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eBay inadequacies
by Bruce Ure at 19:29 14/10/05 (Blogs::Bruce)
Firstly, what's with these people who don't give feedback to a buyer until the buyer's left feedback for them?
As far as I'm concerned, when the buyer pays, he's fulfilled his side of the bargain, and should get feedback as soon as possible thereafter. What could they possibly do wrong after they've paid? They've bloody PAID, FFS. What are they gonna do, UN-pay?

It's bloody annoying. Sometimes I feel like stamping my little feet.

And secondly... don't get me started on eBay's entire auction system. Why on earth can't an auction end "60 seconds after the last qualifying bid after the official end time"?

Say 30 seconds before the end of an auction someone places the highest bid, the end time should change at that moment to one minute hence. If nobody else bids higher then that person wins. If someone else does, then the end time changes to a minute hence again. And so on, until eventually everyone will stop bidding and the last one will win. You know, like an AUCTION.

In that way, sniping becomes a thing of the past, and items go for the highest price people are actually prepared to pay for them rather than there being a frenzied orgy of chaotic bids in the last 3 seconds, ultimately probably decided more by the vaguaries of people's different internet connection speeds than whether they actually clicked "Confirm Bid" 150 milliseconds before someone else's sniping tool.

Even if TPTB at eBay felt this was a better strategy, and I'm sure it must have occurred to them even if they've not decided it's better, they might not change anyway for fear of upsetting the model, which I can understand, I suppose. Although they could always beta it, or offer it as an alternative auction type -- there are several already, after all.

Now if they'd only done it like that in the first place...

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eBay inadequacies Bruce Ure - 14/10
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