Extended Time Auctions. Good or Bad For eBay? Would you use them or bid on them?

[*help_no_brakes*]

I have accepted the challenge to post this topic.

It was suggested that a Fire Truck be on standby.

I live in a remote location with a volunteer Fire Service...however here we are...

[dtexley3]

As a seller I don't use auctions, BIN only.  The items I sell tend to get 1 bid and extended auctions would not help that.

As a buyer I very very rarely buy from auctions, I can almost always find a BIN price that's acceptible.

Since adding extended auctions would require code changes it's a BAD THING for eBay.    Their IT dev processes are terrible, broken code released into production, no rollback plan or capability when broken code is released, ineffective communication regarding the issues that the broken code is causing, etc....

[thatsallfolks]

---

@dtexley3 wrote:

Since adding extended auctions would require code changes it's a BAD THING for eBay.    Their IT dev processes are terrible, broken code released into production, no rollback plan or capability when broken code is released, ineffective communication regarding the issues that the broken code is causing, etc....

---

There are many reasons why extensions are not a good idea, and I'm sure they'll eventually all be discussed, now that the Kraken has been released. This one typically isn't mentioned, but it's an important one. The bid process is THE most reliable function on the eBay site, and I would not have confidence in any effort to make such a significant modification.

[omgitlightsup]

It really depends.

You may be surprised to hear me say this, but I kind of hate auctions. Not because of the prices, but because I don't buy things for fun; I buy things I want, and I don't like having to try over and over to get something when I know I want it. I prefer BINs or fixed-price listings.

But there are things, such as collectibles, that I occasionally enjoy bidding on and will happily enter into a bid war with. If it's a rare item, and there's only one every once in a while, then I would prefer to bid in an extended auction, over one in which I had to guess what other people were willing to pay. Because what I really care about is how much it'll cost me; not how much some other shlep thinks it's worth.

Most of my experience is from "IRL" auctions, where the bidding never ends at the drop of a hat while people are still trying to get in. Maybe that's it.

It may go over what I thought was my max, but I'm in control of my finances and it's my prerogative to decide whether I want to "pay too much" and be done with it. Especially if the item in question is geographically close, in exceptionally good shape, or a ROM revision that doesn't often show up.

It's good to see people considering that there might be more than one side to this debate.

[buyselljack2016]

As a buyer, I would not, because I am a sniper.

As a seller, I might consider it, but seldom do auctions. I generally know what my items go for. Use auction sometimes for slow movers when eBay tosses out some freebies.

[18704d]

As a buyer, I too like to snipe.

As a seller... if a buyer doesn't know how much he/she is willing to pay in 7 days..

... I see no benefit in extending it.

I'd fear it'd cause buyer's price remorse.

Lynn

[yuzuha]

I hate the concept as both a buyer and a seller.  As a seller, I schedule my auctions to end at a specific time for various reasons, not the least of which include attracting the maximum amount of traffic.  If I schedule my auction to end on a Sunday evening, I want it to actually end on Sunday evening, not Monday morning.  I don't do auctions often, but when I do, I usually do them in batches set to start and end at the same time to make it easy for someone to bid on multiple things if they want.  The last time I ran auctions, I had four of them go to one bidder.  It would have been a hassle if one of them had ended up being extended because then both that bidder and I would have been in limbo waiting to see whether or not she was going to win.

As a buyer, I don't nibble bid-- I make one bid for my absolute max.  Sometimes that's at the start of the auction, sometimes it's at the end.  Extending the auction isn't going to change how much I bid on it; all it's going to do is annoy me if something gets dragged out by nibble bidders.

[yuzuha]

---

@omgitlightsup wrote:

But there are things, such as collectibles, that I occasionally enjoy bidding on and will happily enter into a bid war with. If it's a rare item, and there's only one every once in a while, then I would prefer to bid in an extended auction, over one in which I had to guess what other people were willing to pay. Because what I really care about is how much it'll cost me; not how much some other shlep thinks it's worth.

---

This makes absolutely no sense to me.  You ALWAYS have to guess what someone else is willing to pay-- that's how auctions work.  At a live auction, that guy sitting next to you may be willing to pay $10,000 for something that ends up going for less than $1,000.  You just don't know how much he's willing to pay because it never reaches that level.

Moreover, what someone else is willing to pay for something shouldn't have any bearing on what YOU are willing to pay for it.  Several months ago I put in a max bid of $150 on an auction for a set of collectible figures that I'd been searching for for years.  I ended up winning them for about $80.  I bid $150 because that was the maximum amount I was willing to pay for them, but in the end it didn't matter whether my max was $85 or $150-- all that mattered was that I was willing to pay more than everyone else who bid.

[sharingtheland]

I understand the "willing to pay" concept and I never (well, rarely) bid over my max amount...but...I hate extended auctions.  Just when I think I've won, zappola.  I'm heartbroken, I tell ya.

[div_style]

On eBay I place auto-snipes for 6 seconds before the end.  Extending the auction ruins that, or any other sniping strategy.

And for what?  Everyone knows to the second when the auction will end, so place your bid any time prior to that.

And yes, I snipe to avoid paying more, or losing to a nibbler who only bids when he/she knows what I think the item is worth.  No reason for me to give the nibbler that information.  Let him/her research the item during the several days availble for that.

As I seller my fondest (eBay) dreams involve having two snipers on all of my auctions!

[campesinoplastic2014]

Given their track record, this just gives them one more thing to screw up very badly, and we know they will. I doubt the popularity of this thing to begin with, but I am sure once it's brought forth and thoroughly broken and glitchy it will be very thoroughly hated.

[muttlymob]

If I schedule my auction to end on a Sunday evening, I want it to actually end on Sunday evening, not Monday morning. 

This.

As a seller, I schedule my auctions to end at a specific time for various reasons, not the least of which include attracting the maximum amount of traffic.

And this.

Auction extensions would require that interested bidders be online if the extension is activated by late bids.  Requiring bidders to be bidding as the auction drags out would severely limit the pool of potential bidders.

In my book, limiting bidders so drastically is a bad thing.

Besides, if buyers or sellers want extended auctions they can always go to other auction sites that use them.  Like Yahoo Auctions.

Oh, wait, nevermind.

[yuzuha]

---

@muttlymob wrote:

Besides, if buyers or sellers want extended auctions they can always go to other auction sites that use them.  Like Yahoo Auctions.

Oh, wait, nevermind.

---

Yahoo!Japan Auctions still does it that way and people have just learned to snipe right before the extension kicks in, so it hasn't actually had any effect on bidding.

[slati_2013]

Sellers should support this. If you have something rare and valuable, you could see it go for even three times what you thought it would. I use sites that use extended auctions and for rare and sought after items, the final prices are impressive.

The reason it works is because buyers are prepared to bid $40 extra for the next bid, and on and on it goes until one by one they drop out. I think this is the only fair way for an auction to end. 

[slati_2013]

---

@yuzuha wrote:

---

@muttlymob wrote:

Besides, if buyers or sellers want extended auctions they can always go to other auction sites that use them.  Like Yahoo Auctions.

Oh, wait, nevermind.

---

Yahoo!Japan Auctions still does it that way and people have just learned to snipe right before the extension kicks in, so it hasn't actually had any effect on bidding.

---

Then it has not been implemented properly. The time matters.  In a true extended auction, any bid placed in say the last eight minutes will restart the bidding again for say sixteen minutes. So any time anyone places a bid again, it starts again back at sixteen minutes. If a bid is placed outside the sixteen minutes, and there is no other bid, that is not sniping. It simply means no one was interested in the item and the last bidder wins. It all comes down to the time set for the extended auction to kick in. The longer the time, the more it will keep going until the person willing to pay the most wins.