to be sure), and then discover that someone from the Antipodes valued it at $350 because their great uncle once performed an emergency tracheotomy on the Prime Minister of Australia with one of the same type during the great flood of '62. On his deathbed he charged his great-nephew to find that razor (a map to the greatest treasure Australia has ever seen - a thanks from a grateful Prime Minister - is coded into the scales) and you, poor bugger, simply got in the way of a 20-year quest across 5 continents and involving a bevy of beautiful, but sinister, femme fatales from a rival family bent on avenging a 6-generation feud.....

Next time you bid, think about that....James.

Snipe or be sniped. Like it or not, it is what it has become. IMO you can stew about the merits or lack thereof of snipers and not have any razors you'd otherwise like to win or you can snipe and have a chance at winning a few. There are scads of sniping services. I was in your shoes 9 months ago (steam coming out of my ears over those dirty rotten snipers). Now I can "set it and forget it" on the snipe service I use and win a large majority of what I want.

Chris L

Call it snipe if you like, I call it bidding at the last possible moment. It's an unfortunate situation for the seller but Ebay is not a true auction where you have the going, going and gone finale. I see no reason to bid early, I set my bid to the max I'm willing to pay and place that bid at the last moment. If I win, I win, if not... someone else wanted it more than me. What irks me is that if I bid early, someone can chip away at my bid to find my maximum and then just go $1 higher... I don't think that's fair so thus my last minute bid. I also don't pull bids just because someone I know is bidding, I know what *I'm* willing to pay for the item, if someone else is willing to pay more, great. If someone isn't willing to pay more than me, it should rightfully become mine.

Regards

Kaptain "All is fair in love and Ebay bidding!" Zero

I personally like the idea of a Dutch auction, although I guess there are practical issues with implementing something like that on ebay (but I'd think it wouldn't be too hard to do - maybe it's already been done...) Make things a whole lot quicker too.

James.

Originally Posted by kaptain_zero

What irks me is that if I bid early, someone can chip away at my bid to find my maximum and then just go $1 higher... I don't think that's fair so thus my last minute bid. I also don't pull bids just because someone I know is bidding, I know what *I'm* willing to pay for the item, if someone else is willing to pay more, great. If someone isn't willing to pay more than me, it should rightfully become mine.

agree. I am a little different, however-if I notice I'm bidding against a member sometimes I will simply PM them and warn them I'm getting ready to snipe the razor they are bidding on, and the amount Ive set it for. I know it's only on honor and what not, but then if their max bid is higher than my snipe, I don't make them pay 100 bucks for a razor they could've gotten for 50 without my snipe. What goes around comes around, basically.

John P.