Snipes are killing ebay auctions

[sports-rings]

a lot of the "good stuff" is no longer offered on ebay and has moved on to the auction houses. That's why I believe we are seeing so many new start up auction houses in our hobby.

I guess the times are a chagin'.

I still do check ebay everyday, but buy less and less.

And by the way, I hate that ebay is completely clogged with over-priced items that never sell!

[t206hound]

Originally Posted by sports-rings

And by the way, I hate that ebay is completely clogged with over-priced items that never sell!

I agree that there is a ton of overpriced merchandise on ebay. And I'll never understand that. It is SO EASY to determine the market value of most T206 cards (as an example), and the BINs are generally priced WAY ABOVE those prices. Just do a "completed listings" search of T206s BIN only and you'll see hundreds to thousands of unsold cards at ridiculous prices.

Personally, I've sold four BINs in the last ten days (and have a pending offer that I will likely take). All SGC60 commons in the $85-$105 range. Right now the average price of a common player/common back BIN SGC 60 T206 is $184.28... IMHO double the actual value. The median price is $200. These cards will never sell. It can't be worth the seller's time to continue to relist and manage the inventory at these prices. And ebay doesn't see (much) revenue from this practice either.

[uffda51]

As has been pointed out, ebay is not an auction house. They were founded by people who traded pez dispensers.

Any auction house publishes their bid increments, based on meaningful increases, in advance. No one can snipe an auction and win by outbidding the underbidder by a dollar or a penny. Ebay has never taken customer service seriously, nor shill bidding nor bogus items. Patient people can still find bargains there. I just don't have the patience to wade through the debris.

[insidethewrapper]

The sellers on ebay and ebay themselves would make more money if ebay would extend the auction by 1 minute everytime a bid is placed in the last minute similiar to what many of the auction houses currently do. This then would be a "true" auction. Bidders would then have an opportunity after a snipe bid.

[egbeachley]

Originally Posted by insidethewrapper

The sellers on ebay and ebay themselves would make more money if ebay would extend the auction by 1 minute everytime a bid is placed in the last minute similiar to what many of the auction houses currently do. This then would be a "true" auction. Bidders would then have an opportunity after a snipe bid.

As a buyer, I hope they don't do this. As a seller, I agree.

[ChiefBenderForever]

It seems that ebay is dying a slow death and doesn't care, so this tells me that the people at the top are cooking the books and filling their pockets with as much cash/bonus as possible so when the bottom falls out they can walk away with a mountain of cash and blame everyone else and leave any stock holders holding an empty bag of nothing.

[drc]

My feeling is sellers would use auctions more if they thought they'd get fair sales prices in return. I'm sure that after having a $200 item for for $9.99, many sellers aren't about to relay on those promises of magical snipes with 2 seconds left.

Buyers found a technique (last second snipes) to get the lowest price possible at auction, then are shocked and dismayed when auctioneers don't like selling things for the lowest price possible and choose to sell a different way.

Yes, I firmly believe that snipes are the main cause for the demise of auctions. I said this perhaps two years ago.

I also understand and appreciate that snipes help prevent being shilled, but snipes are still why auctions have died out on eBay. If you want to say snipes and shills were co conspirators, I'll go along with that.

[Railroad Bill]

The last couple of months I've been buying 5-10 PSA cards per month. This month I've only been able to buy 2 based on the same pattern of bidding. Seems like something has happened just recently to change the bidding.