Is Sniping Fair?

Tell me what you think about the relative merits of sniping on auction sites. Who does it benefit, who does it disadvantage?

It benefits the seller as the "sniped" bid raises the purchase price of their auction (whether or not the sniper actually wins the auction). There are no losers, per se. If someone is outbid by a sniper, then they did not want the item as much as the sniper did, and that is the nature of an auction in the first place.

I do not think sniping is fair,
but then again, not much in life is fair either.
It is what it is, and one deals with it.
I choose not to use ebay, but happy for those that do.

In the world of ebay - sniping is fair [legal, permitted], and it benefits the SNIPER in at least 2 important ways. (1) it can keep the price lower, versus bid-the-max-early tactics. Bid-early encourages additional bids [even if lower than yours] which always means higher prices. (2) It can increase your chances of buying the lot. For example, a scarce but not easily recognized stamp - opening bid 1$ - if you bid 100$ early, another bidder can keep bidding higher until they top you. Psychologically, it is easier for them to bid this way knowing at least one other bidder [expert?] has the same opinion of the stamp. You are encouraging competition by advertizing your intentions. Also, specialists know that the secret codes used by ebay to identify bidders are easy to decipher - IF you are dealing with a small group of specialists who go after the same kind of material. Although auction strategy should be - bid up to your max and shut up, there is no reason to show your max to everybody prematurely.
So if it benefits the sniper, who loses? The seller loses, by getting a possilbly lesser price. The competition loses because it will not win as many lots. ebay loses too, but overall they can live with it because it is a minor side-effect of their very sucessful fixed-end-time-auction system.
These losses occur when a bidder snipes as opposed to bid-early. Of course, if the sniper does not participate at all, that is worst for everybody except the competition.

I don't think the seller always loses. I agree that it probably isn't the best strategy to show your hand until late in the game. However, when I see a stamp I really want, I may put a "test the water" bid in early to see what happens.

For example, a year or so ago there was a stamp I really wanted. (I don't remember why, it was a duplicate). I put in my final bid during the last minute of the auction. (Is that sniping too?) I thought there would be some sniping so I made my final bid high enough so that only a certified idiot would out bid me. Well, at the last second a sniper did hit the auction, apparently with the same strategy as me. I "won" the stamp by $0.01. I got my certificate of idiocy in the mail later that week.

But for the sniper, the final price would have been reasonable. The sniper pushed the price way up. It seems to me that the seller got the advantage.

Needless to say, I've altered my strategy somewhat since……
Dan

When I first started bidding on ebay and other online auction house, I never used to snipe. However, since I was the victim of sniping on several occasions, I too started to snipe as well.

My train of thought was, others were getting the material they wanted for their collections by sniping me so, the only way for me to do the same was to also snipe. I don't do this on all auction lots but only on those I feel there are others in there waiting - experience from previous events <G>

My opinion of course

Chimo

Bujutsu

I Loathe the idea of sniping, I do see why people do it. however I see it as a dishonest way of bending the rules and true meaning of an auction system.

for me personally due to he nature of my profession I cant be around to protect my bidding interests and fine on many occasions my top bid loosing by just a dollar, its infuriating...

however its the system, or a the implementation of an auction system that is is imperfect without a cure, so its here to stay. I've begun to look into automated programs that auto snip for you since I cant be around to protect my interest I may eventually use a program to do it for me. I hate to be come what I loathe but at some point you have to stop stepping out infront of the bus, and just try to catch it at the same spot everyone else is.

64idgaf,

As others have indicated, fair or not, it is a reality. The same type of last minute bidding activity takes place in live auctions as well. Sniping is alot like not showing your hole card in a poker game until you're called.

Another reality--if your bid isn't high enough to win then you lose. And while it may appear that the second highest bidder was only beaten by a single bidding increment, who is to say that the winner didn't bid an amount far in excess of that?

As to who is disadvantaged and who benefits, it seems to me that those bidders who low-ball their bid in the hope of getting a steal disadvantage themselves and sniping or not, both the seller and winning bidder benefit.

I think the best approach for these online auction sites is to determine the most you are willing to pay for an item and bid that amount. If someone else is willing to pay more than that, regardless of when they make that acknowledgement, then you shouldn't be bothered.

Steve

Some where along the road people started to associate auctions with bargain such as you would find at a yard sale. Look I am all for getting a deal and giving the seller as less money as I can.

So that brings me to the question is sniping fair. I think it is, if the bidder is to cheap to give it their best shot then a sniper deserves to steal it.

I follow Steve on my bidding, I give it my best shot that I am willing to pay then let the cards fall where they may. If I'm looking for a deal I go to a yard sale.

Like sniping or not, I have to say it is fair because both the sellers and bidders know the rules...

We're going to add an auction section here in the next few months like we have on the coin forum. Sniping is perfectly allowed and there will be rules against griping about sniping. If you don't like snipers bidding, don't list an auction. If you don't like being sniped, don't bid at all. It's that simple.

But here's our personal twist on sniping... there will be no automatic proxy bidding whatsoever, what you bid is what you pay if you win. You can snipe $50 with 1 second left if you want, but if you win, you pay $50. Even if the next highest bid is $10.

So snipe away.....

bobby.... oh that is so cruel... "no proxy bids", I actually do like it. I have been known to snipe. if there is something I want, I will wait until the last minute to make a bid. I have also been beaten because someones proxy bid was higher then I wanted to pay anyway.

It seems to me that the best result for a seller is for the auction to auto-extend for x amount of time if a bid is placed in the final y minutes.

A fixed ending time is an artificial construct, which isn't to say it is bad (or good).

That being said, sniping is just part of using the rules to one's advantage. It isn't good, or bad, either.

My 2d.

Bobby now that IS FAIR... I like the Bid twist...

I guess I came off kinda strong about my opinion of sniping, I find it hard to articulate my stance on it, so I just go prickly...
I agree with most of you its a form of the online auction, however I don't agree its like a live auction since you can be there and watch the faces, see the motion and rebid as necessary, with online sniping there is no option to up your bid espically if you cant be around for the last few mins..

Ah, I just love the way you guys think
Roll on capitalism!
(now remind me, how many foreclosures you have this month?)

Fair:
Having or exhibiting a disposition that is free of favoritism or bias; impartial:

Sniping:
Auction sniping is the process of watching a timed online auction (such as on ebay), and placing a winning bid at the last possible moment (often seconds before the end of the auction), giving the other bidders no time to outbid the sniper. Some bidders do this manually, and others use software designed for the purpose. A bid sniper is a person or software agent who performs auction sniping.

There are also online sniping services, where the software agent is run from a website rather than the sniper's own computer. This decreases the failure rate of the snipe, because the website is expected to have more reliable servers that might be quicker to react.

But heck, it's all about "winning"
see how many posters say "I won this on ebay"
rather than "I purchased this from ebay"

Before Lincoln slavery was permitted, yeah I reckon that
was pretty fair.

sniping is really not fair, but you can justify it whatever way you need, your on the round about not me.

I see no problem in the way you offered your opinion khj.

The very great positive I see,
with free speech, not free insults,
and fairness in competition, this board has stepped up to
the plate, and demanded in both cases, what I see as
"right" behaviour.

I find this extremely refreshing.