![]() |
The largest independent, non-commercial, consumer-oriented resource on the Internet for owners, collectors and enthusiasts of fine wristwatches. Online since 1998. | |||||||
|
||||||||
|
![]() |
Vintage Heuer Discussion Forum
The place for discussing 1930-1985 Heuer wristwatches, chronographs and dash-mounted timepieces. Online since May 2003. | ||||||
| |||||||
|
Hooo, easy cowboy ! ;) Posted By: Thomas In Response To: Re: The rules are the same for everyone� Bid as yo (Chicagoland Chuck Maddox) Quite the response, seems I steered up a hornets nest.... I should not have forgotten to add some smileys, I guess ... Eh, your call on that chief. However, one way or another people typically don't let incorrect or misleading posts stay unresponded to around these parts. First of all, you are right about Ebay having no rule against sniping tools; as a matter of fact, Ebay officials explained in an interview they don't mind the use of them. Not familiar with any interview, but I am familiar with eBay and eBay's user agreement. That's what MY search brought up..... A shame you choose to post such incorrect and misleading information. Doesn't exactly burnish one's reputation. Then again, Ebay has never cared for their users interests, can't argue with that, can you ;) ? Oh, I'm sure if I was of a mind to I could. I don't know that the current system is contrary to user's interests either. eBay certainly seems to be as popular now as it's always been. eBay seems to have as many auctions as ever, as many sellers as ever, as many bidders as ever. eBay's lead over the number 2...3...4...Nth competing auction site seems to be growing not shrinking. But , a well configured tool + a stable highspeed connection will in most, if not all cases give you an advantage over the average Joe, who doesn't care too much for nifty little computer programs. Again, Highest placed bid trumps all every time it's at least one bid increment above all other bids placed and requires nothing more sophisticated than a browser capable of entering a bid on eBay. My browser will add it's loading times to the bidding process, thus being no match at all for a lean little cheating program like an auction sniper, which also synchronizes to Ebay time. That a specialized program would have less overhead than a generalized web browser is not at issue. One can (and many myself included) regularly synchronize their computer's clock to eBay or an official time standard manually. It's not terribly difficult to do and complaining that there are programs which do it automatically invokes a response from me of "So what!"... That's something my browser doesn't, Synchronize it's clock with eBay? It's that difficult to pull up the control panel to set it manually? It's that difficult to have the Computer automagically set it's clock to an authoritative time source as most modern OS's do? and how on earth will you place a bid exactly 8 seconds before the end of an auction like that ? Good lord! I collect Chronographs for crying out loud! How about using a wristwatch? Play it save with 20 seconds, even 12, and you don't stand a chance against that tool. The closest I've ever placed a bid to the end of an auction was 2 seconds prior to close... It was done on a laptop, on battery power on a very flaky dial-up connection, blind because of that flaky dial-up connection based on what my wristwatch said and my best feeling of placing a bid. The bid was placed and I won... And sometimes luck comes in and lends a hand. In fact, that bid was placed before I had access to high-speed Internet access and using Microshaft Internet Exploder. In fact the only thing I miss from Internet Exploder is it's Auction Tracking features. I've had to develop a tracking scheme of my own since I've moved to modern browsers. Like I said, I do that cheat now myself, if those crappy sniping programs you can get for a mac work actually for a change (...) As I have said, it isn't discussed, much less prohibited, by the user agreement so it's not a cheat. As for bidding programs, specifically on the Mac, the one I used for a while ceased being reliable some time ago. I've downloaded a few of the alternative programs, haven't really found anything to compel me to use any one of them thus far, all of them are lacking in some way or another. Wish the old program still worked, but I'm still doing ok with my current methods. I still say that it is just that, a cheat, and it sucks, As I said in my previous message, you are entitled to your opinion, however by the definition of the term "cheat" and eBay's User Agreement it's incorrect usage. as not only does it give an unfair advantage to only some, I don't see how it does. It is not like people are selectively excluded from using bidding programs or services. it also changes the whole bidding process many times, when mainly 'pros' are involved in the run for 'most wanted' items like, well, collector's watches. I signed up on eBay in 1997, I didn't have high-speed Internet access until about 30 months ago. I managed to be very competitive and win many many auctions prior to having high-speed Internet access. I did some homework in ebay related fora, off-ebay, that is, and there seems to me to be some common pattern . When I was starting out on eBay there wasn't any off-eBay related fora. So I developed my methods myself in a near vacuum. However I doubt I'd be surprised at much which is presented at such sites, but I wouldn't know as I haven't visited any. You offer that desirable thing, have some friends get the bids to a decent level until a few hours before the auction ends , and then rely on the snipers setting their tools well above the latest real bid to get the most money out of it. Not sure what you're driving at here... I've never offered anything for sale on eBay. So I have no experience on the selling side of eBay. The above mentioned Joe has long been left behind at this point, even though that poor fellow, making his last bid a few minutes before closure, helps to make the tool users adjust their sniping bids even higher. If you say so... This is the first time you've mentioned Joe in this post... So everyone is being played, but the seller and ebay, laughing all the way to the bank. And prices for many items skyrocket, despite the less than great economic situation these days. If prices are skyrocketing, it isn't because of snipers, sniping is a method of trying to keep attention, bidding and hence prices down... Well, I might have been carried a bit away here, but don't underestimate the influence of ebay on used market prices, among other things. Absolutely... Were it not for eBay the values listed in Cooksley-Schuggart's Watch price book might be realistic. And all those things manipulating ebay auctions play a big role, imho; What you see as manipulation I and many others see as being savvy participants. As I've pointed out, there are far greater forces in the ending point of any given auction: supply, demand, presentation of goods, knowledge of the bidders, willingness to bid big on a desirable piece. countless people made ebay cheating and fraud their hobby, if not their profession. As do people on Yahoo Auctions, other electronic auctions, in-person auctions, casino and on-line gambling, etc. Alright, that said, I cheat , too, so I suck as well. Happy ? What ever floats you boat T... You cheat, you suck with me, so let's all just cheat and suck together ;-)))) . Now this is getting into a real weird "South Park" tangent... Also, Chuck, I understand you are using a Macintosh like me, what's your sniping program of choice ? Back in the day (read OS 9) I used Auction Action Tracker, which morphed into Praeco under OS X. At some point within the past year or two Praeco became very unreliable in placing bids, so I have abandoned using it. In fact I haven't really shopped for a replacement for it yet. I've found that there are so few things I'm looking for, and there are so few items out there being offered that I'm not bidding anywhere near as much as I used to and I haven't needed the facility of a bidding program lately. I can't remember for sure, but I believe I've only purchased two or three watches this year via eBay. I've purchased a couple of new Citizens, a couple of vintage Heuers and one Bucherer from Gisbert Joseph, but they've been non-eBay private purchases. Peace ...love, power to the people, Baby! Thomas
|
Chronocentric and zOwie site design and contents (c) Copyright 1998-2005, Derek Ziglar; Copyright 2005-2008, Jeffrey M. Stein. All rights reserved. Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of the terms of use. | CONTACT | TERMS OF USE | TRANSLATE |