EBAY - why do people leave it so late!

Well, the 7 day auction thing is really just so people see it's there, kind of like an auction house catalogue / preview. I wonder if eBay thought that it would end up like this. I presume they thought that auctions would run much more like traditional auctions when they first set it up.

IMO eBay should spend massively more resources on preventing fraud - both the serious stuff like scams and the less less serious stuff like shill bidding, getting friends to bid, "bogus" sales (where your friend "wins" the auction) etc. etc. In many ways this less serious stuff is more damaging becuase it's harder to spot and much more prevalent.

Michael.
 
I find ebay incredibly addictive, I have had items to play with I could never have dreamt of.
But I suppose as with all novelties it does wane a little, esp. with the big brother attitude they are now assuming.
Still, its incredible, I have had loads of books, and other good items from abroad, I can get almost anything, easily.
with bidding tho', it can become a bit hit and miss, esp. leaving it to the end.
And for selling, its getting a pain, as your item with only hours or mins. to go dreadfully underperforms, so you don't know if you will lose out badly.
trick is not to sell stuff that isn't desirable/obscure.
Adn of course, there are those items you really want, yet everyone piles in and the price goes stupid. bah! with some things, they are hugely overvalued, others under.
Thing I find tho' fortunately, is everything sells, things that could never sell on small ads, or papers, shop windows, loot, all that, ebay always sells things.
In that way, its great, you know you can always sell on.
 
Matt F said:
Having slept on it I still think it's a flawed concept:

The point of an auction is, I would suggest, to get the best price for an item from the people who want to buy it. Traditionally there are two ways:

1. Auction house - assures the best price as everyone get's a fair chance to bid and the hammer only comes down when the price has reached it's maximum.

2. Closed bids - quite clever as the bidders have to enter their maximum in secret and then the highest bidder wins but crucially pays whatever that highest bid was, even if it was way over what the next best bid was.

Ebay seems to have none of the fairness of 1. because of the fixed end time and yet doesn't give the seller the advantages of 2. because the 'proxy bidding' ensures that the winning bidder only pays a fraction over the next best bid.

There must be a better way of doing it than at current but until then I'm happy to adopt an 'if you can't beat em, join em' attitude and will only be bidding in the last few seconds from now on ;)

Kind of makes a mockery of the so called '7 day auction' though doesn't it.

Matt.
Click to expand...
eBay is, in my opinion, a well balanced application (in software logic terms). There is a clear end to an auction, there are patterns of human behaviour which cause the auction to go in one direction or another - eg. low start price no reserve generates the perception of a "bargain", auctions like this often seem to close at a higher price and with bids versus items placed with a high reserve. Ie. the sense that a seller is prepared to take a risk in the name of the holy grail of "bargain" seems to be synergistic with punters on the hunt. The fact is ultimately - auctions very often seem to close with a fair result. Plus the excitement of the dying minute is addictive, often seems to attract emotional bids (ie. bids higher than the bidder would have gone if they hadnt become emotionally attached to the item). This is surely, on the whole, the main objective for eBay and for most sellers. Though the only party whose risk is diminished is eBay itself - though its real success is largely only apparent in the last two years.

The mix of potential bargains, collectibles, items from overseas, obscure items that you lusted after as a child, the process of poker-like bidding, last minute bid-up wars, etc. is ADDICTIVE. This combination is very successful and explains the dot com success of eBay versus many other "plays" which failed around 1999/2000. I think the only obvious improvement would be to lower the charges, but then until there is serious competition why would they do this (unless business were to ebb away).

I've purchased all sorts of obscure (read sad) collectibles and other odds and sods - examples include: a sealed copy of the first edition of the Ren and Stimpy show comic; a £3.5, 6 month old mountain bike for £1200, the Monkey series, the obscure French/Nippon cartoon series Ulysess 31; a mint boxed collection of Streetsounds Electro 1-5, Crucial and Crucial II; countless 12" singles from 87-92 which I couldnt afford at the time; and of course far too much hi-fi. In the main I dont feel I paid over the odds for any of it.

Its a great way to fill your home with nostalgic rubbish that you cant afford and dont have the time to enjoy :)
 
Its usually only not fair if you dont win (as with everything in life) but then life isnt fair. Ebay isnt always mad bidding on stuff. For every frenzy there is an item that doesnt get a whiff of interest or only sells on one bid. A few weeks ago I spotted an Adaptec PCMCIA USB2 adaptor. I thought there would be loads of interest and a frenzy so I just put a bid in for the reserve. A few days later I won it!
 
PumaMan said:
Its usually only not fair if you dont win (as with everything in life) but then life isnt fair. Ebay isnt always mad bidding on stuff. For every frenzy there is an item that doesnt get a whiff of interest or only sells on one bid. A few weeks ago I spotted an Adaptec PCMCIA USB2 adaptor. I thought there would be loads of interest and a frenzy so I just put a bid in for the reserve. A few days later I won it!
Click to expand...

Very good point. I got into a habit of never ever bidding early (ie. before the last minute) but then missed several items which went at low prices or ended without a bid because I forgot when the auction ended or wasnt in front of a PC. I kind of mix and match now depending upon th item and often get bargains.
 

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