X31 on ebay (assetdisposition) / Is Sniping Moral?

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Turbo Audi · #31 Post by **Turbo Audi** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 1:45 pm

I sniped once and got an i860 at literally the last 2 seconds of the auction. Worked great, and was legal. (from what I read)

#32 Post by **JaneL** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 1:57 pm

JHEM wrote:"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."

As we've discussed elsewhere, pack mentality...

skitty4gzus · #33 Post by **skitty4gzus** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 3:44 pm

how is sniping immoral. It's an auction, high price wins, its that simple. I have sniped auctions and won and sometimes at a good price, sometimes i got burned and won it at a price that was higher than it should have went. It's a risk on the buyers part, but there really is no argument to say its immoral. Thats part of the spirit of auctioning off items. Sometimes you are a winner sometimes your not; sometimes your item sells for what it should or higher and sometimes it doesn't. If your not willing to take that risk just find a buy it now or dont get involved.

dsvochak · #34 Post by **dsvochak** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 4:18 pm

Computers and parts are (except perhaps in rare cases like bill's recent "museum quality" 701C) fungible. The OP's X31 and other X31's, ram and components are essentially identical and interchangeable items.

If, for example, you decide you don't want to pay more than $45 + shipping for a stick of 512mb PC133 ram, and you enter a $45 max bid, what difference is there between entering the bid when the auction first begins or by sniping at the end? If it goes to $45.01 there will be others for sale. And $45.01 is more than you were willing to pay.

That "little a" may end up paying more than if "bidder6" hadn't bid, while likely true, is a "so what". It's always nice to get something for less than your max bid. But isn't that the point of a maximum bid? It's the most you're willing to pay.

The comment that the eBay motto should be "where crazy people...." was made about items that may not be fungible: vintage and antique toys and other collectibles. There are items in categories like those which aren't fungible. And may be the only one to ever show up on eBay. Or the only one in Mint condition. In those cases, maybe sniping helps and maybe, if you're a collector, you might (probably would) submit a higher bid.

But unless you've entered the wrong amount (which I've done a couple of times and just re bid instead of retracting) I don't understand why one would up their maximum bid on a fungible item. Since I don't understand that, I don't understand the benefits of sniping on a fungible item.

#35 Post by **KristianJ** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 5:56 pm

dsvochak wrote: If, for example, you decide you don't want to pay more than $45 + shipping for a stick of 512mb PC133 ram, and you enter a $45 max bid, what difference is there between entering the bid when the auction first begins or by sniping at the end? If it goes to $45.01 there will be others for sale. And $45.01 is more than you were willing to pay.

Exactly the way I see it. My personal manner of shopping on eBay is to first look at Buy It Now prices to see whether they might provide a saving over what the possible final auction price is (which I can glean reasonably well by looking at the completed listings).

It's easy to frown upon sniping if you're someone who loses out to it (or worse still, snipes and still loses to another sniper, as I almost did with the RAM I bought last week), but bidding wars are going to be a way of life. If you get beat, no use moping over it but just go on to the next similar item that you're watching.

There's nothing unfair about sniping, IMO...but exorbitant postage charges - well that's more fitting of the adjective unfair.

JHEM · #36 Post by **JHEM** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 6:00 pm

dsvochak wrote:Since I don't understand that, I don't understand the benefits of sniping on a fungible item.

Secrecy.

Why should I announce my interest in an item by openly bidding on it? The more people in a bidding process, the more likely that someone will "overbid" to ensure winning something. Whereas, without my (or anyone else's) interest being known, there's a likelihood that other bids will be placed at a lower limit in an attempt to low-ball an item.

James

alfio · #37 Post by **alfio** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:34 pm

shalliday wrote: I will not be making any further bids on this item, but I do intend on bidding on any other new X31's that get listed after this one.

Best of luck to you in winning the auction.

so it was you!!! hahahah thanks for laying off, i've been indecisive about this for too long and now that i've made up my mind and picked the X31 as my next machine, the prices are going through the roof. anyhow, appreciate the collaboration, hopefully i won't get snipped last second (again!)

and speaking of snipping, i'm glad you all got into this debate, it's been enlightening to say the least. i've not heard of snipping, or at least in its automated form, until this thread even though i've been on ebay for five years. while this thread has definitely influenced my bidding strategy, i hope my old strategy holds for one more auction!

alfio

#38 Post by **tomh009** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 5:02 am

Little a, you might consider looking at AuctionSniper or eSnipe to help you win that next X31. I think both allow you some free snipes when you register (AuctionSniper does for sure) so there is not much for you to lose.

#39 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 9:40 am

An hour to go, and "little a" is still winning....

I guess this is about the time that I should be saying that I'm also looking around for an X31, but most likely it'll be one that's stripped down or a parts/repair machine (I like a challenge).

edit: Removed "X30"... forgot that it only comes with USB 1.1.

#40 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 10:39 am

Congrats, 'little a' won it for $550.01

JHEM · #41 Post by **JHEM** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 12:17 pm

rkawakami wrote:I guess this is about the time that I should be saying that I'm also looking around for an X30 or X31, but most likely it'll be one that's stripped down or a parts/repair machine (I like a challenge).

Item number: 280092141475

I might have a complete bottom for you in a few days, I've got 3 units I'm scrambling parts in at present.

James

alfio · #42 Post by **alfio** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 12:24 pm

realblackstuff wrote:Congrats, 'little a' won it for $550.01

yes! very happy with 'winning', let's see how my new X31 performs. thanks all

alfio

X31 on ebay (assetdisposition) / Is Sniping Moral?

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