Bidding

[salonika-b]

I am so annoyed with the bidding,  buyers wait till the last seconds and  the one putting in an unrealitic high bid   always wins the auction.   There is not enough time for other buyers to get to their highest bid.

It would be better  that all automatic bids put in will run to the amount buyers are willing to pay.  So the seller gets the real value of the item.

What do other Ebayers think?

[collect247]

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@whiznumber6 wrote:

Hoiw it works from my point of view:

As a buyer, you'd have to be an idiot to put in a monster bid at the start of an auction. Here's what'll happen: Item gets listed at a starting price of, say, $10.00. Bidder A HAS to have the item - just has to. So he puts in a gi-normous, humungo bid to ensure he gets it. Bidder B wants the item too, so he bids. Gets an out-bid notice, and tries again. And again. And again. And keeps nibbling away until he decides it's not worth the amount he'll have to shell out, and moves on.

Auction ends, and yes, Bidder A gets his item - for maybe four or five times what he'd have paid if he'd simply waited and put his huge bid in just before the end of the auction.

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I disagree because when I put in my bid that I'm willing to pay I don't care if others bid upto it as I'm happy to pay what I think the item is worth to me.

I've been around long enough to know what an item is going to sell for so happy to pay for it.

Perhaps a newbie might think differently so yes I recommend that they don't bid like I do.

But like countess said OP has been around long enough to know how it works.

[whiznumber6]

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@collect247 wrote:

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I disagree because when I put in my bid that I'm willing to pay I don't care if others bid upto it as I'm happy to pay what I think the item is worth to me.

I've been around long enough to know what an item is going to sell for so happy to pay for it.

Perhaps a newbie might think differently so yes I recommend that they don't bid like I do.

But like countess said OP has been around long enough to know how it works.

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Different strokes for different folks, I guess...

While I certainly might be prepared to pay $250 for an item (and have that as my maximum bid on an item), I don't particularly want to pay that - I'll happily take the option of getting it for $25 if I can. 

The chap who puts in a bid early may have $100 as his maximum, but be prepared to go much higher if a bidding war ensues. Placing the $250 bid at the very end catches him unaware, and means I get the item at the next bid over $100 rather than perhaps double that. 

[collect247]

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@whiznumber6 wrote:

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@collect247 wrote:

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I disagree because when I put in my bid that I'm willing to pay I don't care if others bid upto it as I'm happy to pay what I think the item is worth to me.

I've been around long enough to know what an item is going to sell for so happy to pay for it.

Perhaps a newbie might think differently so yes I recommend that they don't bid like I do.

But like countess said OP has been around long enough to know how it works.

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Different strokes for different folks, I guess...

While I certainly might be prepared to pay $250 for an item (and have that as my maximum bid on an item), I don't particularly want to pay that - I'll happily take the option of getting it for $25 if I can. 

The chap who puts in a bid early may have $100 as his maximum, but be prepared to go much higher if a bidding war ensues. Placing the $250 bid at the very end catches him unaware, and means I get the item at the next bid over $100 rather than perhaps double that. 

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That's your way of bidding and that's fine but if I put in a $100 bid as my max then if the last bid is $99 by another bidder then great I win but if it's $101 then oh well I lost,I don't care like I said I know what the final price might turn out to be and bid accordingly.

I'm experienced in what I bid on or buy, that's the difference between me and the next person.

99% of my wins I have won them way below my max bid anyway,I don't go out of my way to lose money.But I do understand your point of view and yes different pork on my fork I guess haha.

[countessalmirena]

My maximum bid is the absolute maximum that I would pay. It's not the maximum that I'm happy to pay (willingness and happiness being two different things!).

If I had to pay my maximum every time I bid, I would have to reconsider my strategy. But... I bid to win. If I lose, it is only ever because someone else bid more than I'd pay. I work out my top price, and then add another small odd amount on top, look at the total, and ask myself if I'd still want it if it were $1.00 more. If not, then I have definitely, positively, absolutely decided on my real maximum. And in that circumstance, I know that I will either win, or that someone else is paying more than I was willing to pay, so that the loss wouldn't sting and I'd not be muttering, "I'd have bid a few more cents to win it - may that curséd winning bidder's big toe become blackened, boiled and fouled!"

[springyzone]

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@whiznumber6 wrote:

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Different strokes for different folks, I guess...

While I certainly might be prepared to pay $250 for an item (and have that as my maximum bid on an item), I don't particularly want to pay that - I'll happily take the option of getting it for $25 if I can. 

The chap who puts in a bid early may have $100 as his maximum, but be prepared to go much higher if a bidding war ensues. Placing the $250 bid at the very end catches him unaware, and means I get the item at the next bid over $100 rather than perhaps double that. 

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I used to be like crow & just put in my top bid early, because I don't trust my computer to be up to the exact second with bidding etc.

But I got annoyed one time when a bidder outbid me with small increments-maybe about 15 or more of them?  And took the lead. I shrugged my shoulders and thought no worries, they can have it. 

Went to check the next day (about 24 hours later) & they were still in the lead so thought no more of it. I was shocked a few days later to find I was the winner. That other person had withdrawn their last bid. 

To this day, I believe it was shill bidding or else someone who just wanted to expose my top bid & I can't tell you how annoying I found it. But for that person who withdrew their bid, I would have got it for half the price as there were no other bidders. Half the price wasn't dirt cheap either. My top bid was in the high range which would be okay if a few bidders had been there but felt like scamming if it was shill bidding.

I can't explain it better & I know I had put that in as a top auto bid but it felt like it had been pushed there by unfair means, which I resented.

So after that day, I swore never again put myself in that position so now in an auction format, I tend to bid in the last few hours.

I think whiz brings up an interesting point & that is that what (some) people think is their top bid can change once they see other people interested in it. I've seen this working in stores, seen it at house auctions etc. When other people are interested, it seems to confirm that this is a desirable item and for some people, that confirmation changes what they'll bid as max, hence why some do a last minute scramble I guess. That's just my theory, anyway.

[whiznumber6]

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@springyzone wrote:

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@whiznumber6 wrote:

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Different strokes for different folks, I guess...

While I certainly might be prepared to pay $250 for an item (and have that as my maximum bid on an item), I don't particularly want to pay that - I'll happily take the option of getting it for $25 if I can. 

The chap who puts in a bid early may have $100 as his maximum, but be prepared to go much higher if a bidding war ensues. Placing the $250 bid at the very end catches him unaware, and means I get the item at the next bid over $100 rather than perhaps double that. 

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I used to be like crow & just put in my top bid early, because I don't trust my computer to be up to the exact second with bidding etc.

But I got annoyed one time when a bidder outbid me with small increments-maybe about 15 or more of them?  And took the lead. I shrugged my shoulders and thought no worries, they can have it. 

Went to check the next day (about 24 hours later) & they were still in the lead so thought no more of it. I was shocked a few days later to find I was the winner. That other person had withdrawn their last bid. 

To this day, I believe it was shill bidding or else someone who just wanted to expose my top bid & I can't tell you how annoying I found it. But for that person who withdrew their bid, I would have got it for half the price as there were no other bidders. Half the price wasn't dirt cheap either. My top bid was in the high range which would be okay if a few bidders had been there but felt like scamming if it was shill bidding.

I can't explain it better & I know I had put that in as a top auto bid but it felt like it had been pushed there by unfair means, which I resented.

So after that day, I swore never again put myself in that position so now in an auction format, I tend to bid in the last few hours.

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I got religion when I was bidding on items from a particular seller, and consistently beating another bidder. The seller put a large number of items up, I put in the same monster bid on all of them within a few minutes of them being listed, and the disgruntled under-bidder (who had by then worked out what my maximum was by nibbling away in $5 increments on one of the items) put in a bid five dollars less than my maximum on every single item about ten seconds before the end of each auction.

I wound up being a couple of thousand dollars in the hole as a result.

(Mind you, I got my own back on the next batch the seller put up - I put in a modest opening bid on each one, just to signal that I was bidding. The other guy assumed I was putting in the same maximum amount as before, and put in his last minute "I don't want the item myself, I just want to make him pay through the nose" bids. From the previous batch, I'd seen how high he was setting his maximum bids, and had programmed a sniper service to put in a bid five dollars or so lower than his maximum a few seconds before each item ended. This time around, HE got all the items - which he may not even have wanted - and at a hugely inflated price. Turnabout is fair play...).

Now I use a sniper service, timed to place the bid seven seconds before the end of the auction. In the almost ten years I've been using it (and probably at least a couple of thousand items), I can only recall missing out on item because the service was down at the time the auction ended.

[salonika-b]

You are right I was pleased that the item went that high.   But often  from a low amount  as I have noticed  an item could not make it to the price of an offer I had before  of $500  It only came up to  $350.  That was because a lack of time.  This bidder was quite happy of course.  But the value of the article was not reached.

[salonika-b]

Not at risk if the bid is put that late  that it has no time to reach that high.

[salonika-b]

I am complaining about the time that there is and bidders start so late that unrealistic bids always win.  But because the time limit the worth of the article is not reached.

[salonika-b]

Thanks for your reply.