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How eBay can save itself in 1 day

bradleyspencer.com

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Re: How eBay can save itself in 1 day

#11

Post by Tichy »

I seem to remember that they used to have that feature (or was it some other auction site)?

While I hate the issue, too, there might be disadvantages for the buyer, too. For example if the auction gets extended for 3 hours with each bid, it might mean that you have to sit around forever monitoring the auction if you really want the item.

A better fix might be to allow sniping (automatic bidding in the last second).

The reason for last second bidding is to avoid the pitfalls of human psychology, I think. If you start earlier and outbid other people, they might get into a bidding frenzy and prices will be driven higher than what makes sense.

I suppose ebay outlaws sniping because they actually want that effect: the higher the bid, the more money ebay gets. Personally I would prefer to decide on one price and stick to it, so sniping would be perfect for me.

All in all I suspect that ebay tested the "prolong the auction" feature and found that not prolonging it somehow works better - or at least it used to work better.

Re: How eBay can save itself in 1 day

#12

Post by tesseract »

Tichy wrote: post #11

I seem to remember that they used to have that feature (or was it some other auction site)? While I hate the issue, too, there might be disadvantages for the buyer, too. For example if the auction gets extended for 3 hours with each bid, it might mean that you have to sit around forever monitoring the auction if you really want the item. A better fix might be to allow sniping (automatic bidding in the last second). T…

> A better fix might be to allow sniping (automatic bidding in the last second).

In a sense they have that already, since eBay is a (quasi) second-price auction.

Re: How eBay can save itself in 1 day

#14

Post by marcusestes »

This would make eBay more complicated. I suspect that eBay will be slowly overtaken by less complicated rivals.

And dude, just bid your max price and then calmly await the verdict. I sure as hell don't want to have to watch nervously over a continuously extending date of purchase.

Re: How eBay can save itself in 1 day

#15

Post by lacker »

diN0bot wrote: post #13
shalmanese wrote: post #4

eBay has heard this proposal at least a bajillion times before, including at least 3 for me. I don't know what their reason is for not doing it that way but it's been heavily considered and rejected.

> "I don't know what their reason is" I want to know.

My guess is, they have tried it and it does not work. People don't want to wait around 3 hours to see if they successfully bought something, they want to get confirmation asap.

Re: How eBay can save itself in 1 day

#16

Post by Devilboy »

utunga wrote: post #9

New Zealand's eBay clone - trademe.co.nz - has auto-extend for auctions where a bid was just received.. The auto-extend is only 5 minutes though. This doesn't eliminate last minute bidders though - rather it just extends the period of the 'last minute bidding war' till someone gives up. So. Its good idea, but you don't want a 3 hour auto-extend - 3 minutes would be better. 3 hours, as suggested, would probably mean m…

The Australian clone (GraysOnline) adds 15 minutes and emails you if you're outbid at the last moment.

Re: How eBay can save itself in 1 day

#17

Post by Tichy »

tesseract wrote: post #12
Tichy wrote: post #11

I seem to remember that they used to have that feature (or was it some other auction site)? While I hate the issue, too, there might be disadvantages for the buyer, too. For example if the auction gets extended for 3 hours with each bid, it might mean that you have to sit around forever monitoring the auction if you really want the item. A better fix might be to allow sniping (automatic bidding in the last second). T…

> A better fix might be to allow sniping (automatic bidding in the last second). In a sense they have that already, since eBay is a (quasi) second-price auction.

What do you mean?

Re: How eBay can save itself in 1 day

#19

Post by ghshephard »

scm007 wrote: post #3
snewe wrote: post #2

How about you bid your "reservation price" and have no regrets? Simply bid the most you are willing to pay and then last minute bidders won't matter. That is the beauty of a second price auction.

That's one way, but it doesn't approximate real world "bidding". I definitely think eBay would be better off with this feature implemented

"but it doesn't approximate real world "bidding"."

At the last few auctions I've been at (Mostly Used Computer Equipment) - the people who purchased real volume showed up with a Item List and Price, and just kept holding up their paddle until their price was hit, and then they pulled it down. They didn't really care that someone managed to purchase that Dell Latitude 610 for $110 instead of their last bid of $105. They were done at $105.

So, in some cases, eBay actually does precisely mirror real world bidding.

Re: How eBay can save itself in 1 day

#20

Post by cdr »

snewe wrote: post #2

How about you bid your "reservation price" and have no regrets? Simply bid the most you are willing to pay and then last minute bidders won't matter. That is the beauty of a second price auction.

Human psychology doesn't work that way, unfortunately - the most a person is willing to pay is generally not knowable ahead of time.
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