Why eBay should enable automatic auction extensions

[mandy]

I've ranted a few times in the past about auction sniping, the practice of bidders using software to hop in at the last second and snag an item at a price below what other bidders may be willing to pay in open bidding.

Now here's another reason for eBay to start thinking seriously about automatically extending auctions when late bids hit. Scammers hitting electronics auctions with inflated bids followed by requests to ship items out of the country, spoofed PayPal payment notifications, and other naughtiness ought to be enough for eBay to do something about the situation...

If eBay enabled the ability to automatically extend an auction by a few minutes when a late bid hit at the last second, buyers and sellers could both benefit. Sellers could ban obvious fake bids, while buyers in legitimate sales would have the chance to increase their bids above the sniped amount, making more money for the seller...

full article: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnew...dings.html

[BellisimaJ.]

Bidz does this. They extend an auction by 30 seconds each time a bid comes in at the last minute.
It is sort of annoying, but does probably increase the seller's profit. It could also be an aid to shilling though.

[amy]

Argument for auction extensions: Overstock does it.  OnSale did it in the 90's.

Argument for sniping: When I used to buy on eBay, all of my bids were made during the last 30 seconds of an auction.

[sneakymagenta]

Sellers could ban obvious fake bids,

I don't sit around watching the clock tick down on every auction.