So how do I know if I'm really winning?

[banditpony]

Sniping is just a tactic to win. You still need a high bid to win.

I don't like auto-extensions, for the same people who don't like sniping. With sniping, you pretty much have one shot to do it. If you don't put in a high bid, then you will lose. But with an auto-extension... then someone could just sit in and put multiple bids in at the end, and use the extension to raise the auction until they have the highest bid. (Unless you need 2 bids to get an auto-extension, then ignore that).


I also heard of auctions on foreign sites lasting hours because of end of auction bid wars. O__o; That would STINK to be in a bidding war for an hour, and then need to go somewhere... and lose because you couldn't put any more bids in.

[NoDivision]

I also heard of auctions on foreign sites lasting hours because of end of auction bid wars. O__o; That would STINK to be in a bidding war for an hour, and then need to go somewhere... and lose because you couldn't put any more bids in.

That's what I would worry about - if the bidding always extends by 5 minutes every time someone puts a new bid in, it could go on forever! I think definite ending times are important.

[Eluluu]

you would think something like a 30 second extension would be more reasonable.

[FantasticFirefly]

Oh man, I would hate extensions. I have enough anxiety watching the last few seconds of some ebay auctions I want.

I bought a vintage barbie doll once from a thrift shop auction, the bidding kept going until there was no bids for a week. I bid on that stupid doll for over 6 months. Another lady would wait until the last day and up my bid by the minimum amount. While I was paying for her, the same day I got the call I won, that lady called to place a bid! I could hear the clerk on the phone telling her "sorry, she's being paid for right now by the other lady". If she didn't forget, I wonder how many more months she would have dragged out that auction.

[Eluluu]

...m.o.n.t.h.s...? 

[NoDivision]

Yes, exactly. I mean how do you put a limit on something like that? Conceivably a system that allows those kind of extensions could go on forever as long as someone was always willing to pay a couple of dollars more.

[Dragonflitter]

The idea for the auto-extending auction sites is that people will stop bidding when the item has reached the value people are willing to pay. So rather than ebay's system, where you have to remember when the auction ends or miss out, with those other sites you have a second chance. Auctions do get dragged out for long times, but they don't go on 'forever' because eventually people don't want to pay any more for that particular item, so the bids don't get increased and the auction will finally end.

Some people say the auto-extending sites are more fair to the seller because the seller will always get what the item is actually worth.

I prefer the ebay style though, so it doesn't drag on for too long! I like knowing there's a certain time I can set aside to watch the end of the auction--sometimes I set my alarm to wake myself up in the middle of the night to watch the end of an auction!

[NoDivision]

I think the ebay system works just fine if you go into it knowing what the maximum you want to pay is. If everyone just entered their absolute top limit as their max bid, then there would be no need to extend the auctions until people have reached their max.

I also think having a set end time is really quite fair. If you know that an auction ends at a certain time, then you can feel confident knowing that you don't have to worry about keeping track of the auction again and again until some unspecific time. When it's done, it's done. For example, a while back I was bidding on an item in a private auction. The end time was set for a certain time, and I stayed up and waited for it to end. I had put in my bid, the auction post said I was winning. The deadline came, and the auction listing stll had me as the high bidder. In my eyes the auction was over and I had won. I went to bed happy with my purchase and expecting a message from the seller the next day telling me where to send payment. Instead I woke up to a message saying I had been outbid and someone else had won. Now, I was given the opportunity to bid again if I wanted to, but at that point it had gone past what I was willing to pay. But in my eyes, as I was listed at the high bidder at the time the auction ended, that should have been the end of it. It was highly upsetting :\ I much prefer to have auction end times be a set thing.

[FantasticFirefly]

I also think the chance you *could* get an ebay item for a great deal if you're lucky is what entices to many people to create accounts, bid and buy. I wouldn't bother creating an account for a site that has extensions, it would be too painful to be watching and bidding at the end. I'd rather just save myself the additional stressing.