Ethics of last minute auction "poaching"

My contention is that people who "snipe" are attempting to win an auction by hoping they can sneak in a last second bid and other buyers don't have time to react or make another bid. It is a inherently deceptive, sneaky, misleading, but not illegal way to bid. I think they look for items that have a low number of bids, and hope no one has set their proxy much higher, and then can make their score. Sniping is not accidental, but a strategy that is planned out ahead. My complaint is I don't care for the practice of "sniping" and therefore I plan on avoiding auctions here and stick with regular adds, people who practice this may think it is a great strategy, I will leave them to snipe each other all they want.

Cutting in line ? Hardly. Doug's basic premise is NOT what an auction is about. Putting in bids "in an orderly fashion" would be just like the seller "taking offers" in a specific order. If that is what the seller wanted to do, they would have done that instead of putting it up for auction. Auctions are completely unpredictable in real life with no set ending time, so why should it be different here ? As it is, having a "set" closing time ENCOURAGES "sniping". A "pro" knows EXACTLY when to bid and knows that it would be hard to beat them, so they wait till the end and lull you into self-confidence. Having the auction go into "overtime" actually minizes "sniping" and allows that are interested the opportunity to "defend" their bid. As was suggested, place your max bid and then hope for the best. If you REALLY want that item, hang out and ride the wave until the very end. Hopefully you won't get drowned in the process. Sean
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In a live auction, there's no time limit, and the guy who wins is the guy who's willing to pay the most for the item. (And he usually has to pay less than the highest amount he is willing to pay, because he only has to pay enough to top the next guy.) The way to re-create that online would be to scrap the time limit, and declare that the bidding stops when there have been no new bids for, say, 24 hours. I think Sean hit the problem on the head: It's the time limit that creates the sniping. OT mitigates it somewhat.

I don't know how pervasive this is, but the few auctions that I've been involved in (or followed for that matter), the winning bid was no bargain. On items that can be had new I've seen people bid more than retail, and then pay shipping. No warranty, no return policy. On items that are used I've seen them bid more than prices posted in the classifieds. The auction process is a bit of a pain IMHO, but I guess it's sort of a sub-audiophile hobby. Like people who are up at the crack of dawn for yard sales. Go figure. I'd rather just negotiate -- if you can't strike an equitable deal you're on your way.

Right on, Sean on all points you have made.

Last minute bids - the competition - is the nature of auctions.

Offering a set price and someone responding with a yes/no - is the nature of classifieds.

Megasam, maybe the classifieds are a better fit for your style of purchasing. The auctions may be proving to be too much of a hassle, and once something is a hassle-it's not so fun anymore - and isn't that why we do all this? to enjoy it?