From: James H. E. Maugham (CaptJHEM_at_waterw.com)
Date: Wed Dec 01 1999 - 00:10:13 EST
"Jonathan Berry" <jberry_at_islandnet.com> wrote:
> >Last day (hell, last HOUR!) flurries of bidding that drive the price well
> >beyond the limits of reason are all too common. But, perhaps there really
> >are that many ignorant people out there who are willing to pay damn near
> >retail for very used machines.
>
> "Shilling" is a real danger, but then you need to know the
> value of what it is you're purchasing.
Exactly my point. Apparently there's an enormous amount of bidders on eBay
who just haven't done their homework.
> Personally, I often wait until the last hour, nay, the last two
> minutes, before putting in my bid. That way I'm more likely to
> get it. You may see more bidding in the last two minutes
> than in the previous 6 days, 23 hours and 58 minutes. That
> doesn't mean that there is shilling going on, or that the final
> price is too high.
Oh, I'm a firm believer in sniping. I've won most of my auctions in the last
few minutes. But I've also seen an awful lot of them just climb out of sight
as some bidders get hot and are unwilling to "lose" regardless of what they
ultimately pay. The sniping is not proof of shilling, but my knowing that an
item can be purchased at retail for less than it's going for at bid is
adequate proof to me that the price is too high.
> [And if the bidding level has already gone higher than
> I'd like to pay, I don't have to bother bidding at all.]
Now where's the fun in that? :-)
Regards,
James
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