sniping?

[John McChesney-Young]

Out of curiosity I decided to check Google groups (searching for
combinations of snipe & sniping and ebay & auction), and the earliest
cite I found is from August of 1997:

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=01bcaeaf%24bd0baca0%24f7a9bacd%40prescojo.ix.netcom.com&output=gplain

From: jp (prescojo-- at -ix.netcom.com )
Subject: Re: I've Had It With EBay !
Newsgroups: rec.antiques
Date: 1997/08/22

Hey, I have to agree with dpross- at -ibm.net on this one. Sniping is
okay when it works for you, but is very frustrating when it doesn't....
so, the best bet is to give yourself and e-bay time to process the bid(s)
in advance of the closing hour, bid what you're willing to pay and hope
for the best.  Besides, E-bay isn't really like a "live" auction; it's more
of
a "silent" auction where you don't know who's going to win until all the
bids are in and the auction closes ...

(end quote; e-mail addresses munged by me)

Since eBay opened for business in September of 1995 I wonder whether
it really took two years for the practice and its term to arrive; on
the other hand, sniping was chancier in pre-broadband days.

I was also interested to learn there's a noun, _snipe_, reportedly
derived from the other meaning of verb to which JS refers. It might
be that everyone else knows of it.

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=199701081958.MAA06056%40sde.hp.com&output=gplain

From: Evan Zweifel <zweifel at SDE.HP.COM>
Subject: MOPO FAQ V.1.0
Date: 1997/01/08
Message-ID: <199701081958.MAA06056 at sde.hp.com>
apparently-to: <MOPO-L at AMERICAN.EDU>
sender: Movie Poster Discussion <MOPO-L at AMERICAN.EDU>
comments: Gated by NETNEWS at AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
reply-to: Evan Zweifel <zweifel at SDE.HP.COM>
newsgroups: bit.listserv.movie.memorabilia

...

Snipes

Also called "minis," these posters are produced
by the studios/production companies (NOT by National
Screen Service) usually for use in non-theatre
locations to promote a film. These posters are also
given out at sneak previews and other promotional events
to generate interest in a movie. They received the name
" snipe " since "to snipe " meant pasting advertisements
up (on walls, telephone poles, etc) illegally at night.
Size varies, but they are generally 11 X 17 and printed
on glossy paper.

John

***

>On Sat, Nov 27, 2004 at 06:03:14PM -0500, Bethany K. Dumas wrote:
>>  On Sat, 27 Nov 2004, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>>
>>  >> I ran into this term this week - is its use widespread? Here is a
>>  >> quotation from a recent WSJ story about sniping on eBay:
>>  >
>>  >Yes, it's extremely widespread.
>>
>>  Thanks. What other contexts does it occur in?
>
>None, so far as I know. That is, there are other current
>verbs _to snipe_ (the other newish one referring to the
>surreptitious placement of advertising stickers for
>music promotion), but this is pretty exclusive to eBay
>and similar sites.
>
>(In most traditional forms of auction, sniping as such
>is not possible, because there's no fixed time when an
>auction ends: any new bid will extend the time.)
>
>Jesse Sheidlower
>OED

--


*** John McChesney-Young  **  panis~at~pacbell.net  **   Berkeley,
California, U.S.A.  ***