Andrew:
Look at E-bay as a game, and the rules make more sense. We have snipped, and
been snipped. Not knowing the various E-bay names of all the list members, we
have surely snipped someone we know at least once (sorry Stan) without
knowing it at the time.
E-bay is just a running garage sale/swap meet. Bring whatever etiquette you
want, but realize that others may not. We try to have fun with it, while
accepting that others have deeper pockets (and more or less manners) than us.
Also, while this may not be true in your case, there are programs out there
that let you place your bid, set the time, and the program automatically
places your bid at the designated time, usually with 6-7 seconds left in the
auction. It can be called snipping, or just time management, as you may be
placing your max bid at the start of the auction, but the program does not
bid until the end. An efficient method, esp. if you are very busy, and do not
want to watch the auction.
However, this does raise the question: Why is there not a list For Sale/Trade
section somewhere/somehow. Having run a local club years ago, this was one of
the favorite sections for people to connect, and find the pieces they needed.
It should be cheaper than E-bay for the buyer, and easier for the seller.
While most ROC clubs have this section, we need a way to combine them all
into one list. Any volunteers that are computer literate enough to set this
up?
Good luck with future bidding.
Dan & Susan
PS: Another fun aspect of E-bay: Discovering that the winner of the auction
is a vendor, and now you will be paying more for the same item. Annoying, but
business as usual.
<< Subj: OT-ebay ettiquet
Date: 08/20/2002 8:52:37 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: solex67@hotmail.com (Andrew Murphy)
Sender: owner-datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net
Reply-to: solex67@hotmail.com (Andrew Murphy)
To: datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net
Recently I bid on a part that I really wanted. Now I have lost auctions
before, but this time it really bummed me out. I put what I thought was a
very high maximum bid for the part and watched the auction closely.
For three days I was the high bidder. Sure enough, in the last minute of the
auction, someone bid one dollar higher than I and "sniped" the auction away
from me. For some reason it pissed me off and I sent an email to the person
saying they were a jerk for bidding at the last second for a part. Stupid of
me, but I was mad and I do stupid things sometimes just like we all do.
The guy writes back and says he does not have to justify himself to me and
that he "just happened" to see the auction at the last second, decided he
wanted the part, and bid high enough to beat my bid by a dollar. He then
says I am harrasing him, he's forwarding my email to ebay and for me to
never to write to him again.
Right.
The guy is a liar. No one bids in the last minute after "happening" on the
part. He's a roadster guy. He checks ebay all the time. The fact that he got
so angry with me proves he felt he needed to rationalize a poor act. He
should have just trashed my email and said to himself "The guy should get
over it". I did. I still am. I could care less what this guy thinks of me.
Folks, Ebay sniping is poor behavior. We all want the great parts. I pledge
to this list that I will bid early and will bid my maximum amount when I do.
Life is too short to screw people over.
No one else need agree to this or even comment on it. Sometimes it's OK to
do the right thing.
Take Care,
Andrew Murphy
SoCalROC
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