Snype auctions stumbles out of the gate, collectibles sales paused
Maybe it was Albert Einstein or maybe it was Yogi Berra who once said, "In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not." Whatever the source, the sentiment applies all too well to sports collectibles dealer Rick Probstein and his team at Snype on the heels of a disastrous launch.
In theory, a new online marketplace for sports collectibles could make a lot of sense. For one thing, the sports collectibles market is far too big for eBay to remain the only game in town. For another, sellers have long believed too much of their winnings have been lost to eBay's transaction fees.
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And that's where Snype comes in. The brainchild of Rick Probstein, formerly one of the highest volume sports card sellers on eBay, Snype was designed to provide sellers with a long overdue alternative to eBay: a trusted online auction platform with high visibility and low sellers' fees. At least in theory, what's not to like?
In practice, however, the site's launch couldn't have gone much worse. While the site's current mea culpa attributes its opening day glitches to high volume, collectors are left to wonder if there might have been other issues involved as well.
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At the core of the site's failure was how its auctions behaved when a bidder entered a snype, more commonly known as a "snipe" on other online auction sites. In brief, a snipe is a bid placed in advance that does not take effect until mere seconds remain in an auction. At least in theory (!), a snipe may be preferred over more traditional bidding for two reasons.
- It is entered so late in the auction that other bidders may not have time to raise their previous bids.
- It sidesteps the mid-auction bidding wars that can result when multiple high bids are placed early.
Unfortunately, bidders realized neither of these benefits when entering their snypes on Snype. Instead, the entry of a snype, no matter how early, simply ended the auction, somehow short-circuiting whatever the platform's code might have more properly dictated. The result for buyers and sellers was the same: a total fiasco.
With luck, the Snype team will iron out whatever wrinkles caused the site to crash and burn, and hopefully they are looking beyond simply "high traffic." Though it may take some time to regain the trust of the collectibles community, the logic and business model behind Snype remain sound as ever, at least in theory if not in practice.
Jason A. Schwartz is a collectibles expert whose work can be found regularly at SABR Baseball Cards, Hobby News Daily, and 1939Bruins.com. His collection of Hank Aaron baseball cards and memorabilia is currently on exhibit at the Atlanta History Center, and his collectibles-themed artwork is on display at the Honus Wagner Museum and PNC Park.