I’ve been sniping auctions for a few years now, and have come up with some real bargains. I’ve also lost auctions to proxy bidders who actually wanted the item more than I did and bid a higher maximum amount.
The truth is, sniping an auction RAISES the amount the seller receives for his item considerably! I snipe at 20 seconds before the end of the auction and I always bid the highest amount I can stand to pay for the item (taking shipping and handling into consideration, of course).
If an uneducated bidder has placed a single, non-proxy bid, I can easily take him out, but the seller still gets that much more money.
If the high bidder has proxy bid, however, my bid will drive the auction up until one of us reaches their proxy maximum, which could be double or triple what the auction would have closed for! Snipers are actually doing the seller a favor by getting them MORE money than they would have received, and that’s why eBay and other auction sites allow it.
The only situation that could cost the seller money would be one where there are NO bids before the snipe, in which case the sniper gets the item at beginning price and instead of getting to relist the item, the seller has to let it go at a loss. But such is the gamble with auctioning.
When I sell items on eBay I like to see early bidding because I know that drives my final price upward. But I still want to see sniping in the last seconds… preferably multiple snipers duelling it out!
Read AuctionInsights’s eBay Sniping Tutorial
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2 Responses to “Should Sellers be Concerned about Auction Sniping?”
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This is a ridiculous perspective and quite illogical.
Your argument that sellers benefit can equally be applied when there are simply multiple bidders, who compete against each other and raise the price.
The entire point of sniping auctions is for the situation where another bidder has put a proxy bid in at a lower price than what they would otherwise be prepared to pay. This occurs quite commonly, as people don’t really understand proxy bidding and/or are wavering about what it’s worth to them. And because the snipe occurs in the last seconds, the other bidder cannot react and raise their bid to a new, higher amount.
It thus logically follows that the point of snipping an auction (rather than just bidding normally) is to win at a lower price than what might have otherwise been reached. Thus sellers should absolutely be concerned and sniping is certainly never in their interest.
Eh? Sniping should never cause a seller to lose anything. For example, if they want at least $50 for an item, they should start the bidding at *gasp* $50! Not $10 (unless $50 is the reserve). The minimum they would like. The minimum they would be happy with. I thought this would be good common sense, but after reading Ive found that even sellers can find nonsensical ways to complain about snipers. I sure hope I didnt offend any sellers of the multitudes of items I so proudly sniped! ^.^