User feedback from auction site

[ludedude]

Generally I think an online auction should function the same way as a live auction.  The reason live auctions are successful is because they exploit the emotional and competitive spirit of people.  Here I my thoughts:

1. Although an auction must have a start and end time, I think the end time should not be abrupt.  An abrupt end creates a condition where a bidder will ?snipe? the auction.  I case you don?t know, to ?snipe? an action means to submit a bid at the last possible moment before the auction ends.  I think this practice violates the spirit of auctioning and usually results in a lower selling price.  Live auctions do not end abruptly put continue until all bidding has ceased and the auctioneers lowers the gavel.  Of course in an online auction there is not an auctioneer so a compromise is to end the auction a set amount of time before the last bid is entered.  I think 15 minutes would be sufficient.  The auction would continue until no one has submitted a bid after 15 minutes from the last bid.  
2. After the 15minute countdown and after the auction has ended, no bid retractions should be allowed.  I do think you should be able to retract bids at anytime up to that point.  The problem with bid retractions is it is possible for the seller to have a ?plant? to run up the auction price.  After winning they will retract their last bid and let the runner up take it.  This is not fair to other bidders.
3. The auction results should be viewable for a time after the auction has ended.    This will reduce the suspicion the auction is not ?fixed?.
4. No hidden reserves.  Auctions should start at a minimum amount and continue from there.  Hidden reserves can waist someone?s time if the reserve is higher than what they are willing to bid.
5. Allow proxy bidding.  Although this does violate the spirit of the auction somewhat, it is very convenient for those who cannot participate when the auction is coming to an end.
6. Some type of bidder rating system should be employed.  Ebay?s system seems to work well as can be expected.  Probably having someone register with the site would help.  I?m afraid without some control, people would bid for the fun of messing up the auction with no intention of completing the transaction.  

[the bogger]

6. "Some type of bidder rating system should be employed. Ebay?s system seems to work well as can be expected. Probably having someone register with the site would help. I?m afraid without some control, people would bid for the fun of messing up the auction with no intention of completing the transaction".   I agree with this statement wholeheartedly, it would be great if it could be avoided,the auctions are a great way for someone on a limited budget to get quality used and new parts far below the going prices,it would be a shame to let it get like Ebay!!!Ebay has so many non-paying bidders and seller buddies that bid up an item so he can get top dollar for it, it is disgusting.

[ludedude]

Well I've been thinking about this for a bit...

1. Live auction - Not sure if any of them are setup like this, as in end when no bids are put in after said amount of time. The auction would have to be well publized before the actual go live, for the sellers sake. What's a live auction take for one item....10 minutes.....online live might span, what 30 minutes? So, if there is no proxy bidding...you have to sit online for 1/2 hr? There'd have to be proxy bidding....again for the sellers sake...it's got to attract sellers too

2. Bid retractions - How would that work? Bidder can retract on his/her own? Or does the seller need to OK it? If so, the seller needs to be online for the auction....

3. Most auction allow for this, the viewing of the bids. This one does, I don't know yet if they get auto-deleted or if they stay until I delete them.

4. Hidden reserves...hmmm..agre and dis-agree. Hidden reserves, yes can be a waste of the buyers time, but it also may

exploit the emotional and competitive spirit of people

once the bidding starts on it they may be willingto go ove the reserve because of this, whereas they may have passed on bidding had it started that high.

5. Proxy bidding....yes I agree it should be implemented, unfortunately for the free version, this one at least, proxy bidding is not yet offered as an add-on.

6. buyer/seller rating. Again most have some sort of system integrated. This one does, although it seems a bit buggy now that I have auctiosn ended and give out ratings...seems it does not close this option once I complete it...but what can you expect for a free version :p

More so then rate after the fact, which means someone has to suffer first. I thought of having a verification/validation process. I know I can set it up for seller access...I think I can do the same for buyers.....for buyers though...it means no last minute sign-ups and getting in on the action as it wouldn't me a automatic thing. Any ideas on the method I posted?: verify sellers I could set up the same thing for buyers.

[betel]

You know it might be a good idea to advertise the auction on eBay.  I notice Hoser is doing this to promote his Pilot Odyssey site.  He has created an auction for $.01 and fills it with information.  Pretty cheap advertising it seems to me.  The more bidders the better the auction will be (well at least for the seller).