Saturday, April 02, 2005

2 seconds left eBay snipes

If you haven't heard of ebay yet, you've probably been living in a cave for the past 10 years.. For those that don't know ebay, it's basically a place where you can buy retail things, at non-retail prices~! WOW! Just like how we originally said 'normal people' don't use computers, and today, it's not uncommon to have 2 computers in a household: If you don't already have an ebay account, whether it be you simply haven't tried it yet, or your lack of trust of giving out your credit card number online: like my friend, who originally said he doesn't trust ebay... and now, he has bought $287.73 worth of merchandise in a matter of 2 weeks, your views on buying from ebay will change pretty soon.

Anyways, each item is a timed auction, and you can already guess what that means.. people bid at the very last SECONDs, screwing the current winning bidder, and winning by $1 or any similar small incremental figure. There is actually software that can 'snipe' for you if you are not near a computer when an auction ends: Auction Sniper, Bidnapper, SnipeSwipe, AuctionInsights, BidSlayer, Auction Sentry (Yes, very creative names).

Of course, you can easily protect yourself by bidding high. That way, if someone tries to snipe you, your armour will deflect their snipes, and they'll look like idiots. I was bidding on this 'rare' game on behalf of my cousin: Spikeout for XBOX, only 3500 copies made. On a side note: it seems that the demand for this game is actually very high.. It's somehow already sold out at Electronic Boutique stores 13 days before it's even released. I've already seen 2 auctions for it, in which the current high bids were $150 USD and $130 USD. I don't see how a Final Fight type game in 3D can be worth $150 USD, even if it is limited, but a quote from my cousin will give you a peak at what's in the minds of hardcore gamers who are willing to shell out money for this game:
I've waited for this game since Dreamcast... I've waited for 5 years...and the first reason I bought XBOX was because of this game... and now SEGA is making it a limited release...
Anyways, back on topic, some idiot tries to snipe me, with 2 seconds remaining and he gets served in the face. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? BIATCH.

It's quite amusing when you get sniped though. Last week, I was bidding on a complete set of Tintin hardcover books (very rare) on behalf of a friend. The auction ends at 18:27:56, we snipe at 18:27:41 (15 seconds remaining), then this guy named alexteri flies out of nowhere and snipes at 18:27:54 (2 seconds remaining), and so we lost by $1. The winner bidder was the one who showed no sign of presence for the 7 days of auction. PWNED I say.