Subject:
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Re: Ebay Query
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.market.auction
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Date:
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Mon, 15 Apr 2002 23:49:25 GMT
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Viewed:
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907 times
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John Henry Kruer wrote:
>
> In lugnet.market.auction, Tim David writes:
> > Can anyone tell me how people manage to bid 1 cent more than me to win auctions.
> > e.g
> >
> > made_of_stone (2) £10.01 15-Apr-02 19:46:48 BST
> > talltim@hotmail.com (8) £10.00 15-Apr-02 00:10:09 BST
> > talltim@hotmail.com (8) £7.00 09-Apr-02 18:58:58 BST
> >
> > I can't remember the increment amount but 'im sure that it was more than 1
> > cent. This has happened a few times to me.
> >
> > Tim
>
> Maybe its the maximum bid thing? Ebay only raises you're bid the lowest it
> has to be- if 10.00 was your highest, and somebody had a maximum bid of,
> say, 11.00, it would only raise it 1 cent over yours.
It's sort of a problem with proxy bids. The way eBay enforces a minimum
bid increment is that the minimum bid must be the bid increment above
the current bid. Unfortunately there really isn't a better way to do it
with proxies. Why?
Let's say the current bid is $7 and your maximum is $10 and the bid
increment is $1. If the system were to enforce the bid increment above
the proxy max, it would have to tell the person who bid $10.01 that
their bid was not enough. But what does it do to the bid in the
meantime? Is it fair to then leave it at $7? Not really.
Because of this mechanism, I never bid whole dollar amounts because so
many people do bid a penny more than a dollar. Also, if I really want an
item, and would be pissed to see someone get it for 10 cents more than
my bid, I bump my bid up a buck or so. I even tend to avoid bidding
$10.51 or whatever, I'll give serious consideration to bidding $11.51.
Of course I still lose bids for just a smidgen more than my maximum bid,
but the only system which would really cure that is one without a fixed
ending time. Then you can come back and say, gee, I guess I would pay a
buck more.
Note that for lower priced items, it really is worth bidding early
because let's say the generally agreed upon value for the item is about
$10. If you are the very last person to put in your "about $10" bid, you
won't get the item (because others will have already bid $10 for the
item). For a $100 item, it's a little different since the bid increment
is still $1 so if you bid $105 at the very last moment, you will still
win over the three folks who bid $100, $101, and $102. Of course if
someone back on day one said: "Gee, I really want this item, and $100 is
basically the going price, so I'll bid $105.51", you lose).
Frank
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Ebay Query
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| (...) Maybe its the maximum bid thing? Ebay only raises you're bid the lowest it has to be- if 10.00 was your highest, and somebody had a maximum bid of, say, 11.00, it would only raise it 1 cent over yours. John Kruer (22 years ago, 15-Apr-02, to lugnet.market.auction)
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