Auction Sniping?

[Purseval]

I have been to more "live" auctions than I can begin to count. The kind with real, live auctioneers and real, live people. This format is how those work.

Live auctions are at a specific time for many items. They move quickly from item to item. Unless it's something like a sheriff's sale where the only thing is a house you have plenty of things to keep you occupied and it's at a reasonable hour. An online auction can end any hour of the day or night so if you want it you have to go out of your way, maybe even set your alarm clock, to be there in case the timer resets.

Now that you know how it works, you either accept it and work with it, or reject it and don't participate.

I choose option B. The convenience of online auctions is that you bid or snipe and forget about it. If I want to hang around I'll go to a real auction.
In fact, if you watch the show Auction Kings odds are you'll see me bid. We are at every one of those auctions.

 

[seashoreCM]

Before eBay was invented I was at this sign up sheet auction (which worked like eBay except that winning bids as written were absolute, not toned down to X dollars above the next to last bid). Some people bid early, others waited until the end for one or more items. Towards the ending time the supervisors keep announcing that people should bid quickly. At the appointed ending time the supervisors snatched the sign up sheets away even when someone was adding a bid. One supervisor threw his jacket down over several sign up sheets next to each other on a table with the respective items. The actual ending moment of the auction for each item varied only because it took some time for the supervisors to run from one item to the next and grab the sign up sheets.

 

[duffy]

I've never been at a live auction for flights or trips.

Complaining about their format-either Ebay's or Skyauction's-is a waste of time. Either learn to use it or don't, but I still say it's not sneaky. After all, if you "bought" something and then went to get coffee and they sold it to someone else, you must not have actually bought it then, but only THOUGHT that you had! And you lost out because you didn't understand how the process works, and thought you'd bought it when you were really just the high bidder at the moment you chose to get your coffee.

Thst's YOUR fault for not understanding-it's not that it's "sneaky".

 

[Purseval]

Complaining about their format-either Ebay's or Skyauction's-is a waste of time.

But defending it isn't? If someone thinks the format is sneaky you aren't going to change their mind and they probably don't need you to tell them not to use it either, they probably figured that out on their own. But you did manage to kill 4 kittens in the process

 

[nunzia]

I've never been at a live auction for flights or trips.

Complaining about their format-either Ebay's or Skyauction's-is a waste of time. Either learn to use it or don't, but I still say it's not sneaky. After all, if you "bought" something and then went to get coffee and they sold it to someone else, you must not have actually bought it then, but only THOUGHT that you had! And you lost out because you didn't understand how the process works, and thought you'd bought it when you were really just the high bidder at the moment you chose to get your coffee.

Thst's YOUR fault for not understanding-it's not that it's "sneaky".

OK..since I guess it is spelled out at SkyAuction that the auction will end when they feel like it and if this is obvous and pretty much everyone knows it then my choice of words is wrong. When I first said this I said it SEEMED sneaky, because that was the first I had ever heard of this place. So, since all the bidders know how the thing works, then OK..I withdraw the 'sneaky'. And since I am now educated, I know I will never use their service, so thanks for the education.

 

[duffy]

But defending it isn't? If someone thinks the format is sneaky you aren't going to change their mind and they probably don't need you to tell them not to use it either, they probably figured that out on their own. But you did manage to kill 4 kittens in the process

I killed 4 kittens? I presume you mean by adding an "s" to a word to pluralize it? "Ebay's format" and "Skyauction's format" are correct.

Ooh, now we're having fun, right?? LOL!

Edited because I misspelled a word.

 

[KBW]

I killed 4 kittens? I presume you mean by adding an "s" to a word to pluralist it? Where? "Ebay's format" and "Skyauction's format" are correct.

Ooh, now we're having fun, right?? LOL!

Yes!! For the record, in this instance "Ebay's" and "Skyauction's" are used correctly (and for the reason duffy stated). Now, if someone had said "I killed four kitten's." Well, then that's another story. Apostrophes don't kill kittens, but misused ones do.

 

[Purseval]

Yes!! For the record, in this instance "Ebay's" and "Skyauction's" are used correctly (and for the reason duffy stated). Now, if someone had said "I killed four kitten's." Well, then that's another story. Apostrophes don't kill kittens, but misused ones do.

Actually it came to 4 with the 2 "it's". The sig on its own was so bizarre I missed the qualifier. Oh well, the kitties (or would you prefer kitty's) get to live another day.

 

[duffy]

Actually it came to 4 with the 2 "it's". The sig on its own was so bizarre I missed the qualifier. Oh well, the kitties (or would you prefer kitty's) get to live another day.

"it's" is being used here as a contraction, which means it is the shortened form of "it is". So the apostrophe is correct.

Here is a handy guide to apostrophe use that I'm sure you'll find useful.

 

[Purseval]

Apparently you're so busy trying to give grammar lessons you make the same mistake that led to the grammar lesson in the first place.

"it's" is being used here as a contraction, which means it is the shortened form of "it is". So the apostrophe is correct.

Actually it came to 4 with the 2 "it's". The sig on its own was so bizarre I missed the qualifier.

qual·i·fi·er
[kwol-uh-fahy-er]

Grammar
a word that qualifies the meaning of another, as an adjective or adverb; modifier.

mod·i·fi·er
[mod-uh-fahy-er]

Grammar
a word, phrase, or sentence element that limits or qualifies the sense of another word, phrase, or element in the same construction.

Here is a handy guide to apostrophe use that I'm sure you'll find useful.

Not at all. If you have a link to which grammar mistake kills squirrels that would be more useful. I have one that keeps eating all the food I put out for the cardinals