Re: Ebay etiquette?
Ettiquette???
This is commerce dude, not a tea party! There is no ettiquette in war or commerce.
Of course you snipe* if you want to get the best deal. If you bid immediately you give any and all competitors time to work up their nerve to pay more for the item. It's simple psychology. If someone else is willing to pay that much for it, you are more likely to feel justified in paying that much for it also. And of course anyone doesn't like to 'lose' in any sort of competition. So the competing bidder keeps bidding higher, getting annoyed at 'losing' the auction when it isn't enough, and bidding higher again. If the original bidder is outbid, then he gets annoyed and will probably be willing to pay more just because someone else is willing to, and because he doesn't like to lose. This results in competition between egos as well as checkbooks, and so causes people to spend much more than they would otherwise. You're letting the seller play the buyers off against each other if you go along with this.
On the other hand, if you wait until just before the auction closes to bid, you get instant results without the constant back & forth of people competing with each other. Either it wasn't enough, and if you bid what you were really willing to pay for it that's fine -- someone else was willing and able to pay more. Or it was enough and you got it for what you were really willing to pay -- not more than you could really afford or more than it was actually worth to you (because you could have gotten it at a retail shop for less) because you got into an ego competition with someone else.
* Note: 'sniping' is the eBay term for jumping in at the Last minute and bidding just before the auction closes.
The economics of scarcity should only come into play with things that really are scarce, and not many of the things offered on eBay really are scarce.
[ July 30, 2004, 20:27: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]
|
Threaded Mode