Ebay

A news article about Ebay seems to be a daily occurance. Most of these seem to find fault with people selling things, but few seem to find fault with Ebay itself.

When was the last time an auctioneer bashed his gavel down quickly to prevent someone from placing another bid? Not ever me thinks. So why do Ebay allow people to bid in the last few seconds of an auction and then instantly end it? That’s just not a fair practise, it encourages cheating and costs the seller money as potential buyers don’t have chance to counter a last-second bidder. It also cheats the honest buyer who has been leading the auction for weeks and gets stomped on in the closing seconds.

Solution:
Auctions should only end 10 minutes after the last bid is placed. If a sniper places a bid 5 seconds before the end time, then the end time should extend by 10 minutes. This way the seller always gets the true value that somebody is prepared to pay, not the value of the bid placed closest to the wire.

Despite this, I still think Ebay is great. Dishonest and frustrating as hell, but great.

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