Is crack a common drug for ebay bidders?

[Dave Hinz]

Sweet. I bet they had a _nice_ chat with each other.

[Dave Hinz]

The reason for the last-second bid is only to prevent someone else from doing to you, exactly what you are doing to them. Do you at least agree with that statement?

[Doug Miller]

You know it. I smiled all the way through the rest of the traffic jam, all two miles of it.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Get a copy of my NEW AND IMPROVED TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter by sending email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com You must use your REAL email address to get a response.

[Doug Miller]

"What you wish not done to you, do not to others. This is the whole of the Law. All the rest is commentary." -- Hillel

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Get a copy of my NEW AND IMPROVED TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter by sending email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com You must use your REAL email address to get a response.

[Norman D. Crow]

May I turn on my Rant Mode?

Oh Goody! Tell it again!

Didja ever see a lane closed traffic jam with two *big trucks* side by side just crawling along? You know what they're doing, right? Sadly enough, some states will stop & ticket them for it as "obstructing traffic". However, it's *intensely* satisfying if you're the one in the lane staying open, and you work right with the one who's got to move over, to let him slide his tailgate in about a foot from your grill, and watch the first MFSB behind him get stopped by the cones. It was my firm opinion even before I earned a living as an OTR driver, that almost ALL construction backups could be eliminated or at worst reduced to a minimum if all the MFSB's would pay attention & do like the "Good Citizen" by blending & merging as soon as they know which lane will be closed.

Sad to say, there are WWaaaayyyyyyy too many MFSB's in the world & on the highways for this to ever happen.

Pet peeve # 40x, they all want to go nose to tail like a pachyderm parade. Solution: back off & leave a little *buffer* zone, that way when the traffic in front starts their accordion act, you don't have to stop & start sixteen dozen times. You may just be able to slow down a little, then ease back into the throttle again and keep moving. Not a sure-fire solution, but it does help.

Rant Off.

[Lobby Dosser]

Yes. But that is the way the system works. You either work with it, or not. Your choice.

FWIW, I had a successful bid on an item last night. I placed my maximum bid two days prior - mine was the starting bid - and was only bid up $3.00 beyond the starting bid and still under my maximum. I always establish the maximum I'm willing to pay for an item, subtract the shipping cost - many sellers use shipping to jack the price - then use the result as my maximum bid. If the bidding goes beyond my maximum, I walk away. I started doing this after once getting into an emotional bidding session. If they changed the rules to the fifteen minute no bid extension you have suggested, I'd still bid the same way. If there was market demand for the fifteen minute extension, I'm sure we'd see it.

LD

[Dave Hinz]

(major snip)

We do, just not on eBay.

[J]

Sellers who don't like it can find a different venue. It is completely within the rules. You are right though, it is going nowhere with you. I guess I'll just have to keep disrespecting you for having a mind that fails to comprehend this. Bye.

-J

[TWS]

There are over 100 million eBay members with an average of over 1 million auctions closing a day. I guess the fact that they don't have a 15 minute bidding extension doesn't upset too many people. I would further suggest that, with this quantity of business, eBay now defines the appropriate model for auctions.

Don't like it? Don't use it.

TWS

[Dave Hinz]

Yes, indeed, other online auctions can and have implemented a 15-minute rule option, for just this reason.

I do not fail to comprehend it, I do not _agree_ with you that it is acceptable behavior in an auction. I disagree with it _because_ I understand what it is, even if you tell yourself that it's just fine because it's technically within the rules.

[Swingman]

Won't work here in Houston because the #1 rule of freeway driving, noticeably invoked by the first big city easterner's who started showing up in the mid 60's, is that said "buffer zone" must be filled immediately from an adjacent, and momentarily slower, lane ... preferably at the last second, and by a vehicle too large to fit.

Prior to that, when driving in Houston you could actually leave a safe distance between you and the car in front of you and be reasonably sure that no damn fool would pull into it.

[Doug Miller]

My BIL said that when he was stationed at Pax River, one summer there was a construction zone just outside the base that forced two lanes of traffic leaving the base to funnel down to one -- and everyone, without being instructed, with nobody directing traffic, simply took turns: left lane, right lane, left, right, left, right... and traffic flowed as smoothly as could be.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Get a copy of my NEW AND IMPROVED TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter by sending email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com You must use your REAL email address to get a response.

[Doug Miller]

That conclusion is not supported by the evidence, which actually suggests that eBay now defines a *successful* model for on-line auctions. Not necessarily the same thing as "appropriate".

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Get a copy of my NEW AND IMPROVED TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter by sending email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com You must use your REAL email address to get a response.

[Dave Hinz]

Perhaps. But their success and/or failure is more related to them being there first, than them being better in every possible way. Microsoft is pretty popular too, after all.

I've said more than once, in this very thread even, that I'd pay extra to be given that option on eBay for things I'm selling, and I'd be more willing to bid on items with that option. Interestingly enough, eBay will do the 15-minute rule for big-ticket items such as the Honus Wagner baseball card auction of a while ago...

[John Thomas]

"Swingman" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Houston has no monopoly on idiots. Same thing here in Oregon. No one knows how to freaking *merge*. Coupled with continuous highway construction, we avoid the freeways unless it's impossible to do so.

Regards, JT

[Dave Balderstone]

So you've asked eBay for the 15 minute option and they've said no to you?

[Tim Douglass]

Every buyer's goal is to pay as little as they can. If the sniper pays more than your *maximum* then the seller got more than they would have without the sniper, so the sniper actually made the seller *more* money. Aside from the fact that it reduces the chances for people to get excited and stupid sniping has *no* substantive effect on the auction outcome.

Tim Douglass

[Tim Douglass]

Absolutely not true in a proxy auction like e-bay.

Tim Douglass

[TWS]

Well, you got me there. Please accept my apologies for saying 'appropriate' when I should have said 'successful'. Actually I should have said "so f**king successful that any other auction pales in comparison".

Thank you for the correction.

And to answer the OP's question, it is quite clear by the evidence in this thread, that the answer to his original question is "yes".

[Norman D. Crow]

Agreed! I might not have made myself entirely clear . . . This works once you're *in* the single lane too, which is where I was really going. Once in a while, I wouldn't make it into *the city* during the middle of the night as planned, and would get caught in the morning rush hourS on I-80 in New Jersey. I would generally get in the middle or one of the 2 middle lanes, as we weren't allowed in the inside(left) lane, and didn't want to be in the right lane and put up with entering/exiting traffic. Used to laugh my A** off watching the lane hopping all over the place to try and gain one car length! Really laughed when they would lane hop & get stuck there as I went sliding on by.

Then of course there were always the morning truck races . . . truckers who stopped to sleep in eastern PA or western NJ, get up about 4-4:30, grab some coffee and join the mad dash to get into NYC just ahead of the auto rush hourS.