Accepting that shill bidding happens, condoning its use, and participating
are three very different concepts. Only the first one is acceptable to me
and, I imagine, to the rest of the List (I have such high opinions of youse
guys).
I agree about reserves. OTOH, if you start the bidding at $1, the bidding
frenzy in the last 30 seconds of the "auction" frequently is inadequate to
get the price to where the seller needs it to be. AFAIAC, set the opening
bid high enough that you bypass the meaningless bids from people who are
hoping no one else noticed this item and your final price will be higher. I
agree that there is little point in setting a reserve price, they simply
annoy a large number of potential bidders. Please note that, although we
talk about bidders and "auctions", this really is NOT an auction. It could
be... IF ebay wanted it to be. Imagine if the auction did not close until
the scheduled time and then only AFTER the highest bid had been unanswered
for 15 minutes. THAT could be considered an auction. It wouls also eliminate
the sniping. Ebay would make more money, sellers would make more money.
Cheapskates with sniping programs might look for their thrills elsewhere...
David Lieb
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