What do you really think about auction style listings compared to buy it now and best offer?

[urlittlestar]

Buy it now is great. You can literally get the item there and then and don't have to wait to buy it! You want it now? Use buy it now and you got it. Job done! Best offer sometimes is ok, yeah you have to wait for the seller to reply (if they do at all) but you might get your offer accepted for a lower price which is always nice. On the other hand, you might have to compete with other buyers offers. Overall though, best offer is ok

But I really *bleep*ing hate bidding on auction style listings. You spend a week checking to make sure you're still winning, only to be usually sniped at the last minute which is just the worst. Also you can't guarantee you will win. If you're willing to spend a ridiculous amount of money so long as you win, great. But most people should have a limit, which is why max bid exists. Yeah I have bid on many items in the past, I have won some, and lost some but i only do cos sometimes I don't have a choice if I want something on eBay that bad. I've noticed there are certain items that are so rare or sought after that you have to always bid to get them, and it sucks. I do see what's so enticing about auctions early on, the auctions usually start at 99p, but unless you're the only bidder, you will never ever get the item you want that cheap. I really wish eBay would ban snipers and make them unable to pay if they win by sniping, not just cos it's unfair on other bidders but cos real auctions are not like this at all. If you are sniped in the last few secs, that's it, you have lost. On real auctions, it's like "going once, going twice. Sold for (whatever)" eBay need to make it so if you are sniped, the auction stays open for a extra few mins. If no more bids are made, then ok the sniper wins. But at least it gives you time to recover. It's horrible being sniped, it's as bad as scalping. And this is why bidding sucks so bad 😞

[four_mid_able]

Ebay allow millions if not trillions of items to be listed worldwide every day.

Please advise on a high street auction house that does the same.

Allowing extra minutes ????.

I can just imagine how it would be if i were bidding on different items from different sellers with that applied.

I wouldn't even bother trying.

Your proposal has been brought up time and time again ,Zeberdee says ?.

[four_mid_able]

Bid ONCE ,bid LATE and bid YOUR max (snipers don't even come in to it).

You might win you might lose but no point harping on later that "ooh ,i would have won that if i had bid a bit more".

If you bid your MAX the one time you cannot moan later about not winning coz you already bid the most you were willing to pay.

[m25jet]

If you really want something badly enough then you have to be willing to pay the price, so make sure you bid the absolute maximum that you would be willing to pay and hope that you don't get outbid.

When it comes to placing bids it's not necessarily snipers who win the auction - the winning bidder is the person who placed the highest bid whilst the auction was still live, whether that bid was placed not long after the ad went live or right in the dying seconds of the auction.  Alternatively the winning bid could have been placed at any time in between the listing's start and end time, so trying to snipe the item in the dying seconds of the auction does not necessarily guarantee that the person placing a snipe bid will win the item.

With regards to your suggestion that bidders should not being allowed to place a snipe bid, eBay are never going to implement such a rule as they're in business to make as much money from sales as possible.  In many auctions there is often a sudden flurry of activity towards the end of the auction, and in many cases when a winning bid is placed in the nick of time it can significantly push up the final selling price, regardless of whether or not the person trying to snipe the item actually won the auction or not.