Subject:
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Re: Proxy ratcheting: How do auction systems work?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.market.auction
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Date:
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Tue, 20 Apr 1999 02:42:33 GMT
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Viewed:
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733 times
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On Mon, 19 Apr 1999 23:08:02 GMT, Larry Pieniazek <lar@voyager.net> wrote:
>
> Derick: did you guys try actually testing eBay behaviour? Using a very
> obscure item that no one could want, and a 1 day auction, you could test
> eBay to see if indeed it did scenario 3 the same way you planned it.
> Just curious.
Here's a couple items from eBay's FAQ for bidders that should clear up
how eBay proxy bidding works. The second one clears up scenario 3.
Rob
-----
Excerpted from: http://pages.ebay.com/aw/faq.html
Q. I bid against myself, and yet the bid increased. Why?
A. Normally a bidder cannot bid against themselves but there are two cases where
this will occur:
Increasing your maximum bid by placing a second (or later) bid in this auction
will cause you to lose your earlier bid position. If you are tied with another
bidder for the high bid, and you hold the official high bid position due to your
earlier bid, your new bid will cause you to lose that position. Consequently, as
a later bidder in this auction, your bid will have to be increased to one bid
increment more than the previous bidder, in order for you to keep your position
as high bidder.
The other case is when the current bid amount is between round bid increments. A
round bid increment is any amount that is evenly divided by the current bid
increment amount. For example, if the bid on you at $15.51 with your current
maximum bid set at, say, $20 and you rebid your maximum to $25 (any amount over
the current maximum), the current bid will raise to the next round bid
increment, in this case, $16.
Q. Why was I outbid by less than the bid increment?
A. The key to understanding how the proxy bidding system handles new bids is to
remember that the determining factors are the current high bid and the new bid
about to be submitted, NOT any maximum bids held in reserve on the server in
your name. For example,
You are the first bidder and the opening bid is $5 so you bid a maximum of $20.
The current bid is now $5 on you with a $20 maximum bid held in confidence on
the server. Another bidder comes along and decides to bid $6 and discovers he
his immediately over bid (by the server executing your maximum) and you are
still the current high bidder at $6.50. So he bids again, say $10 this time and
again he is outbid by .50 and you are still the high bidder at $10.50. The other
bidder now starts to suspect that you have left a minimum bid of $20 or so so he
tests it by bidding $20.01 and he is now the high bidder at his bid of $20.01.
Why? Because the difference between the current high bid (not your reserve) and
the new bid submitted is greater than the minimum bid increment in force at this
level of bidding (.50)
$20.01
less $10.50
= $9.51 which is greater than .50
If the bidder had bid $20, then the bid would have been tied with you as the
current high bidder and the other bidder's next acceptable bid would have been
$20.50. Again, it is the current high bid and not any maximum bids held on the
server that determine the acceptability of any new bids.
+-------------------------------------------+
| Rob Farver - rfarver@rcn.com |
| http://www.farver.com/lego/ |
| http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/rfarver |
+-------------------------------------------+
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