eBay - why can't I win on that stupid site

[Gougoushu]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

...Ebay will take your highest bid and engage in a furious bidding war so that you win!"<----this is literraly what they once had on their site pusing automated bidding. Why on Earth would you ever want to be part of bidding war if you can avoid it?? It guarantees that Ebay gets its maximum commission and the buyer's probability of getting a good deal vaporizes. Great for sellers and Ebay but terrible for bidders willing to put in the effort to scratch out a great deal. And those paypal fees are so high that automated bidding is seen as a necessary evil by sellers on no reserve auctions. Nice how Ebay set that up... They win both ways...

Agreed. I love ebay as a concept, but hate the way it's being run. Seems like every change ebay makes is some sleazy way for it to make more money, rather than to improve the service. Another example. Used to be, search results automatically came up in time-ending-order. Now, the default order is something called "best match," which seems to place items in order of which ebay makes the most money on. Another: when creating a posting, Ebay often will send a "warning" that your shipping is too high - because they don't get a cut of shipping. Craig Newmark should get a Nobel Prize for fighting off ebay's attempts to takeover (and destroy) craigslist.