Anyone else notice that ebay now counts down the time left in real time? (Or is this old news) No more refreshing the page every five seconds while snipping. Not sure if this is a good thing or bad.
Haven’t noticed, but then I use sniping software anyway, so I don’t have to sit there and keep refreshing the page.
Cheater…
It’s been there for a few weeks now.
A real sniper would use a third party sniping service. Set it and forget it. And you don’t get emotionally involved and make a stupid mistake by paying too much.
LOL, did I open the can of worms enough…?
Huh?
Given the way buyers and sellers are leaving the site, the more interesting question may be “how much time does eBay have left”. It is in a downward spiral and eBay keeps making changes intended to improve their business but which instead end up driving off even more of their users.
Ebay’s not going anywhere. They’ll keep pushing and when their business actually slows down (doubtful) they’ll back off and things will pick up.
As far as model railroad items there is a noticable reduction in items being sold.
That can easily be attributed to the fact that summer is here.
Great time to find good deals on e-bay as there certainly are less people bidding, however, there is also a lot less items being sold as most vendors who can wait till fall will do so and in turn likely receive more for their items.
Yes, I did notice the “real time” clock, nice enhancement to the site.
Maybe Craigs list is takin a bite. Maybe its the economy. BILL
It doesn’t count down for me, although I notice that the refresh button that would appear within the last 15 minutes is gone from the page.
I think it is a nice feature, I did hate having to refreash the screen, but then again I usually just set a bid I am willing to pay for an item and forget it. If I get it I get it, and if I don’t, I really did not need it anyway. I do not think craigs list has hurt ebay in the model trains, I think that HO yardsale has taken some business away from ebay, but as long as ebay owns paypal, they are going to continue to make money. John
Be aware though that the countdown doesn’t keep exact time sync. Over a 15 minute period it can drift by 5 seconds or more-- easily an issue if you’re sniping down to the last second. A good thing to do if you have a fast connection is to refresh the page at around the 1 or 2 minute mark.
Seems to be ok at the very end, since they started doing that I’ve held my bid until there was less than 10 seconds left, and other than being outbid by a previously entered higher proxy bid, I’ve gotten my bid in before the end, and with only a second or two left.
–Randy
Since the counter is implemented in Javascript, its succeceptible to I/O jitter. If you’re doing a lot with the computer during the countdown you’ll lose more time than if you’re just sitting there watching. I tend to surf ebay and this MR site while I wait. So I accumulate errors more rapidly. However, as I mentioned, simply refreshing during the last minute or so is sufficient to sync it up. I too successfully snipe in the last several seconds.
What is a sniper service. I have been outbid at the last 2-3 seconds on several auctions and assumed they had some type of software allowing them to make these bids. I can’t get my PC to react that fast.
A sniper service is an online website that allows you to place a bid with them but the bid won’t be placed on the auction until the auction is nearly over. Sniping prevents other bidders from knowing what your bid is or even that you are bidding!
There used to be several free sniping services, but they were limited in how close to auction’s end they would place your bid (usually 6 to 10 seconds). Other snipers using pay snipe services can place a bid with 1 second left on the auction.
I use e-Snipe ( http://www.esnipe.com/ ) and pay a fee. They have a 14 day free trial offer. There is a minimum fee of 25 cents and you’ll pay about a penny per dollar bid above $25. (A $50 auction win will cost you 50 cents.) Check out the site. It’s fully explained.
Sniping keeps you out of bidding wars and emotional bidding. Some bidders complain that sniping is unfair. Unfair to whom? The bidders who refuse to snipe and consistantly lose to snipers!
If you’re very conservative in your bidding, sniping may not help you win more often, but it will help you keep your bidding from getting out of hand and you will win some auctions with it.
Hope that helps.
Darrell, quiet…for now
I do my own sniping, by hand. I’m pretty good at it. Dunno about anybody else.
In the end there is no difference IF you want to track every auction and sit in front of the computer. Personally I don’t have that kind of free time. I’d rather have an email pop up on my Crackberry and say “you won” or “you lost.”
I have a computer near me at pretty much all times. Its not that big a deal to watch an auction while I’m doing something else. Its all a matter of timing. Set an alarm to remind myself that something is coming up. Pay attention for a minute or so during the final minute or so. And then fire off a bid.
How hard is that?
Usually I win, sometimes I don’t.
Free sniping software works much better.