[meteorite-list] The Ethics of eBay Sniping

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Jun 25 01:52:41 2006
Message-ID: <006301c6981b$8e0f8ac0$e844e146_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi,

    The eBay Sniping thread, which started as a simple
request for a good sniper program, rapidly developed
into "The Ethics, Morality, Sportsmanship and Art of
Sniping" thread!
    All auctions have an end-point in time. An internet
auction, in the absence of somebody to yell "Going
once... Going twice... Sold!", have no choice but to
utilize a previously designated time. Sniping is built-in
to that system, unavoidably, a consequence of that
structure. It has no moral nor ethical dimension
whatsoever.
    To accuse a sniper of poor sportsmanship is like
accusing a hunter of poor sportsmanship for using a
rifle instead of clubbing the prey to death with a stone
ax the way God intended, or a baseball player of poor
sportsmanship for hitting a home run out of the park,
thus preventing the other players from any chance
of countering his play...
    The fixed time ending can be manipulated by the
seller as well as the buyer. I've waited for "snipe-time"
on what promised to be a real bargain purchase, only
to have a seller cancel the auction with ONE minute
left... I thought that was a bit unsporting, but nothing
"in the rules" prohibits it. Shrug.
    I don't believe that sniping lowers bid amounts,
although it may reduce the final price of an item by
blocking senseless counter-bidding, as was pointed
out. When the item is something I really want badly,
my sniped bid is usually pretty large; if not, my sniped
bid just an economical strategy to see if a marginal
increase will win the item if uncontested. I lose most
of the latter, win most of the former, so clearly, in
sniping, the bigger your bid, the likelier you are to
win the auction, just as with any bidding method
in any auction.
    The degree of sniping that an item attracts
depends on both the individual item and the nature
of the market for that class of item. Large format
camera lenses rarely sell for much more than the
amount showing for a day or two before closing,
for example. But with some classes of item, it is
not a rare nor exceptional thing to see an item that
has been sitting for days at a certain price, right
up to 30 (or even 10) seconds of the end of the
auction, finish at a price double or even triple
that amount.
    While I once in a while buy a chunk, a hunk, or a
bit of meteorite, I am not a frequent nor big spender, but
for some years I traded in vintage acoustic guitars on
eBay, both buying and selling. I offer strictly as an
example, from about three years ago, a Harptone
"Eagle" EN-6, 1973, offered for sale by the original
purchaser, with original case, company brochure,
hang tags, and even the 1973 sales receipt. Biten
by the rockstar bug, he had bought the Harptone,
then gave up guitar playing for good about a year later,
and put it away for 30 years. There were good pictures,
and it appeared to be unscratched, unmarred, and
undinged, in virtually mint condition. I entered no bid,
only tracked it.
    Started at $100, it jumped to $375 in a day,
then sat until the last day when it rose to $450. I
sniped with about 3 seconds left (hard to do using
dialup). Four other individuals also bid (for their first
time each) in the last 10 seconds, nicely bracketed at
$475, $500, $525, and $550. I won it at $575.
The seller was obviously happy, "I never thought
it would bring so much," he said naively. He even
lowered the shipping cost from the auction page
quote, but stressed it was unreturnable, "so I hope
you're happy with it."
    Did I spoil his happiness by telling him the Blue
Book value on his guitar was $2300? I am not a
cruel person. He was happy; I was happy. Happy
because my sniped bid was well over a thousand dollars.
Happy because I didn't have to pay over a thousand
dollars, to the great relief of my battered checkbook.
Happy because, in four years of trolling eBay guitar
auctions, almost daily, there have been only two
other Harptones, both wrecks, and a 12-string
version that got no bids at a $3500 starting price.
Happy because without my sniped bid, the seller
would have gotten $25 less than he did, demon-
strating that of all the eBayers that read his auction,
I was willing to pay the most. Could he have gotten
more money selling it some other way? Possibly, but
not certainly. It is hard to sell a really rare item
with only a tiny collector market at full market
value. Just ask folks in the (larger) meteorite market.
Or listen to their arguments about what market
value REALLY is that sometimes enliven and
sometimes deaden this List!

Sterling K. Webb

    PS: Also happy for the Harptone because it got
me to guard it, watch over it, tend its needs, keep
it adjusted, supply it with new strings, wax it, keep it
in a humidity controlled room, and take it out in the
air and play it as was meant to be, instead of leaving
it in a dark closet for thirty years...
-----------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: harlan trammell
To: meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2006 10:18 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] ebay sniping


can anybody recommend a spot-on reliable, one-shot, one-kill sniping
service?
Received on Sun 25 Jun 2006 01:52:33 AM PDT